Monthly Archives: December 2022
Rebooting . . .
Jan and I were on the way up to the Spring area to meet up with long-time friends, Debi and Ed Hurlburt at the El Palenque Mexican Restaurant, a regular meet-up location for us. Really good.
But our first stop was at the CircleK right out on Hwy 6 for gas. A good deal at $1.39.
But a problem because all their pumps had hung up rebooting the credit card system and you have to pay inside so they could turn the pump on.
The run up to Spring today was probably the smoothest we’ve ever had on one of these trips, with no real slowdowns at all. And as it turned out, it was the same later when we headed home.
As before, Jan had the Rancho Grande, a Chicken Breast with 3 Shrimp, and all the usual accessories.
I got the Palenque Sample once again, with a little of everything.
The food was great, and the company was even better. Always is.
And we both had leftovers.
And as usual it was almost 3 hours before we finally said our goodbyes, already scheduled for next month, of course.
I mentioned a couple of blogs ago about some of our local Mexican restaurants moving away from the traditional Mexican décor to a more industrial look. But apparently El Palenque hasn’t gotten the message.
Coming home we made a quick stop at the El Dorado WalMart for a few things before getting home about 3:45pm.
Another very nice day.
Thought for the Day:
Everything happens for a reason. But sometimes the reason is that you’re stupid and make bad decisions.
December 15, 2010
High Winds and Big Bridges . . .
Today started out with us trying to keep the coach tied to the ground, or at least it seemed that way. We had a 45-50 mph wind directly from the south. The only redeeming factor was the fact that it was hitting the coach head-on, and not from the side.
But that meant it was very hard to get the coach door open. I had to lean out and put all my weight to hold it open so Jan could get out. And then try not to let the door slam back on me.
Even the birds were hunkered down, and note the angle the bird feeder is hanging. One time I saw it almost horizontal.
Jan and I left the rig (or blew away from) about 1:15, first heading over to the Wendy’s in Dickinson for a lunch of Spicy Chicken Sandwiches. Then it was on up I-45 to Sam’s Club to pick up a prescription.
Next we went right next door to Wal-Mart for more ‘stuff’. Everyone needs more ‘stuff’ at Christmas time.
Leaving there we stopped off at Brandi’s to pick up some more packages that had come in.
Then, next it was Wells Fargo to get a problem fixed with my new VISA debit card. They messed up the setup and although it would work as a VISA card and as a debit card, it would not work as an ATM card.
Next on our list was a visit to the storeroom, and finally the PO to drop off the last of the Christmas cards.
A busy afternoon.
But finally it was close to 5pm and time to head over to Seabrook to Mario’s to meet Chris and Linda. An extra bonus was Miss Piper showing up with her friend Porter.
After dinner, we got back to the rig about 6:30, and the first thing I had to do was get the satellite dish re-aimed. The high winds had moved the entire mount even though it was staked to the ground. The winds have slacked off so hopefully it will hold for a while.
December 15, 2011
Thank you, Malcolm . . .
I headed out this morning a little after 11 to take another pass at the AT&T fiasco. My first stop was Fry’s Electronics to pick up a new DSL modem. AT&T Tech Support said that the problem was with the new modem they had just replaced, and wanted my client to buy the replacement.
When I asked if we could get our money back if that didn’t fix the problem. They said No. So I picked one up at Fry’s because I knew that after I showed AT&T that the modem wasn’t the problem, I could return it.
And getting to the client’s house, I plugged in the new modem and No, that didn’t fix the problem.
Surprise!
So back on the phone to AT&T I went. And lo and behold, I found Malcolm. Malcolm may be the only person at AT&T with any skills or common sense.
More importantly, he actually listened to what I was saying. I had asked last week if this DSL account was still set up to use static IP’s. I was told they no longer had residential accounts with static IP’s.
Static IP’s date back to the days before home routers were common. IP addresses are those strings of numbers you occasionally see on the Internet like 192.168.1.254. Every computer on the Internet has a different unique number. It’s like your computer’s phone number.
If you wanted to have more than one computer on your DSL line before routers, each computer was given a static IP address from the phone company. I knew this account was originally set up with static IP’s, and I knew that could cause problems if they didn’t realize that.
And when I mentioned this again to Malcolm, he actually looked it up, and found it was a ‘legacy’ account and it was still set up for static IP’s. Once we knew this, he configured things correctly on his end, and in 5 minutes I had Internet again.
Well, 5 minutes and 6 hours, anyway.
I’m really glad that’s done.
About 5pm this afternoon we picked up Dennis and Kathy Brophey and headed up to Seabrook to Tookie’s for dinner. They had seen my blog comments about it and wanted to give it a try.
And they both said they weren’t disappointed.
Really good, as usual.
Coming back to the park we got a tour of the cabinet modifications Dennis and Kathy made to their Revolution LE. Really nice.
But it’s given Jan ideas. And that always means more work for me.
Came across an article on Yahoo about a place in Cambridge MA that serves really hot food. The dish is called Pasta Plate from Hell and one diner said this about it, “Pain. I can’t breathe. I can’t talk,” he said. “It tastes good at first. Now I can’t taste anything,”
Sounds like my kind of place.
December 15, 2013
Jan’s Favorite Christmas Song . . .
Jan’s favorite Christmas song is ‘Mary, Did You Know” and she has just about every different version of it, but this version is her new favorite. Even better, the little girl’s name is Noelle. And her voice is amazing.
Noelle
R.I.P. James (Butterbean) Carpenter
Joyce Carpenter let us know this morning that her husband, and our friend and long-time blog reader, ‘Butterbean’ Carpenter was killed in a car accident this past Wednesday, Dec. 11th. We had been corresponding with him for several years, and finally got to meet him and Joyce in February 2012 when we got together at the Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, TX.
Our daughter Brandi even designated him Landon’s “Honorary Uncle”.
He will be missed.
Jan’s been putting out feed for the birds and they finally found it, especially the Monk Parakeets.
She’s even putting out carrots for the bunny rabbit that shows up at night.
In other animal news, I was going to throw away the box my new printer came in, but Mister had another idea.
Apparently it’s his box now.
Want to check out New York City without paying for an expensive campground? Just park your RV on the street like these people do. I think your biggest problem might be coming back to your rig and finding it up on blocks and all your tires gone.
The tide was out today and that’s when all the seagulls show up to dine on the many tasty treats that are revealed.
Tomorrow’s going to be a movie day. We plan on having lunch at King Food and then catching the 1:30 showing of Ender’s Game. Then sometime in the next couple days we also plan to see Thor: The Dark World. Both of these have been out since the first part of November, while we were still on the gate, and we want to see them before they’re pushed out by the Christmas movies.
Today we spent a good while catching up on the new Fall shows we DVR’ed while we were still on the gate. So far we’ve caught up on Grimm, Once Upon A Time, Big Bang Theory, Two and A Half Men, and now we’re working on Agents of SHIELD. Next up are Nashville, Person of Interest, Sleepy Hollow, Once Upon A Time in Neverland, Castle, Mentalist, and Bones. Hopefully we’ll be caught by the time all the new episodes start back up.
Since I started out this blog with a song, I thought I end it with one too. This is Jase and Missy Robinson of the Duck Dynasty crew singing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”. Missy has a great voice, and Jase is not too bad either.
Check it out.
Jase and Missy Robinson
December 15, 2014
“As God is My Witness . . .”
First up this morning, Donna Huffer and Bob Parker showed up for their goodbye hugs before they headed out for Rockport down south. Looks like we’ll catch up with them again in Tucson at the Escapade the first part of next March.
A little while after that, Jan and I left on our 85 mile Austin road trip about 10am, heading for the Gone With The Wind exhibit at the Harry Ransom Center located on the University of Texas campus. But our first stop was the big Buc-ee’s in Bastrop for breakfast kolaches, coffee, and a bathroom break. We got to the Harry Ransom Center a little before noon, and luckily found parking about a block away.
The exhibit which filled a number of rooms, and consisted mainly of photos, telegrams, and letters, to and from studio executives, actors, attorneys, and censors. You follow the story from the book’s publication in June of 1936 though the film’s debut in December 1939.
David O. Selznick bought the rights for $50,000, the most ever paid for film rights at that time, and spent the next 3 years trying to get the movie made. While he was trying to raise the money, he was also trying to find his ‘Scarlett’, which proved a much more daunting task than Selznick originally thought. Over 1400 actresses around the country were auditioned, both known and unknown. Some of the known were Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford, Susan Hayward, Lana Turner, Norma Shearer, Miriam Hopkins, and Katherine Hepburn. The problem with many of these established actresses was their age. Scarlett is 16 at the beginning of the movie and 28 at the end, and a lot of these women were in the 30’s, and would have a problem playing a 16 year old girl.
But in the end, it all came down to 4 finalists: Paulette Goddard, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett, and Vivian Leigh. Paulette Goddard was actually Selznick’s first choice, but Goddard was pretty openly living with Charlie Chaplin at the time, and Selznick was afraid of the bad publicity.
As it turns out, the eventual choice, Vivian Leigh, was a dark horse, last minute candidate. Although Selznick had known about her for over a year, she was already signed to other projects and wasn’t available. Then in the last 48 hours, her other movie fell through, and she was available. So she got the role.
Strangely enough though, two complete unknowns were offered the part of Scarlett O’Hara earlier. Both girls, found in the auditions done around the country, turned the role down. One of them, Adele ‘Billie’ Longmire, from New Orleans, was offered the role in 1938, when she was 19. But her parents would not let her go to New York for a final screen-test and contract signing. Plus she objected to the long-term contract she was offered, as did the second girl.
Longmire went on to make a number of movies with the likes of Humphrey Bogart and William Holden, a lot of TV from The Long Ranger to I Love Lucy, and was well-known enough at the time to have been profiled on This Is Your Life in 1953.
One funny thing about the casting of Vivian Leigh, was that a number of Southern groups and associations were insisting that a southern girl be cast as Scarlett. One organization, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, was particularly insistent. But when Leigh, who was from England, was cast, they said that was OK, just as long as it wasn’t some ‘damn Yankee’.
Jan and I spent a lot of time reading through all the correspondence covering the walls, and two things stood out from this.
One was the fact that telegrams were apparently the email of the time. I counted as many as eight back-and-forth telegram conversations between Hollywood and New York in one day. Some of them less than one hour apart. This was when some guy on a bike would show up at your door with the telegram, you’d read it, write down your answer, and he would take it back to the office to be sent. And then the same on the other end.
Second was the content of some of the studio letters and telegrams. I’m sure you’ve read lately about the North Korean’s hacking Sony and releasing the the emails between studio executives, revealing the many ‘snarky’ conversations about actors, actresses, and other executives.
Well it was exactly the same back in the 1930’s. Actresses were called ‘mental midgets’, actors were ‘drunks’ and ‘lechers, and other executives were ‘liars’ and ‘adulterers’. And that was just the nice things they said.
People never change.
Another interesting part of the exhibit were the letters from the ‘Hays” board censors listing the things that should be taken out of the script. I had always heard there was a lot of controversy about the ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’ line, but I did not find anything in the letters about that iconic line. Instead there were a number of complaints about the childbirth scenes and the wounded soldiers, but I was surprised to find out that the censors had a problem with Scarlett’s ‘As God is my witness’ line and wanted it taken out.. Obviously, they didn’t get their way.
The other part of the exhibit was a number of the actual dresses worn by Vivian Leigh in the movie.
Very elegant
This one was the dress that Scarlett wore for her first wedding at the age of 16.
I’m sorry, but this one is just ugly.
This one was a robe Scarlett wore while sitting out on the porch.
One thing unusual about this one was the colors. When looking at the dress on exhibit, you really can’t see much difference between the fur and the dress, just a little when the light is right. But the camera (no flash) sees the dark purple part of the robe completely different.
And, of course, no GWTW dress exhibit could be complete with the iconic ‘Curtains’ dress.
This dress, made by Scarlett and Mammy from the curtains left in Tara’s shambles, showcased Scarlett’s indomitable will as she wears it to plead with Rhett Butler for the $300 she needs to pay the taxes on Tara.
And, of course, you can’t talk about the GWTW ‘curtains’ dress without mentioning Carol Burnett’s version in ‘Went with the Wind’.
Carol thought it looked better with the curtain rod still attached.
_________________________________________________________________
Thought for the Day:
Five things you probably didn’t know about Gone with the Wind:
1. Scarlett was originally named ‘Pansy’.
2. Tara was originally called Fountenoy Hall.
3. Margaret Mitchell, GWTW’s author, was a cousin by marriage to ‘Doc’ Holiday, the gunslinger (and sometimes dentist).
4. The original title of GWTW was “Tomorrow is Another Day”, the last line of the book.
5. Margaret Mitchell was hit and killed by a drunk driver in Atlanta in 1949 as she crossed Peachtree Street.
December 15, 2015
Found It!
and fixed it . . . I think.
It was really nice this morning to have absolutely nowhere to go. We’ve been on the go so much it seems lately that it was nice to just sit outside for a while with our coffee and pumpkin/cranberry bread, and contemplate doing nothing at all.
But of course, that never seems to last long, now does it?
Coming back in the rig, Jan got on the phone to firm up the last of our medical appointments for this coming February. Since we’re both Medicare, our appointments have to be one year and one day past last year’s. So this means that our dates are gradually creeping forward. So I guess if we RV long enough, we’ll end up seeing the doctors in April or May. So to avoid this, Jan keeps track of last year’s dates, and tries to schedule this year’s just one day later to help avoid too much creep.
Then I got on the phone with Thousand Trails to check out another membership that I’m thinking about buying. It’s a Platinum level, with 21 days in, park to park, with unlimited free days. Unfortunately it doesn’t add any more parks to what we already have. So I’ll probably keep looking around.
A little later in the afternoon, I got back on my shower leak problem. Since the carpet was damp again, I knew the leak was back, so I got the flashlight out and checked the bottom opening that I made last week. Looking around carefully I found a lot of wetness, but nothing to indicate where it was coming from. So my next step was do something I had planned to do last week, but ran out of time. I turned the water on in the shower.
When I had looked at this problem in the past, the carpet seemed to be just as wet when we were gone for a few days and taking no showers as when we were taking two showers a day (1 each). I figured that this meant the leak was on the supply side to the shower and not on the output to the shower head.
I was wrong.
With the shower water running I got back down on my hands and knees to look in the bottom opening again. But even before I got all the way down, I could hear dripping, actually running water. But it wasn’t leaking down at the bottom. It was coming from higher up, by the faucet.
So getting back up (with a lot of creaking and joints popping, I uncovered the access hole I had cut directly behind the faucet itself. And this is what I saw.
Not just a drip, but an actual stream of water.
Looking at the volume of water leaking out, it was obvious that not all of this water was coming out on the rug. Otherwise we’d have been splashing around in the bedroom after every shower.
So it seems like most of this was just dripping down into the water bay right below, and then out onto the grass through the drain holes.
Turning off the shower water, I tried to turn the plastic fitting, hoping it was just loose, but it wouldn’t budge with my fingers.
I couldn’t just be that lucky this once.
About now it was time to head out for dinner and a Wal-Mart run up in La Grange so off we went.
Every time Jan and I make this trip up to La Grange I always thing about the time we visited the fabled Chicken Ranch, aka The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
You can read about that in this blog from December 2014, as well as a number of other neat places to visit in this area.
I had been wanting to get my McRib fix before they go away, so we had supper at McDonald’s first.
Several little known McRib fun facts:
1. Chicken McNuggets and the McRib were invented by the same European Chef. (Who knew that McD’s head of food development was a European Chef?)
2. The McRib was invented because when Chicken McNuggets first came out, McD’s could not buy enough chicken fast enough to meet the demand. It just didn’t exist. So the McRib was rolled out to take the ‘heat’ off McNuggets.
3. McRib’s come and go based on pork prices. They normally dip in the fall, which is when the McRib is pushed out again. Then over the next few months, McD’s enormous purchases of pork drives the price up, and the McRib is pulled off the market.
After our Wal-mart stop,and getting back home, I took another look at my leak problem. Turning the shower water back on, I used an inspection mirror to check the underside and back of the connector, but didn’t see any sign of a crack or break. But it kind of looked like the water was coming out of the back of the nut.
So turning the water back off, I used a pair of locking pliers to loosen the plastic nut and back it all the way off. Two things I noticed were that, unlike the other connections, this one had no Teflon tape on the threads, and it also looked like the washer inside the nut might be crushed or disfigured.
But tonight I wanted to see if I could maybe stop the leak, or at least slow it down substantially. So I wrapped the threads with Teflon tape and tightened the nut back on as tight as I could with my fingers using a rag over the nut. It can be risky to use pliers for this because it’s very easy to use too much force and split the nut. So hand-tighten only.
I then turned the water back on and watched for a few minutes, and saw no leak at all. But to be sure, I put a plastic bowl under the joint, and let the shower run for 45 minutes.
And this is what I had.
By dripping water into another bowl for comparison, I figured out that this is about six drops. Not bad, especially since none of us takes a 45 minute shower. Or at least not a hot one, anyway.
So I won’t declare this officially fixed, but at least it’s taken care of until I can try and get a new compression washer, or rebuild the connector.
Wrapping up, here’s a McD’s non-McRib fun fact.
McDonald’s is the largest toy distributor in the world, just due to the ones included in every Happy Meal.
December 15, 2016
Scams and Hodgepodges . . .
On the subject of climate, also called ‘Weather’, it’s going to a real roller coaster ride on the temperature scale over the next few days. Today it was 68°/53° and tomorrow it’s supposed to be 74°/64°
Then reaching the very top of the hill on Saturday, it’s going to hit 80°. But then comes the steep drop-off, all the way down to 33° Saturday night. Then Sunday it levels out a bit with 42°, before that final drop at the end down to 28°.
In other words, typical Texas winter weather.
I always wondered if Jan had a past before I met her (of course she was only 19), but I didn’t know she had ‘naked pics’ out there.. Why am I always the last to know?
Here’s an email we got.
Just another phishing scheme going around, but the first one I’ve been tempted to open, but in a sandbox environment, of course.
In addition, if you have a Yahoo. com email account you probably received an email recently concerning a data breach. Yahoo Data Breach
Over 1 Billon, yes, Billon with a B, Yahoo.com email accounts were hacked. But I’m not sure how worried they are about the hack since it happened back in 2013 and they’re just now getting around to telling us.
Wrapping up, also be aware of a new Amazon hack from a email subjected, “Your Amazon.com order cannot be shipped.”
Needless to say, it’s not from Amazon. They don’t even know if you’ve ordered anything. They just send out millions of emails and the Law of Large Numbers guarantees that hundreds of thousands of them have Amazon shipments in progress.
We had another big flare at the site last night, but with the wind, it was blowing horizontal.
I keep meaning to bring my Panasonic camera with me to get some better pics.
Jan made up a big batch of what I call Hodgepodge Beef Soup. Please don’t ask for the recipe because Jan has no idea what’s really in it. She just threw it together.
She started with 1-1/2 pounds of beef stew meat, some beans from some long-forgotten bean soup package, carrots, a large box of beef broth, some shell pasta, a container of Campbell’s Slow Cooker Tomato-Basil Bisque, a can of diced tomatoes, the obligatory can of Hot Habanero Rotel tomatoes, and some condiments here, with some spices there.
Really delicious. But probably not repeatable.
December 15, 2017
New Friends and Mexican Breezes . . .
I spend most of the day working on a lot of online and paper catalog corrections at work today, keeping me busy enough that the day was over before I knew it. Nice day.
Gas prices are still drifting downward, with an 8 cent drop just in the last week, now at $1.93 a gallon.
My new HDMI cable came in today to replace the flakey one that connects between our Direct TV DVR and our Samsung TV.
I got the heavy duty, gold-plated one so I hope it will last longer that the old one.
One of our reader’s commented that the Grimaldi’s in Tucson that I mentioned a couple of days ago was closed when they tried to visit recently.
Turns out they closed right after Thanksgiving because they lost their lease. Or as the article says, they failed to negotiable a new one. Which probably means that the landlord jacked up the rent more than they were willing to pay.
Which must have been a lot since the location was one of the most popular ones in Arizona. They say they will be reopening at the new location sometime late next year.
About 5:15 Jan and I drove over to the La Brisa Mexican Restaurant on 146 in Bacliff to meet up with blog reader’s Jan and Dale. They’re staying at an RV park down in La Marque and wanted to get together to meet.
We had a great time, great food, and hopefully we’ll be able to to it again soon.
Karma hasn’t had an update recently so here she is.
For a half feral stray, she’s turned out to be a pretty good kitty.
December 15, 2018
OK, Who Squealed?
I spent some time this morning setting up a laptop for my client’s wife. Her old one, with a Pentium CPU and running Windows XP, is on its last legs. And I’m glad it’s finally dying since I’m getting tired trying to keep it running.
Jan and I headed out for lunch and more about 1:30. Originally we were going to have lunch at the Monterey’s Little Mexico up in Alvin, but right before we left Jan saw a TV ad for Pizza Hut. So that became our lunch destination. No, not Pizza Hut, but our all-time favorite pizza place, Gramaldi’s, and our local one at Baybrook Mall.
We first ate at a Gramaldi’s in 2009 when we were visiting New York City with our daughter Brandi, and our granddaughter Piper. We ate at both Gramaldi’s and Lombardi’s, the two places in NYC that claim to be the originators of pizza there in the first few years of the 1900’s. And we liked Gramaldi’s the best.
So we were very happy when we later found that Gramaldi’s had started to open locations around the country. And everyone we’ve tried around the country was just as good as the original.
One thing we learned early on at Gramaldi’s is that unless you have at least 6 people, never order the Large salad. Because the Small one will feed 4 people with a serving each, or two people with large servings.
This is how much is left in the serving bowl after we both had a serving. So we each had two. Unfortunately they don’t have a Tiny one. Small is the smallest they have.
For pizza we got a medium with Pepperoni, Mushrooms, Italian Sausage, Meatballs, and Jalapenos, pretty much our standard order.
Really good as always, and we had some to bring home. Afterwards we made a quick walk up into Baybrook Mall proper so Jan could pick up a couple of gift things at that Bath & Body Works.
Then it was on back up the road to the Wal-Mart for some groceries and some gift cards, the penultimate of the Christmas presents. Next up was a stop at my client’s to pick up a couple of packages that had come in today, before a final stop at the League City Kroger’s for the absolutely final, the ultimate of the Christmas gift cards.
For some reason, WalMart does not sell Amazon gift cards. I mean, why wouldn’t they sell products encouraging you to buy stuff from their biggest competitor? But luckily Kroger’s does.
OK. Who squealed?
In last night’s blog I pointed out that it didn’t make a lot of sense that someone would go the trouble of getting a domain name and setting up a website area in order to sell their house, and then advertise it with a sign like this.
Well, this afternoon when we drove past, the sign was gone. But the website is still live with no indication that the place sold.
So I figure one of our readers called the phone number on the site and told the guy what I said. So, come on, fess up.
Who did it?
December 15, 2019
Semi–Well . . .
As I mentioned yesterday, Jan says that I don’t do nothing well. So I guess I did a lot less today, so maybe ‘semi-well’, anyway.
So, other than wandering around on the Internet and checking out some ideas for a change on my client’s website, along with dinner at Black Bear Diner about 3:30, was about it for the day.
Really nice!
Although it seems to have been a false alarm, I was concerned to see that our new Samsung 43” Smart TV, which was supposed to be delivered to my client’s office tomorrow, was out for delivery today via FedEx.
When no one is at the office.
And based on past experiences, I was not really reassured that they wouldn’t just leave it propped up against the front door. It’s certainly happened before.
But it was listed as being delivered by 8pm, and it’s now almost 9, so maybe I dodged a bullet. We’ll see tomorrow, I guess.
If some of you are Migraine suffers like Jan is, you might interested in this article. It turns out that exposing yourself to green light seems to reduce the frequency and severity of migraine attacks.
A lot of people seem to have had good luck with it. And it’s cheap and you don’t need a prescription. Check it out.
You might also want to check out these Aculief Acupressure Clamps. They clamp onto the web between your thumb and forefinger, and are said to relieve/reduce migraine pain via acupuncture.
They’re not really expensive, and they have a money-back guarantee. I ordered Jan a set so we’ll let you know.
Also, if you’ve been thinking about getting an Amazon Echo Dot, check out this deal.
You can get a 3rd Gen Echo Dot for only 99 cents.
Well, actually it’s $8.98. But that’s still about 1/3 the normal price.
So what’s the catch?
You get the Dot for 99 cents when you sign up for a one month trial of Amazon Music Unlimited for $7.99. It will be set up for Auto-Renewal, but you can just cancel it at the end of the month.
However, Amazon Music Unlimited gives you access to over 50 million songs, ad-free, so you might decide you want to keep it.
So check it out.
December 15, 2020
Gone With The Wind & Grimaldi’s. . .
Jan and I headed out for the afternoon about 1pm, stopping for lunch at Dickinson Seafood once again.
Blackened Catfish and Shrimp with Grilled Veggies, and a salad.
Delicious, and only $8.59 on the lunch menu. A great deal.
Then it was on up I-45 to the Home Depot for a storage bin and a 1/4” Push-On End Cap to seal off a leaking ice maker line that’s not used anymore.
Then after a quick WalMart stop, we headed back toward the rig, but couldn’t resist a Cowboy Coffee stop
for hot Sugar-Free Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Perfect on a cold winter day.
A Christmas Interview . . .
Our grandson Landon called me this evening to interview me for a class project. He wanted to know about my Christmases as a child, i.e.,
My all-time favorite gift – My Lionel 027 gauge Train Set when I was 10.
Other favorite gifts over the years – A Winchester .22 Semi-Auto Rifle
– Geniac Analog Computer Kit
– Allstate Moped
How Christmas is different now from when I was a kid – When I was a kid Christmas was for me. Now Christmas is for Jan, our kids, and grandkids.
How was Christmas celebrated back then as opposed to now – It seemed more family-oriented back then. More decorations and lights in the towns and homes. Big department stores downtown with animated displays in the windows. And the Sears Wish Book Christmas Catalog.
Biggest change in Christmas decorations – LED Lights and Blow-up Yard Decorations.
What are your thoughts?
Earlier this evening my HP printer started printed out recipes for Christmas eats. Microwave Peanut Brittle, Chocolate Covered Cherries, and Saltine Toffee Cookies. But I wasn’t the one doing the printing.
Looks like going to have to password protect my printer WiFi. Never had a problem before though.
I do wonder though why they kept printing out recipes when nothing was happening on their end.
But they do look tasty.
Tomorrow we’re heading up to the Spring area for our monthly get-together with Debi and Ed Hurlburt at El Palenque Mexican Restaurant. On our way by about 9:45.
Really looking forward to it.
Thought For The Day:
Think the recent tornados are because of ‘climate change’?
December 14, 2010
Happy Wanderers . . .
When I got up this morning, Jan said our son Chris had just called and we were meeting them about 11:30 for lunch. That meant we had to get a move on to get our walk in before we needed to leave.
After we got back, and while Jan was in the shower, a lady from the Happy Wanderers, the full-timing chapter of the American Coach Association that we belong to, called to check on our ACA membership numbers. She was trying to reconcile her database with the national chapters, and apparently our numbers weren’t correct. I told her that I would look them up and call her back.
About 11:15 we headed up to Kemah to Stomp’s Burger Joint to meet Chris and Linda for lunch. I’m glad we got there early because by 12 the place was full and people were waiting outside.
Getting back to the coach, I turned around and headed back out to run some errands
After stopping off at the bank to make a deposit, it was off to Fry’s Electronics to pick up some Christmas gifts. Unfortunately, I forgot the refund certificate that I was going to cash in, but I’ll do it another time.
Then it was on to Brandi’s to check our mail and pick up some packages that I knew had been delivered. Lowell was already home so we got to talk for a few minutes.
I got back about 3:30 and a nap seemed to be in order. Then about 5 pm Jan and I drove over to meet Bob and Maria Sutton at Spring Creek BBQ for dinner. Then they headed off to Bingo while I went back to the rig to work on the 4 computers that I’m trying to de-virify for clients.
When I picked Jan up at 10pm she said Maria had won the $750 grand prize for the night. Unfortunately Jan didn’t win anything this time. But then Bob called right after we got home to say that Maria had stopped and bought a Lotto ScratchOff and won $100. Sounds like she should have been buying PowerBall or Mega Millions tickets, if she’s that lucky.
December 14, 2011
Washer Repair Day . . .
Today was the day.
I couldn’t put it off any longer. Or, at least Jan said I couldn’t.
It was time to tackle pulling the dryer out of its cabinet and checking out the dryer fan motor.
The first step was to remove the retaining strip at the base of the cabinet. It looked like this was the only thing holding the washer in place, and it was.
Kind of.
After removing the strip I found the washer still wouldn’t come out because the screws on the door hinges protruded just enough to block it.
So, off with the doors.
Then after placing my furniture dolly underneath, I started inching the washer out.
Once the washer was out of the way, Mister had to immediately investigate things.
It was obvious that the cabinet was built around the washer since both the dryer vent hose and the water drain hose were too short to allow the washer to come all the way out, and in fact pulled loose before the washer was halfway out.
I’ll have to add extensions to both before I reinstall the washer.
Jan’s now got that island counter in the middle of the kitchen she’s always wanted, at least until I’m ready to reinstall the washer.
Luckily, only four screws and the top comes off. And even better, the fan motor is right at the top.
And here’s the alleged culprit.
Looking closely it was easy to see what had happened. The circle with the tabs on it is actually a cooling fan for the motor underneath it. The motor bearings had worn enough to let the shaft with the fan on it drop down and start rubbing against one of the motor’s electrical connectors. This caused the noise I first heard for a week or so before the motor finally died.
A blog reader, Tom Van de Bussche, had already clued me in on where to get a new motor, so I was on the phone to Westland Sales in Clackamas, OR to get one in the mail to me.
As it turns out, it will be shipped out from their Elkhart, IN location. Sure wish it had died a month or so ago, I could have picked one up while we were there.
December 14, 2012
$2.69 a Gallon!
Today was pretty quiet. After an easy morning, I left the rig a little after 1:30pm and headed up to the Clear Lake area for a couple of client visits and a stop at Sam’s Club for a prescription.
Along the way I stopped for gas and was amazed. Yesterday Unleaded was $2.92 at the Wal-Mart up in Kemah.
Today it was $2.69. YES $2.69!
And Diesel is $3.39. Don’t know what is happening, but I hope it keeps up.
Next up was a stop at a couple of clients. One of them had a new Sony Vaio laptop that they couldn’t get to connect to their office WiFi system. It turned out that the problem was that it was locked into WEP encryption mode, but the office system uses the better, safer, WPA2 encryption.
Normally the WiFi software has a drop-down menu so you can select the one you want use, or it will even set it automatically based on what your router is set for, but this one was different. I had to go into the adapter settings and enable the other encryptions.
And this was a brand-new laptop running Windows 7. Most people don’t use WEP anymore because it’s so easy to break. Why in the world it would default to WEP I can’t understand.
After checking in with the 2nd client I headed over to Sam’s to pick up a prescription and a case of bottled water. I was kind of dreading stopping by there because of Christmas shopping, and the fact that there’s a Wal-Mart right next door, compounding the problem, but it wasn’t bad at all.
As I tried to get on I-45S to go back to the rig, I ran into a lot of traffic around Baybrook Mall. And a lot of smoke. Turns out there was a car fire in the northbound lane, and a lot of rubberneckers on the southbound side.
I finally got back to the rig about 4:30 and then Jan and I headed right back up to the Kemah Chili’s for dinner. They have a great new soup, Southwest Chicken and Sausage, that I probably could eat every day.
Then heading home, we stopped off at a nearby Walgreen’s for a few things.
And that was about it. A pretty easy day.
December 14, 2013
Blasphemy . . .
Brandi sent over this latest video of Landon singing Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer. Really Cute.
Landon Sings Rudolph
Landon’s black eye is due to a errant flying Lego at day care.
Also we got this photo of Jan’s nephew, Jason and his beautiful family.
From left to right, that’s Laura, Avery Jane, Ella, Annisten, and Jason.
We always enjoy seeing them when we visit Jan’s sister, Debbie, in Illinois.
About noon we headed out for the afternoon.. On the way we checked out the construction taking place on the new section of the RV park here..
Don’t know when the new area is supposed to be open, but the 90 new spaces are really needed, since the present 81 spaces stay pretty much full all the time.
Our first stop was our favorite burger place around here, Stomp’s Burger Joint. But I may have called down the anger of the burger gods. I didn’t get a hamburger, one that looks like this.
Instead I ordered a hot dog. But not just any hot dog.
This was a Drunken Dog. A spicy jalapeno hot dog soaked in beer for 24 hours, then battered and deep fried, and garnished with spicy mustard, sauerkraut, diced onions, crispy bacon bits, and shredded cheddar cheese.
Delicious, and well worth irritating the burger gods.
And of course we had to have a order of Stomp’s Half and Half, onion rings and fries.
After lunch our next stop was to drop off some Christmas cards at the PO before headed down to the Victory Lakes Wal-Mart, a different one than last night, since I wanted to get another printer to replace the bad one from yesterday.
And even better, the same printer was $10 cheaper at this Wal-Mart than last night.
After finishing at Wal-Mart and stopping by a nearby Hallmark store, I came across this conundrum
What to Do, What to Do.
Next, after a quick stop at a Family Dollar for some Christmas wrap, we headed up to SR96 to get coffee and muffins from Buc-ee’s.
While we were there I got this shot of a boat ready for tonight’s Clear Lake Christmas Boat Parade.
We went last year and had a great time with the fireworks and the many decorated boats, but tonight’s weather is supposed to be cold and rainy. So we’ll just have to enjoy some pics from last year.
Speaking of boats, there’s a boat yard near the RV park that we pass by quite often, and it’s interesting to watch the boats come in looking much the worse for wear, and then in a few weeks looking brand-spanking new.
So over the next few weeks I’ll try to document the changes.
Later in the evening I set up the new HP 2542 printer that I picked at Wal-Mart this afternoon and had no problems this time. So I’m now back in the printing business.
December 14, 2014
Fish Tales . . .
Jan and I had another nice, slow morning with our coffee and muffins. She read and I did computer stuff, and then I read some. That was pretty much it.
My new Transfer Switch is on its way and should be here Wednesday, but it may be awhile until I have a chance to get it installed. But it’s not exactly like we’ll need it anytime soon.
About 3:30, we formed up a convoy of 3 vehicles here at the park and the 8 of us headed to Sealand Seafood in La Grange. We’ve eaten here several times in the past and it’s always been good. And tonight was no exception. You wouldn’t think that there would be an especially good seafood restaurant over a hundred miles from the Gulf Coast, but Sealand is.
Jan and I both had the 2 Catfish, 6 Shrimp, 6 Oysters Platter. The catfish is cornmeal-battered, and light and flakey. the large shrimp and oysters also lightly-battered, have a crunchy crust, and are moist and delicious. It really doesn’t get much better than this. And even better, we both brought half of it home for later.
And here’s our ragtag group. That’s Tom Christian on the left, then the shy one is his wife Lily, next is Donna Huffer and Bob Parker, Jan, of course, and lastly, our new friends, Judy and Ken Bennett.
Donna and Bob are leaving tomorrow for Rockport, and Judy and Ken are leaving for Medina Lake. And hopefully we’ll hear something from Galveston Bay RV Resort in the next day or two so we can firm up our plans too.
One thing I noticed yesterday when we drove up to Peter’s BBQ was that Hruska’s had diesel for $2.84, a nice drop from the previous low of $2.99 I’d seen a week or so ago down in Webster, and the $3.09 I saw last Wednesday right down the road from the park here.
But in La Grange this afternoon, I saw diesel for $2.69 at several stations right off of US-71. The last time I bought diesel just about a month ago I paid $3.39 a gallon at the Buc-ee’s in Madisonville, so this is a nice change. Hopefully it will keep going down for a while.
As I mentioned yesterday, tomorrow we’re heading over to Austin to visit the Gone with the Wind exhibit at the University of Texas and have dinner while we’re there. Really looking forward to it.
December 14, 2015
Picchu and Pumpkin . . .
Well, today’s journey didn’t get cancelled like yesterday’s trip to Galveston, so we headed out for Conroe 120 miles away about 9:30 to meet up with our friend Linda at the Chili’s there. Leaving the park, it was nice to see that the river was no longer running over the bridge leading into the park.
We made a potty stop at the Flying J just after we got onto I-45N, getting to the Chili’s right before noon. Linda showed up a little later, and after ordering, we got down to the serious business of catching up on each other’s lives.
Linda just recently returned from Peru where she was teaching English, and also investigating the possibility of opening her own bed and breakfast there. She spent most of her time near Calca, Peru, which is about 12,000 feet up in the Andes, though she’s visited places all over Peru, including Machu Picchu and many other ruins. Sounds like a lot of fun.
After we finished eating, Linda brought her laptop into the restaurant, and after hotspotting it to my phone for Wi-Fi access, I checked out and fixed a couple of problems for her.
After saying our goodbyes, Linda headed out for Fort Worth, and Jan and I drove across the Interstate to pick up a few things at Sam’s Club. Then it was back on the road for the 120 mile trip back to the Colorado River Thousand Trails park.
Out in Katy we detoured by Brandi and Lowell’s to pick up some Amazon packages that had come in during the last few days. Then it was back on the road for Columbus.
We made another stop at the Sealy Oasis at the Bernardo Rd Exit for some Dunkin’ Donuts’ coffee, and a pit stop. Then when Jan discovered that they also had Pumpkin Munchkins, DD’s version of donut holes.
And of course with Jan, it’s all pumpkin, all the time.
We finally got back to the rig a little before 6pm after a really nice day.
Tomorrow I want to get back looking for my shower leak.
Hopefully I’ll be able to track it down now since the paneling is open.
December 14, 2017
It Was The . . .
Jan and I left the rig a little after1pm heading up to the Clear Lake area.
Our first stop was King Food for our usual delicious meal of Hot & Sour Soup and Extra Spicy Chicken with Jalapenos in Hot Garlic Sauce. We’ve been eating here for so long that when we walked in this afternoon, the owner asked, “The usual?”
While we were eating, I got a text message from Amazon saying my new Echo Dot had been delivered to my client’s, so after we were done, we went by to pick it up.
Then it was on to Staples to make a return of some card stock we didn’t need and then it was on up the Interstate to the Wal-Mart for some gifts and supplies.
I had hoped to get home early enough to install the new awning, but didn’t quite make it. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of daylight to finish the job in one session. So now it’s put off until Saturday morning sometime. I hope.
Getting home I set up the the new Echo Dot and installed it in the bedroom. Besides the usual Alexa stuff, we’ll also be able to use it as an intercom between the Echo in the front of the coach and the Dot in the bedroom. It’s called Drop-In, and once it’s set up you just say, “Alexa, drop in on the bedroom” and you’re in communication.
I mentioned a couple of times in earlier blogs about the video/audio blackouts that I was experiencing on our Direct TV DVR/Samsung TV.
Since the blackouts weren’t recorded, but only seen on live TV, I pretty much eliminated a problem with the DVR. And I eliminated the HDMI cable between the DVR and TV by plugging and unplugging it, and wiggling it along the entire length with nary a glitch.
So I was narrowing it down to the TV itself. I did try swapping inputs but the problem still occurred. But before I looked in to replacing the TV under our Wal-Mart extended warranty,, for some reason I swapped out the HDMI cable with the longer one that connects my computer to the TV.
And after two days the problem had not reoccurred. And then when I swapped the original cable back in, it no longer worked at all. For about 30 seconds, and then it started to work again.
And again, shaking the cable and twisting it didn’t make any difference.
Then that evening when we came home the screen was pink with no audio. And once again, no amount of plugging, unplugging, twisting, shaking, wiggling, etc. made any difference to the picture.
So I swapped the long cable back and ordered a new one from Amazon which should be here tomorrow. So it was the cable.
What I still don’t understand is why the cable was acting like this. There are no active components, just wires. And if there’s a problem, it should be sensitive to any kind of vibration. But every now and then you come across something that makes you say WTH?
Then you just accept it and move on.
December 14, 2018
Jan Feels Better Now . . .
Today was Jan’s 2nd checkup after her left eye cataract surgery last Thursday. We left the rig a little before 8am for her 8:35am appointment up in Alvin. And it took a bit, but she feels better now.
As I mentioned yesterday, Jan was really unhappy with the remaining blurriness in her eye, and was afraid that the operation had gone awry . Not exactly the words she used, but I can’t use those words here.
Part of the problem was the number of our friends that were apparently seeing perfectly the next day. And Jan wasn’t. I told her she just needed to give it a little more time, and then get new lenses for her glasses once her eye had stabilized. And the doctor pretty much told her the same thing. And what he said explained what the problem really was.
The problem was not with her eye. He said her eye was doing fine, and would finally settle down in 2 or 3 weeks. He said her real problem, the blurriness, was actually being caused by her glasses.
Once the cataract was removed, the prescription in her left lens was about 10X more powerful than she now needed.
So, of course it was blurry. Just like wearing someone else’s glasses. But I don’t think she really believed this until we got back to the rig and did what the doctor suggested, and just removed the left lens from her glasses.
The doctor said that, of course it wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be much, much better. And that with the correct lenses in a month or so, she would have 20/20 vision in that eye. In fact, in both eyes, once she got the right eye done.
So Jan feels better now.
She’s got another checkup on January 9th which is when she should get her final prescription. Then we’ll just order a new lens, and get started on the right eye.
I spent most of the day at work going back and forth with UPS International trying to arrange the pickup of two 20# packages in Edmonton, AB, Canada, to be shipped back here to us. We do this fairly often, even from overseas, but this is the first time we’ve really had any problems. And it’s still not worked out.
I guess that’s what Monday’s are for.
For dinner Jan was in the mood for Chili’s ribs again, so we headed back over there around 4:30. Jan got the Full Rack this time so we could share,
along with my Grilled Chicken Caribbean Salad.
Jan gets the Honey-Chipotle sauce which has a nice little kick to it. Really good.
Finishing up, maybe it’s just me, but it sure seems like that if you’re going to go to all the trouble to get a domain name and a website to advertise your house for sale, you could put a little more effort into the sign announcing that fact.
But, again, maybe that’s just me.
December 14, 2019
Cart X 2 , , ,
Today was our first real day to just zone out and do nothing since we got back from New York. But as Jan says about me, ‘I don’t do nothing well.’ So after goofing off in the morning, I spent some time in the afternoon finishing up a project that I kind of started before we left on our trip.
Back in 2014 we bought this Chrome Kitchen Cart on Amazon.
It resides in the area where the slide occupies when it’s pulled in. So we roll it into the bathroom and bungee it in place when we travel. Since we’re always looking for more storage space, recently I checked online to see if a taller one was available, or maybe an extension for this one, but no luck.
But in looking the cart over, I pulled off the plastic caps that covered the top of the 4 support rods and found that they were hollow inside, and about 12” deep.
Grabbing a 7/16” dowel rod I had, I found it a perfect fit, and this gave me an idea, so I ordered a 2nd cart from Amazon, a great deal for only about $33.
But since it only came in a few days before we NYC’d, today was the first day I’ve had a chance to get back on it.
The included wheels screw into a a threaded insert at the bottom of the rod. So I purchased a couple of hanger bolts like this, in the same 1/4” – 20 thread as the wheels.
Then I drilled a starter hole in the two dowel rods and screwed in the bolts, giving me this.
I only did this on two of the support rods, using long machine bolts for the other two, figuring this will lock everything in place, and also save me buying another dowel rod.
Screwing the dowels into the support rods gave me this.
And then putting it all together gave me this,
complete with our Moose On A Shelf.
And Jan’s really happy with all the new space, and that’s the important thing.
I’m still going through all our NYC photos, so stay tuned.
December 14, 2020
A Full Deck . . .
I took a dive into Privacy.com this morning to give a try. For you latecomers, Privacy.com is a (free) service that allows you to create one-time credit cards, or cards locked to a particular account. You can also set weekly, monthly, yearly, or even overall total charges.
Starting out, I set up 5 cards for particular accounts, our two storage rooms, our EZ-Tag account, and our Acorn TV, and CBS All Access streaming services.
This took me about 10 minutes total. Then I went to each of the accounts and entered the card information and saved it off.
Easy Pezy!
Then as a test, I created a one-time card and then immediately used it to buy something online. And it went through fine.
But when I tried to use that same number a few minutes later for another charge, it was declined. Just like it should be.
So far, I’m very impressed with Privacy.com, especially since I’m using the free version. This one lets me create 12 cards, of any type, per month. Then for $10 per month I can create 36 cards per month, plus I get a 1% cashback refund on purchases
So far I’m very impressed. But I’ll keep you informed.
Last up, a Miss Piper update.
When I told you about her graduating from college tomorrow, I forgot to mentioned that she’s graduating from the University of Houston, and she has a 4.0 GPA.
Way to Go, Miss Piper!
