Monthly Archives: December 2022
The Great Galveston Light Quest . . .
44 years ago today, December 17, 1978, Jan, Chris, then 10, Brandi, then 5, and I, along with my parents, arrived in Houston to begin our new life as Texans. Here’s what I posted about it in a previous blog.
For the previous two years I was the Chief Electronics Engineer over Alabama and Georgia for Storer Cable TV in Montgomery, AL, at the time one of the largest cable TV companies in the country. Later, in the mid 90’s, it was sold off and split up between Comcast and TCI.
Although I occasionally helped troubleshot problems out in the field, the ‘Electronics’ part of my title meant that I maintained all of the headend electronics equipment, but especially the satellite system.
At that time there was only one satellite downlinking TV channels for cable systems. RCA Satcom 1 only had 12 channels to start with, though it later went to dual polarization, with 24 channels.
Among the original 12 were HBO, TBS, WGN, MSG (Madison Square Gardens), ETWN (Eternal Word), PTL (Praise The Lord), and a few others that I’ve long forgotten. It was only after the second 12 channels were added that the whole satellite thing really took off.
At that time you didn’t receive satellite channels on some dinky little 18” DirecTV dish. No, it required a 10 meter (33 feet) antenna like one of these.
And at the time the entire installation was over $100,000.
In addition to the satellite receiver installation, there was also a microwave system that linked the satellite installation up in Prattville about 15 miles to the northwest, with the offices in Montgomery. It was enough to keep me entertained. But I always had another dream.
My father worked for Boeing on the Apollo program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, and Jan’s father worked for Rocketdyne at Cape Kennedy. So when I was offered a job working on the Space Shuttle Program at Johnson Space Center in Houston, I jumped on it.
Although I accepted the job in October, I told them I didn’t want to start until the Christmas vacation time frame to make it easier for Chris and Brandi to switch schools.
One thing nice about the move was that they moved us. So while the movers were packing us up on Thursday and Friday, I was wrapping up things at Storer, with Friday the 15th of December being my last day. And later that afternoon we were on our way to Houston, with Jan and I driving our two cars, and my parents in theirs.
After spending the night along the way we finally got into Houston very early on Sunday morning, the 17th. It took a lot longer than it does now because large parts of I-10 were still under construction. But the reason for all the rush was the fact that I was supposed to start work at NASA-JSC the next day, the 18th.
Luckily for us, my job with the DOD, moving around to different airbases in the late 60’s – early 70’s, gave us a lot of experience coming into a town and quickly finding a place to rent. And by later that afternoon Jan and my mother had found us a house in the old part of Heritage Park near Baybrook Mall.
While we could have stayed in the hotel a couple of more days and taken our time, we had another reason to rush. The moving van with all our furniture was due the next day, and if they couldn’t deliver it as scheduled, then it would have to go into storage. And WE would have to pay the unloading, storage, and reloading fees.
So that’s how we all became Texans. As they say, “We weren’t born here, but we got here quick as we could.”
For breakfast this morning, along with our coffee, we enjoyed some of the delicious home-made cinnamon rolls that my client’s wife gave us on Friday. Really, really good.
Jan and I were on our way south about 3:45 this afternoon on our Great Galveston Light Quest. But our first stop was at our favorite Sunflower Cafe for a late lunch.
We both had the Cuban Sandwich with fries and Cole Slaw, and a side of their Tomato Basil Soup, Jan’s a cup and mine a bowl.
Having never ordered a bowl of soup at Sunflower, I did not realize that their bowls were birdbath-size. Note that the bowl is only slightly smaller than the plate. And even Jan’s cup was a pretty good size, so we both had 1/2 a sandwich, some fries, and soup to bring home for Monday night.
Plus –
Pumpkin and Cream Cheese muffins and cookies from their great in-house bakery.
By the time we were finished eating it was getting dark and we headed out on our Light Quest. And we found a number of really beautiful homes decked out in their Christmas plumage.
This home is not in Galveston, but on FM1764 on the way home.
One problem with taking nighttime photos like this with my Samsung S21 Ultra’s camera is that the lowlight sensitivity is so good that it makes the photos look a lot brighter than what you see with the naked eye.
We’re still not sure how low our Christmas weekend temps will end up. Right now we’re looking at 23° on Thursday night, and 28° on Friday. Anything after that is kind of unsure.
I am going top off our 100 gallon water tank so we can disconnect the shore water hose so it won’t freeze.
Thought For The Day:
I picked up a hitchhiker once. He asked if I wasn’t worried that he might be a serial killer.
I was like, nah, man, I mean what are the odds of two serial killers being in the same car at the same time?
December 17, 2011
Chip off the Old Block . . .
First off, more Landon pics.
This is his daycare photo,
and this is Brandi and Lowell’s Christmas Card this year.
About 11:15 Jan and I headed into downtown Houston, actually the Houston Heights area. Jan wanted to visit Penzey’s Spices and we wanted to have lunch at a place our son-in-law had recommend, Carter & Cooley Deli.
Right down the street from Penzey’s, it was a great recommendation. Jan had the Turkey Rueben, and I had a Cuban, with a cup of chili. Very good. I think we’ve found our new favorite deli.
Back at Penzey’s, Jan found the bottle of pure vanilla extract to replace the one that fell out of the pantry and broke on a recent travel day before we got back to Houston. She also wanted to pick up some cocoa powder for Christmas cookie baking.
Heading back to the Clear Lake area we stopped off at Home Depot, before ending up at Brandi and Lowell’s. We (and by we, I mean Jan) were going to babysit Landon while Brandi and Lowell take Lowell’s sister Sherry out for her birthday dinner.
Happy Birthday, Sherry!
While they were out, we took Landon to Barcenas for dinner. And this is where we found out that Landon really takes after his PaPa (me).
It turns out he really likes spicy salsa. We were giving Landon plain chips while we were waiting for our food, and Landon, watching us dip our chips in the salsa, starting trying to reach the salsa with his chip.
So I dipped his chip in a little salsa and handed it back to him. He put it in his mouth and his eyes lit up. He started waving the chip for more. A little later I dipped a couple of the fries that came with his chicken tenders into the salsa instead of ketchup, and he wanted more.
I didn’t give him a lot because I wasn’t sure how his tummy would handle it. Might make for some interesting diapers!
“Holy smoke. There’s a fire over there!” (Sizzling Fajitas)
When we all got back home we waited outside for the fire truck Santa to come by. Every year the Forest Bend Volunteer Fire Department escorts Santa around the subdivision for the kids. The fire trucks are decorated with Christmas lights and sounding their horns and sirens, and are a big hit with the kids. And a big hit with Landon, too. He was fascinated with all the lights and noise.
We had a great time, but after a long day, it was good to finally get home.
December 17, 2012
A Great View . . .
After our morning walk, Jan and I sat out by the rig and just enjoyed the view, and the wildlife.
We had a Great White Egret,
a feeder full of Monk Parakeets,
and a hungry pelican looking for breakfast.
While we were walking around the park, a lady stopped and introduced herself as Lillis Palmer. She said our mutual friend Chris Yust had told her we were here and described our rig well enough that she was able to track us down.
Although she had just finished her walk she ended up joining us for the rest of ours. Then we got to meet her husband Dick as he was leaving the park on some errands. We ended up having a good talk about our RV lives and mutual friends. A very nice lady.
About 1:30 I headed out on some errands myself. My first stop was the new CVS where last night I had uploaded the Christmas cards to be printed, since the first one had printer problems. When I mentioned it, they gave me a 25% discount on the cards. Nice!
Then it was on to Fry’s Electronics to check out some new computers for a client. The first thing I noticed is that it’s getting harder to find anything with Windows 7 on it. But I did find a couple of possibilities that I’ll run by my client.
Then after a quick stop at the bank, I headed over the house to check the mail, and then it was back to the rig.
Finally it was off to McDonald’s for dinner, since I was craving a McRib, before they go away again.
December 17, 2013
Eats, Drinks, and Scenic Views . . .
About 1pm Jan and I headed out for our 2nd movie day. This time we were going to see Thor: The Dark World. Luckily I have a beautiful wife who likes movies like this just about as much as I do. I mean,two sci-fi movies in two days.
We decided to see the 3D version since, 1) the time worked better for us, and 2) the last few 3D movies we’ve seen have been very well done. Something is not jumping out of the screen every 10 seconds like in the past and you don’t spend the entire time dodging arrows and spears.
Before the movie started, we had the usual trailers, including a couple that looked really good. The first one, an extra long one, was for the next Captain America film coming out this summer. Really looks good.
The second was a completely different genre. Starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, John Goodman, and Bill Murray, it tells the true story (well, as ‘true’ as any movie tells a true story. Check out “The Butler”) of a group of art experts during WWII who were sent to the front lines to rescue artwork stolen by the Nazis. Looks really good and is now on our “Must See” list.
After a really enjoyable movie, we headed across the parking lot for a first visit to Twin Peaks, a regional restaurant chain that’s growing fast.
Their motto is “Eats, Drinks, and Scenic Views”.
Here’s the Eats, a really great Poblano Chipotle Chicken Sandwich on a Brioche bun.
And the Drinks, really good Iced Tea.
And here’s one of the ‘Scenic Views”. This is our waitress, Lauren. And there’s brains behind the beauty. She’s in college studying to be an engineer.
And now you know why the place is called “Twin Peaks”.
I mean, what’d you think they were going to call it, ‘Hooters’?
That would just be tacky.
As far as Lauren working here and studying to be an engineer, we found something like this before when I was doing IT Support at a local University. One night we went to Hooters and ran into two students working there that I knew. One of them was finishing up her Masters in Business and the other one was getting ready to take her CPA exam. So, not all of them are ‘Dumb Blondes”.
Twin Peaks, along with Hooters, Bone Daddy’s, and Bombshells, is one of a growing number of “Breastaurants”, as they’re known in the industry. We both really like Hooters, but weren’t really impressed with the food at Bone Daddy’s when we ate there earlier this year, but Twin Peaks is really good. Jan said her “Chicken Ranch Sandwich” is possibly the best chicken sandwich she’s ever eaten. We’ll definitely go back.
On the way home we were greeted by a beautiful full moon. Just gorgeous.
And wrapping up the blog, here’s the latest fashion accessory for the working man.
Jan says I could use one.
December 17, 2014
Too Many Margarets . . .
Since it was spitting rain a good part of the day, Jan and I stayed inside and enjoyed our coffee and muffins in dry comfort.
Later in the morning I went online to the Post Office website to print out shipping labels for the last of our presents to be shipped out. About 2pm I drove into Columbus to drop them off at the PO. Then it was on into town to the HEB to pick up a couple of things before I headed back to the rig.
On the way back I checked out the Colorado County Oil facility. I’d passed it a number of times, but thought that this time I’d check it out. The $2.64 price for diesel was the lowest I’ve seen anywhere, or even heard about.
It looked like it was a co-op place, but I wanted to check so I stopped in on the way home. I wanted to be sure the diesel pump was open to anyone, and also to be sure this price wasn’t a ‘loss leader’ off-road diesel price. Turns out it is open to the public, and that is the real price. So I’ll plan on stopping there to fill up when we leave here next Wednesday to go back to Lake Conroe, or earlier if we get a call from Galveston Bay RV before then.
About 4pm we tagged up with Tom and Lily Christian and headed up to Ellinger for dinner at Peter’s BBQ. It was their first time, but lucky for us, they seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.
It started sprinkling again just as we got there, and a little bit later Jan and I were looking out the window at US71 when a car came by doing about 60, skidding backwards as he did several 360’s down the highway. Figure he tried to brake on the wet pavement and skidded. Kept waiting for the big ‘crash’ sound, but never heard anything, so I guess he was all right. The road is five lanes wide there so I guess that helped. Lucky for him because about 30 seconds later, a gas tanker truck came by in other direction. Glad they didn’t meet up.
Tom and Lily came over for awhile after we go home and we had a nice time, and pumpkin pie, talking about anything and everything. I know Tom has a lot of great stories about his time in the Army.
Brandi sent over some more pics of Landon and Santa. As before Landon is just enthralled with Santa and won’t take his eyes off him.
Landon knows who brings his presents and he’s not taking any chances.
Finally, thanks to the number of you that corrected me that it was Margaret Mitchell that wrote Gone With The Wind, and not Margaret Mead. I certainly knew that, but I can only plead that it was almost 3am when I finished the blog, and that I met Margaret Mead in 1958 in Nashville, TN. My mother and I got to visit with her for a while, and she signed one of her books for me. So when I think of famous ‘Margaret’s’, she’s the first one that comes to mine.
December 17, 2015
No More Choo Choo . . .
When I got up about 11 this morning, I found that Jan had already been out for a walk about 8am, and she wanted to know if I wanted to do another with her. So I started our coffee and got our pumpkin bread ready to toast, and off we went.
It’s been a good while since we walked so we only did a little over .80 miles, around the loops, and then down to the bridge and back to the rig. By then the coffee was done, so we sat outside with it while we waited for the pumpkin bread to toast.
About this time a gentleman walked across the road toward us, and wanted to know if we were ‘Jan and Greg White’?
Our visitor turned out to be Frank Dillon, a blog reader for about the last year and a half. He recognized us from the blog and came over to say Hi.
Now a solo in a BT Cruiser, he and his late wife used to gate guard, and he wanted to know if we wanted his old Mighty Mule Driveway Alarm. Since he’s not gate guarding any more he was passing it on to us
We all set around outside for a good while, talking about all the things that RV’ers talk about when they get together for the first time. Somewhere in here our friend Randy dropped by and we set up a date to have dinner at Los Cabos Mexican Restaurant in Columbus tomorrow afternoon.
Unfortunately Frank is leaving tomorrow so he won’t be able to join us.
Later, about 3:15, Jan and I headed into Columbus to drop off some stuff at the P.O, before heading into downtown Columbus to make a stop at the hardware store. I was looking for a new connector to replace the still slightly-leaking one in my shower, as well as some large hooks to use to hold down my truck floor mats. I think I found something to take care of both problems, but we’ll see in the next several days.
Our next stop was around on the town square to visit the A-Train toy train store that I had told about.
Unfortunately the Choo Choo had left the station and not returned. All that was left inside was a lot of empty counters and trash.
Bummer!
We did drive around the square to check out the beautiful courthouse. Seems almost like every little Texas town has a neat courthouse square.
Getting back to the rig, I got out the last of the Chicken Tortilla Soup to heat up for dinner. To add a little more ‘body’ I added a can of Chili Beans, and chopped up another Serrano chili pepper to add a little more bite.
Still just as good as the first time. Then after we’d finished up, I dropped another package of chicken breast strips into the remaining broth and used this to poach the chicken so Jan will have it ready to fix her King Ranch Chicken while we’re at Lake Conroe next week.
December 17, 2016
A to Z and Turkey Too . . .
Today was a nice sleep-in, lay-about day, while we waited to be whipsawed by the 83° high – 33° low temps today, a 50 degree swing. Then it’s 43° – 29° day tomorrow.
Jan’s finished up with all the cookies she’s been doing, getting ready to pass them out to local friends.
Then after a quiet nap-inclusive afternoon Jan heated up the Hodgepodge Beef Soup again, which along with toasted Hawaiian Rolls, made for a delicious meal.
Tomorrow of course being Sunday, it’s back to Barth’s for their Turkey and Dressing/Fried Chicken Buffet. Mmmm. Mmmm. Always Good!
Landon started receiving some of his Christmas presents today. Between Brandi and us, we bought him A thru M of the A to Z Mysteries for Kids. Written for 6 – 9 year olds, they should be right up Landon’s alley.
Often when I buy something from Amazon, I will check out the reviews, and usually make a point of reading the 1 ![wlEmoticon-star[2]](https://ourrvadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wlEmoticon-star2.png "wlEmoticon-star[2]"){kind=small}
reviews for a good laugh. Here’s one from these kid books.
By Emberon December 25, 2011
I am very fond of mysteries and psychological dramas, and was very disappointed when I read this purchase, as it took me 10 minutes to do so. Somewhere in the listing there should be a word or two about the age appropriateness of the book being offered. (me: It IS listed under Children’s Books) I may have liked it if I was in 2nd grade. This experience has caused me to re-consider looking at the Daily Deals.
I guess I should have realized the title indicated a juvenile selection, but I thought of Agatha Christies ABC Murders , not a kids book, so took a chance at this one.
Now I know my ABC’s.
Landon, Brandi, Lowell, and friends, Chantelle, Eric, and Maddox Nugent, went on the Pecan Grove Lights Hayride, the same one we took with them last year. Looks like a good time was had by all.
Yesterday, while I was on the phone, I looked up at the TV screen and saw Guy on Diner’s, Drive-Ins, and Dives, doing a story on a place we’ve been, Joe’s Farm Grill, out in Gilbert, AZ, right down the road from Apache Junction.
You can see the episode here. http://joesfarmgrill.com/food-network/
Great place to eat if you’re in the area.
Regular readers will remember my recent articles about the Electoral College and the recent election.
The Electoral College – Why?
The 1960 World Series and the Electoral College
Frederick Douglass, The 3/5 Compromise,
and Our ‘Racist’ Constitution
Posted under Greg’s Musings, with these articles, I talk about the reasoning behind Electoral College and why the Founding Fathers set things up that way. and more importantly, why the concept is still valid today.
Of course there’s been a number of calls for the elimination of the Electoral College, but seeing that it’s part of the original Constitution, it would take a new Constitutional Amendment to eliminate it.
Well now we’ve got a novel idea about the Electoral College from an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law. He thinks the Electoral College can just be ignored because it’s, get this, ‘unconstitutional.’
To get to this point he has to talk himself around in circles, pretty much saying that the Founding Fathers shouldn’t have put it in the Constitution, thus it shouldn’t be in the Constitution, therefore it’s ‘unconstitutional.’
Of course as I said before, I wonder if he would have been writing this article if the results of the election had gone the other way.
Or it could just be that, as a commenter said on a legal blog, an ‘adjunct professor’ is the lowest of the low, just one step above a grad student.
In another of my recent ‘Musings, What If We Erase Our Past?, I talked about we’re losing our past by trying to cover up our past mistakes, hiding them from the future. Well as it turns out, it looks like Winston Churchill had the same thought.
“If the present tries to sit in judgment on the past, it will lose the future.” Winston Churchill
December 17, 2017
Foggy Hockey . . .
Jan and I were out the door about 12:15 this afternoon heading up to the Sugarland Ice Rink to watch Landon’s last hockey for this season.
‘Watch’ however is not really the operative word here since it was so foggy in the rink that it was hard to make out anyone.
I guess due to the recent heavy rains the humidity in the rink area was sky-high making fog over the ice, and further obscuring the Plexiglas windows surrounding the rink.
It also didn’t help things that the rink was in the low 50’s instead of the usual low 60’s. cold enough that you could see your breath. Plus there were some comments make about how cold the toilet seats were. Brrrrr!
But our next stop made up for everything, our usual after-hockey dinner at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood right down the road.
And a meal of Chicken Fried Chicken, Crab Bisque, Shrimp Gumbo, Boudin, and Fried Okra warmed us right up. We spent most of the time talking over our upcoming Christmas Eve and Christmas Day plans.
Looks like Brandi and Lowell will be hosting a total of about 15 people this holiday, including a number from out of town.
In addition it looks like we’re on for our long-time family tradition of having Christmas Eve dinner at King Food. In the last 25 years or so we’ve only missed it a couple of times. Our most memorable time was the Christmas Eve in 2004 when it started snowing while we were having dinner. By the time we headed home there was a couple of inches on the ground with parts of Brazoria County getting almost 13 inches of the white stuff.
Jan and I plan to have lunch there on Tuesday and let the owner know how many we’ll have coming.
December 17, 2018
40 Years Ago Today . . .
Forty years ago today, December 17, 2018, Jan, myself, our 10 year old son Chris, and our 5 year old daughter Brandi arrived in Houston, TX for the next big adventure in our lives.
For the previous two years I was the Chief Electronics Engineer over Alabama and Georgia for Storer Cable TV in Montgomery, AL, at the time one of the largest cable TV companies in the country. Later, in the mid 90’s, it was sold off and split up between Comcast and TCI.
Although I occasionally helped troubleshot problems out in the field, the ‘Electronics’ part of my title meant that I maintained all of the headend electronics equipment, but especially the satellite system.
At that time there was only one satellite downlinking TV channels for cable systems. RCA Satcom 1 only had 12 channels to start with, though it later went to dual polarization, with 24 channels.
Among the original 12 were HBO, TBS, WGN, MSG (Madison Square Gardens), ETWN (Eternal Word), PTL (Praise The Lord), and a few others that I’ve long forgotten. It was only after the second 12 channels were added that the whole satellite thing really took off.
At that time you didn’t receive satellite channels on some dinky little 18” DirecTV dish. No, it required a 10 meter (33 feet) antenna like one of these.
And at the time the entire installation was over $100,000.
In addition to the satellite receiver installation, there was also a microwave system that linked the satellite installation up in Prattville about 15 miles to the northwest, with the offices in Montgomery. It was enough to keep me entertained. But I always had another dream.
My father worked for Boeing on the Apollo program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, and Jan’s father worked for Rocketdyne at Cape Kennedy. So when I was offered a job working on the Space Shuttle Program at Johnson Space Center in Houston, I jumped on it.
Although I accepted the job in October, I told them I didn’t want to start until the Christmas vacation time frame to make it easier for Chris and Brandi to switch schools.
One thing nice about the move was that they moved us. So while the movers were packing us up on Thursday and Friday, I was wrapping up things at Storer, with Friday the 15th of December being my last day. And later that afternoon we were on our way to Houston, with Jan and I driving our two cars, and my parents in theirs.
After spending the night along the way we finally got into Houston very early on Sunday morning, the 17th. It took a lot longer than it does now because large parts of I-10 were still under construction. But the reason for all the rush was the fact that I was supposed to start work at NASA the next day, the 18th.
Luckily for us, my job with the DOD, moving around to different airbases in the late 60’s – early 70’s, gave us a lot of experience coming into a town and quickly finding a place to rent. And by later that afternoon Jan and my mother had found us a house in the old part of Heritage Park.
While we could have stayed in the hotel a couple of more days and taken our time, we had another reason to rush. The moving van with all our furniture was due the next day, and if they couldn’t deliver it as scheduled, then it would have to go into storage. And WE would have to pay the unloading, storage, and reloading fees.
So that’s how we all became Texans. As they say, “We weren’t born here, but we got here quick as we could.”
Tomorrow afternoon is my appointment with the ‘cornea guy’ to check out the slight yellowing/thickening of the cornea in my left eye, which is what the Sam’s Club optometrist mistook as a cataract.
So we’ll see what he comes up with.
December 17, 2019
Extra Crispy . . .
After a quiet morning Jan and I headed up to Webster for my Dermatology appointment at 2:45pm. Since I had a Squamous Cell Carcinoma removed from my head in 2014. I’ve been extra vigilante in keeping an eye on things.
I’ve even gone through two of what I call the Devil’s Easy Bake Oven procedure, also known as PhotoDynamic therapy (PDT).
And believe me I don’t want to go through that again. It’s like my head was done Extra Crispy.
However this time turned out really well. The doctor froze off a couple of suspicious spots, but said everything else looked fine and I could wait to come back in 9 months instead of 6 next time.
Yea!
Next up was lunch at Cheddar’s, a place we really like, but one we haven’t been to in a while. Great meal as usual.
Then it was on down Hwy 3 to the Home Depot on FM646. Jan was looking for some new cleaning brushes, and I wanted to get a 10” x 36” shelf board to set our new TV on.
After that we made our way back to the rig, with a quick stop for lottery tickets for tonight’s $340 Million Mega-Millions drawing.
You can’t win if you don’t play.
Speaking of our new TV, it’s hard to believe how big, bright, sharp, and clear the picture is, especially when we were streaming one of our favorite movies, The Final Countdown, on Prime Video in HD.
Our normal DirecTV signal is in SD, so it does make a difference. Of course our old 40” Samsung was also in HD, but the picture on this new one is much better.
And the new one also has 4K HDR, so I’m really looking forward to checking it out too, though it will be interesting to see if our park WiFi can handle the increased needed bandwidth for 4K.
On the international front, apparently Jan and I really lucked out on our Paris and London visits last May.
Headlines say that protesters in Paris caused a 391 mile traffic jam the other day, and the buses, trains, and the Eiffel Tower were shut down completely.
And in London there were mass protests going on concerning the recent election, also with buses, trains, and many tourist attractions, including Stonehenge, shut down.
We really lucked out.
December 17, 2020
Hot Chowder and Cold Weather . . .
Jan and I decided that today was going to be a fun day, so about 12:30 we headed down toward Galveston. But our first stop was right down FM 1764 at the New England Lobster & Chowder food truck. Yes, a food truck.
With the colder weather coming in, Jan was jonsing for some good New England Clam Chowder, and when we DuckDuckGo’d it, the New England Lobster and Chowder food truck showed up on every list.
So we thought we’d check it on our way down to Galveston and try a bowl. And all the lists were right!
We each got a bowl of the Clam Chowder to eat there before heading on down to the Island.
And it was as good as anything we had in New England back in 2009, or in Florida back in 2018. Turns out that a lot of New Englanders have moved down to Florida, so the chowder there is as good as what we had in NE.
Then it was on down to the Island and our real lunch destination, Tortuga’s Mexican Kitchen on the Seawall. Owned by the same company, Tortuga’s is an upscale version of Monterey’s, like we’ve eaten at for years.
As usual we started off with bowls of their Chicken Tortilla Soup, just as good as Monterey’s up in Alvin.
Then so we’d have leftovers for tomorrow, we got the Super Sampler Platter,
with a little bit of everything.
And after a great lunch, we parked along the Seawall for a while, watching the waves and the birds overhead.
Then after about an hour, we headed back toward home, though with a couple of stops along the way.
And ironically, our first stop was once again at the New England Lobster & Chowder food truck. Jan wanted to get a couple of more bowls of Clam Chowder for tomorrow night’s supper.
Then it was on over to Cowboy Coffee for a couple of large Hot Chocolates, made with Ghirardelli chocolate, cream, vanilla, and homemade whipped cream. Jan says it’s ‘Decadent’.
All in all, a really great ‘fun’ day.
And as you will find out a little further down in the old blogs, 42 years ago today Jan, Chris, Brandi, and I arrived in Houston, where the next day I started work at Johnson Space Center on the Space Shuttle.
Nice memories.
December 17, 2021
On The Way . . .
Since Chris/Linda/Piper/Derek won’t be able be with us during Christmas due to work conflicts, I got all their gifts on the way to up to Chris’ in Kingsland this morning. It’s nice to work at a place that ships out daily via UPS. Just plop the box on the scale, enter the address, click the Ship button, and slap the printed-out label on the box, and I was done.
They should be there on Monday.
For more than 30 years it’s been a White family tradition to have Christmas Eve dinner at King Food, our long-time favorite Chinese restaurant. Occasionally it’s just been Jan and I, and other times it’s been the whole Kit N Kaboodle.
But this year I guess it’s just going to be the Kit, with Jan and I, Brandi, Lowell, and Master Landon. They’re coming down here for dinner, and then we’ll follow them back up to Katy to spend the night there for Christmas morning.
Really looking forward to being there.
Amazon is just getting faster and faster since they opened their new La Marque warehouse right down I-45 from us. This morning I ordered something from them about 9:20am, and they said it would be delivered here at the rig between 10am and 3pm. And it showed up at 12:38pm.
Pretty soon I’ll be getting stuff before I even order it.
Before our Branson trip Jan and I were joking about whether or not we’d come back with the WuFlu. I mean, we’d be elbow to elbow with strangers in 1000-2000 seat theaters.
What better way to catch it?
Then Jan mentioned that since we started taking our Quercetin/Zinc/D3 regimen in May 2020, we haven’t even had the sniffles, much less a cold. Which makes sense since Zinc is a standard, well-known treatment for colds. And it since the common cold is a Coronavirus, it makes sense.
And even though we’ve been around people who came down with CoVid a few days later, we’ve never come down with it either.
Of course they say the incubation period for the WuFlu is 2-14 days, I guess we’ve got a few days to go before we’re in the clear.
How Low Will It Go . . .
A couple of days ago I mentioned the forecasted Arctic cold front coming down our way. They say that it could equal the one in December 1983 when the high in Houston on Christmas Day was 28 and the low was 11°.
Texas Arctic Blast Update as Houston Faces Coldest Christmas in 39 Years!
Our present forecast only goes out until next Thursday, but this morning the expected temp for that night was 32°, but during the day it’s dropped to 25°. And it’s 21° for Brandi, Lowell, and Landon up in Katy.
I blogged a couple of days ago that a neighbor (still unidentified) was apparently printing out their Christmas treat recipes on my wireless printer. So after 3 came through, I just turned off the wireless connection, since I normally print through the USB hookup anyway.
I figured that I’d just set a password on the printer WiFi and that would take care of the problem. But it turns out I can’t.
The printer’s WiFi is actually passworded from the network it’s on, i.e. Petticoat Junction RV Park-Guest, the park’s WiFi. So anyone on park’s WiFi can print to anyone else’s printer that’s on the park’s WiFi. So I hooked the printer up to our Verizon MiFi’s hotspot which should take care the problem.
Late tomorrow afternoon we plan on driving down to Galveston to have a late (4:30ish) lunch at Sunflower Cafe and then spend some time driving around the area checking out the Christmas lights. At least we hope we’ll see Christmas lights.
Thought for the Day:
There is no more dangerous animal than a cornered government.
December 16, 2010
BAHEP and SATOP . . .
We awoke this morning to much better weather than we’ve had the last couple of day. Both warmer and less windy.
About 11:30 Jan and I did a 1 mile walk, though with less wind and higher temps, it was actually kind of hot. But it looks like that will change again in the next couple of days.
Getting back to the rig Jan fed the birds. At least today the feeder wasn’t blowing sideways.
I did get this photo of a pelican out in front of the rig. Unfortunately he didn’t come close enough for Jan to feed him.
A little before 6pm we headed up to Pasadena to have dinner with our good friend Barbara Cutsinger. Barbara is a great cook and we always look forward to eating with her.
We’ve known Barbara for about 5 years since I did IT support for BAHEP (Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership) where she works.
BAHEP is a membership group that works to stimulate regional economic development and employment. And through their SATOP (Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program) group they also connect small business owners who need technical advice with a NASA scientist or engineer.
One of the things that Barbara does there is compile and publish the Business Development Update, a document that details commercial and retail development in the area, along with office and warehouse space available.
When we’re on the road we always enjoy reading the latest issue since it lets us keep up with what’s going on back here.
We got back home about 10:30 and Jan went right to bed, since we’ve got to get an early start tomorrow. We’re Landon sitting after Brandi takes him in for his 4 month checkup.
December 16, 2012
It’s Landon Time . . .
We woke up this morning to pouring rain so it was time for hot coffee and no morning walk. In other words, a nice, quiet, overcast day.
But finally, a little before 2, Jan and I headed up to Friendswood to Landon-sit this afternoon. But we left early enough to make a couple of stops.
The first was at a CVS pharmacy to pick up the Christmas cards that I had uploaded last night. But as it turns out they were having printer problems and our cards weren’t ready yet. We’ll check back on our way home.
Our next stop was King Food for our Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce and Jalapenos, XXXXX Spicy. Seems we can’t go for more than a week without our King Food fix. And lucky us, we’ll be eating there this Thursday night with friends, and then again next Monday night, Christmas Eve, for our traditional family dinner together.
About 3:30 we headed over to Brandi and Lowell’s to Landon-sit for the afternoon. It’s Landon’s Aunt Sherry’s birthday, and Lowell and Brandi are taking her to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory right down the road at Baybrook Mall.
On a side note, on last week’s Big Bang Theory, the one about Santa Claus, Sheldon mentions his mother taking him to the Baybrook Mall in Galveston when he was 5. Baybrook Mall is not in Galveston. It’s actually on the very southern edge of Houston. Galveston County starts down the road a couple of miles, but Galveston itself is about 25 miles south of here. Just keeping the facts straight.
Landon likes to play Peek A Boo when he sees the camera pointed at him, so it can be a real challenge to get a picture sometimes.
This went on for about 30 minutes until Kitty decided to curl up on the sofa and bring the game to a halt.
Brandi, Lowell, and Sherry got back about 6:30 so Jan and I headed back to the rig. We did make a quick stop at Kroger’s for a few things, and another try for our Christmas cards at CVS, again with no luck. I told them to cancel the order and I will submit them to another CVS location tonight.
On a final note, I saw this sign the other day and I’m not quite sure what to make of it.
What exactly is “Psychic Karate”?
Mind over Matter, The Power of Positive Thinking, or maybe “Use the Force, Luke” from Star Wars. Almost makes me want to call the number and find out.
Almost.
December 16, 2013
A Delicious Two’fer . . .
Again with the Christmas song thing, here’s an a capella group called Pentatonix doing their version of ‘Little Drummer Boy”, and they do all the instruments too. If you’ve ever seen a group called “Six”, you know how good this can be. Check it out.
Today was a movie day for us, so we headed out about 10:30. Our first stop was up in Webster to have lunch at King Food. Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce with Jalapeno’s, and Hot & Sour Soup can’t be beat. The day was off to a great start.
After lunch and a stop by the PO to drop off more Christmas Cards, we headed up I-45 toward the theatre, but we were running ahead of schedule, so another stop at Sam’s Club to pick up a few things killed some time.
‘The movie we wanted to see was “Ender’s Game”, based on a famous sci-fi book first published in 1985. The story follows Andrew “Ender” Wiggin as he and other children are trained to combat an alien invasion force, not by actually fighting, but directing the Earth military forces as they fight in space. And like many good books (and movies) this story has a real twist at the end.
Having read the book when it first came out years ago, I enjoyed seeing Jan’s reaction when she realized what was going on. Kind of like her reaction at the end of “Planet of the Apes” when Charleton Heston sees the remains of t he Statue of Liberty and Jan realized the entire story has taken place on Earth all along.
A great story, and a really good movie. We both enjoyed it a lot.
Heading back south, and after a quick stop at Chris and Linda’s to pick up our mail and drop off some things, it was after 5pm so we decide to have dinner at Monterey’s Little Mexico down in Dickinson. Combined with King Food’s Hot & Sour Soup, a big bowl of Monterey’s Chicken Tortilla Soup is what made today a great Two’fer
It looks like we’ll have to make tomorrow another movie day and see Thor: A Dark World, before it gets pushed out on Wednesday by the new releases that are starting early due to the holidays.
Oh darn.
December 16, 2014
Road Trip Wrap Up . . .
Finishing up yesterday’s road trip.
Before we left the Gone With The Wind exhibit, I discovered a rare treat in a side alcove, an original Gutenberg Bible.
Printed in 1454 or 1455, this two volume set is one of only 48 still-existing sets, and one of only 5 sets in the United States.
I was interested to learn that the red highlights were actually put in by hand, by a person called a ‘rubricator’. Gutenberg had originally tried to print each page twice, once for the red ink parts,and then for the black text. But he was never really able to perfect it, probably because of the difficulty of keeping the pages aligned.
So instead, he printed the pages in black, leaving empty areas to be filled in by hand by the ‘rubricator’, usually a priest or a monk especially hired for the task,
It was really amazing to look at these volumes on the other side of the glass case and know they were printed more than 550 years ago and handled by Johannes Gutenberg himself.
We left the GTTW exhibit and drove about 15 minutes to have lunch at Trudy’s Texas Star.
We used to eat here every time we came up to Austin to visit our daughter Brandi when she was in college here, and always really enjoyed it.
But it’s been a long time since we’ve been back, so we wanted to try it again while we’re in town. And we weren’t disappointed.
I had the Migas and Beef Fajitas
and Jan had the Beef Chile Rellenos
Jan said these were the best Rellenos she’s ever eaten, beating out the previous #1, Esther’s in Placentia, CA who are renowned in California for their Rellenos.
My Migas were delicious, but the Beef Fajitas were fantastic, probably the best I ever had. It seemed like that after they were cooked normally, they were coated in a rub of some sort and then put on the grill for a short time. This gave them a slight charred crust on them, making them really great.
Also really good were the Borracho Beans, cooked with bacon and onions. as well as the perfectly seasoned rice. Hopefully we’ll have a chance to go back soon.
Heading toward home after our great meal, we made a stop by a local Christmas Store so Jan could look for some Christmas lights she wanted and then it was back on the road home. After making a quick pitstop at Buc-ee’s, we got back to the rig a little after 6pm, another fun, but busy day.
Getting home I found a spray bottle of De-Solv-It Contractor’s Solvent sitting on the rig step.
I figured it was either left by Christmas Elves, or maybe my friend Tom Christian who thought it might remove the drill mud from the roof of our rig. And according to the label, it should remove just about anything. In fact the label warns you to test the surface you’re using it on to be sure it doesn’t dissolve it too. According to the website, it cleans stained concrete, removes silicone, caulk, putty nails, floor adhesive, water seal, wet paint (won’t harm dry paint), oil, roofing tar, wax, diesel soot, pine sap and resin, and more from virtually any surface! And apparently, according to one commenter, it will even take the skunk smell off of dogs. Who knew?
So later in the afternoon, I got the ladder out and gave it a try on the top of the front cap. But unfortunately it didn’t really touch it. I could see a slight darkening on the towel I was using, but I couldn’t see any change in the roof surface. But later I did try it on the diesel soot on the rig’s chrome exhaust pipe and it cleaned it right up.
So it’s back to the drawing board on the drill mud.
December 16, 2015
Great Food and Good Friends . . .
Once again this morning Jan and I sat outside with our coffee and pumpkin bread. And we were happy to have Bonnie and Vance Clegg, our next door neighbors, show up to talk for a while.
We had a really good time getting acquainted, comparing our travels and adventures. But, like our last outside visit, this get-together was called on account of weather, but a chilly wind this time, rather than rain like the other day.
Now that my immediate plumbing problems have been taken care of, I’ve been looking over my chore list, trying to decide what to work on next. I’ve got a couple of small projects already in the hopper, rewiring my patio lights to fix a problem that didn’t really get fixed after our blow-out repair in Prescott, AZ earlier this year, remounting an inside grab handle next to Jan’s chair, and emptying and pressure washing a couple of my basement storage bays.
But I think my next big (kind of) project will be to restring my day/night shades.
Again.
I restrung them once before, about three years ago, but a while back, they started breaking, one by one. From what I can tell, the cord, which is supposedly heavy-duty and made especially for day/night shades, just frayed until it broke. So this time, based on an online recommendation, I’m going to use 100# – 200# fishing line. So I’ll see how that goes.
You can check out my original blind repair here
A little before 4pm, Jan and I headed up to Ellinger to have dinner at Peter’s BBQ, our favorite local BBQ place. And to make it even better, we were meeting up with new friend’s Bonnie and Vance Clegg, and old friend’s Janice and Dave Evans. We had hoped our friend Randy would be able to meet up with us, but he needed to finish up his Christmas shopping over in Katy.
Since this wasn’t Friday night, there was no buffet, so we all just ordered BBQ plates and sandwiches. They did have the sides table with a number of veggies and a couple of desserts. And unlike a lot of places, they do great veggies.
As usual when RV’ers get together, we sat around talking for about 2 hours, which is actually not a long time for this kind of gathering. I think our record is about 3 1/2 hours.
Tomorrow we’ll probably make a run into Columbus to drop off some mail at the PO and see if I can get a new washer for my almost no longer leaking shower connector.
December 16, 2016
Flash and Cash . . .
I was hoping to get another text from Todd about a gate this weekend, but no luck so far. But I still could, so here’s hoping.
Of course, I’m not sure a gate in 30° weather would be much fun.
About 1pm Jan and I headed out for lunch and Wal-Mart. Our lunch stop was our second visit to Flashburger. Although it has the look of a franchise location, according to Google, it’s the only one.
As before, I had the El Jefe burger, with Two Patties, Bacon, Cheddar Cheese, a Fried Egg, Lettuce, Tomato, Onions Pickles, Chipotle Mayo, and Flash Sauce.
Which piled all together looks like this.
This time we got their Regular Fries which were really good. There are two different ways to fix French Fries, low heat and high heat.
High heat (375° – 400°) gets the dry, crispy McDonald’s type fries, while a lower heat (325° or so) gets you the softer, moist, textured fries with a lot of flavor. It’s not a matter of how long they’re cooked. In fact, if you cooked them longer at the low heat, they will just get tough and chewy, and not crispy.
Jan got a single patty burger, with Cheddar Cheese, Sautéed Mushrooms, Sautéed Onions, Tomato, Mustard, and Ketchup. Hers looked like this.
Both our burgers were delicious, as well as the fries. There will be a third visit for sure.
Before we left I told Jan that I was going to the restroom to wash my ‘good’ greasy fingers. When she looked questioningly, I said, “You know, good, from greasy hamburgers and fries, and not ‘bad, from spent the afternoon replacing the wheel bearings on the car’ greasy.
As we were leaving we told the cashier that the only thing that would make the meal better would have been onion rings. She said that they were working on onion rings, wings, chicken tenders, and fried green beans. Looking forward to it.
Then it was on to the Wal-Mart right up the hill, and that’s where things went off the rails.
Our first stop was at the pharmacy to pick up a prescription for Jan, and when I reached into my back pocket for my wallet, my hand all the way out the bottom of the pocket. The bottom was torn out and my wallet was gone.
I backtracked out to the truck while Jan made a quick stop at the Customer Service Desk to see if it had been turned in. Then we drove back to Flashburger and when I walked in, the cashier was holding up my wallet.
Whew!
I figured it would be rude to check things until I was outside, but was a little disappointed to see that, although my cards were all there, my cash was gone, somewhere between $20 and $40. Not a big deal, but really?
The only thing I can figure is that my pocket got hung up and tore on the booth bench seat slats, and then fell out when I went to the restroom to wash my hands. I’m assuming that that whoever turned it in took the cash.
Well, maybe a kid got a better Christmas.
December 16, 2017
HoneyBaked and Whipped Creamed . . .
I had thought I would install the new awning this morning/afternoon, but it was still in the 40’s, very overcast, and spitting rain a little so I put that on hold.
We were supposed to meet our friend’s Debi and Ed Hurlburt up at the Rudy’s BBQ in the Woodlands this afternoon, but they both came down with a bug of some sort so our get-together got cancelled. Unfortunately this was probably our last chance to meet up before they leave for Florida on Tuesday.
Jan and I headed out about 1pm up to the Clear Lake area, first to have lunch at one of our long-time favorites, Barcenas Mexican Restaurant, right outside the subdivision where our house is located.
We’ve been eating here since it was built back in the 80’s we think. A long time ago, anyway. And in 2007, as we were getting ready to start RV’ing, we moved into an apartment right across the street while we were remodeling our house to sell.
So we could just walk across the street for a great meal, (well, more like run really, since it was a busy road).
Then our next stop was at our son Chris’ to pick our mail and say hi. He was out in the driveway working on his new bike, welding on a new seat bracket to raise it higher above the rear fender.
Leaving Chris’ we drove over to the HoneyBaked Ham store to pick one up for Christmas dinner next week. By not waiting until next week, I avoided the long lines that happen as the holidays get closer. We’ll take it up to Brandi’s tomorrow when we go up to Landon’s hockey practice.
When we got home I decided to take a few minutes out in the wet, cold weather to at least slide the new awing into the rails to be sure the size is correct.
And it looks like a perfect fit.
I’ll call Sundowner Canvas on Monday to tell them it’s OK to do the next, and hopefully I’ll get a chance to complete the installation later in the week.
After our early lunch, we didn’t want much supper so we just split the Tres Leches that we got to go from La Brisa Mexican Restaurant last night.
With a little added whipped cream it was delicious.‘
Wrapping up, for you “A Christmas Story” fans, FOX is doing a 3hr Live version of it tomorrow night starting at 6pm CST. So set your DVR’s now.
December 16, 2018
Leftover Leftovers . . .
Today was a very nice, lay around the rig, day. Besides playing on the computer, napping, and talking with Jan, I spent a good part of it finishing up on the laptop setup for my client’s wife.
The old laptop was so slow it took forever to get all the files, docs, photos, etc., copied off so I could get them moved over to the new one. Part of the problem was that old one was so old that it would not recognize my portable HD drive, so I had to copy stuff off to flashdrives before I could move it over.
I then installed and set up LibreOffice and configure her Gmail account. Finishing up I install Remote Utilities Host program, so I can access the machine remotely, which I know I’ll have to do at some point.
Today was another one of Texas days with heaters in the morning, AC’s in the afternoon, and heaters again in the evening. But it sounds like our front AC may be developing a problem. When it first starts up there’s a ‘whirring’ like a bearing going bad, probably in the fan. At least I hope it’s the fan and not the compressor.
This is the Coleman unit that we upgraded to in the summer of 2015. At the same time the 19 year old unit in the bedroom is still going strong with only a start capacitor replacement back in 2013.
About a month ago I went online and upgraded our DirecTV account to add the Movie Extra Package, mostly so Jan could get the Hallmark Movie and Mystery Channel. But it never showed up on our Guide. I called DTV a couple things and they reset things on their end, and I rebooted and reset our DVR a few times too. But still no luck.
Finally yesterday I figured it out. All 8 of the channels are in HD only. And because of our Winegard Traveler dome not receiving HD, we are SD only. So I called today to cancel the add-on and get a rebate on the last month’s charges.
Supper tonight was leftover leftovers, with the last of the soup from last week, and the remaining pizza brought home last night from Gramaldi’s.
A perfect combination.
December 16, 2019
WOW! That’s Big . . .
Our new Samsung 43” Smart TV came in this afternoon, so Jan and I got it set up as soon as I got home about 4pm.
I got it put in place with a temporary mounting, but I’m going to buy a shelf board from Home Depot tomorrow to mount it on permanently.
This thing is so big that we’re going to have to reconfigure things up there, by moving the clock to allow me to move the TV to the left, because I can’t see the right 1/3 of the screen as it stands now.
Set up was really easy. I just plugged it in and turned it on, and it led me through the configuration, looking for Source Inputs, WiFi settings, and connecting everything up.
And just a few minutes later we had video. And the picture is fantastic, much brighter and sharper than our older 2015 model.
Very nice.
I did order a 2nd remote before I left work so Jan will have one over by her. Though it looks like most things, like Power, Volume, Source, etc., can be done via Alexa.
Tomorrow I’ll go through and set up our Prime Video, Netflix, and BBC accounts on in the streaming section.
Then it’s just Enjoy, I guess.
Tomorrow afternoon I’ve got a follow up Dermatology appointment to check out the procedure I had last year, and then a late lunch at Cheddar’s.
December 16, 2020
So Sad To Hear . . .
I heard from my cousin’s wife up in Athens, AL this morning that my Aunt Janis is dying of terminal cancer and only has a few days to live. She’s been in hospice for a few weeks, and three of her children have come from out of state to help take care of her.
I have a really warm place in my heart for my Aunt Jan, not just because she was family, but also because she was instrumental in my meeting my Jan 53 years ago, in 1967.
At the beginning of the summer my mother was talking to her and mentioned that I was thinking about heading down to the Alabama Gulf Coast or maybe Florida to work for the summer. So Aunt Janice invited me to come down and stay with them as long as I wanted.
At that time she and my uncle Ed lived in Sanford, FL, where Ed had a large veterinary practice and a big house with plenty of room. So around the first part of June I headed down that way, but stopping off in Gulf Shores, AL to catch up with some old friends along the way.
Sanford is about 30 miles from Orlando, so once I got settled in, I started checking out the want ads in the area, but nothing popped out at first. Then around the 1st of July I came across an ad in the Florida Today paper for a job at an amusement park over in Titusville, about 35 miles away.
It was called Florida Wonderland and they were looking for someone to do take care of the animals at their Marine Life facility, and also do the animal act performances there. So after meeting with them and getting the job, I started on July 5th.
Later that day I walked across US A1A to get a couple of buckets of ice. We didn’t have an ice machine, so to keep the fish iced down that we fed the animals, I needed to bring it back from there.
So that afternoon when I walked into the Miss Kitty’s Pleasure Palace & Saloon, part of Western town, to pick up the ice,
the first thing that caught my eye was a tall, redheaded saloon girl. And I guess you could say I was smitten.
It took me two weeks of nagging to get her to go out with me, so I guess today I’d be a stalker, but back then I guess I was just persistent.
And that’s how it all started.
December 16, 2021
So Far, So Good . . . So Far.
This afternoon was my 6 Week Checkup (after only 5 weeks less 1 day, but let’s not quibble) after my Cervical Spinal Fusion back in November.
Unlike my last checkup, they took X-Rays before we got to see Alexandra, our P.A. And when we did get to see her, she said that everything looked really good and that nothing had come loose or moved out of place.
I was also told that I no longer have to ‘baby’ my incision, but can now spray water directly on it in the shower and not worry about it. And I can now go back to taking my daily low-dose aspirin.
One thing I did ask was at what point I can consider that things have gotten as good as they’re going to get. Alexandra said it could be as long as 1 to 2 years, which was very reassuring. My fingers are getting more feeling in them, as well as stronger too. And in addition, my balance is slowly coming back.
So it looks like I’m good to go until my next checkup in February.
Finishing up at the doctor’s, our next stop was right down the road at Pho Barr for lunch.
As before, we started off with an order of the Grilled Pork Spring Rolls, along with their spicy peanut sauce.
Then it was on to our other usuals, with Jan getting the Vermicelli Bowl.
As I did last time, I got the Pho, but the Chicken instead of the Ribeye.
And as you can see it was just chock full of Chicken.
Really good, and we’re very happy to see that they’re working on opening another location near us.
Several times in the last week we’ve been hijacked. Or at least our VMAI sound bar has been.
This past Monday afternoon Jan called me at work to say she was hearing Christmas music in the rig that she thought was coming from the TV along with the program’s audio, and that she didn’t know where it was coming from. But before I could tell her anything to check, it disappeared.
Then early the next morning, about 1am, I was awakening by very loud Christmas music coming from the front of the rig. And when I got up to investigate, I found the TV still off, and the sound coming from the sound bar itself.
And then I knew what was happening. But wanting to get back to sleep I used the sound bar remote to just turn it off for now.
Then the next morning I confirmed my suspicions. One of our neighbors was hijacking our sound bar’s Bluetooth connection, probably accidentally.
Whenever we turn off our TV it loses the Bluetooth connection to the sound bar, so when we turn the TV back on, we have to reconnect it. And recently I had noticed that another VMAI sound bar was showing up, though a different model from ours.
So I suspect our neighbor was connecting to our system rather than his, and then turning the volume up since he wasn’t hearing anything on his system.
So right now I’m trying to see if I can change the unit’s standard Bluetooth password of ‘0000’ to something else so this can’t happen again.
To quote Roseanne Roseannadanna, “It’s always something.”
