Our RV Adventures

I had my evaluation appointment with Dr. Wang, my neurosurgeon, this morning and it looks like we’re going to Wait and See some more on my lumbar problems, specifically L4, L5, and S1. Though he said the biggest problem is between L4 and L5.

He saw no significant changes between my MRI/X-Rays taken in October 2021 and the one’s done last month. So I guess that’s good to hear.

So, I guess we’ll see how it goes.

Lunch today was at King Food once again, always great and we had the same waitress that waited on the entire family back on Christmas Eve.

I got a call this afternoon from Roland saying our Jeep was ready to go.

Yay!

I told them we’d pick it up tomorrow.

Then I got another call about 30 minutes later saying the oil pressure Check Engine light had popped up again during one last test ride.

Bummer!

I know from personal experience how difficult these electrical bugs can be to track down.

Back in the day, I had a 1965 Triumph Spitfire like this, except mine had a roll bar and a white racing stripe.

British cars back then (and maybe still) had a reputation for weird electrical problems. And my Spitfire was no different.

In fact Lucas Electrical , also known as Lucas: Prince of Darkness, has entire websites devoted to their problems. And jokes like these:

* The Lucas motto: “Get home before dark.”
* Lucas is the patent holder for the short circuit.
* Lucas – Inventor of the first intermittent wiper.
* Lucas – Inventor of the self-dimming headlamp.
* The three position Lucas switch – Dim, Flicker and Off.
* The Original Anti-Theft Device – Lucas Electrics.
* Lucas is an acronym for Loose Unsoldered Connections and Splices

And even products like these:

With my Spitfire, turning on the radio would also start the windshield wipers. And, about every 3rd time, turning on the headlights also turn on the left turn signal. And the left turn signal only worked about half the time.

So for the next few months after I bought the Spitfire, I gradually completely rewired it until everything worked right.

So I guess we’re lucky that the Jeep doesn’t haven’t Lucas Electrics.

One thing I forgot to mention about Saturday’s visit up at Brandi’s is that that in addition to the great Charcuterie Board she laid out for lunch,

she later made a delicious dinner of BBQ’d Chicken done in the smoker, along with Roasted Yukon Potatoes and Buttered Corn.

Fantastic!

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Thought for the Day:

If at first you don’t succeed, then destroy all evidence you ever tried. Or just change your definition of success.

  

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January 9, 2011

And the rain came . . . and the wind blew . . .

Well, today certainly got off to really rough start.

Rough, as in 60mph + winds and rain so heavy you couldn’t see out the window.

About 4am the cold front rolled in, and I thought the wind was going to roll the coach over. This was the worst storm we’ve ever been in since we started living in the coach. And it pretty raged until about 10am.

When Jan got up, she said she was glad to find the the bay water right where she left it…in the bay, and not up over the banks.

The weather map shows what it looked like, with us right in the middle of this mess. And ever worse, it wasn’t moving. It just sat there right on top of us.

The wind was gusting so hard it was trying to suck the vent covers off the roof fans. They kept jumping up and down. And as you can see in the photo below, the neighbor’s sat dish bit the dust…er, grass, too.

And the whitecaps were really something, too. We’ve never seen the bay this rough.

This photo from about a month ago shows the bird feeder being blown about. Well, this morning the feeder blew off the pole completely and ended up about 30 feet away.

After surviving the storm we left the rig about 10:15 heading up to Friendswood to meet all our kids at the Texas Tea Room. We really like this place and let Chris and Linda check it out too, since they’re the only ones who hadn’t tried it.

Here’s Brandi with Landon showing off his new shirt. Now we’re gonna have to decide if he’s going to play for OU or Alabama when he grows up. And then, of course, he’ll play for the Steeler’s like my uncle, Tom Calvin.

After lunch Jan when back to Brandi and Lowell’s to Landon-sit while they went to the movie. They saw ‘True Grit’ and really like it. Which is pretty much what everyone seems to be saying.

I went back to the rig and worked a number of different projects getting us ready to travel in a month or so.

Lowell called about 4 to say they were home so I headed up that way. Coming home, since it was after 5pm, we decided to stop for supper at King Food for some Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce, XXXXX Spicy with Jalapenos. Hmm, hmm, Good. I can always tell when a dish is hot enough when my nose starts running and the top of my head starts sweating.

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January 9, 2012

A Rough Night . . .

and even rougher next day.

This has been a wild and wooly day. It started about 1:30 this morning, when out of the blue, a thunder clap seemingly right above our heads, shook the coach and rocked it side to side. Jan was in bed and let out a scream as the thunder rolled on and on.

And then the rain came. And came and came…

By the time the storm front passed through, parts of Houston had over 6 inches of rain.

This photo from the Houston Chronicle shows some of the results.

And this is what the weather radar showed as we hunkered down in the rig.

We later found out that a small tornado touched down at Mall of the Mainland less than 5 miles away. And a bigger one hit up in Houston tearing the roofs off a number of houses.

Sounds like we really dodged a bullet.

But as bad as the storm was, we stayed warm and dry, and only had one quick power glitch. But the storm just kept coming and coming.

Finally, about 3:30 the storm started to slack off and clear out, and we actually saw the sun and a little blue sky before the clouds rolled back in. But at least this time, it didn’t come with rain.

About 5pm Jan and I headed up to Seabrook to have some XXX hot wings at Hooter’s. Then we made a stop at Home Depot before heading home.

Regular blog visitor and Landon’s honorary uncle Butterbean, sent this photo of what Landon would look like as a real Texas cowboy.

As Brandi said “That’s TOTALLY Landon!”

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January 9, 2013

And the Thunder Rolled . . .

or if it’s not one thing, it’s another.

Well, the rains came back today, and pretty much didn’t stop all day. Here’s what it looked like at the height of the storm. Note that it stretched from Alabama to west Texas.

One thing the rains did do was tell me that my recent caulking job had some effect. Although the rain was much heavier today, I had a lot less water coming in. So when things dry out I’ll get back up there and take another look.

I mentioned on Monday that I had ordered a new door switch for our Splendide washer/dryer, and that I would be able to install it without pulling the washer out of the wall.

So of course, the karma gods wreaked their revenge. Last night when I did a load of laundry I found that the dryer isn’t. So it looks like I’ll be pulling it out anyway. But I need to check the schematic before I’m sure. I guess it’s possible that this is a further problem with the switch. I’ll have to investigate a little more.

A little after 4pm Jan and I headed out for dinner. We ate at Chili’s again, but just to mix it up, we ate at a different Chili’s this time.

Wouldn’t want to get in a rut, now would we?

When we parked at the restaurant, I noticed a black Suburban right next to us with “Dove Island Lodge – An Alaskan Experience” painted on the side, and in addition, it had Alaskan tags.

A long drive, I thought.

The place wasn’t very busy, and there was only another couple seated behind us. And as they were leaving, I noticed the woman had an Alaskan jacket on so I asked her if they drove all the way from Alaska.

She said they hadn’t driven all the way,but had taken the ferry down the Alaska Marine Highway System from Sitka, AK to Bellingham, WA.

As it turns out, the Dove Island Lodge is a hunting/fishing lodge located on private island near Sitka.

They were down here for the winter, along with another couple, making the rounds of the sports and fishing shows and conventions. They were in Houston for the Houston Safari Club’s Sporting Expo & Convention that starts this Friday.

We talked about the temps in Alaska right now and how we’ve seen –50 shown for Fairbanks this winter. They said it doesn’t get that cold in Sitka, usually in the 30’s, and occasionally in the teens. But that was about it.

After a nice conversation, and finishing our dinner, we made a quick stop at the PO to mail a letter, and then went by the house to pick up our mail. Then, it was a quick stop for some groceries at H.E.B., and finally, a quick visit with Chris and Linda to pick up a circular saw.

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January 9, 2014

Vanilla Heat . . .

or Target strikes again.

For the second time in 3 months, this time due to Target’s recent credit card security breach, I’m getting a new Chase VISA debit card, whether I want to or not.

While we were gate guarding last October, I got an email from Chase saying they had seen suspicious activity on my account and they were sending me a new card. Which meant I had go through all my accounts online and change them over to the new card. On top of that I never saw any problems with my account in the first place.

And now because of Target I have to do it all again. The only time we’ve been to Target in the last five years and it had to be during their security breach.

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The weather was finally warm enough and dry enough, so we got in a walk this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks. Afterwards, we had planned to sit outside with our coffee, but it turned out to be too windy, although Mister was happy outside for a while.

About 12:15 Jan and I headed up to Pasadena to check in on a long-time client. Jan often goes with me on some of these calls, especially when we’re going to eat at Longhorn Steakhouse afterwards.

Tricia had two machines for me to check out. The first one, a desktop unit I installed a couple of years ago, didn’t really have any particular problems, so I just gave it a general checkup, cleanout, and update. The second machine, a laptop, had a bigger problem. A Conduit Search problem.

Conduit Search is a pesky piece of malware that users usually bring on themselves by clicking something they shouldn’t. Email works fine, but any time you try to go online, it intercepts your request and first takes you to their own search page.

But in this case, the search link was broken so you couldn’t go anywhere. I spent about 45 minutes trying to clear it using some of the easiest methods, but nothing worked, so this one goes home with me for a more in-depth cleaning.

Our next stop was at another client’s to pick an office key so I can get it duplicated. I don’t want a repeat of last weekend when I couldn’t get in the office to work after he changed the lock since last year.

But before we got the key duplicated at Lowes, we stopped at the Longhorn Steakhouse next door for dinner. And after a great meal of steaks and potatoes, we’ve decided that Longhorn is our new favorite steak place, beating out Texas Roadhouse, Longhorn is a little more expensive, but not by much, and has a better atmosphere, not quite as noisy. All in all, a nicer experience.

After dinner we stopped at the Lowes next door to get my key duplicated and I came across one of these, a Minute Key machine. And it was fast, and pretty neat.

You press the Start button on the touchscreen, the select House or Car key. Next you insert your key in the slot and the machine tells you if it can duplicate it. You then select from a number of different colored and patterned blanks, and tell it how many copies you want. It gives you the price, you insert your credit card and off it goes. And in just a couple of minutes you’ve got your key. And in less time than it usually takes to just track the key guy down to start with.

Really neat.

After dropping off the master key at the client’s, we headed home with a stop off at Kroger’s for a few things. And I found my new favorite product.

And no, Vanilla Heat’s not a new rap group. It’s International Delight’s new creamer flavor, Vanilla Heat, a vanilla-flavored, spicy creamer. I think I’m in love.

I tasted it when we got home, and the heat seems to come, not from any type of peppers, but from cinnamon oil, the same ingredient that makes Red Hot’s hot. And the slight cinnamon taste that goes with the heat, along with the vanilla, just adds to the flavor. A great new product.

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January 9, 2015

Is it Wet and Cold, or Cold and Wet?

After another cold, wet morning, and another wet, cold afternoon (it never got out of the 30’s all day), about 4pm Jan and I headed up to Peter’s BBQ in Ellinger to have the Friday night BBQ buffet, always a favorite of ours. I mean how can you not like all the Beef Brisket, Sausage, Ribs, Fried Catfish, Fried Shrimp, Fried Chicken, Fried Froglegs, Hushpuppies, ten different vegetable sides, and eight different salads. and three or four different desserts, you can eat. Plus a soft ice cream machine.

And our total bill, with drinks, was only $22.07. Nice!

Finally waddling away from the buffet, we dropped a letter off at the Ellinger PO, and then drove up to La Grange to get a few things from the Wal-Mart there, finally getting home about  6:30.

Tomorrow we’ve got a round-about trip down to the Clear Lake area, leaving here about 9:30am. Along the way we’ll stop off in the Pasadena area to pick up a client’s dead computer, before finally heading down to Webster. Among the plans, lunch with our kids, make the last payment and close out our storeroom account, get a haircut (both of them), and check out a new RV park in the area. Then heading home later in the afternoon, we’ll stop off at Brandi and Lowell’s for dinner, and also to pick up the client’s new computer that should be delivered there tomorrow.

So all in all, a busy day.

We have had a little bit of encouraging news from Galveston Bay RV Park. It sounds like they’re actually making some progress on the electrical situation with the new sites, so maybe we’ll get down this year after all.

I’ve mentioned some of this before, but for you Photoshop aficionados, or you Photoshop newbies, or wantabes, I’ve come across some great tutorial sites for you to take a look at.

http://petapixel.com/2015/01/08/photoshop-playbook-50-short-video-tutorials-fundamental-skills-photoshop/

http://laughingsquid.com/you-suck-at-photoshop-by-donnie-hoyle/

http://www.photoshoponlinefree.com/

Don’t have a copy of Photoshop and think it’s too expensive? You can go here:

http://www.techspot.com/downloads/3689-adobe-photoshop-cs2.html

and download a free, licensed version of Photoshop CS2 for either Windows or Mac. It’s about 340 MB and took me less than 30 minutes to download on a 3G connection. Be sure and grab the License Serial Number further down the page.

As far as my ‘To Do’ list goes, it looks like Monday and Tuesday should be halfway decent with no rain, and temps in the 50’s, so hopefully I’ll be able to get some stuff done outside. But we’ll see.

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January 9, 2016

PowerBall and EZ Tags . . .

Although the weather this morning wasn’t bad, our walk was called on account of migraine, Jan’s to be exact, so we stayed in.

Since her migraines often run in threes, I.e. three days in a row, with decreasing pain each day, tomorrow is possibly out also. So we’ll have to see how it goes.

The weather here is apparently cycling back through winter again, with day temps in the 50’s and night temps in the 30’s, or even the 20’s, like tomorrow night’s forecasted 29°.

And as far as weather goes, we lucked up yesterday. They had hailstorms all around north Houston, with golf-ball sized stones damaging auto paint jobs and breaking out windshields.

Really glad we weren’t at Lake Conroe this week.

With Jan under the weather, I headed into Columbus about 4pm to pick up Whataburger for dinner. And again had no problems with my order.

Regular readers will remember my running battle with the Carthage Whataburger. We ate there about once a week for 3 months, and almost every time it was like pulling teeth to get my order correct.

Here’s a sample.  Whataburger Order Problems

But the first part of December at the Katy Whataburger, and today in Columbus, I rattled off our order with absolutely no problems. And they got it perfectly.

So it really was that cashier.

While I was in Columbus I also picked up some PowerBall tickets, but I probably didn’t need to. I decided not to win this time, but save my win for next Wednesday when the prize will be over $1 Billion. Now that’s a Jackpot.

Here’s a website with a lot of good information about what to do before and after you win the lottery.  You can check it out here.  Lucky You

One of our blog readers asked about using an EZ Tag on Houston’s Toll Roads when driving your RV,  She saw that we used one when we travel back and forth between Lake Conroe and Colorado River.

We already had one for our truck, and then got one for our RV right after we bought it in 2008. Having one makes your life a lot simpler, and cheaper, driving around the Houston area.

1. It doesn’t cost anything to get one. They’re free.

2. There is no monthly fee.

3. Some toll roads (I.e. the Westpark Tollway) and some exits only take the EZ Tag. No cash is accepted.

4. It’s cheaper on tolls. If you drive the toll road and pay manually at the booth, the toll is $1.75. But with the EZ Tag, it’s only $1.50.

5. This also makes it faster. During rush hours, the lines at the toll booths can be long.

The only slight downside is how you have to handle the tags themselves. As I said we have tags for both the truck and the RV. The one in the RV is permanently mounted on the windshield, but the one for the truck is not.

If we are driving the RV and not towing, the rig registers as 2 axle vehicle and we’re charged $1.50, just like a car. But when we’re towing, the system is smart enough to register us as two 2 axle vehicles and we’re charged $3.00. But if we have the tag permanently mounted on the truck windshield, we will also be registered as an additional 2 axle vehicle, and charged a total of $4.50.

So when we’re towing the truck, we keep the tag wrapped in aluminum foil and tucked away in the center console. Then when we’re driving the truck, we unwrap the tag and laid it out on the dashboard. Easy Peazy.

With Jan’s migraine sequence still in progress, tomorrow’s antic’s are up in the air, so we’ll have to see how it goes.

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January 9, 2017

Missed It By That Much . . .

Well, we tried to see the movie Passengers down in Beeville this afternoon. After making a Wal-Mart run, we picked up our Amazon orders at the Lone Star Real Estate Office, and then dropped the groceries off at the rig.

Then, turning right around, we were about 5 minutes away from the rig when I got a text from Todd to see if I wanted to pick up a gate where a guard had called in sick. Of course I said, “Yeah” and we turned right back around.

Turns out to be a gate I’ve been to a couple of times before, but unfortunately it’s one of the two with no cell service, but OK data service and text. And getting to the gate a little before 5pm I found that the phone situation had not improved one bit.

Our friend Barbara of Barbara and Tom Westerfield fame suggested that I try Tango, an app that lets you make calls over your Wi-Fi signal. So I gave it a try and installed it on my phone.

And it works . . . kind of . . . sometimes.

For some reason, which works out OK, I can only call Jan, and not any of my other contacts. It reads them all in and displays them, but when I tried to call our daughter Brandi, nothing happens. It doesn’t even try.

And then every now and then, it won’t call Jan either. It does try, though. But it just never actually dials.

On another note, I did heard from Molly Pinner, the seminar planner for the upcoming Escapade this March in Tucson, and Jan and I will be giving our Gate Guarding for Fun? and Profit seminar this time.

I don’t have the schedule time yet, but I’ll let you know.

Some of you may not yet have seen the new LG ‘Wallpaper’ OLED TV that was debuted at the recent CES (Consumer Electronics Show)

It’s 0.1” (2.57mm) thick, flexible, and sticks to the wall with magnets. The OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen produces one the best images in the industry. And you can pre-order the 65” version for only $8000.

Of course, next year it will only be $800, but it’s worth it to be the first in your neighborhood, or RV park.

Right?

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January 9, 2018

I Guess It Wasn’t Meant To Be . . .

Tomorrow afternoon is Jan’s Pre-Op consultation preparing for her lithotripsy on Friday morning.

She’ll be meeting with the anesthesiologist that will be taking care of her during her procedure.

Hopefully after Friday she’ll be done with all of this.

About 2pm I went outside to reinstall the new rear window awning. Turned out to be pretty easy except for a couple of missteps along the way. So I started with this.

I first slid the awning fabric into the top frame and then slid the frame/awning into the window frame and locked it down. Next I slid the lower torque tube onto the bottom of the fabric.

Starting with the left side which still had the spring installed, I fastened my locking pliers into the spring end and cranked it 16 times, the number of turns that it took to unwind the spring. Then I slid it on the awning arm and and locked it in place with the screw.

Then it was on to the right side where I had had to drill out the rivets and remove that spring end so I could slid the fabric out.

I put the spring in and was ready to to pop-rivet it in place when I remembered the pull strap. It has to be slid in the bottom groove on the torque tube opposite the fabric groove. Luckily I remembered it.

Then after adding the strap and riveting the spring end in place, I locked the pliers into place and cranked in the 16 turns and then slid it on the awning arm. But when I when to remove the pliers I ran into a problem.

Due to the way I had placed the pliers, I could not unlock and remove them. Apparently when I did the other end I had locked the pliers in place the other way around. So now I had to get the spring end back off the arm, and after using a screwdriver to stop it from unwinding, remove the pliers, turn them over, and then lock them back in place.

Now I could rivet the spring end in place and I was done.

Hopefully tomorrow or Thursday I’ll be able to take down big passenger side awning and take it over to Sundowner Canvas so they can make a new one. And while there I’ll pick up the rear awning for the other side.

About 4:20 Jan and I headed over to Bacliff to meet up with Wil and Cyndy Olsen for dinner at La Brisa Mexican Restaurant, where we’ve met them before.

We were once again hoping to get Wil and Cyndy together with our other friends Jan and Dale Thompson. But a family illness took its toll and they had to drop out.

I guess it was not to be.

Jan had the Perchuga Monterey with a Grilled Chicken Breast.

I got a regular favorite for me, the Tortilla Soup.

Wil and Cyndy hope to have their truck out of the shop later this week and then move up to the Katy area for the repairs on their 5th wheel. All this due to a wreck that they were involved in several months ago where two vehicles collided, and then hit them.

Wrong place, Wrong Time.

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January 9, 2020

Guys, it’s Not That Your Wife Is Ignoring You . .

We were out the door a little after 1pm today, heading up to Webster, first for brunch at Snooze once again. Then after a quick stop at the office, it was on over to WalMart for some shopping.

Next up we crossed El Dorado to the Sam’s Club right next door, with a first stop for gas. Since I last filled up a week or so ago, the price has jumped about 10 cents, up to $2.05. But still not too bad, and probably due to the Iranian thing.

Leaving Jan in the truck, I ran into Sam’s to pick up a month’s supply of her Joint Juice. Sam’s recently started carrying it again after dropping it for a while. But apparently they got so many complaints, including from us, that they got it back in stock. Better and a little cheaper than ordering it from Amazon.

Heading toward home, we made another stop at WalMart, this time the one in League City. I wanted to get a refund on Jan’s prescription that I picked up yesterday. As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, when I got home I found that though I had paid $65.26 for it, if I had known to ask for the GoodRx price, I could have only paid $31.55. A big difference.

So I stopped by to get a refund. What they did was to first refund the $65.26 back to my credit card. Or at least they tried to.

For them to do this, I had to put my card in the machine, but each time they tried to process it, my card was declined.

What?

When I ask, was my card declining to accept the refund, or was their system declining to give it to me, they had no idea. And trying two more times didn’t help. So finally they just refunded me in cash.

Then when I went to pay them the $31.55, I gave the young lady 2 $20’s and 2 $1, part of the refund cash she had just given me. She just looked at the money, looked at me, looked at the money, and then back at me.

Turns out that because of the way she was doing this, she couldn’t just enter what I  had given her and have the system tell her what to give me in change.

Finally taking pity on her, I told her that she should give me $10.45 in change, but I’m not sure she believed me. Then the lady at the next register, much closer to my age than the young lady, came over, looked at things, and told her I was correct.

Then she looked at me and said, “Nobody knows how to count change anymore.” I smiled and said, “That’s because we learned math B.C.”

The young lady, now more confused, asked, “B.C.?”

I said, “Yes, Before Calculators.”

Guys, it’s not that your wife is ignoring you, it may be that she’s just ‘lazy listening.’ At least that’s what Jan told me this morning when I was telling her something, and then waited for her response.

She had been working on her shopping list, but looked up when I stopped talking, waiting for her answer. She looked sheepish and asked me to tell her again.

When I commented that I thought she WAS listening, she said she was, but that she was ‘lazy listening’.

And I thought I was just being ignored.

I feel much better now.

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January 9, 2021

Jan Says I Speak ‘Band’

After a nice quiet morning Jan and I headed back down to the Three Acres Food Truck Park to have lunch. But this time we had more than Clam Chowder.

Of course, we did get Clam Chowder from the New England Lobster and Chowder truck,

Fried Mushrooms,

and of course a couple of their Deep Fried PB&J Sandwiches for later.

But while that order was working we walked right next door to the Sauce Time truck (or trailer, I guess)

Jan wanted an order of their Boneless Wings,

while I got one of their Gourmet Hot Dogs with a side of Loaded Tater Tots,

along their Jalapeno Ketchup.

A lot of food, yes, but it meant we had a lot to take home for tomorrow, and the next day, too. And it was all delicious.

We had a great time at the Alvin Opry last night with a number of great performances, but I always enjoy watching the band, and what’s going on kind of behind the scenes. On stage, of course, but stuff that you probably don’t notice since you’re watching the performer.

And in the case of the Alvin Opry, it’s always fun, because there are always new performers on the bill, performers who have never sang with the band, and have had no rehearsal, either.

Now most of the band have been professional musicians for years, playing in both the studio bands and touring bands of famous acts you’ve heard of. So they’re pretty quick to pick up on what’s what.

But every once in a while things go off track, I.e. the performer asks for the song in one key and then starts singing in another key. Or the steel guitar guy down at the far end didn’t hear correctly what the song was, and starts playing a different one.

Or as happened last night, the singer wasn’t clear when he gave the sign for the band to go around again, I.e., do another verse, and the band thought he wanted to wrap it up at the end of the present verse. So he kind of got left hanging.

I’ve even got Jan noticing the little problems over the years, and she’ll lean over and say, “Tell me later what happened there.”

That’s why Jan says I speak ‘Band’.

Which is true since I was in the school band in both junior high and high school and another two in college, playing lead guitar and a little keyboard. And high school orchestras and marching bands, playing trumpet, baritone,and French horn.

And one of them (The Mad Hatters) in college in Nashville was pretty successful on the college/small club circuit, even getting some interest from a couple of the record labels. But all of us were just playing for the fun of it, (and the girls, of course) so we never really pursued it.

But I guess our biggest gig was when we won a Battle of The Bands contest and got to be one of the two opening acts for The Mamas and The Papas.

And what interesting about this is that back stage everyone except Michelle Phillips seemed stoned out of their minds, and I wondered how they were going to perform. But when it was time for them to go on, their manager pretty much just shoved them out onto the stage.

Then the curtain went up, and like someone had flicked a switch, they were ON, and did a perfect set with no problems.

Amazing.

First off, the Jeep’s engine has been repaired and is running fine.

But . . .   (Somehow you just knew there was a ‘But’ coming, didn’t you?)

there’s a wiring problem, probably a bad ground, that’s causing a Check Engine light due to wildly fluctuating oil pressure, going from 0 to 120 psi and then back to 0. However the actual pressure measured at the engine is fine, and pressure reading coming out of the oil pressure sensor is also fine, though they replaced the sensor just to be sure.

The problem seems to be between the sensor and the computer. Hopefully they’ll track it down soon. But our Old Faithful Dodge Dakota is still working fine.

Tomorrow I’ve got my possible Lumbar Fusion evaluation to see what’s what with my lower back, comparing my recent MRI/X-Rays with the ones taken a year ago. So I’ll know more tomorrow.

Lunch today was to assuage Jan’s hunger for Turkey & Dressing, but of course, not at Cracker Barrel.

As Jan says, they’re dead to her.

So today’s lunch was at Kelley’s Country Cooking, the one over in Alvin. Because unlike CB, Sunday is a Turkey & Dressing day at Kelley’s, just one of the Daily Specials.

As planned, Jan got the Turkey & Cornbread Dressing, along with more Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, and Green Beans,

while I got their enormous Country Fried Chicken Breast,

along with Cornbread Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, and Green Beans.

Note that Chicken Breast actually hangs over the edge of the plate.

And everything was delicious.

Jan’s found her CB replacement.

Jumping back to yesterday . . .

We got to Brandi’s about 11 so I could do some updates on Landon’s Ender 3 Pro 3D printer. While for lunch Brandi set out a Charcuterie Board with some delicious tidbits.

Of course, according to Facebook, Charcuterie is French for ‘I just touched all your food’. But I noticed that Brandi was wearing gloves as she laid it out.

And it was fantastic!

Then it was back to work.

First I installed a new glass print bed, which took only a couple of minutes since I just had to remove the old one and clip the new one into place.

Next up I replaced the filament stepper motor, the filament drive, and installed a knob to make it easier to load in new filament, giving me this.

So first up was to print Jan a Flamingo.

It started out like this, laying out the base pattern.

Which when done, and cut apart, looked like this.

And when snapped together, came out looking like this.

And as you can see the neck is flexible.

We’ll probably do this again next Saturday since I’ve got some upgrades in mind.

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Thought For The Day:

The four most beautiful words in our language are, “I told you so.

  

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January 8, 2011

Trojans and Tanks . . .

Today got off to a nice slow start for a change. I made coffee and we just sat around and enjoyed each others company, and life itself.

Our daughter Brandi called a little after 10:30 to let us know that Jan didn’t need to come and Landon-sit this afternoon. Bummer! But we’ll probably get together one way or the other tomorrow.

I left the rig about 12:45 headed over to Pearland to visit a client’s home and work on a couple of problems he’s having.

I got him straightened out on one thing but ended up bringing his wife’s computer home with me, since I wasn’t able to get it de-virifyed before I had to leave. It has a ‘susp_irp_mj_create’ trojan that I haven’t run into before so I need to do a little research.

I got back to the rig about 5pm after stopping at the Wendy’s in Dickinson for a supper of Spicy Chicken Sandwiches and Natural-Cut Fries. Hmm, hmm, good.

After that I went out and dumped the waste tanks since Jan was worried that she wouldn’t have room to do another wash load unless I did. I had closed off the grey tank a couple of days ago because the black tank was getting full and I wanted to have plenty of flush water available

I talked to our son Chris a little after 6pm to set up everyone meeting for lunch tomorrow, at Texas Tea Room again. We really like this place.

Then I made me some coffee (Jan doesn’t usually like coffee at night) and we watched some “Two and a Half Men” reruns before it was time for “Primeval” on BBCA, one of our favorite shows. I mean time travel, dinosaurs, intrigue…what more could you ask for.

Of course while we were watching TV I was also working on the computer I brought home. It took a couple of hours (mostly waiting for the virus programs to scan) but I finally got rid of that trojan (and several more). I’ve rescanned the machine 3 or 4 times with different programs and it keeps coming up clean, so I guess it’s fixed.

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January 8, 2012

Bulbs and Buffets . . .

After our busy week, today was a take-it-easy, do-nothing day.

We did get up a little early to head out about 9:30 a few miles up TX146 to La Brisa for their great weekend breakfast buffet. They really make a mean omelet.

Then after a quick stop at Wal-Mart for a few things, including 4 F15T8 fluorescent bulbs to the replace the ones in the kitchen, we were home for the day.

Getting home, I installed the 4 bulbs. These things have gotten expensive. Seems like the last time I bought some several years ago, they were around $4 a piece. Today they were $8.47 each.

$34 for light bulbs. Ouch.

Later, after Jan fell asleep on the sofa reading, I decided a nap sounded like a nice idea so I retired to the bedroom for a very pleasant two hours.

About 5pm Jan heated up our leftover King Food Chinese from the other night. Really good, as usual.

At 7pm we watched our friend Tony Booth on a Hee Haw rerun from 1973. Tony had a number of big hits in the 70’s, including “The Key’s in the Mailbox”, “Lonesome 7-7203”, and “Cinderella”, and he and his band won 4 ACM (Academy of Country Music) awards during that time period, including “Most Promising Male Vocalist” in 1971.

That was then.

This is now.

Jan says he’s “aged very nicely”, and then just smiles. I’m not sure how to take that.

I’m gonna have to keep a closer eye on that girl.

We see Tony quite often at the Alvin Opry, when he’s not touring around the country with his band.

I know tomorrow will be busy. I’m just not sure with what yet.

I’ll let you know.

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January 8, 2013

And The Rains Came . . .

or BUMMER!

The rain really hit about 6am this morning and it quickly became obvious that my caulking job yesterday didn’t fix the problem. It might have reduced it some but it’s hard to really tell.

I guess I’ll have to actually get up on the roof and see if it’s really leaking in up higher and running down under the roof. But I would think that I would see some indication of that inside the rig.

One thing that may complicate things is that our big awning is mounted along there and forms a trough that runs right below the roof seam. So the water may be backing up somewhere along there.

But it’s all got to wait until the rains pass on.

Yesterday, before the rains came, we had a large attendance at Jan’s feeders.

The many wild ducks, in this case male and female Mallards are new this year. Also new, although they don’t come to the feeder, are the White Ibis, Ibises, Ibi, whatever.

Anyway, there’s a lot of them and you can see them in the background in this photo.

Here’s a closeup of one of the male Mallard ducks.

While Jan got her veggie soup started I headed out for a few errands.

My first stop was at one client’s to do some work for another. I needed to make 36 copies of a catalog DVD, and one of my other clients has an 1 to 11 duplicator that looks like this.

You put in your master DVD in the top drive, put in up to 11 blanks, push the Start button, and off it goes. If you need more than 11 copies, you can put in the master, press the Load button, and it copies the master into RAM. Then you can place a blank disc in the top drive and make 12 copies at a time, as many as you need.

Then it was on to the next client’s to deliver his DVD’s. Done.

Finally heading home about 4pm, I stopped off at the feed store to pick up the deer corn which had come in.

Getting home, I opened the rig door to the wonderful smell of Jan’s delicious soup. YUMMM!

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January 8, 2014

‘Raylan’ is Back . . .

One of our favorite shows is “Justified” on FX, and last night was the beginning of the 5th season. Raylan Givens, a Deputy US Marshall out of Eastern Kentucky, is a character created by famed writer Elmore Leonard, and brought to life by actor Timothy Olyphant. You’re never sure what will happen next,  but you can be sure the body count will be high,

With all the cold weather around the country, especially in areas that aren’t used to the low temps, I remember the time we spent in Fairbanks, AK in 2008 and how people reacted differently to the temps.

2008 was a cold summer in Fairbanks. We had 1 day in the 80’s – 81 on the 4th of July, 12 days in the 70’s, and the rest in the 50 and 60’s. When the temps were in the 50’s, you would have some people in parkas, and some people in shorts and T-shirts. Our granddaughter Piper who visited us in July couldn’t understand why she was bundled up in a heavy coat, and people were jet-skiing on the Chena River in their bathing suits.

I told her it’s all what you’re used. This was summer to the Alaskans and they weren’t going to miss out. Jan was an Air Force brat living in both Fairbanks and Anchorage back in the late 50’s. She said in school that they used to play outside until it got colder than 20 below zero. It’s all what you’re used to.

As a follow-up on that idea, here’s a chart to compare people’s reaction to low temps around the country.

60° F: Arizonans shiver uncontrollably;
            People in Buffalo, NY are still sunbathing.

50° F: Californians try to turn on the heat;
            People in Buffalo plant gardens.

40° F: Californian’s Italian sports cars won’t start;
           People in Buffalo drive with the windows down.

32° F: Distilled water freezes;
            Lake Erie water gets thicker.

20° F: Floridians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves and wool hats;
           People in Buffalo throw on a light jacket.

15° F: People in Buffalo have the last cookout before it gets cold.

0° F: All the people in Phoenix die.
         Buffalonians close the windows.

10° below: Californians fly away to Mexico .
zero             The Girl Scouts in Buffalo are selling cookies door to door.

25° below: Hollywood disintegrates;
zero            People in Buffalo get out their winter coats.

40° below: Washington, DC runs out of hot air;
zero            People in Buffalo let the dogs sleep indoors.

100° below: Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
zero              Buffalonians get frustrated because they can’t start the car.

460° below: All atomic motion stops (absolute zero);
zero               People in Buffalo start saying, “Cold enough for ya?”

500° below: Hell freezes over.
zero               The Bills win the Super Bowl.

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January 8, 2015

Gone, Gone, Gone . . .

Well, it made it down to 25 degrees this morning, and didn’t get back above freezing until almost 11am. Since this was expected, I didn’t even hook up water when we got here yesterday. But since it’s supposed to stay in the mid-30’s at night for the next week or so, I did connect us up this afternoon

I’ve got a lot of stuff I want to do outside around the rig, but the weather is either cold or rainy, or cold AND rainy, so that’s kind of on hold. I want to get up on the roof again and get the rest of the drilling mud off, now that I know that vinegar will cut it.

And I also want to try out the new toy that I bought myself for Christmas. When we stayed with Chris and Charles Yust for a few days on their lot at the Livingston Escapees Park, I borrowed Charles’ pressure washer trying to get drill mud of f. And although it didn’t help with that, I really liked the unit for washing and waxing the rig. So I bought me one.

It’s a Karcher K2.360, 1600 psi, with a built-in detergent tank and a lot of accessories. And even better it was really marked down at Wal-Mart right before Christmas

One of the other things I want to do outside is repair the AC in our truck, now that I know what’s wrong with it. It’s not like we need it right now, but with Texas weather you never can tell. I’ve seen it in the 20’s one day and in the 80’s a few days later.

Last up, thanks to our son Chris, and all his hard work, we are finally storeroomless, or the first time in 20 years. As I mentioned before, we rented a 10’ x 25’ storeroom in August of 1994 to store household furniture for a few months while we remodeled the house. And it just never went away, because it was just too convenient to stick stuff out of the way there.

But finally it’s gone,  gone, gone.

Thanks again, Chris.

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January 8, 2016

A Walk in Two Parts . . .

Jan and I headed out for our walk about 11:30, but after the top loop, about 3/4 of a mile, Jan wanted to stop for a while. Her back was bothering her from all her cleaning yesterday, so we stopped and sat outside with our coffee and breakfast bread for about 30 minutes. Then we did the bottom loop for an additional 1/2 mile for our usual total of about 1.25 miles.

So I guess tomorrow or Sunday we’ll make the jump to 1.5 miles

Later in the afternoon I took a look at my door problem. While we were on the gate, one of the wind gusts caught the door and slammed it back. After that it was much more difficult to close and lock the door.

At the time I figured that the main door hinges had been torqued or bent, but when I really got into it, I discovered that the real problem was with the screen door and its hinges, and not the main door.

When I got a closer look, I found that the top hinge was cracked and this was throwing the door out of whack.

So it looks like I’ll need to order new hinges for the screen door, since I don’t think this one can be repaired. Even though only the top one appears to be cracked, I’ll replace them both so they’ll match.

Shouldn’t be too difficult to remove the door and replace the hinges, but like a car door, it may take a little fiddling to get it aligned.

A little before 4pm, Jan and I headed up to Ellinger to meet up with a bunch of RV’ers for the Friday night BBQ Buffet. This place is a must-eat at least once during every stay here at Colorado River Thousand Trails. And this time we had 14 RV’ers, including a newbie couple that just bought their camper a week or so ago.

Starting at the back left, it’s Roy and Nancy (didn’t get their last name) Dennis and Rita Spriggs , Janice and Dave Evans, Jim & Claudia Horak, Rick & Janice Binns, my Jan, and Ed and Debi Hurlburt.

As usual when you get a bunch of RV’ers together, we did about as much talking as we did eating.  Well, maybe almost as much. Everyone talks about where they’ve been, what they’ve done, and where they’re going next. We had a great time with these old and new friends, and are looking forward to doing it again.

Getting back home, Jan and I got back into binge watching our DVR’d TV shows, all from the time while we were on the gate. We only lack a couple of episodes of Once Upon  A Time, and then next will probably be Marvel: Agents of Shield.

Tomorrow’s up in the air, but will hopefully include celebrating our winning the $800+ Million PowerBall Lottery.

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January 8, 2017

21°

Well, last night was even colder than the night before. The forecast was for 25° but here at the rig it got down to 21°

In fact when I went out to hook us back up to shore water this afternoon, I still had a couple of big chunks of ice from where the rig end of the hose had drained.

But by Tuesday the high’s supposed to by 81°. A 60 degree swing in two days, so just a typical Texas winter.

When we left for lunch about 1pm we noticed that our neighbors on the left of us were gone. They were here last night so I guess they left sometime this morning. Certainly were quiet about it, anyway.

Don’t know if they moved on, or got a gate somewhere else. The first part of December we were offered a 3 week gate in West, Texas paying $160 a day with $100 in travel money.

Only problem was that it was a 24/7 gate without a shack. Since we had dropped off all of our outside stuff, canopy, tarps, etc. at Brandi’s at Thanksgiving, so we’re really not set up for a gate like that anymore. But if it had had a shack we might have been tempted.

Since Sunday is Barth’s Turkey & Dressing/Fried Chicken Day, that was lunch for today.

Then it was on down to the HEB for gas and a car wash. But the car wash was still shut down after last night’s freeze so we’ll try again another day, probably tomorrow.

We had planned to head down to Beeville this afternoon for the 4pm showing of Passengers, but the tryptophan intervened and naps ensued. So maybe tomorrow.

In fact we’ve got Amazon orders coming in tomorrow, and we need to make a Wal-Mart run so we may lump it all together with the trip to Beeville for the movie and then dinner.

When we were at Wal-Mart a few days ago we picked up a new bed/scratching pad for Karma.

We had the original one since the Mister days, so it lasted 3 or 4 years. But it finally broke in two, cracked at the joint. It’s made from corrugated cardboard and comes with a packet of catnip to sprinkle in the little pockets.

Karma really likes it and spends a lot of time either scratching on it or just lying on it.

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January 8, 2018

Pet Parade . . .

After being out all last week due to Jan’s illness it was actually good to be back at work today.

Of course I had a lot of stuff to catch up on, but the big problem was that right after I got in we found that the webserver email system had crashed completely. This means that no one gets a confirmation email for their order. Nor can we send out any emails on the company account.

I did finally get it limping back to life, but this problem has just reinforced my determination to get the Zen Cart shopping cart off this server and up on Godaddy. That way I can also set up the email there too and not have to worry about all this again.

It didn’t help things that workers were in and out of my office replacing the sheetrock ceiling that was damaged during Harvey, either.

Over the years we’ve come across a lot of RV’ers who travel with unusual pats – Ferrets, Nubian Pygmy Goats, Monkeys, Iguanas, large tortoises, a pot-belly pig, parrots and cockatoos, and even six large St. Bernard show dogs in a small camper. Watching them all come out was like watching a clown car.

And the Full-Time RV-traveling nurse I met at the hospital fits right into this. She and her husband travel with TWO ferrets and a Sugar Glider.

A Sugar Glider, like a flying squirrel, can glide from one side of the room (or coach) to the other.

But while flying squirrels are rodents, sugar gliders are actually marsupials like a kangaroo.

When I was a kid I had a pet flying squirrel that I raised from a baby. it was perfectly tame, and whenever I would walk out on the large screen-in porch where he usually stayed, he would swoop down and land on my shoulder waiting for a peanut or a piece of carrot. I could even take him outside and he never tried to get away. He would just ride around in my shirt pocket with his head poking up looking around.
I had him for 5 or 6 years until I gave him to a friend when we moved to South America.

And what was the name of my pet flying squirrel, you might ask?

Well, Rocky, of course.

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January 8, 2020

Still Not Impressed . . .

We made another run at making chicken drumettes in our new Ninja Foodie Grill, and they were just as delicious as before. We really like this unit, and going to be trying some new recipes, including doing entire meals in the tray.

As I mentioned Jan had kept her old toaster oven in case she didn’t like the Ninja, or didn’t think that it would replace the oven, but I think she’s about decided it can go.

Once again, I’m not impressed.

Jan was prescribed an ointment by her dermatologist, so I thought I’d again compare GoodRx, SingleCare, and WalMart’s regular price, which in this case was $65.26.

SingleCare at WalMart was a little cheaper, at $60.97, with Kroger cheaper still, at $54.14.

But once again, GoodRx was the runaway winner, at $31.55 for WalMart, and $32.16 at Kroger.

As I said, I guess that’s what happens when you have to pay Martin Sheen and Charlie Sheen to be your spokesmen.

Earlier I had thought I might be able to crawl under the rig tomorrow and take another shot  at fixing my oil leak by pulling the filter and adapter head and replacing the gasket once again. But it’s looking like a 50% chance of rain. so I’ll hold off for now. But the Saturday=Sunday timeframe looks good so far.

We’ll see.

As far as the rest of tomorrow, we plan on brunch at Snooze and then some shopping, and a trip by the storage room to drop off the Christmas decorations. And there’ll probably be a stop by the office as well.