Our RV Adventures

They Lied.

I was at my dermatologist office by 11, and was getting my head basted by 11:30. Then I got to wait and marinate for two hours while I read on my tablet. Next I was taken into another room and put under the broiler.

Unlike last time with the blue light PDT, this new one has a red light. And Dr. Joe said that it was not supposed to be as painful as the blue one. I can only assume he’s never tried it, because, though my memory may have faded in the 5 years since my last one, he was very, very wrong.

It hurt a lot more.

The only redeeming factor was that it only lasted for 10 minutes, and not the 16:40 like the blue light.

And the really good news’ is that I get to go back in a month and do it all over again. Since just like last time, it’s a two-step process.

My head was still burning when I got home about 3pm so I rubbed some Allocaine on it and that quieted down the heat.

I wasn’t able to get any photos of the procedure because, rather than the dark glasses I was given last time, this time I had goggles that completely blocked my vision. So next month I’ll have the nurse take a photo.

Tomorrow is going to be Los Rameriz Mexican for lunch and then WalMart for more stuff.

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Thought For The Day:

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February 20, 2010

Plans in Jell-O…

Well, as usual, we found our plans written in Jell-O.

We had planned to leave here in San Marcos this past Friday, but now we won’t be leaving until tomorrow, Sunday. It took longer than I figured to get all of Gina’s new stuff set up, including a new computer, and her Raccoon Cam that lets here watch the raccoons on her back porch that she feeds every night.

It’s pretty neat. It has remote pan and tilt, and night vision that really works.

But it’s all working OK now, so tomorrow we will head west to Balmorhea, TX to spend the night before arriving in Las Cruces, NM  on Monday night for a couple of days.

Then it’s on to Tucson, Gila Bend, and Yuma.

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February 20, 2011

The Best Shrimp Burrito in the World . . .

is found at Sofia’s Mexican Food in Gila Bend, AZ, at least according to Jan.

But more about that later.

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday in talking about getting diesel, is that we traveled 889 miles on the 102.7 gallons we used. This means we got almost 8.7 mpg, showing that driving 55 really saves $$. And there were a lot of hills in these miles, so that makes it even better.

Our site at the Pima County Fairgrounds only had 30 amp, but this time of the year that’s not a problem.

However I would definitely want 50 amp in warmer weather.

The view to the south this morning was really nice, with the low clouds hanging on the mountain side. We’re supposed to run into rain on our trip today. Hopefully not too bad, though.

We pulled out of the fairgrounds a little before 8:30 heading for Gila Bend, AZ, about 138 miles away. We wanted to get to Holt’s Shell RV Park as early as possible since they only have 24 sites and can fill up quickly, especially since they’re a Passport America park, and the best deal in town. Last year we just lucked out and got the last site.

Traffic through Tucson wasn’t bad at all, probably helped by the fact that it was a Sunday morning. I remember a few years ago when they were redoing the Interstate through downtown, and you had to get off and on I-10 several times getting through town. It was really a mess, but today we breezed through at 55 all the way.

About 9 we were passing the Cortaro area and the Cracker Barrel where we spent the night in March 2007 while we were on our first RV trip in a rental Cruise America Class C.

We had attended the Life On Wheels seminar in Tucson, and before we headed back toward Houston, we wanted to see the Body Worlds exhibit in Phoenix, since we had missed it when it was in Houston.

We really enjoyed the show and were on our way back out of Phoenix by 5pm.

Unfortunately it was all down hill from there! We had planned to drive from Phoenix thru Tucson and back to Las Cruces on our way home. I figured it would take us about 7 hours and we would be back in Las Cruces about midnight, and in fact, already had a paid reservation at a KOA there right off I-10.

But it was not to be.

Unfortunately, due to construction, Phoenix had decided to take the 6 lanes of I-10 and 4 lanes of I-17 down to TWO lanes…DURING RUSH HOUR!!!

It took us two hours to cover the distance that took us less than 10 minutes coming in.

Finally, about 7pm, we were out of the traffic and moving down I-10 toward Tucson.

Life was good.  Yeah, right.

We suddenly started seeing traffic warnings on the overhead electronic signs.

“Freeway Closed 85 miles ahead. Expect Long Delays.”

“Freeway Closed 65 miles ahead. Expect Even Longer Delays.”

“Freeway Closed 45 miles ahead. Expect Enormous Delays.”

Well, maybe if we had really seen the last two we would have paid more attention.

After checking the computer we saw that a Flying J truck stop where we had planned to stop and refuel, was about 10 miles before this, so we decided to press on.

Asking at the Flying J, Jan was told that a car had collided with a gas tanker and they had both blown up. We were also told that they were rerouting traffic around the accident and there only about a 30 minute delay.

And we fell for it!

Almost 5 hours later we rolled back into the outskirts of Tucson. It was now after midnight.

We had gotten up at 6am and I was dead tired. Jan had been asleep on the couch since about 9pm. It had taken us over 7 hours to cover what had taken us less than 2 going up.

At the next exit I saw a sign for a Cracker Barrel and pulled off. Cracker Barrel is one of many companies that encourages/allows RV’ers to park in their lots. They even have large spaces striped out for them.

When I went back and crawled into bed (I left Jan asleep on the sofa) I was the only RV in the lot. When I woke up about 3:30am and decided to get back on the road, I looked out and saw there were now 7 other coaches lined up beside me. Guess I wasn’t the only one looking for a place to sleep.

Anyway, back to the present, a little while later we passed Picacho Peak and the Rooster Cogburn Ostrich Ranch, an attraction we first visited in 2008 on our way to Alaska.

They have more than just ostriches. They also have deer, miniature Sicilian donkeys, Boer goats, and Rainbow Lorikeets.

Rainbow Lorikeets are, despite the name, actually parrots, found mostly in Australia and New Zealand. And they are very friendly.

At one point Jan was covered in Lorikeets, feeding them the little cups of nectar.

Me, however, not so much. I don’t what it was, but I only got one.

These Lorikeets certainly live up to their ‘rainbow’ name.

About 20 miles later we got off I-10 and onto I-8W on the last 65 mile leg heading toward Gila Bend.

About 20 miles out we ran into heavy rain, leading me to dread having to park and set up in a downpour. However, by the time we got to the RV Park, the rain had cleared and the sun was out.

We pulled into the park a little after 11am and found plenty of sites to choose from. After getting parked and set up, Jan fixed sandwiches and chips for lunch, and then we just relaxed for a while.

So relaxed in fact, that a nap was in order. And a very nice one it was, too.

We’ve stayed here 3 or 4 times and it’s always been a nice little park, and cheap too, since it’s Passport America at $12 a night.

And the views are pretty good, too.

Along with this great sunset we saw here in 2008.

Then a little after 4pm Jan and I drove into beautiful downtown Gila Bend to eat supper at Sofia’s Mexican Food. We discovered this place in 2008 and always eat here when we have the chance. It’s one of those little hole-in-the-wall places that often turn out to be great.

And Sofia’s is one of those.

Jan says this is the best Shrimp Burrito in the world. And she’s had them all over the country. The thing is just stuffed with large shrimp, along with a little rice and some chopped tomatoes.

I had the Carnita Dinner with well-seasoned shredded pork and all the fixin’s. And their chips and salsa are really good too, with a very spicy red sauce. Very, very good.

After supper we drove around a bit and then checked out the location of the Elk’s Lodge that I’m going to join next month.

We got home a little before 6, just in time for Jan’s primetime viewing pleasure, the premier of Amazing Race, and a new Desperate Housewives. A twofer for her!

Tomorrow, if the weather holds, I’ll start removing the two front chairs to finish removing the last of the carpet so I can get started putting down the Allure laminate.

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February 20, 2012

Fed Deer and Sleepy Cats . . .

After coffee and muffins this morning, Jan finally got to use some of her deer corn.

With all the rain we had while we’ve been here, it’s the first chance she’s had.

As usual we had a great time visiting Gina and look forward to seeing her again soon, hopefully in June when we’re back here for our granddaughter Piper’s high school graduation.

We headed out about 9 am, earlier than we normally like, but we’ve got a 375 mile trip today so we wanted to get an early start. It’s certainly a lot easier to get ready to travel after you’ve been parked 4 days, than when you’ve been parked 3 months like last week.

About 3 hours later, passing through Junction, TX, we stopped off to eat at Isaak’s Café, about a mile south of I-10.

On Texas Monthly’s list of Best Texas Café’s, we first ate here last year and really liked it. The only problem was that the out-of-business store whose lot we parked in last year, is now a Dollar General. So we park on a side street in a church parking lot. No tickets when we got back, so all was good.

Getting back on the Interstate, Jan wanted to drive, so she took the wheel while Mister and I napped.

He looks entirely too comfortable up there.

We both fought headwinds the entire way which meant the gas mileage sucked. But we finally got into Saddleback Mountain RV Park at the Balmorhea exit about 5:30 and got set up.

This is a really nice little park. $10 a night with Passport America for 50 amp full-hookups. They’re all long pull-thru’s so you don’t even have to unhitch, not that there’s anywhere to go out here in the middle of nowhere.

You just stop at the office, pay your $10, and pick a spot. The sites aren’t even numbered. They had 22 rigs by dark, the most I’ve ever seen, and I heard more coming in later.

For dinner Jan heated our left-overs from Salt Lick last night, and they were just as good as tonight.

Tomorrow we only have about 240 miles to Las Cruces, and we’ll gain an hour going into Mountain Time so we don’t have to leave quite as early as today.

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February 20, 2013

O’ Dark Thirty . . .

Well, it looked like O’ Dark Thirty, but it was actually about 8:30. But the day was so dark and dreary when I got up this morning that it looked like it was about 6. And it stayed that way all day.

But at least getting to spend some time with our friend Gina made up for it. We got over to her house about 9:30 so Jan could spent the day with her while I ran some errands for her and Jan.

My first stop was at the feed store over in Sattler to get some deer corn so Jan can fatten up the many deer here at the RV park. At least I thought I was going to get corn. But someone suggested that instead of corn, I should get Creep Feed since it had a lot more protein and was better for them. And even better, it was $2 cheaper for a 50# bag.

Creep Feed is used to feed nursing calves to help transition them to solid food, and is made up of food pellets about a half inch in diameter and an inch long.

My nest stop was at the PetSmart over in New Braunfels. I was looking for an aquarium air pump valve for Gina’s Oxygen Concentrator. She wanted to be able to run one line into her bedroom and another one into the living room, rather than dragging portable tanks back and forth.

When she ask the oxygen company about doing that, they said they didn’t know anyway to do it. But in looking it over, the tubing was the same size as used on aquariums so I thought I might try a valve like this.

It’s all stainless steel with no rubber or gaskets to contaminate the oxygen flow.

Next up was a stop at Home Depot for a few things for the rig, and then after a quick stop at Buc-ee’s for a coffee/cappuccino, I headed back to Gina’s

I spent a while getting the air system set up and it looks like it’s going to work fine. I will have to increase the concentrator’s output a little to offset the longer length of the living room line, but that should be no problem.

About 6pm we all headed over to the Cypress Creek Café in Wimberley, one of our favorite local eating establishments.

The food is always delicious, and  it didn’t disappoint this time either. And we had such a great time talking that we didn’t get home until almost 8:30. But it was certainly worth it.

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February 20, 2014

Winding Down . . .

Jan and I headed out a little after 10:30 for another ‘last meal’, this one at Twin Peaks, our new favorite restaurant. Our regular waitress,

Lauren, took her usual great care of us, and we got a chance to talk and learn more about her.

One thing I was disappointed to learn about was upcoming menu changes at Twin Peaks, because my favorite Average Joes are going away. They are mini Jalapeno Sausage Dogs with spicy mustard and jalapeno/onion relish. Really good.

An order of Average Joes and a cup of their Venison Chili are my go-to meal whenever we go there. Guess I’ll have to find something else when we go back. Of course I  may find something I like just as well on the new menu.

Leaving Twin Peaks we stopped off at a local carpet store to check out carpet samples for a upcoming bedroom carpet replacement project, but they didn’t have what we were looking for. We’ll try again somewhere else.

Next, after dropping a letter in the mail, Jan and I headed over to Friendswood to visit a friend and take a look at the intermittent audio problem with her entertainment center.

Leaving Connie’s, our next stops were Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club for a few things, and then after quick stops at a client’s and a hardware store, we headed back toward home. Getting back to the Dickinson area, we realized that it was after 5, and we were getting hungry, especially since we had eaten lunch at 11, so we headed over to Monterey’s Little Mexico for some of their great Tortilla Soup, and Chips and Salsa.

Back to the park, I stopped off at the park office to pick up my external HD enclosure that had come in from Amazon. At the rig, after putting stuff away, I pulled the HD from the client’s computer that I mentioned yesterday and installed it the new case.

Finishing it up, I plugged into my computer and confirmed that it was readable as an external drive, so it goes back to the client tomorrow, as well as a rescued laptop for one client,  and a new video cable for yet another.

Tomorrow, besides delivering stuff to clients, I’ve got a lot of small chores around the rig that I need to finish up before we leave here on Monday. Then we’ve got a dinner date with some more friends tomorrow night.

Another busy day.

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February 20, 2015

Rut Roh . . .

Jan and I left the rig about 10am, but were hindered by the high winds. So high in fact, that it was a real struggle that get the rig door open, and keep it open, while we were trying to get out. The winds today, as the next front comes through, are really something fierce.

We were heading up to the Clear Lake area for Jan’s oncologist’s appointment. This was just a routine one, for a checkup and prescription refill. Waiting for Jan, I did enjoy the fact that the clinic had superfast Wi-Fi, about 60 Mbps. Makes the waiting a little easier.

Leaving the clinic a little before noon, we drove over to the Jason’s Deli in Webster for lunch. Jan usually goes for their Broccoli and Cheese Soup, and I always have the Southwest Chicken Chili, and then we’ll try one of their many sandwiches. Always good.

Coming home I made a stop at Lowe’s for a few things and then we fought the winds back to the rig. When we got here, the winds were gusting to over 50 mph. In fact we found our satellite had blown over and rolled down the driveway.

The last time our satellite was knocked over was on our gate last year, and cows were involved.

I tried to work outside, but the wind was so high it was difficult to stand up, much less get anything done. So I took a nap.

Getting up and finding wind had slackened off some what, I went outside to check out the installation of the new headlights on our truck. My shop manual said four screws should do it.

One Torx head bolt removes the amber lens set at the bottom and then three bolts hold the headlight unit itself. But sometimes the manual lies, so I wanted to check it out. But as I got the bottom lens off, it started to rain, so I stopped there. I was able to confirm that the top unit is held on by the three bolts. But that will have to wait until tomorrow.

The new unit is only one piece, and held on by just the three bolts, so it should be an easy change-out.

On another note, I ordered something from Amazon this evening and found that Amazon Prime just got better. They now offer Free Two Day Shipping with SUNDAY delivery. At least here in the Houston area. Prime just keeps getting better.

Finally, under the ‘Rut Roh’ heading, the weather forecast says that it’s supposed to be windy, cold, and rainy from now until we leave here March 1st.

Just great.

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February 20, 2016

Parts is Parts . . .

We did our walk this morning, at least the first part of it anyway, for a distance of 1.13 miles, just making a complete loop of the park. We’ll try to walk again tomorrow since it’s showing 80% chance of rain on Monday, 100% for Tuesday, and then Wednesday morning we’re back down in the Clear Lake area for our yearly checkups. So after tomorrow, Thursday might be our next shot at a walk.

After our walk, we sat outside for a while with our coffee and some of the great pumpkin muffins that Sherry gave us at lunch yesterday. Really, really good, and Jan wants the recipe. Even though it was in the 70’s, it was pretty overcast so it was still comfortable.

Later in the afternoon I was back on pump repair. I wanted to try to completely disassemble it and see if I could figure out what was wrong with it. But before that, I hooked the pump motor up to 120vac to see if it would even run.

And it did, but very slowly, with a lot of straining. So it was obvious that there was a lot of drag on the shaft from somewhere. My first thought was bearings, but you never know..

So I started out with this.

As I figured the fan was just pressed on the shaft so I used a small gear puller to get it off. Then removing the two screws let me start to remove the motor shaft.

So I kept at it, pulling pieces off,

until I finally ended up here, with a big pile of parts. As they say, parts is parts. Hopefully I can get it all back together.

There are no roller or ball bearings, just brass sleeves, and they all looked clean and smooth, as did the shaft, so that wasn’t the problem.

But when I inserted the rotor – shown below

back into the stator – shown here

and tried to turn it, there was a lot more drag than normal. In fact there should be no drag at all. They shouldn’t be rubbing or touching in any way.

It looks like there is just gunk built up on both the outside of the rotor and the inside of the stator, and that’s causing the drag. At least that’s the theory I’m going with right now.

Tomorrow I’ll dig out some 2000 or 3000 grit sandpaper and lightly sand the two pieces to see if that makes a difference. If you ever try something like this, be sure you only use regular sandpaper, and not steel wool or metal oxide paper. Tiny bits of metal can get in the windings and short out the motor.

Finishing up for the day, I stuck the two metal pieces into a small bowl of CLR to clean them up and remove some of the rust. The plastic pieces I dunked in a bucket of a Dawn and Awesome mixture to let them soak overnight.

I do have a backup plan for all this, though. Besides the option of buying one of the pumps on eBay for $100 to $185, which I’m loathe to do . . .  because I’m cheap, this afternoon I had another idea.

All I really need is a washer pump that runs on 120vac (which I’m sure all of them do) and has a input/output hookup kind of like this.

It only has to be close because I’ve got plenty of room underneath there and I can reroute the hoses if I need to. And the size isn’t a problem either for the same reason. So if I don’t have a handle on all this by Monday, I’ll take the pump down to an appliance parts place and see if they have something close.

About 4:30 Jan and I headed over to Willis for a Whataburger dinner, great as always. Then coming home we made a quick stop at the nearby Kroger’s for a few things.

All in all, a nice day. But then isn’t that what RV’ing is all about?

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February 20, 2017

A Celebratory Dinner . . .

The forecasted rain announced itself in the middle of the night with a downpour that rattled the coach, and it was still coming down in sheets when we got up around 8am.

But by the time we left at 9am for the Clear Lake area and Jan’s medical appointments, it had slacked off enough that the flood warnings for the Houston area had been cancelled. So, although it was raining steadily the entire way, we made good time, and got down to Webster in time for Jan to get a Chick-Fil-A sandwich for lunch before her lab work appointment.

With that done, we made a stop at both Lowe’s and Home Depot picking up some items that we needed, as well as some other shopping along the way.

Finally I dropped Jan off at the Breast Diagnostic Center at 12:45pm for her yearly mammogram. Since she had breast cancer 3 years ago, her checkup is a little more involved,  with both a 3-D mammogram and a Diagnostic Ultrasound.

Normally the whole thing takes a couple of hours, but this time there was a problem with the order from Jan’s doctor, and the Center was running behind. And of course with Jan on pins and needles waiting for the results, it was really nerve-wracking for her.

For both of us,actually, since I was waiting out in the truck.

Finally about 4pm she came out with the good news that everything was fine, with no problems found.

YAY!

With that over for this year, we got onto 45N and headed for home. But as we came down off the Tollway onto I-10W, we decided a celebration dinner was in order, so we made a quick exit for the Longhorn Steakhouse in Katy.

Longhorn, along with Saltgrass, are our two favorite steak places. Both are much quieter than Texas Roadhouse, and the meat quality is better than both Roadhouse and Outback.

And tonight was no exception.

Of course, since this was a celebration, we started off with a drink, a White Peach Sangria, with Absolut Vodka, Peach Schnapps, wine, and fruit juices.

A really delicious drink, that as usual we split.

Jan went with her regular Flo’s Filet, cooked perfectly between medium and medium rare, while I went with the 18oz Outlaw Ribeye.

My side was Crispy Texas Okra, whole okras split lengthwise, and then battered and fried. Really good, and a nice change from traditional Fried Okra.

As a additional side, we split an order of their new Whole Roasted Carrots, drizzled with a Cinnamon Whiskey Caramel Sauce.

All we can say is – WOW!

After that great meal, with leftovers left over, we got home a little before 7pm, hopefully seeing the last of the rain for awhile.

Next Monday, we both have our yearly doctor checkups in the morning, and then Jan has her consult with her oncologist, and that should be it for the year.

Hopefully.

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February 20, 2018

Buyer Beware . . .

I put in a call to Thousand Trail’s Trail Collection people to get some info on it.

Our Thousand Trails membership comes up for renewal the 1st of April so I wanted to double check that I could just buy it at any time after April 1st. Just be aware that the program ENDS every year with the renewal of your TT membership. So if I bought it on March 31st, it would end the next day.

Also be aware that the TC membership will automatically renew at the end of the time period, whether you want it to or not. So be sure to cancel it manually if you don’t want to renew.

Sounds like a good use of one of those one-time credit card numbers If your bank offers them.

A little before 3pm Jan and I headed up to Clear Lake to have an early dinner at Rudy’s BBQ, one of our 3 favorite BBQ places nationwide. The other two are Sonny’s BBQ, mostly in the Southeast, and Famous Dave’s BBQ, located pretty much everywhere except the South.

I got half pound of their Moist Brisket,

while Jan got their Stuffed Baker, a jumbo baked potato, topped off with chopped brisket.

And of course you can’t go to Rudy’s without getting some of their Creamed Corn.

Jan doesn’t really like corn, but she loves Rudy’s version.

After our delicious BBQ meal it was on up I-45, first to the Sam’s Club for a prescription, and then next door to the WalMart  for a few things.

That’s when it got kind of scary. As I did last week, I used the Self-Checkout area, and as I did last week I got some Granny Smith apples. But this time I noticed that the software running on the checkout kiosks was different  than the last time.

But I didn’t realize how different until I put the bag of apples on the scale and started to enter the code from the little label on each apple (4017). But before I could, the computer popped up with “1.52 lbs. at $1.47/lb. of Granny Smith Apples    $2.23”

OK, how did it know that I had Granny Smith apples?

So now my mind is racing, looking for an answer.

Is there a camera inside using fruit recognition software? And if so, how does it know the difference between my Granny Smith apples and Golden Delicious apples? Especially through the plastic (albeit clear) bag.

Is it reading the little labels on each piece of fruit?

Or are there RFID chips inside each label that the scanner is reading? In answer, no, there are not. I peeled off a label here at home and held if up to the light. No RFID chip.

So next time I’m peeling off all the little labels before scanning them.

Stay tuned.

And in another example of scary computer stuff, I’ve been looking at getting one of these Wyze cameras to set up here in the rig.

It live streams right to the Internet with a 1080p picture, night vision, and motion-sensing. And even better it’s only about $25. But I held off, hearing that a new version was coming out. And that looks like the end of this month.

But double-checking the Amazon reviews flashed a big STOP sign to me. Apparently users have detected the cameras streaming data to IP addresses other than the company servers, I.e. IP addresses in China, Japan, Germany, Russia, and others.

The data is going out on UDP port 10001 which is a high-speed port with no error-checking, often used for live-streaming.

So where else is the video going beside your smartphone.

But it gets even scarier.

One Amazon user blocked the camera’s MAC address in his router so it could not transmit anything to the Internet. Instead he installed an SD memory card in the camera and just recorded the video.

The MAC address is a unique address that is normally hard-coded into Internet devices. Your router has one, your computer has one, and the Wyze camera has one that’s printed on the back of the unit.

But in this case, the camera, seemingly sensing it could no longer access the Internet, changed its supposedly HARD-CODED MAC address to another one, one that now let it access the net again, sending your video out to other countries. You know, like China, Russia, . . .

Scary.  Buyer Beware.

Tomorrow it’s back to work.

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February 20, 2019

Red It Is . . .

Well, the consensus is that Jan should go Red again. Now all I have to do is to convince her. I know our daughter Brandi is on my side, so hopefully we can wear her down.

When we were at Cheddars yesterday I noticed a new menu item, their Texas-Sized Nachos. Now I know everything is bigger in Texas, but this is ridiculous.

21,600 CALORIES? Really?

Well I guess if you split it with 9 friends, it wouldn’t be too bad.

I got my new camera set up this evening after charging the battery overnight.

But I haven’t even taken a photo with it yet. I did format the 128GB SD card, and with the 4K quality (3840 x 2160) resolution I selected, I will be able to store over 23,000 photos at about 8MB each.

I could have set it for 4896×2752, but at 13.5MB each, the photos can be a pain to work with. But at that resolution I would be able to print out a full-size 16” x 20” photo, if needed.

When I unpacked my camera yesterday, I thought that something was missing. The other three Panasonic Lumix had all included a charger module like this.

But not this time. All I got was an AC USB charger and cable, which means that the the battery can only be charged when it’s in the camera. Which means you can’t use the camera when you’re charging the battery, even if you have two batteries to swap out.

So I was happy to see that the spare battery and car charger kit I received today comes with a module like that can be powered by both AC or the 12V car charger.

I was impressed to see that the camera can also be controlled via a smartphone app thru the built-in WiFi. Among other things, you can both take photos and view them on your phone with the app. Very neat!

Looking forward to having a chance to play with it more.

Several of you asked about the new Zoom Scope I ordered and wondered how it worked.

Well, I don’t know yet, since it didn’t ship until this morning, but I’ll let you know.

I took the plunge today and finally ordered a jar of pure 100% Carolina Reaper powder.

As I’ve mentioned before, At over 2.2 million Scoville units, Carolina Reapers are the acknowledged hottest pepper in the world.

There are two other peppers, Pepper X and Dragon’s Breath, that are vying for the new crown, but they haven’t been certified yet. But Pepper X is rumored to be over twice as hot as the Reaper.

So if you hear about me bursting into flames, you’ll know why.

Tomorrow afternoon Jan and I are meeting long-time friend Tricia for breakfast/lunch at our new fav, Snooze. Really looking forward to it.

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February 20, 2020

And Now Another One . . .

I Won’t Do That Again.

My Aunt Virginia gave Jan a couple of local Athens Church cookbooks, containing many of our family and friend’s recipes, including many favorites I remember from my childhood, and even later, specifically my Aunt T’s Dill Bread. Even Jan remembers this bread, since Aunt T was still alive and baking it when we were first married.

Jan suggested that I look through the cookbooks to see if I recognized any other names. And that was my mistake.

I quickly came across one that rang a bell. She was a classmate of mine, in fact she was both my Chemistry and Biology lab partner when I went to the 10th grade in Athens. She was really cute, a cheerleader, and sweet to boot. Even better, her father owned the Ford dealership in town, and she got the very first Mustang in town for her 16th birthday. She and I got along great and I almost broke my rule to not date that year.

Since I had been with my previous girlfriend, Sam (Samantha), the future Duchess, for over a year and a half while we were in South America, and I missed her, I wasn’t in a big hurry to get back to dating again.

Since I skipped the 1st grade and started directly into the 2nd, (another story) I was always the youngest kid in my class, even though few people knew it.

I also didn’t really go to the 9th grade, since we were living in South America at the time. My mother, who had been a teacher, signed off that she had home-school me, but what really happened was that she just gave me all the textbooks and told me to read them. Which I did in about a month. And had no problem in the 10th grade in Athens.

So anyway,while most kids already had their driver’s license going into the 10th grade, I didn’t even get my learner’s permit until October of that year.

So my asking a girl out would have gone like this.

“Mary Anne, would you like to go to the Prom with me? Oh, and by the way, can you drive?”

Nope, not going to happen!

Or even a worse scenario, having my parents drive us.

Nope, not that either. Haven’t done that since I was about 12.

So I never asked her out, but I did think about it. Partly because it seemed like a lot of guys were intimidated by her and she didn’t seem to date much. And in hindsight I wish I had asked her out.

Because when I made the mistake of looking her up this morning, I found she died from Early-Onset Alzheimer’s at the age of 58 in 2006.

I won’t do that again.

---

February 20, 2021

Thankful . . .

As I said yesterday, today was just a hang-around-the-rig day, sorting through stuff, some to throw away and some to go over to the storage room. And of course, more of Jan’s delicious chili for dinner.

Later in the afternoon I went outside and got us hooked back up to shore water. Then I took a few minutes to fill our onboard water tank up again, and stowed away my heat lamp, all ready for the next freeze.

Looking over my PayPal Debit Card charges in my email, I noticed that though the charge had come through for the first two days, which was for 2 days at $64 + tax per day, nothing had come through for the last two days.

But when I went online to look at my PayPal account directly, I saw several ‘pending’  charges from the hotel that were much higher than I thought they should be,

So I asked my bookkeeper (Jan) if I could see the hotel bill that I got when we checked out. Since I had my hands full with luggage I just handed it off to my bookkeeper (Jan) without looking at it.yesterday. They had taken my credit card and I had signed the bill when I checked in, so I didn’t get a chance to look it over.

But when I looked at it today, I saw a problem, a big problem. While the first two days were $64 each, the 3rd day was $139, and the 4th day was billed at $124.

WTH!

So I put into a call to the hotel,and was told what I thought might be the problem, based on things I’d been reading online in the last couple of days.

The rates that the hotel charges are set centrally and are based on an algorithm that sets the rates based on hotel occupancy. So when the hotel filled up, the rates went. But she said they’re not supposed to go up in the middle of a stay. So she’s looking into it for me to get it corrected.

Jan and I are very thankful that we came through the Big Freeze with few problems, and our hearts and prayers go out to all the people who didn’t fair as well as we did.

---

February 20, 2022

More Muffins . . .

As I said in last night’s blog, lunch today was at Gator’s Bar & Grill over in Dickinson once again. We usually try to eat here on the weekends since they have a bunch of Brunch Specials on the menu, though it seems we usually get our usual favorites. But we have on occasion gotten some of the specials and they’ve always been good.

Jan got one of her favorites, the Strawberry Walnut Salad with Grilled Chicken.

That’s a big dollop of Bleu Cheese in the middle.

it seems I’ve gotten stuck on Gator’s Baked Potato Soup with all the fixings.

Then for dessert, Jan tried Margie’s new Keto Biscuit, heated with butter. Jan said it was good, but more like a muffin than a biscuit.

Even though it had to be defrosted, my Keto Blueberry Muffin was as delicious as usual.

Heated with cold butter.

Leaving Gator’s, the next stop was at our store room so I could get a photo to show the movers.

I had to get a wide-angle shot to get it all in.

We started out here with a 5 x 5 climate-controlled unit, and then got a second one after we sold the house. Then we switch over to a 10 x 20 C-C one, which was cheaper than 2- 5 x 5’s. It’s obvious we didn’t need one this big, but at the time it was all they had in a larger one.

But I’m looking at a smaller one at the new location.

Our last stop was at the HEB for our meals next week.

In yesterday’s blog I jumped the gun saying lunch today was going to be at Los Rameriz. Los Rameriz is going to be Tuesday.

Today was Dickinson Seafood.

But HEB was still on the schedule.

But in between the those two, we got an oil change at our local Take 5 Oil Change located in between. This was our 500 mile post engine rebuild change (well, closer to 600 miles, actually)

We’ve got an somewhat busy week coming up.

Tomorrow I’ve got my PDT (Photo Dynamic Therapy) or as I call it, The Devil’s Easy Bake Oven.

It’s been almost 5 years since my last one, and my dermatologist thought it was about time to do another one.

The treatment itself only takes 16 minutes, 40 seconds. (I was afraid to ask what would happen if it went 16:39 or 16:41) But the prep takes two to three hours.

They smear a solution on your head and then let it dry. Then they check the coverage and reapply it to any thin spots. So I get to set out in the lobby for a few hours with this white stuff on my head.

Fun!

Then Thursday we’re heading into downtown Houston to first have lunch at Katz’s Deli before taking in the King Tut’s Tomb exhibit at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. Really looking forward to it.

---

Thought for the Day:

“It infuriates me to be wrong when I know I’m right.” ― Molière (and Me)

---

February 19, 2011

Wind, Dust, and Tumbleweeds . . .

We left Las Cruces this morning a little before 9:30am, but right before that our daughter Brandi called to check up on us and give us the latest on Master Landon. He just starting eating vegetables, and apparently he really likes peas.

About 10 minutes out on I-10 I pulled over and let Jan drive for a while. She didn’t drive at all last year, so she wanted to get in some practice. And it only took her a few minutes to get back in the groove, especially after I put a small piece of tape on the dashboard to help her keep centered.

In about another 30 minutes we pulled into the Bowlin souvenir place at Akela Flats, one of our favorite stops. Jan always loves looking at the jewelry, although this time she didn’t buy anything. But I made up for it.

We did spend $380.00 for 102.7 gallons of diesel. That was $3.699 a gallon. OUCH! The last time I filled up was September 13 right before we parked for 5 months in Houston and it was $2.499 a gallon.

One thing that was interesting about getting diesel was that my Silverleaf computer engine display said I had 47 gallons left in my 150 gallon tank. And I put in 102.7 gallons.

You can’t get much more accurate than that.

Jan was a little nervous, but had no problems getting in and out of the parking area and back on I-10. I was really proud of her.

About 11:30 after a Rest Area stop I took back over the driving chores. The wind was starting to pick up, the tumbleweeds were out in force, and this was not to Jan’s liking.

About 12:30 we were coming into Lordsburg, NM and I saw the signs for Kranberry’s Family Restaurant and asked Jan if she wanted to stop. We had eaten here last year coming thru the area and knew the food was good, and maybe more importantly, they had RV parking in the back.

The only real problem with the RV parking however, is that it’s just a big gravel lot with no markings, so everyone just parks willy-nilly, every which way. In fact, we pulled in thru the front, out the back exit, down a block to turn around, and came in the back, heading out toward the front. This to be sure we wouldn’t get blocked in, and would have an easy exit.

As usual, our food was good, but coming back to the rig, we found this bad omen. If tumbleweeds are blowing thru the parking lots, what’s the Interstate going to be like?

When we got back in the rig, we could see dust clouds on the horizon, and figured the weather was going downhill.

And it did. But luckily, not too bad. The high winds got worse, but we got out of the heavy dust areas fairly quickly, and never had a visibility problem.

We did have several instances of the rig wanting to change lanes without me turning the steering wheel, however. Not good. I think we had some gusts in the 40-50 mph range, but they weren’t as bad as when we were coming into Dawson Creek, BC in April of 2008, and the 60-80 mph gusts were blowing semi’s off the road, and trying to open our big awning. And on top of this it was 19 degrees.

I don’t even want to think about what the wind chill was.

We finally pulled into the Pima County Fairgrounds, still in one piece, about 4:30pm. Then our biggest problem was finding where to go to check in. The sign at the gate said ‘RV Office’ straight ahead.

However straight ahead would have taken me right into a big crowd of kids and families all milling around. They were having some sort of high school event and the place was really crowded. So I finally found a place to park off to the side of the lot and took off on foot looking for the office. After getting two sets of bad directions, I eventually found it and got checked in. And one of the staff was nice enough to bring me back to the rig by golf cart. Much appreciated!

We got parked and hooked up, and then set off for Poco & Mom’s, a really great Mexican place that our friends Al & Adrienne Cox had introduced us to about a year ago.

It’s a small place, only about 10 tables and 4 counter stools, but boy is it good! I had the Green Chile Pork Stew and Jan had a New-Mex combo platter. Here’s a shot of my Pork Stew.

New-Mex is like Tex-Mex, only different. They have more pork dishes, and use a lot of the Hatch red and green peppers. MMMM Good!

Of course, this being Arizona, why isn’t it Ari-Mex?  Or something?

For dessert, Jan and I split a fruit-stuffed Sopapilla. Since we couldn’t decide on apple or cherry, they did it half ‘n half. Really, really good!

And cheap, too. Only $2.50!  My kind of food. Good AND cheap.

And, of course, lots of it.

Leaving Poco’s we headed over to the nearest Wal-Mart, according to our GPS.  However it was not a SuperStore and didn’t have groceries. So we went by a Fry’s that we’d seen on the way and picked up some stuff to fix in Gila Bend, since the restaurant choice there is lacking.

Coming back to the rig, I stopped to get gas, figuring it would be even more expensive out in the middle of nowhere in Gila Bend later this week.

But in finding a place to fill up, I ran into one of those mysteries of life. You know. one’s like

“If the early bird gets the worm, why does the second mouse gets the cheese?”

or

“If you’re going to shoot a mime, do you need a silencer?”

In this case there are two gas stations. One on either side of the street from the other. The first, a ‘Gas City’ station, is selling regular unleaded for $3.259. The other, a Diamond Shamrock, is selling regular unleaded for $3.059. That’s a 20 cents a gallon difference! Helloo!

Why does the ‘Gas City’ station have any business at all?  Are people just too lazy to make a left turn at the light into the Diamond Shamrock? Or don’t they realize that $3.259 is larger than $3.059?

Just what is it?

Anyway, getting back to the rig, I decided not to set the sat dish up since there was nothing we wanted to watch or record. We thought we’d just watch some of the stuff we’d already recorded on the DVR.

And therein, I found a problem. Apparently, if you are not connected to the satellite, the DVR won’t let you watch anything you’ve recorded.

BUMMER!

Tomorrow we’ve got a 137 mile run to Gila Bend, AZ. We’ll be there for several days, while, hopefully I can get the rest of the carpet up and start putting down the new laminate.

---

February 19, 2012

‘Honorary’ Uncle Butterbean . . .

Finally we woke up to the sun this morning. And after coffee and some of the delicious muffins she and Gina made yesterday, Jan and I headed over to Gina’s about 11:30.

Jan was happy to see it was a 1 gate day again, since yesterday it was a 2 gate day, and it was raining, and Jan was on gate-opening duty again. (That’s what happens when you keep losing at “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock”)

Before I forget, here’s a shot of the 55” TV Matt Jones and I installed for Gina in her bedroom. Right now it’s just pretty to look at until the Direct TV guy comes out on Tuesday to wire the satellite to it.

The TV isn’t tilted. The ceiling molding is.

Later, while Jan brought Gina up to speed on Pinterest, her new favorite obsession, I drove over to the Little Blanco river crossing to see if we’d be able to go this way on our way to lunch this afternoon.

Believe it or not, there’s a roadway underneath there . . . about 6 inches underneath.

I’ve crossed it this deep before, but we’ll have guests with us this afternoon so it will be better to take the long way. There’ll be less screaming.

This is what can happen if you gun it as you’re climbing the hill out of the river bottom and side-slip on the slick pavement and off the edge. We came across this sight a few years ago.

About 1:45 our blog friend ‘Butterbean’ and his lovely wife Joyce showed in Canyon Lake. They live about 75 miles from San Angelo and had driven over to finally meet us in person.

After meeting up at the Exxon station, we caravanned over to Salt Lick BBQ, about 45 minutes away.

We’ve eaten here a number of times, and our daughter Brandi even had her wedding reception here a couple of years ago, but we’ve never seen them this busy.

We were told there would be 90 minute wait! We have never seen crowds like this. Don’t know if it was because it was a holiday weekend, or what, but it was wall-to-wall people here today.

But luckily they overestimated the time and we only had to wait for about 40 minutes.

Salt Lick serves family style, with sliced brisket, ribs, sausage, beans, potatoes, coleslaw, and bread. And they just keep bringing until you give up.

Here’s Butterbean and Joyce getting ready to chow down with the rest of us.

And for dessert, they have pecan pie, blackberry cobbler, or peach cobbler, or you can even get a combo of blackberry and peach, with ice cream, which is what Jan and I split.

All in all, a great meal, with great company.

Brandi has declared Butterbean, Landon’s ‘Honorary’ Uncle, and we enjoyed getting to know him and Joyce, and wish we had had more time together. But by the time we finished eating, it was a little after 5 pm, and they had a 200 mile trip back home. Maybe we’ll get to spend some more time together next trip.

Getting back to Canyon Lake, we dropped Gina off at her house and then headed back to the rig for the night.

Tomorrow we’ve got an early start for a 375 mile trip to overnight at Saddleback Mountain RV Park in Balmorhea, TX, before heading onto Las Cruces for two days.

---

February 19, 2013

So Far, So Good . . .

Well, our first real travel day of the beginning of our 6th year of Full-Timing got off to a great start. We pulled out of our site back at Galveston Bay RV Park about 10:30, and made our first stop about 8 miles away.

We have a tradition that on our way out of town every year, we stop off at the Monterey’s Little Mexico in Dickinson for one final bowl of their Chicken Tortilla Soup before we hit the road.

There is a large parking lot right next door so there’s plenty of room to park. In fact this is where we normally hook up our toad before we eat.

We were on our way by 11:45, heading up I-45 and then west on Beltway 8 to hook up with 1-10 West. Our first stop was at the Buc-ee’s in Luling, about 3 hours later, another of our travel traditions. We headed back out with hot coffees for us, and a bag of cherry kolaches for our friend Gina who we’ll be visiting for the next week.

We pulled into our destination, the Lake Pointe RV Resort in Canyon Lake, TX about 4:30 and got set up.

Lake Pointe is a Passport America park so we can stay here for two weeks at $12 a night for 50 Amp, Water & Electric. Sewer is not a problem for us since they let you drain your drain your gray tank on the ground, and we can go for two weeks on our black tank. And there’s a Honey Wagon available if you need it.

A little after 6pm we headed over to Gina’s place, about 10 minutes away, to visit for a couple of hours. We haven’t seen Gina since Thanksgiving so it was good to get together again.

Finally heading back to the rig, we stopped off at the Italian Garden Restaurant in Canyon Lake for supper. Jan loves their Meat Ravioli, and I had the Grilled Chicken with mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, asparagus in garlic-olive oil sauce. Really good.

Tomorrow I’ll be running some errands while Jan stays with Gina, and then we’ll all try to grab some dinner later.

---

February 19, 2014

Muffins and . . . well, more Muffins

Well, it was another early morning today. Up at 7:45, out the door at 8:30 (sans coffee), and at the clients at 9.

This was supposed to be my wrap-up visit with this client, but it didn’t quite work out that way. One of the things I was supposed to do was hook his external harddrive to his old desktop computer and backup all his old data and prepare the unit to be given away. But the computer, not used since this summer, had developed a problem. It would no longer read a keyboard. I tried two different ones,using both the PS2 keyboard socket and two different USB ports, all with no luck.

Since the computer is no longer operational I’m just going to take the HD out and put it in a external HD case and that will be his backup. I brought the computer home with me and I ordered a case from Amazon which will be here tomorrow. But it still means another trip back there to drop it off.

Coming home, I made a hardware store stop for some more screws to fasten the metal trim down around the pedal area under the dashboard. I want to try to get that finished up before we leave here on Monday, but I may run out of time.

Last up was a stop at Buc-ee’s for some of their delicious Cranberry Nut Muffins. Not only are they delicious, they’re big enough for a meal. Besides breakfast, we often have one with coffee for dinner.

They’re that good.

But no muffins for us tonight. Our original dinner plans fell through, so it was time for some Hooter’s. You can never have enough Hooter’s.

Coming home we stopped off for gas at Wal-Mart and found the price has jumped 15 cents in the last week or so. Where’s the Keystone pipeline when we need it?

For some reason we’re seeing a lot of white pelicans around this year, along with the usual brown ones.  It must be caused by Global Warming.

Pelicans are one of those animals that are so ugly they’re beautiful.

---

February 19, 2015

Blades and Bistros . . .

First thing this morning I got back on rig work. Yesterday I had started to install these new wipers on the rig, Denso Wiper Blade, 26″ (Pack of 1) , but ran into a problem.

The new ones, although the same model that I bought before, were slightly different. They only had one mounting hole, not the two on the previous ones. And the metal frame was a little bit wider. I was able to drill a second hole with no problems, but when I made the blade holder wider, I found the mounting screws were now too short. So coming home from our friend Bonne’s last night, I made a Home Depot stop to pick up some longer ones.

Once I had those, it didn’t take long for me to install the new blades. The only problem was that the wind coming off Dickinson Bayou was so strong that I had to be careful that the gusts didn’t blow me off the ladder..

Later,  about 3:45pm, Jan and I headed up to Katy to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at our favorite Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro, probably our last visit until we’re back here in August.

As usual the food was delicious. I don’t know what they do to the beef chunks in the Shaking Beef Bowl, but they’re so flavorful and tender they just melt in your mouth.

And of course, you can’t forget the Crème Brule Spoons for the perfect light dessert.

* * * * *

After trying to clean the haze off the truck headlights, I finally took the advice of my son Chris, and son-in-law Lowell, and just ordered new headlights off of eBay for $85. I ordered them Monday and they came in today. Very fast service.

According to the shop manual I have, it looks like only 3 or 4 screws to change them out. But you never know.

* * * * *

We haven’t seen as many birds here this year as usual, probably because of the construction going on nearby. But I did get this long-range shot of a bunch of them on a small island about two hundred yards out, at the limit of my zoom.

Looks like a real family get-together, with egrets, ibises, pelicans, and ‘Pinky’, our Roseate Spoonbill.

Tomorrow Jan has her oncologist appointment to get some blood work done, and her Anastrozole prescription renewed. Should be just routine since her mammogram / ultrasound was clean.

Then it’s back on rig stuff.

---

February 19, 2016

A Bunch of ‘News’ . . .

Since we were heading out for lunch about 12:15, that was our excuse for not walking this morning. But I did get in a call in to Westland Sales about my Splendide drain pump problem.

As I mentioned yesterday, I noticed that when I turned the fan shown below,

the white pump impeller shown below did rotate. But when I turn the impeller itself, the fan didn’t turn.

Now my first thought was that there was some sort of slip clutch on the impeller so that if a sock or something got hung up, it wouldn’t burn out the pump but would just spin free. But I wanted to be sure before I went any further with the repair.

And it turns out my thought about the clutch was correct, and that’s the way it’s supposed to work.

So tomorrow, first up I’ll put 120vac to the motor to be sure it works, and then put the washer into spin/pump mode to be sure it is sending 120vac to the pump. This part may be interesting since the washer is presently upside down in the kitchen, but I’ll make it work somehow.

Then I’ll disassemble the pump as much as possible and clean it up, and then try to get some lithium grease into the bearings. Hopefully this will get it working again.

And before I put the bottom panel back on, I’ll spray it with the black Rustoleum paint I bought the other day to paint my re-welded screen door hinge. The panel is kind of rusty so it could use a little clean up.

We head out about 12:15 to meet blog readers Sherry and Clark for lunch at the nearby Asian BBQ & Grill. Neither of us had ever eaten there, but Sherry’s son, who lives in this area, recommended it.

Based on the Yelp reviews and pictures, we were hoping for our own local version of our favorite Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro. Since Little V’s is out in Katy near our daughter’s, and over an hour away, we don’t get there as often as we’d like, so we had our fingers crossed.

Getting to the restaurant, we were warmly greeted by Sherry and Clark, and spent some time getting to know them. And we quickly discovered that there’s a bunch of ‘news’ in their lives.

Sherry is newly retired, as in just last week, and she’s still trying to adjust to the big changes in her life.

And Sherry and Clark are on their way to being new ‘semi-full-timers.’ They have a new Jayco 31ft Class A, and are planning to check out the fulltime lifestyle by taking several months this summer to travel the East Coast all the way up to the Escapees Escapade being held in Essex Junction, VT the last part of July. They did a one month trip last year, so this will be another step in that direction.

But the most important ‘new’ is the fact they’re ‘Newlyweds’, only married for 42 days.

So Congratulations to the happy couple!

Finally we got down to ordering, starting out with an order of their Shrimp and Pork Spring Rolls, Really good, with a great peanut sauce.

For our entrée’s, Jan and I tried to duplicate our favorite dishes from Little V’s. We both got the Grilled Lemon Grass Chicken over Vermicelli, while I added a skewer of grilled shrimp to mine.

Our meals came with the Fish Sauce above, but we also asked for some of their Dragon Sauce. Really hot, and a lot of flavor too.

Jan and I both really liked our meals, and though we both agreed it wasn’t quite up to Little V’s, it was a delicious replacement, especially considering it’s about half the cost of Little V’s. Always a favorite of mine.

We will certainly go back.

Finally saying our goodbyes to Sherry and Clark, and thanking them again for the Pumpkin Muffins and bottle of Cupcake Moscato they brought Jan, we drove over to the nearby Sam’s Club for a few things before moving next door to Wal-Mart for a few more things. Then on the way home we stopped off at Starbuck’s for a caffeine pick-me-up. Jan went with her usual Cinnamon Dolce Latte, while I tried out what is now my new favorite Starbuck’s drink, a Smoked Butterscotch Latte.

Tomorrow we’ll try to get our walking started up again, and then I’ll get back on the pump repair.

---

February 19, 2017

Smooth As Silk . . .

Once again we were up at 7am and out the door by 8, once again heading down to the Clear Lake area so that our son Chris could again work his mechanical magic on our truck replacing the shocks.

But getting down there our first stop was the nearby O’Reilly’s Auto Parts to pick up the correct front shocks. The ones they gave me yesterday would have fit our Dakota, but they were a different type. And it’s not a good idea to mix two different types of shocks on a vehicle.

Finally at Chris’, he started on the hardest one first, the driver’s rear. It’s the hardest because of  the location of the upper mount. But 45 minutes later, he was moving on to the passenger rear.

One thing nice about these Monroe shocks is that they pre-compress them for you, making them a lot easier to install.

Finishing up, it took him about 2-1/2 hours from start to finish and now the truck rides smooth as silk. Really nice.

Thanks Chris.

About 2pm we all headed over to Rudy’s BBQ for a great meal.

With ribs, jalapeno sausage, moist brisket for me, lean brisket for Jan (or as I called it, dry and tasteless), creamed cord, and new potatoes, it was a real feast, and certainly worthy of us.

Saying our goodbyes, we detoured by Kroger’s to gas up before heading back to Columbus, finally getting home about 5:30.

And tomorrow, we get to do it all over again. This time for Jan’s lab work and mammogram.

And even better, it’s supposed to be pouring down rain all day with a strong chance of flooding.

Oh, Boy!

---

February 19, 2018

Well, I Know What It Isn’t . . .

I spent most of today at work trying to track down a slow data problem on the local in-house network. Our office manager wants to be able to call up customer info from one computer to another. But it can take as long as 15 seconds to pull up over network, where it just takes a second or so on the local machine.

It’s not a network problem since the UPS shipping program does the same thing, but in the other direction. And it runs just fine.

I did try repairing and then compacting the database which did help a bit, but it really didn’t fix the problem. So now I know what it’s not.

I’m beginning to think that the problem might be the way that the program sorts the data to find the requested customer. As it sorts it may be moving large chunks of the 3.5 MB data file back and forth. So my next thought is to see if I can pre-sort the customer database by the customer name rather than the customer number.

I’ll give it a try on Wednesday and see if it makes a difference.

Coming home I stopped off at the Victory Lakes Jason’s Deli to pick up soup, salad, and sandwiches for dinner. I had pre-ordered and pre-paid for it using their phone app so it was ready when I walked in the door. I would have/ could have used the drive-thru lane, but  there were already 4 cars in line. So it was quicker to just park and go in. Seems like more and more places have these apps and it’s really convenient.

Tomorrow a stay at home day, though we’ll probably go out for dinner. We’re thinking Rudy’s BBQ, but we’ll see how it goes.

I had a couple of people asking about the new LED headlights l ordered. They should  be in on Wednesday, so I’ll let you know. I’ll probably replace one first and see the difference.

---

February 19, 2019

You Decide . . .

After a nice morning Jan and I headed out about 2pm for lunch and stuff. And lunch was the Cheddars up in Webster once again.

And as usual Jan got her Key West Chicken and Shrimp with Green Beans and Carrots, while I got the Veggie Plate, with two Green Beans and two Carrots, and also comes with a bowl of soup and one of their Honey Butter Croissants.

I always get their Chicken Tortilla Soup which is really good. Not quite Monterey’s Little Mexico good, but good. However at the Cheddars in Katy last week, I saw that they didn’t have the Chicken Tortilla soup, but instead had something called Crispy Chicken Tender Noodle Soup, Turns out it was really bad.

It wasn’t a very good Chicken Noodle Soup, I.e. I’ve had better from a can with Campbell’s on it. And the ‘Crispy’ part consisted of some rock-hard nodules like oversized Grape Nuts, but didn’t taste as good.

So when I got my soup today I asked to speak with the manager to put in my vote for them to keep the  Chicken Tortilla version. Especially since the corporate website lists the Noodle Soup as the norm.

Turns out that this location is actually a franchise, not corporate, and they can have whatever soup they want. Great!

Next up was a quick stop by Harbor Freight to pick up some Alligator Clip Leads for work, and then it was on to my client’s to pick up my Amazon orders, including my new Panasonic FZ80 that came in.

On that note, yesterday I came across this Extra Battery and Car Charger for the FZ80 and ordered one.

Should be here tomorrow.

Then it was on to the Ace Hardware to pick up some stainless steel bolts, nuts, and washers to redo the windshield wiper mounting on our RV. They don’t make wipers that fit our arms anymore so I’m going improvise something that will work better than the kludge that I’ve been using.

So actually I’m coming up with a new kludge to replace the old kludge. So a better kludge, I guess.

Then it was on over to the WalMart for some supplies before we headed home.

Ok, y’all get to decide.

With her recent 50 pound weight loss, I’ve been encouraging Jan to change her look a bit, mostly by switching to darker, slightly redder hair color sort of like this.

She’s reluctant, having been blonde for so long, but she had dark red hair when I met her in 1967, and still was a redhead here in 1975, here with our daughter Brandi at Gulf Shores, AL.

So you decide, and let us know.

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February 19, 2020

Not Much Blog Today . . .

I didn’t get last night’s blog posted until this morning due to computer problems with my desktop unit. My Windows Live Mail won’t open, and neither will Chrome. But the old Internet Explorer works.

I spent most of today at work trying to get a new ad card ready for our mailing company to send out. When I left for Alabama last Thursday they had decided not to do a March sale. But they changed their minds while I was gone, so for the last few days I’ve been scrambling to get the card ready to go for the March sale.

Right now here’s how it looks. But I’ve still got some more tweeting to do.

Of course it doesn’t help that the products they want to sell, and the prices they want to charge keep changing.

Hopefully I can finished it up and get it submitted tomorrow.

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February 19, 2021

Home Again, Home Again . . .

Jan and I checked out of the Texas City La Quinta about 10:30 and were back at the rig by 11am, finding it nice and toasty inside since we left the heaters running overnight.

Before I headed into work for a few hours, I doublechecked that our onboard water was still working without any leaks. And so it was. And since we’re supposed to have temps back down into the 20’s tonight, I’ll wait to hook us back up to shore water until tomorrow. And I’ve left the heat lamp going in the water bay just in case.

Hard to believe that by Sunday it will be back in the 70’s again.

It seems like a lot of the restaurants in the area are connected to the Texas City water system, so just about the time they got back open from the loss of power, they had to shut down again due to a Boil Order from Texas City. But hopefully everything will settle back down soon.

But it looks like the whole shipping/delivery thing is going to be awhile before everything comes back up to speed. Items that were supposed to be delivered from Amazon this past Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday are now scheduled for next Thursday, though I imagine they will probably show up before then.

Also a number of things we had coming into the office from suppliers via UPS have just disappeared into the system somewhere. The tracking numbers come back as No Information. Check Back Later. So I guess we’ll see when they finally turn up.

Our room at this La Quinta was an upgrade from what we usually ask for, which is just a King Bed, Non Smoking, like this.

But what we got, at no additional charge, was a Deluxe King Studio Suite, which also has this.

A sitting area with another 50” TV. Not exactly sure what we were supposed to do with two TV’s, but it was more comfortable watching TV sitting on the sofa than lying in bed.

Might have to ask for one the next time we travel.

Nice.

Tomorrow will probably be a nice stay-at-home day, while we work on the big pot of chili Jan made today. Really spicy, and perfect for this cold weather.

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Thought For The Day:

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February 19, 2022

Adult Supervision Needed . . .

Jan and I had lunch once again today at our favorite Pho Barr, starring with their Grilled Pork Spring Rolls.

Then Jan got her usual Grilled Chicken Vermicelli Bowl, with enough left over to take home for lunch on Monday.

I got my favorite Pho Ga, which means it has Chicken in it.

It’s actually hard to believe how much chicken is in this.

And once again, our regular waiter just shook his head when I asked about the progress on the Pho Barr down in our area.

Finishing up, our next stop was at the office to drop off a bunch of my Amazon boxes for us to use to ship out stuff. Our office manager says it seems that I’m the one that keeps them in boxes with all my Amazon orders.

I also picked my my battery-powered drill that I for a project here at home.

Probably the best drill I’ve ever owned.

Next it was on back down to our area for a WalMart run.

One thing I noticed is that while they weren’t real busy, they had 9 of the 12 checkout lanes open. But the last time we were there and they were very busy, they had only 4 lanes open. What’s up with that?

Then home after a nice day.

Tomorrow it’s Gator’s Bar & Grill  and HEB, along with a quick stop at our storage room to get a photo of what we have in it so we can show the movers to get an estimate for moving us to a new storage location.

I mentioned earlier that our present place had jumped our rate for a 10 x 20 Climate-Controlled unit from $152/month to $232/month, an $80 jump, or over 52%. This after a $20 jump last year. And when I called them this past Thursday to confirm that the letter I received, the young lady immediately offered to drop the increase to $40. So maybe they’re getting some pushback on this.

I took it of course, since my next payment at the new amount comes due next Wednesday, the 23rd. But I’m still moving our stuff.

I just didn’t tell her that.

Found on the Net. Some people shouldn’t be left alone without adult supervision.

I have a friend that flies for a small air charter service here in Alaska. While dropping off a couple at a remote cabin he asked if they had any “bear repellent” as this was brown bear country. My pilot friend gave them two cans of bear spray, a super-strong capsaicin-based defense spray. As he taxied to the end of the lake to take off, he looked back to see the now partially-clothed couple writhing in agony on the beach. Upon returning to the dock he discovered that they had used the bear spray in the manner of mosquito repellent! Soaking themselves with it to smell bad for the bears. I have it on good authority that there are times when a soak in a 37 degree Alaskan lake can feel real good!