Our RV Adventures

Lunch today was at Torchy’s Tacos this time, with both of us getting our usual’s.

Jan got her two Chicken Fajita Tacos,

while I got my usual, the Jalapeno Cheese Dog and the Brushfire, with Jamaican Jerked Chicken and Mango.

Always delicious.

Then after checking out the nearby upcoming location of our new In-N-Out Burger, we drove down to League City to check out the new Gordon’s Food Service there.

Called a cross between Sam’s Club and Costco, at least for food and food-related items, there is no membership fee.

Ten things to know about the Gordon’s Food Service

Starting out, it looks like a normal smallish grocery store.

with a nice selection of fresh produce.

But then you start seeing the big No. 10 cans of staples,

And the shelves of 50# bags of Tortilla Mix

and even Popcorn.

And everyone needs a 5# bag of dried Chilis, all different types.

And there were two complete aisles of packaging, plates, bowls, cups, flatware, take-out containers, etc.

Today was just a ‘scouting’ expedition at Gordon’s, since we didn’t buy anything this time. But we will be back.

Since I was talking about hippos the other day, I thought I’d post this video of an angry hippo who does not like lions in ‘his’ river.

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Thought For The Day:

Just ignore reality. There’s nothing you can do about it anyway.

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March 21, 2009

It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day…

We’re still having great weather here in Gulf Shores. It’s pretty much staying in the low-mid 70’s in the daytime and the mid 50’s at night.  Just about perfect.

We’ve decided to stay another week after this Tuesday, which will make us a full month.  That should put us out of most of the Spring Break crowding, I hope. We’ll see.

Jan and I had our Franco’s leftover pizza for dinner tonight.  We ate it outside on the picnic table that’s part of our site.  We also had a delicious fruit salad that Jan made yesterday from fresh fruit we purchased.

Tomorrow we’ve been invited to join our neighbors for a Potluck/White Elephant lunch at 2:00pm out in the center of the cul-de-sac we’re parked on.

We’re supposed to bring a dish to share and a wrapped White Elephant object.  We don’t know if we auction it off, or trade it, or what. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow.  I volunteered a certain black cat to be named later, but Jan just gave me “The Look”.

We all remember “The Look”, don’t we?

We have decided to take the last of our Big Daddy’s Northernmost Southern BBQ beans to the dinner.  They were so good that we bought a couple of gallons in Fairbanks, AK to freeze and bring back with us. The beans seem to have almost as much meat in them as beans. I hate to see the last of them go.

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March 21, 2010

Brunch and Pollo…

Today was fun mixed with some work. We went to the Breakfast Brunch at Boulder Station Casino. Once again, it was a great meal for $11 each.

After spending almost two hours laughing and talking over brunch we drove over to Lowes to pick up some parts.
About 6:45pm, it was off to El Pollo Loco for some great citrus-marinated grilled chicken. This west coast chain became one of our favorites when we were out here two years ago and we were looking forward to trying it again.

Finally, about 7:30 we headed back to the rigs for the night.

Tomorrow I’ll be working on our rig, trying to replace the seals and the flush ball in our toilet.

Oh boy!

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March 21, 2011

Sandstorms and Grilled Onions . . .

We started off this morning with coffee and no satellite TV. The high winds that were rocking the coach and rattling the awnings had blown over the sat dish. The ground was too hard to stake it down so it was ripe for being blown over.

A little before 11 I went up to the office to re-up for another week, but the office was closed, so I’ll try again later.

The wind had picked up some much that I finally went out and let the awnings in, as they were getting really noisy. Then pretty quick after that the sand storms started sweeping across the fairgrounds, in some cases blocking out the rigs parked right across from us. Hope we still have a paint job left when we leave here.

A little after 1 I talked with a friend of mine who owns an A/C company to get a quote on installing a new system in our house in Friendswood, TX. I hoping he can give me a better deal than the original quote I have. Then after talking with him I emailed him a copy of the quote that I had.

About 2 I drove back up to the office to pay up for another week here. The sand was blowing so hard I figure I was lucky to find our coach again.

Later I talked with Thousand Trails about the membership that we’re going to be taking over, to be sure the transfer is in the works. We’re hoping to get it completed before we leave here the first part of April. We’ll see.

About 4:30 we headed over to the Five Guys Burgers and Fries. This was our first visit to Five Guys, and it was as good as we had heard. The burgers were delicious, and I like the fact that all the fixings, including jalapenos, grilled onions, and grilled mushrooms, were free.

Coming home we stopped by Lowe’s to pick up a piece of transition strip to see how it’s going to work between the Corian tile in the kitchen and the new Allure laminate in the living room.

I’ve got pretty much all the carpet up under the driver’s seat, and now need to decide where I’m going to make the joint between the laminate and the carpet that I’m leaving under the driver’s feet.

Getting home, the winds had died down, so I took a few minutes to get the sat dish up right and aimed. Can’t miss Monday night TV.

Tomorrow we plan a day trip down to the Tombstone area, and then possibly on to Bisbee.

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March 21, 2012

It’s a Two’fer . . .

But wait, there’s more.

When I got up this morning I found two more mousies in my traps. Didn’t realized I was hosting a whole village in here.

Then a little later I was back in the bedroom and heard Jan scream. Running out, I found her pointing at the bottom drawer of the cabinet under the stove and yelling “Mouse, Mouse”. If there had been a chair nearby, she would have jumped on it.

So it turns out we have at least 5 visitors.

Later I took up all the traps and rebaited them, with cheese this time. But while I had the entrance to the access area still open, I heard a noise inside the cabinet, and looking in, I saw Mister back in there checking things out. I was kind of hoping he’d find something, but no luck this time.

Finally getting Mister to come out, I put the traps back out, with one of them in the drawer this time.

About 5:45pm Jan, and I, along with Tom and Barb Westerfield, drove up Houghton Rd to eat again at Luckie’s Thai, our favorite local Chinese place, and one of our all-time favorites anywhere.

And Tom and Barb actually had Thai. But the rest of us ate from the Chinese side of the menu. And if anything, it was better tonight than last time. And of course we had plenty of leftovers, so lunch tomorrow will be great too.

Getting home around 7pm, I checked my trapline and found I’d bagged another one.

Don’t know if it’s the same one Jan saw this afternoon, but that’s a total of five now.

I think I need to throw Mister back in there again. Make him earn his keep.

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March 21, 2013

Lazy Days and Marathon Nights . . .

About 1pm Jan and I headed over to the FMCA Rally being held at the Paydays RV Campground here in Tucson. We got a day pass to check out the vendors and see if they had anything new or interesting.

Jan did find a couple of things that caught her eye, and I wanted to talk to the Blue Ox guy to see about them doing a  reconditioning on my Blue Ox Aventra Tow Bar. He gave me his card and said to call him tomorrow about 11am and he’d see if he could fit me in.

We also walked around  and checked in with some of the vendors we know from from other rallies. Jan said it was good to meet up with some of our RV friends because no matter where you go,  they always make you feel at home.

Before we left the park we drove around a bit. Back in 2007 we stayed here for a week while we were attending our first Life on Wheels seminar. Back then it was called Beaudry RV and we had rented a CruiseAmerica Class C and spent 3 weeks driving around the southwest to be sure we really wanted to start RV’ing.

And as it turns out, we did want to.

And here we are.

Before heading home we stopped off at the Target on Old Spanish Trail so Jan could add to her bracelet collection since she still had a little space left on the bracelet holder I showed you yesterday.

She’d seen these animal style bracelet and wanted to check them out. And since she like what she saw, she came home with all four.

Getting home later in the afternoon we ended up watching a Warehouse 13 marathon on the SyFy channel. We missed a lot of episodes while we were gate guarding, so it’s nice to be able to catch up before the 5th season starts the end of April.

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March 21, 2014

Two Nights in a Row . . .

About 10 this morning we got together for a while with Don and Darlene Couvillion before they headed back down to Alvin. We’ve really enjoyed getting to know them and look forward to catching up with them either on the road, or when we’re back in this area.

Later in the morning I worked on a few chores around the rig. Then after lunch I took a look at my slide shear pin problem.

The hole in the big gear is where the new shear pin goes, but the first problem is to get the other half of the pin out. Since the gear has slipped on the shaft, the hole in the gear and the hole in the shaft no longer line up. Which means that I not only can’t put the new pin in, but I can’t even knock the old one out.

I first tried jogging the slide in and out.hoping to luck on lining up the holes, but had no luck whatsoever, even after about 45 minutes of playing with it.

Next I looked to see if I could disassemble the motor and the gearbox and get to it that way. But seeing how everything was put together, it became obvious that I would have to almost completely remove the slide mechanism itself, so no go there.

Then later tonight in reading back over some of the Power Gear docs I found buried in the text the fact that the hole in the shaft for the gear lines up with the shear pin hole above it in the picture.

So I’ll give this a try tomorrow and see how it works. IF I don’t get rained out, which is a distinct possibility. We’ll see.

About 4pm Gregg and Lynette McHenry picked up us to go eat. And after deciding we all wanted Mexican, we ended up back at last night’s (for us, anyway) El Bosque. It was so good last night that we had no problem going back again.

Jan had her same Pollo a la Parrilla.

I, on the other hand, tried the Mixed Fajitas.

Both really, really good.

Gregg had the Carne Asada, and I believe Lynette had the Beef Fajitas, and we all agreed how good it was.

Finally leaving El Bosque, we made a stop at the Kroger’s Marketplace in Willis before finally getting back to the rig about 7:30 pm.

Another great day with good friends. Just another advantage to our RV life.

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March 21, 2015

Well, I Liked It . . .

But Jan didn’t.

Several readers said they were signing up with the Good Sam RV Plus card after my recent comments. One thing I’ve noticed is that Pilot/Flying J’s are usually a good place to buy unleaded too. In many cases, they’ll have the cheapest in the area, I guess to attract more business outside their normal clientele, I.e. trucks.

For example, down in Tucson last week, the cheapest unleaded was around $2.23, but the Pilot/Flying J had it for $2.17. And with the Plus card, and its 5 cent discount, it was only $2.12. Nice.

As far as Jan and I, it looks like we’re pretty much over our colds, with just a few residual coughs every now and then. Good riddance.

Later Jan and I decide to have dinner at Dirteater Springs, a pub/grill that we’ve passed several times on Apache Trail, and always found it busy. And tonight was no exception.

I ordered a Grilled Rueben with homemade red sauerkraut, and hand-cut fries. Jan, unfortunately, for her apparently, ordered the Grilled Chicken Fillet with a Twice-Baked Potato.

Jan started out with a salad that she said was really good, but it seems like it was downhill after that. For me, I had a cup of their homemade Italian Wedding Soup, also very good.

My Rueben was really good, crispy on the outside, and oozey good on the inside, but Jan was not really happy with her chicken.

Jan hoped to redeem her meal with their Pumpkin Pie for dessert, but that didn’t pan out either. On the other hand, I had their Caramel Apple Nut Pie, which was delicious. I guess it was just my day.

Hopefully, wherever we eat tomorrow will turn out better for her.

Tomorrow morning, around 11am, we’ll move about 4 miles away, over to the Countryside RV Park, where we’ll be for the next two weeks before heading up to the Verde Valley Thousand Trails.

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March 21, 2016

Less is More . . .

At least, Less Wind is More Better.

Jan and I did our mile walk again this morning, but this time with almost no wind. Much nicer. As was sitting outside afterwards with our coffee.

I brought Karma outside on her leash for a while, but she’s still not very comfortable. Then when I put her back inside and leave the door open, she cries at the screen door and wants back out.

So then I bought her out and just held her in my arms for a while and she seemed pretty happy with that and didn’t struggle or try to get away.

While we were outside a lady came by on her walk, and seeing Karma, stopped to talk about traveling with cats, as she has one too. Unfortunately we didn’t get her name, so maybe she’ll stop back by.

After I worked on web stuff for a while, I spent the rest of the morning slogging through the truck electrical schematics, trying to make sense of them. The problem is that the schematics call parts one thing, but the text and the imprints on the panel covers call them by another name. But I finally got things straight in my head (well, as straight as things ever get in my head).

So later in the afternoon, I went back outside to follow up on what I’d learned. The first thing I did was pull out the relay labeled A/C Relay (which was labeled A/C Compressor Clutch relay elsewhere, which is what it is),

Since the schematic showed the contact was always hot, I used a jumper lead to bridge between the two marked contacts.

And heard the ‘Clunk’ of the compressor clutch coil as it pulled in. Things were looking up.

Removing the jumper, I started the truck, turned the AC on, and then replaced the jumper. In a few minutes my infrared thermometer showed I was getting 45 degree air out the vent. So now I know that part works, and I can make the AC work manually if I need to.

The next thing I did was pull out the the relay labeled Radiator Fan (which was labeled Condenser Fan relay elsewhere, which is what it is),

I now used a jumper lead to bridge between the two marked contacts here, expecting to hear something from the condenser fan, but I got nothing. Of course that could mean that the fan is dead, but I wanted to check further.

Since I was supposed to have 12v on the right hand contract I checked there with the voltmeter, and found 0 volts. So why?

Looking at the schematic it showed it should always be hot. The only thing between the 12v power bus and the relay is a 50 amp fuse that I had already checked a couple of days ago. But since that fuse was the only thing between the 12v and the relay contacts, I checked it again.

This fuse is one of those newer type cartridge fuses that I’ve run into before.

But when I pulled the fuse out, I noticed something else.The manual showed this fuse as a 50amp version, but the one I pulled out was a 40amp one. Now I know that I’ve never replaced this fuse, so I assume the first owner, which was T-Mobile, did it somewhere along the line. Or maybe it just came that way.

And when I checked it this time, the fuse was bad. So why was it good the last time I checked it?

As I picked the fuse back up I noticed it rattled, so this time I shook it slowly as I checked it, and every now and then it would read good. So I now know why I don’t have 12v at the relay.

But I still wanted to check the fan, so I used a longer jumper wire to bridge directly from the battery to the relay contact.

And when I did, the condenser fan rumbled to life, emphasis on ‘rumbled’. It sounded like it was grinding walnuts, which explains the noise I was hearing earlier.

So now that I know where all the problems are, my next chore is to see if I can change out the condenser fan without removing the radiator.

Here’s hoping.

As I hoped, Al Hesselbart, RV Historian Extraordinaire stopped by the blog to add and correct my info on the Silver Streak Sterling in yesterday’s blog.

Greg,
You did not go quite far enough in your evolution story. In 1967, the motorized division of Streamline was sold to LK Newell and rebadged as Newell Coach who made the first diesel pushers including my 1978 Newell Coach Home.

Also Byam’s time with Curtis Wright was not pre Airstream it was mid Airstream since Airstream was started in 32 and shut down by material shortages during the war and he worked with Wright for about 14 months before restarting airstream.

It’s nice to be needed.

Hopefully we’ll get to see Al again later this year.

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March 21, 2017

Better As The Eagles . . .

Oil Field Gate Guarding for Fun? and Profit

Wednesday, March 22nd

11:30a – 12:30p

Old Pueblo Rm. 4

Mark your schedule for our seminar

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Jan and I headed over to the Escapade about 11:30 so I could take a look at a computer problem that Charles Yust was having, and Jan could catch with some more of our old friends.

Then later I talked with a vendor, pricing  new window awnings for our coach. I quickly came to the conclusion that I can do them myself much cheaper. In fact for $70 I can order new fabric on line and ready to install, while if I have them do it using exactly the same fabric, it would be $170. And that’s with ‘free’ installation.

I was happy to see my Amazon orders showed up this afternoon, with one of them being a new latch for our rig’s screen door. The old one died a few weeks ago when the small flange that retains the spring broke off and let the spring go flying off, releasing the latch handle.

It took me a while to locate a new one, and that was by accident when I was looking for something else. Which seems to happen a lot.

RV Screen Door Latch

So it was quick work to remove the 4 screws, put the new latch in place, and screw it down.

Done. Now just waiting  for the next thing to break.

About 6:15 Jan and I headed back over to the Fairgrounds for the 7pm Door Prize Announcements, and then the evening’s entertainment, Woodie and the Longboards.

Woodie, et al., are both a Beach Boys, AND an Eagles tribute band. But Jan and I both agreed that they made better Eagles than Beach Boys.

First off, they were all excellent musicians, especially the lead guitar. Great licks and riffs. And strangely enough, they all harmonized as the Beach Boys pretty well. But only one of the band members actually sounded like one of the Beach Boys on his own.

And oddly enough, his name was Grant Wilson. Maybe a grandson? And with his slightly shaggy blonde hair, he even looked the most like a Beach Boy

But their second set as the Eagles is where they really came into their own. And the lead guitar really got to show off his talent, since the Eagles were much more into heavy duty guitar in their music than the Beach Boys.

And this time the vocals were much closer to the Eagle’ sound, dead on in some cases. My test is to close my eyes and just listen, and my ears will tell me who I’m hearing.

Between the two sets, they went about an hour and 45 minutes.

In fact, Jan and I both agreed that this was the best ‘non-star’ show we’ve seen at ANY rally. I say ‘non-star’ to differentiate between tonight’s group and the likes of Bob Newhart and Tanya Tucker, who we’ve seen at other rallies.

All in all, a really great show.

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March 21, 2018

Oreos and Marshmallows . . .

Not much new at work today, just the regular day to day crises and potential catastrophes.

I even had to work late to get a machine repaired and out the door with UPS.

Coming home, I got a call a little before 5pm from Brock’s Car Care letting me know that our Dodge Dakota is ready to go. We plan of picking it up tomorrow. Jan (and 1) will be happy to give Chris his truck back. Being a full size Chevy, it’s a lot harder to climb up into, especially since it doesn’t have any step rails.

A number of you have contacted Jan concerning SPAM Facebook messages you’ve received.  But it was not just FB, but also email, and even a phone call.

I got an email from Jan addressed to me, about 5 people I recognized,  and about 20 others that I had no idea who they were. And one of our blog readers/FB friends actually got a PHONE call from an unknown Jan White. At least that’s what showed on his caller ID.

I’ve contacted FB and they’re looking into this, so stay tuned.

I just finished up Nomadland, the book I mentioned before about RV’ers and how they live and work on the road. I was initially a little leery about it, thinking it was a put-down on full-time RV’ers, especially workampers.

But it was really a look inside the lives of people somewhat on the down and out, many forced into the RV life by some combination of divorce, job loss, bad economy, pension loss, or in some cases, all of the above.

Some of the subjects in the book went from 7 figure salaries down to living in the back of a beat-up van. But they all seem to have a never give up attitude, no matter what.

I was impressed by how the author got into the lifestyle, spending over 3 years following RV’ers around the country in an large old model van, rigged up for full-time living. She did the Quartzsite thing 3 times, plus worked at Amazon and harvested beets. So she pretty much covered it all.

A really interesting book.

A couple of days ago I got the notice from Verizon that the long-awaited Android 8.0 OS (Oreo) was now available for download to upgrade my Samsung Galaxy S8+ phone. Android 6.0 was Marshmallow and 7.0 was Nougat. I think I detect a pattern here.

It added a number of nice features, including camera software improvements and facial recognition encryption, among many others. The only downside seems to be that it confused some of my ringtones and notification sounds, but that was easy to fix. Now I’ll spend the next several days checking out the new stuff.

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March 21, 2019

Good To Go . . .

We were up early and out the door by 7:15, heading up to Friendswood for our yearly checkup/pill renewals with our long-time GP.

As much as we(I ) hate getting up early, we like doing our doctor’s appointments this way to get in and out quicker. Seems like as the day wears on, they fall further and further behind, so that your 1pm appointment, that you arrive for at 12:45, becomes a 2pm call-in, if you’re lucky.

But today was even quicker than usual. Although Jan’s appointment was for 8am and mine was for 9, I got called in first, at about 8:10 and then Jan was called in around 8:20. And then we were both out by about 9:15. Really quick.

I was hoping to get off my two blood pressure meds this year, like I got off Metformin last year due to a 5.7 A1c. So I had been checking mine at home, with my readings all in the 120/70 to 125/75 range. But the kicker here is that I’ve been off my two BP meds for a month now.

As happens every year with our scripts, it seems like as they get moved around the country from WalMart to WalMart following us, we always seem to lose some refills along the way.  So when I ran out, I stayed out and didn’t call the doctor for an extra refill like we had to do for a couple of Jan’s.

So I was somewhat peeved, yeah, let’s go with ‘peeved’, when the reading on their automatic machine came up with 148/83. At this point I asked her to to do it manually, you know, the old fashioned way, where you use a stethoscope and actually listen.

And when she did this, twice because I don’t think she believed it the first time, it was 121/71 and 120/70. Now that’s better.

But my doctor wasn’t completely convinced, but she did take me off the Amlodipine, but left me on the Lisinopril, and said, “We’ll see”.

So I’m half way there. And we’re both Good to Go for this year.

Though we won’t get our lab work back for a few days, we’re not expecting any surprises. And we had promised ourselves that after being so good our diets, we splurge today over at Stomp’s Burger Joint in Bacliff.

But since we got done at the doctor’s so early we had some time to kill, so our first stop was at our favorite Ocean Express car wash near our old house. They do a great job and the truck always just glows in the sunlight.

Not bad for a 15 year old truck.

Wish I could find out what kind of spray-on wax they use, so I could get some for the rig.

After killing some more time grabbing a coffee at Starbuck’s, as we didn’t have coffee at home this morning, we finally headed down to Bacliff and Stomp’s.

Now there was a time when I might have splurged with the Stomperado Challenge.

But those days are long, long passed.

Stomp’s standard burger patty is 8oz of pure Angus Beef, that’s ground to order, hand-formed to order, and cooked to order. Now that’s fresh.

So right off the bat you’re eating the equivalent of 2 Quarter Pounders with only slightly less bread. But as recently as last year, my go-to burger here was a Hog Wild Double. That’s with 2 – 8oz patties, or 1 pound of Angus Beef.

The ‘Hog’ part though, means that there’s some pork mixed in to the patty, specifically rendered bacon, so It’s not pure beef, but it really adds to the taste.

Now in my mind, I saw myself ordering my usual Double, but when I got there I realized the fallacy of that. There was no way I was going to be able to eat that much, especially since Jan and I were splitting an order of their ‘cut, battered, and fried’-to order Onion Rings. Did I mention ‘Fresh’?

So we both ‘wimped’ out and got our new normal burgers, Jan’s favorite Outlaw, with Cheddar Cheese, Grilled & Chopped Jalapeno And Onion, Salsa Picante Served On A Whole Wheat Bun with Mustard and Tomato,

and my Hog Wild, an Angus Beef Patty Mixed With Rendered Bacon And Topped With Melted Cheddar Cheese Served On A Whole Wheat Bun With Mayo, Mustard, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, And Pickle.

And of course I had to bump it up a bit with some Carolina Reaper powder.

By the end we were so full that we were arguing over who HAD to eat the last Onion Ring. But we both lost, and had to split it.

Waddling out to the truck, we said we both ‘hurt’, but agreed it was a ‘good hurt’. And tomorrow, back on our diets.

That’s about it for today. I’ll catch up with the rest of this afternoon in tomorrow’s blog.

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March 21, 2020

So Did I Have It?

We had thought about getting started on the new shed today, but it started out cold, in the low 60’s all day, and then became cold and rainy. So maybe tomorrow when it’s supposed to be in the high 70’s and sunny.

We spent this afternoon streaming stuff on Curiosity Stream, a great source of very well-done documentaries. I mentioned CS a while back when it was a great deal at only $20.00 a year. But now it’s even better. A 1 year subscription is only $12.99.

Started by the guy that started the Discovery Channel, the shows covered a wide range of subjects, from how medieval castles were built, to dinosaurs, and outer space, and much, much more.

Today we watched a really good documentary on Pompeii, excavating and reconstructing new areas previously buried under the lava and pumice. And besides all the great video, one new fact came out.

It’s that the date of the eruption, always thought to the August 24, 79 A.D is almost certainly wrong. It seems that our dating of the eruption comes from only one source, the writings of Pliny the Younger. He witnessed the volcano from across the bay, but he didn’t actually relate the date to anyone until about 20 years later. And those writings no longer exist. So what we’ve got are translations of transcriptions, and transcriptions of translations.

The new date is two months later, on October 24th. The August date had been questioned before, due to indications of autumn fruits being stored and the remains of recent fires in heating braziers, I.e. the fall season.

But what nailed it was an inscription written in charcoal on a wall. The writing, which was buried in the pumice, gave an October date about 7 days before the eruption.

Really interesting. Check it out.

For dinner tonight we flipped down our Ninja Foodie Digital Air Fryer

that I got Jan for Christmas. It’s really great with our limited counter space, because though it’s a full size oven, it flips up out of the way when it’s not needed.

When Jan was up at Brandi’s, she did Chicken Breasts breaded with crushed Pork Rinds to keep it Keto. So we decided to try it with Chicken Tenders, the only raw chicken I could find at WalMart the other day.

We dipped the tenders in egg whites, also the only thing egg-wise I could find, and then shook them in a plastic bag with the crushed BBQ pork rinds, and put them in the grill at 400° for 25 minutes, turning after 10 minutes.

And they came out Delicious. Crispy, crunchy, and tender. Turns out the Pork Rinds make a really great breading.

And keeping with the Keto meme, Jan served it with Cauliflower Rice.

Never having had the Cauliflower Rice before, I was surprised that it was pretty tasty. But since I like cauliflower, the vegetable, I guess it’s not that surprising.

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March 21, 2021

It Works!

After I got especially caffeinated this morning, I got up on the stepstool and changed out my old AC control box for the new one. Only took about 10 minutes, and that included crimping on a new spade connector on one of the thermostat wires.

Then before I mounted it back up inside the AC unit, I plugged it back in the bedroom, lowered the thermostat setting to 70° (it was 72 in the coach), I switch the thermostat to Cool . . . and waited.

And nothing.

For about two minutes, and then it started up and ran fine until it shut off. Apparently this unit has a longer compressor lockout timer than the old box. This keeps the compressor from restarting too quickly after it stops, like if the power glitches, for example, which is bad for the compressor.

This part done, I decided to bask in the glory of a job well-done, and goof off (and drink more coffee) until later.

About 1 Jan and I drove down to the WalMart in La Marque to see if the had any of the Sterlite File Boxes that we’re using to organize things in our storeroom and storage shed. They had two yesterday at the WM up in Webster, but the lids were missing.

And luckily, I found 4 in stock, and with lids. So grabbing them up, I went to check out, and found a line with a lady with a half full basket already checking out, and a couple with about 10 things in theirs.

OK, a fairly quick checkout.

But what I hadn’t anticipated was that she was apparently checking out for about 17 different people. Or at least it seemed that way.

She would put two or three items on the conveyor, wait for them to be rung up, then she would open her purse and start counting out change. Or sometimes sorting through a stack of credit cards until she found the right one.

Then she would put her reading glasses on and carefully peruse the receipt for a bit.

Somewhere in here, the young lady in front of me, turned back, and as I just shook my head woefully, she rolled her eyes.

Finally after about 15 minutes, she was finished and on her way. Now I realize she may have been buying for a bunch of people at a senior citizen center, but WalMart never seems to have enough lanes open anyway.

So maybe they show have separate lanes for 5 orders or more, as well as 15 items or less.

Just sayin’

Then it was on up I-45 to have lunch at Los Ramirez Mexican, one of our favorite local places. The place really busy, a lot busier than previous Sunday afternoons. Just as good as always.

Finally before heading home, we made a HEB stops for a few specific things that WalMart didn’t have yesterday

Getting home a little before 4pm, it seemed time for a nice nap. And it was.

After I was up, I finished the install of the AC control box, mounting it back up inside the AC unit,

and then got all the covers back on and buttoned up. Finally I turned it on and let if run for a while bringing the temp down to about 70 with no problems.

It works!

---

March 21, 2022

An Arm and A Leg . . .

Yesterday was pretty laid back, starting with lunch at Gator’s once again. Jan got her usual Grilled Chicken Strawberry-Walnut Salad,

while I got out of my Loaded Baked Potato Soup rut and got the ‘Egg In The Hole BLT Bagel’ once again, but this time with a side of Bacon instead of Fries.

Always delicious!

We finished up with an HEB stop before heading home for the day.

This past Friday morning when I was on my way into work I noticed that that Chevon station on the corner had diesel for $4.69. But by the time I came home that afternoon their diesel was going for $4.99.

Ouch!

Of course that’s not as bad as when we were on our way up the AlCan Hwy in April 2008.  At one of those little towns out in the middle of nowhere we paid a little over $9 a gallon (based on liters) for diesel.

Double Ouch!

Or it could be like this, I guess.

Had a nice surprise show up in our bank account the other day. Our $600 deposit was finally returned by Holland America. We had an Alaskan Cruise booked by back in September 2020 which was WuFlued Out. So we rebooked it for May 2021, transferring all our deposits to that trip. Which in turn, also went away.

Actually I had forgotten about our deposits, so it was a nice surprise.

Money is always a nice surprise.

I got this package from Amazon last night. Looks like it’s a little overkill on the packaging.

The address label is bigger than the purchase.

Tomorrow we’re heading up to Conroe to meet up with Debi & Ed Hurlburt and Janice & Dave Evans at the Golden Corral there. Both couples are long-time RV friends, all of whom are off the road and in Sticks & Bricks now. It’ll be good to catch up again.

Finishing up, I mentioned the other day that I couldn’t post any photos from our visit to Twin Peaks because they were too ‘cheeky’. But I found this one on FB so it should be OK.

What’s kind of ironic is that you can see more skin than this any summer weekend on Galveston Beach.

But then they’re not refilling your iced tea.

This morning I was out the door a little after 10am, heading up to the Webster area for my Dermatology appointment. It was for my second PDT (Photo Dynamic Therapy) treatment.

Jan stays at home for these treatments since most of the time is spent waiting for the photoreactive cream on my head to dry, which takes about two hours.

I still don’t know why they’re so insistent on my being there at 10:55 for my 11am appointment (I was there at 10:45), when they didn’t call me in until noon. And this was after 4 text messages over the last 5 days reminding me of the appointment.

And after all that then it only takes about 10 minutes to prep my head. And then two hours waiting for the cream to dry.

Unlike my last series of PDT 5 years ago, which look like this.

It’s now done using a red light.

But it doesn’t hurt any less, believe me.

Like a thousand angry killer bees taking it out on my head. But luckily it only last for 10 minutes.

Finished up and back in the truck, I rubbed some lidocaine cream on my head which really knocked down the burning.

On the home I stopped by the office for a few minutes to drop off some Amazon stuff that had come in, and then on down to Santa Fe and home.

When we were together last Thursday up in Conroe with Ed and Debi Hurlburt, and Dave and Janice Evans, Janice said that with all the food photos we post, she thought we ate out every day.

We don’t.

We have a schedule. Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday we eat out. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, days I’m at my consulting job, we eat at home.

So she wondered why we never posted any photos of that.

Well, because it’s pretty boring, but here you go for tonight.

Jan fixed her a Keto Pizza Bowl.

Broccoli, Cauliflower, Mushrooms, Chicken Sausage, Pepperoni, Rao Pizza Sauce, and Mozzarella Cheese.

She says it’s delicious. I’ll take her word for it.

Of I just had Veggies too, a steam-in-the-package of HEB’s Baby Normandy Blend, with Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Carrots.

I’ll still don’t know how they grow round carrots, but it is good. And yes, I use a lot of pepper.

So.

‘Old Faithful’, our 2004 Dodge Dakota, just turned 313,000 miles the other day. Still going strong, if not a little smoky.

---

Thought For The Day:

My Kind Of Place.

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March 20, 2009

Palm trees and AC’s and rope lights, Oh My!

Today was my day to work on one of our coach’s air conditioning systems.  We actually have 3 AC systems.

Coleman Rooftop AC Unit

Two of them are the rooftop units that cool the coach when we are stationary and plugged into shore power, although we can run them on our Onan 7.5 KW diesel generator if we were say, parked at a rest area having lunch.

The 3rd AC system that I’m working on is pretty much like the one on your car. It cools the coach while we are traveling down the highway and runs only when our diesel engine is running.

When we were looking at our coach before we bought it, I noticed the belt that drives the engine AC was shredded and lying on the ground under the engine compartment.  The salesman assured me it would be fixed.

And it was.  At least for a while.

Somewhere between Houston, TX and Fairbanks, AK,  the new belt disappeared.  Since we were traveling in February, March, and April on our round-about trip to Alaska, we only used it a few times and it worked every time.

Since we were coming back to Houston in the Fall/Winter timeframe, we also didn’t need it.

But this year we are going to traveling in Florida and then up the East Coast, and we’re probably going to need our AC.

I believe the problem is with the idler/tensioner pulley that keeps the AC belt tight.  But I’m having a problem getting any info on it.

Cummins Diesel, the company that built our engine says they did not install the AC assembly on the engine.

Spartan Chassis, the company that built our chassis and installed the engine in it, also doesn’t seem to know anything about it.

That only leaves American Coach, the company that took the chassis/engine combo and built our coach on top of it.  It seems to me that the AC would have been installed before they got it.

So I guess I’ll have to wait until Monday to follow up on this.

Around 4:30pm Jan and I headed out to Franco’s Italian Restaurant in Orange Beach.  Jan and I shared a large pepperoni/mushroom pizza and it was one of the best we’ve had in a long time.  And the tiramisu we shared for desert wasn’t half bad either!

After dark we drove around the park to look at how RV’ers decorate their coaches and sites.

Palm trees and rope lights are very popular as well as Christmas lights and outdoor lamps.

Jan now wants her own palm tree.

I just have to find a place to stow it onboard.  Oh, well.

---

March 20, 2010

Pawn Stars…Not!

First a correction. We have been told that the birds, that yesterday we thought were Cactus Wrens, are actually House Finches in the their mating plumage. Thanks for the update, Al.

Today we lounged around at the rig for a while before getting a late start doing the Las Vegas tourist thing.

Later, we got gas and headed over toward the Vegas Strip.  We’re big fans of the TV show ‘Pawn Stars” and wanted to see the real thing.

But when we got there we decided to try again later. There was a line out the door and down the street.

Somehow it looks fancier on TV.

We’ll try again later during the week when, hopefully, it won’t be so busy.

So we headed on down the Strip, doing a lot of people-watching.

Thank goodness, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, because some of these people shouldn’t be allowed out.

We were actually heading back to Fry’s Electronics. Jan had some more things she wanted to look at.

Fry’s is a great place to just wander around looking at all the neat toys. But after a couple of hours everyone was getting hungry so we starting looking for a place to eat.

We talked about the buffet at the Rio but neither of us was hungry enough to eat $25 of food. We used my GPS to look up a Chinese Buffet, but when we got there, it was no longer in business.

I had printed out a list of the best buffets in Las Vegas and looking over the list we decided to try the buffet at Boulder Station Casino, which, ironically, was only about six blocks from where we’re parked, so we headed back across town.

And it was certainly worth the trip. After getting our free Player Cards that saved us $2 each, we sat down to a great meal. Much better than the buffet in Laughlin Tuesday night.

After dinner we hit the slots. Jan started with $20 and ran it up to $46.50. I told her to cash out, but she said she was on a roll.

And she was. A downward roll. She rolled the $46.50 down to $0.01. So now she cashes out?

I took $10, ran it up to $15, and cashed out.

Hey, $5 profit is $5. What can I say.

About 7:30pm we headed back to the rigs and settled in for the night.

---

March 20, 2011

“Good News, I found Grandmother! ” . . .

First off, Happy 7th Month Birthday to our grandson, Landon Thomas Morrison.

I got up about 9:45, got the coffee started, and then at Jan’s insistence, set out one of our small electric heaters. It got down to 44 degrees last night, really cooling things off, and the coach was pretty chilly.

We’ve got a cold front coming thru, with highs in the high 60’s and low 70’s, and lows in the low 40’s for the next several days. We may even get some rain tomorrow afternoon.

While we had our coffee, we watched the winds come up, the dust devils roam the fairgrounds, and the sand clouds obscure the horizon.

Around 2:30 we heard from both our son Chris and our daughter Brandi.

Chris, his wife Linda, and our granddaughter Piper were on their way to one of our favorite seafood places in Seabrook, TX called “Outriggers Seafood Grill & Oyster Bar”.

Located underneath the Kemah Bridge,

Outrigger’s has the best shrimp tacos around, as well as big trays of raw oysters. Very tasty!

Our daughter Brandi called us with “Good News, I found Grandmother”.  It wasn’t like she wandered off, or was really missing, she was just misplaced.

You see this ginger jar cookie jar contains my mother’s ‘cremains’.

I bought this cookie jar for my mother for Mother’s Day when I was ten years old with money I earned mowing lawns. So I figured that it was a fitting place for my mother to reside.

But somehow, between our remodeling our house, our moving out, and our daughter moving in, then getting married and having a baby, my mother’s jar was placed inside a box and moved to the garage for safekeeping while the bedroom was being remodeled.

And when I went to look for jar this past winter, she was nowhere to be found. But now she’s back safe and sound.

When we started talking about dinner this evening, we had planned to go to Poco & Mom’s, but, checking their website we found they closed at 2pm today. Bummer!

Our next choice was Guadalajara Grill. We had passed this place several times and noticed the crowded parking lot, and in some cases, people waiting outside for a table.

Too Busy.

Needless to say, we went elsewhere and had a great meal at Marie Callendar’s. And of course delicious pie for dessert. The place wasn’t really busy, so we sat around talking for a couple of hours, finally getting home about 8pm.

Tomorrow I’m going to try to get the last of the carpet up, and figure out how I want to do the trim and the joint between the laminate, ceramic tile, and the carpet under the driver’s feet.

---

March 20, 2012

One mousy mousy, two mousy mousy . . .

or

Another One Bites the Dust.

Well, when I got up this morning I found another toes-up mousy residing in one of my traps. The two traps in the slide-out pantry area were still baited and set, but the two in the area behind the cabinets had been hit.

One trap had been stripped of peanut butter, but was still set. The other one had also been emptied, but was now occupied. So I rebaited them both and put them back in place. We’ll see how tomorrow goes.

It did get down to about 30 degrees here last night, but no problems came with it. It’s supposed to be in the high 30’s tonight, and then start gradually warming up through the rest of the week. Looks like it should be pretty nice with no rain before we leave on Sunday.

Hope so.

Later in the afternoon, I pulled everything out from under the sink and installed the new water filter that I bought in Yuma. The water flow is much better now, thought it doesn’t seem to taste any better or worse.

Jan had been under the weather the last couple of days with one of her migraine clusters. They normally run for about 3 days, and she discovered this morning that she was out of her Sumatriptan migraine medicine, so, about 4:30, and feeling better, Jan and I headed out to pick up the prescription I had called into a Wal-Mart Pharmacy earlier.

On the way, we first stopped off for dinner at Poco & Mom’s with some Hatch Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas for me and Ground Beef Nachos for Jan. And as usual we had plenty of leftovers for later lunches.  Hmmm Good!

After dinner, and picking up Jan’s prescription, we headed home with a quick stop at DQ for dessert.

---

March 20, 2013

Pizza and Bracelets . . .

This morning  was pretty much up and out the door, since we were meeting our long-time friends Al and Adrienne for lunch at Grimaldi’s Pizzeria at 11:30am. They said they’d been passing it by and wanting to eat there so this was the perfect time for them to try it. And of course Jan and I certainly wouldn’t turn  down a chance to eat at one of these restaurants again.

And as it turns out, Al and Adrienne liked it as much as we did. While we were there I was able to get a photo of the hand-built coal-fired pizza oven they use. As it turns out, the oven door is kind of small, but the oven interior is pretty big and extends to the sides.

We had a great time catching up with Al and Adrienne, and are going to try to get together again next week.

Saying our goodbyes, Jan and I headed out for some shopping before going home. Our first stop was a nearby Target where Jan was looking for a bracelet that she’d seen advertised, but they didn’t have them in stock, so we’ll try another one.

One thing kind of unusual was that as we were leaving Target’s parking lot, we heard a radio ad for Timekeepers. What made this unusual is that they are one of the big Gate Guard companies that hire RV’ers as oil rig gate guards, like we did last year. They didn’t give a lot of details, just said they were looking for RV’ers, paid $135 a day, furnished full hookups, and then a phone number to call. They really must be desperate for gate guards if they’re advertising on the radio. I guess they’re trying to attract some of the snowbirds before they leave Tucson.

Our next stops were an Ace Hardware and then Fry’s Foods for a few things before grabbing a couple of Cinnamon Dolce Lattes at the in-store Starbuck’s on our way out.

Finishing up, and under the heading of Never Throw Anything Away, You Might Need It, Jan had been looking for a way to keep her bracelets safe and sound while we travel. So I dug out an empty DVD case that I had been saving.

It holds her bracelets while sitting on the bathroom cabinet like this,

and then when you screw the cover on, they can be packed away for travel without damaging them.

Don’t really have anything scheduled for tomorrow. We’ll see how it goes.

---

March 20, 2014

Rockin’ Out . . .

I forgot to post this pic of Landon on yesterday’s blog. After all it’s not a real blog if it doesn’t have a Landon photo.

One of the packages we picked up at Brandi’s yesterday had this wine glass rack that I mounted over the sink.

10-Inch Long, Wine Glass Rack

Most of  the ones I found were too long to fit, but I finally this one on Amazon that fit perfectly in the space.

Later in the afternoon, I drove over to the rock pile behind the Activity Center to get more rocks to fill in the muddy ruts in front of our rig.

I ended up with 3 kitty litter buckets full of rocks, each weighing about 60#.

This is what the ruts looked like after the two buckets that I did the other day.

And here it is after I dumped today’s 3 buckets in

We’re supposed to get more rain on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday morning before we leave here for the Colorado River Thousand Trails. So hopefully this will keep the ruts from filling up with water like they were when we got here two weeks ago.

About 5 pm we picked up Don and Darlene Couvillion and headed out for dinner.

Our first stop was the Sam’s Club in Conroe to pick up a prescription for Jan that they were out of yesterday down in Webster. Then it was right across the street to have dinner at El Bosque Mexican Restaurant. None of us had eaten there before, but it had 4-1/2 stars on Yelp, and it turned out to be really good.

Good chips, good salsa, and good iced tea, and it just got better from there. Don had a Chicken Stuffed Avocado, while Jan had the Pollo a la Parrilla. I had a Combo plate with an enchilada, taco, taquito, and a chili poblano. All really good, especially the taquito.

Don and Darlene are leaving tomorrow morning so hopefully we’ll be able to catch up with them again.

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March 20, 2015

No Pulp vs. Pulp Free . . .

Since Jan and I are both coming off colds, we didn’t do much of anything but goof off and read this morning. We’ve been taking Cold-Eze Zinc lozenges which works for us to cut down the severity of the symptoms, as well as the duration, so that helps.

Later in the morning I put in a call to a client to see if they want to keep their domain name now that they’ve closed down the company. Hopefully I’ll hear back soon.

Then I was on the phone with American Coach and Spartan about a problem I’m having recently with my air compressor/airbags. When we got ready to leave the Galveston Bay RV Resort the morning of March 1st, I started the engine, engaged high idle, and brought the levelers up. But rather than coming up on the airbags in 5 minutes or so, as usual, the air pressure needles came up to about 80 pounds and then didn’t move anymore. And the airbags didn’t inflate either.

I thought maybe the cold, wet weather might be the problem, so after about 15 minutes, we headed out anyway to see what was going to happen. It was a little rough for a while, but about a quarter mile along the way, like a switch had been flipped, the air pressure and the airbags came up within about 30 seconds. And with very little change, it’s done this every time we’ve traveled since we’ve left Houston.

I don’t thing it’s an air compressor problem because the pressure initially comes up quickly, and once it is up, it stays up. Even when we are parked for a little while with the engine idling, the pressure doesn’t drop back down. And if we shut the engine off for 10 or 15 minutes, everything is still fine when we start up again.

American Coach referred me to Spartan who manufactured our chassis, and they gave me some things to look at, including a ‘Norgen’ valve, that apparently is supposed to allow air into the air bags, and perhaps a problem with our Manual Air Dump valve. So it’s another thing for my list.

Later we ended up at the nearby Los Gringos Locos about 5pm. We’ve eaten here a number of times, and it’s always been good. And tonight was no exception. It’s a popular place and we got there just in time since we were seated immediately at 5pm, but by 5:30, there were people inside and outside waiting for tables.

Finishing up after a good meal and heading out, Jan and I stopped off at the nearby Fry’s for some Orange Juice. We like lots of pulp, and apparently so do a lot of other people because they didn’t have much of a selection. They had plenty of ‘Some Pulp, “A Little Pulp’, and even “No Pulp” and “Pulp-Free”,  but only in one brand did they have ‘Lots of Pulp”.

But what I’m confused about is why, within the same brand, they have both “No Pulp” and “Pulp-Free”. What’s the difference between none and not any, anyway?

Coming out of the store, we could see a storm coming from the northeast, near Superstition Mountain. And it must have been really raining over there, because we got not one, but two rainbows. But it was still really only one, because we were just seeing the two bottoms of a single arc.

Unfortunately I couldn’t get it all in one shot, so here’s two.

Finally on our way home, we drove through a Chase ATM so I could activate my new VISA Debit Card. After having cards wear out and die when we’re traveling, and all the trouble getting them replaced on the road, for the last several years, I just order a new VISA Debit Card right before we head out for the year, and that seems to take care of the problem.

Tomorrow: Probably still more coughing.

---

March 20, 2016

Where’s Al Hesselbart When I Need Him . . .

We got in a walk today. With all our early morning trips and bad weather last week, it was our first one since we left Colorado River last Sunday. And the weather was just perfect . . .  well, except for the wind.

But with 58 degrees and sunny, that part was really nice. And even the wind wasn’t bad when we were walking, but when we sat outside for awhile it got to be a little much, so we didn’t stay out as long as we might have. After we went in I took my wind speed meter back outside,

Digital Anemometer

and found the wind was blowing steady between 20 and 25 mph, a pretty stiff breeze. And more than enough to make sitting outside uncomfortable.

While Jan and I were out on our walk, we passed this unusual-looking 5th wheel, which turned out to be a Silver Streak Sterling, also nicknamed a “SquareStream” for obvious reasons.

Like many early RV companies, Silver Streak went through several iterations, starting with an early Wally Byam pre-Airstream design while he was at Curtis Wright. Curtis Wright then sold the design to Silver Streak, who started producing RV’s in 1949. Then in 1957 a partner spun off a new company called Streamline.

Silver Streak was in business until the 1996-1997 timeframe when it faded away.

Of course the one guy who would probably know every detail about Silver Streak is famed RV Historian Al Hesselbart, formerly of the RV/MH Hall of Fame in Elkhart, IN. But the last I heard he’s on a permanent fishing trip down in Florida.

A little later in the afternoon I walked the garbage over to the dumpster and noticed that with the end of Spring Break the park has really cleared out, leaving a lot of nice empty sites. Hopefully things will quiet down now.

For dinner tonight we resurrected our beef stew from a couple of nights ago by adding some more veggies and extra broth to give us enough for a couple of servings. Along with some toasted Hawaiian Bread rolls, it was a great meal.

Wrapping up with Landon, apparently one Zootopia was not enough, so this afternoon, Landon and his parents were back at the theater to see it one more time.

In fact he like it so much he even took a ride on the Zootopia Metro Train.

And he also looking forward to his favorite game characters coming out in their own movie.

You’d be an Angry Bird too if the pigs were stealing all your eggs.

---

March 20, 2018

And The Winner Is . . .

About noon I decided it was time to replace the bad battery in my Garmin Nuvi 1490 LMT. The new battery I ordered came with a toolkit that was really nice on its own.

So, after checking out a couple of YouTube videos I dove in. First up, I used the green pry bar to remove the thin outer bezel. It took a little work to get it started but then it popped loose pretty quickly.

Next, using the small Torx driver I removed the 4 screws on that bezel and carefully pulled it loose.

Then I gently lifted off the screen so I could get to the circuit board and battery hiding underneath.

This let me remove these two screws, again using the same Torx driver.

Then I was able to remove the small electrical plug that connected the battery to the system and then pry it out.

I used self-stick tape to fasten the new battery in place and started to put it all back together.

Reversing all my steps, I snapped the case back together. But before I reinstalled the 4 screws and put the outer bezel back on, I gave it the ultimate test.

And it passed!

Hopefully this one will last another 7 years like the first one.

Jan and I headed out about 3:30 for my big awards steak dinner at the Saltgrass Steakhouse in Webster. Along with Longhorn, SG is one of our favorites. Always good.

One of the reasons I go there is their great Wedge Salad. And this time Jan decided to give it a try too.

The Saltgrass version starts with a 1/4 head of lettuce drizzled with their homemade Bleu Cheese Dressing, and then covered  with tomatoes, red onions, bacon, and feta cheese. Jan said it was probably the best salad she’s ever had.

For our entrées, Jan had her usual Top Sirloin and Baked Potato.

She always cuts her steaks in half the first thing to be sure it’s cooked like she wants it.

Being a Ribeye guy, I got my usual with a side of Green Beans.

Although the beans weren’t on the Sides menu, I noticed them shown on several of their seafood dishes, so I asked for them. And it was a good choice. Perfectly Al Dente and Seasoned.

Finishing up, I came across a new Windows app that you might be interested in. Every time I use Windows built-in Snipping Tool, it seems like I really just want to print the ‘snip’. But I first have to save it to a jpg file and THEN I can print from a file viewer.

But Greenshot, a free Windows download, takes care of that problem. You can save your snip to a file, print it, copy it to the clipboard, or even directly email it. A neat program. And it’s free.

Tomorrow it’s back to work.

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March 20, 2019

She Can Laugh About It Now . . .

Today was a pretty straight forward day at work, with just the same old, same old. But I did leave a couple of hours early.

We did find another replacement front passenger window for my client’s ‘95 Thunderbird on eBay, and I ordered it for him. It should be here next Tuesday, the 26th, and hopefully this one won’t get broken when they remove it from the vehicle like the last one was.

I did go ahead and order our suitcases and walking sticks from Amazon today.  We each got a set of these US Traveler Rio models, one orange and one green

I guess we’ll argue about who gets which color later.

These are the walking sticks we got also.

Some people said we really wouldn’t need them, but reviews on our particular cruise said that there are steps everywhere in these old cities, and recommended them.

I realized today that I need to dig out the license tag stickers for our RV before our test drive this weekend. The tags renewed back in November, and I put the new ones on the truck then. But it was raining that day, so I put off doing the rig’s. At least that’s my story and . . . you know how it goes.

She can laugh about it now.

When I got home about 3:30 Monday afternoon all ready for us to head up to Sugarland/Stafford for our dinner/Puddles Pity Party concert, Jan was nowhere to be found. She should have been dressed and ready to walk out the door.

Then I heard a voice from the bathroom, the shower enclosure to be specific. It was Jan telling me that the shower door latch had broken and she couldn’t get out. And had been stuck in there for over an hour.

And she was right. She was stuck good. I had to actually use a large screwdriver to carefully pry apart the door frame and the door jam until it came free. Without breaking the glass, of course.

She was actually a lot less upset than I expected, and we still made it to dinner in plenty of time, so no problem.

And she was really, really clean, too.

Luckily  the last time, about 6 years ago, that I replaced the latch, I bought two. So I replaced it after we got home from the concert.

But this afternoon when I called Jan about 1pm, she didn’t answer. Ok, no problem. But she didn’t answer at 1:15, 1:30, and 1:45. So at 1:46 I was on my way home to check on her.

I knew she wouldn’t be quite so forgiving if she got trapped twice in three days. And I doubt the shower would survive, either.

But luckily for me, and the enclosure, it was a false alarm. After she muted her phone yesterday while getting her mammogram, she forgot to turn it back on.

Better safe than sorry.

Tomorrow, starting at 8am for Jan, and 9 for me, we have our yearly physicals. Hopefully they’ll be as good as last year’s.

Whatever the outcome, we promised ourselves big burgers from Stomp’s over in Kemah for lunch, our first ones in about a year.

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March 20, 2021

Something Right . . .

Earlier last night, before I posted the blog, I checked the IRS’ Get My Payment website to see if there was any update on our Flu checks, and found the site down for updating.

So I checked again right after I posted the blog, and finding the site back up, I entered my info and found that now we were in the system. And not only was we there, but were now scheduled to get our money on this coming Wednesday, the 24th. And finally they got it right, and we’re getting the money by direct deposit.

It’s about time.

After having a nice quiet morning,  getting reacquainted over coffee after being apart for a week, Jan and I headed out about 2:30 first for a late lunch/breakfast at our local Denny’s.

We both had our favorite Ultimate Omelet, with bacon, sausage, mushrooms, roasted red peppers, onions, and Cheddar cheese. As well as fruit instead of the hashbrowns, and a grilled English muffin.

Always delicious.

Then it was right next door to the WalMart to stock up on stuff for next week.