Daily Archives: April 17, 2023
Amazon’s Camperforce No More?
Well, this morning SpaceX’s Starship Heavy launch got done to the last 10 seconds before they scrubbed the launch. They had actually figured out they had a booster pressurization problem earlier in the countdown, but let it go down to the last few seconds, using it as a further test of the system.
Next possible launch window is this Wednesday.
Last week I was working on my client’s ‘95 T-Bird. Then today I was at his house trying to install and set up a new Xfinity Flex Voice-Controlled 4K Streaming system.
Consisting of a cable box with a WiFi Hotspot and a remote set-top box connecting to the TV via an HDMI Cable
I finally got it connected and set up, but I have an idea that I’m going to be over there a lot more trying to show him and his wife how to use it. This makes 4 remotes they’ve got to keep track of.
Well, it looks like Amazon’s Camperforce program is no more. According to this article, Amazon Cuts Ties With Campers, Amazon quietly ended the program at the end of 2022.
With no major announcement, Amazon quietly ended its popular seasonal employment program, Camperforce. They’ve scrubbed their website of any mention of the program and have deactivated links for the site. Some are experiencing shock that Amazon gave the program the ax. However, not everyone was caught off guard by the news.
One industry expert said, “the writing was on the wall.” Many felt it wasn’t a good sign when the company switched to the system. The program included Amazon providing additional money to employees for campsites. In exchange, the company no longer offered assistance securing spots or dealing with the logistics.
Well, I guess there’s always Gate Guarding.
And over at the Gulf State Park RV Park in Gulf Shores, AL, one of our favorite parks, high winds rolled over a small camper and smashed it into a 5th across the street, trapping a man underneath.
You never know.
And down in Titusville, FL, where Jan and I met almost 56 years ago, a man staying at the The Great Outdoors RV Park there got his leg bitten off by an alligator
Gator Attack At Titusville RV Park
You never know.
Thought For The Day:
If a woman says, “do what you want”, do not do what you want. Stand still, don’t blink, don’t answer, don’t even breathe. Just play dead.
April 17, 2010
Poppies, poppies, poppies…
Jan and I had a craving for Chinese for lunch, so after Googling ‘Best Chinese Buffet Lancaster CA and coming up with the Super King Buffet right down the road from us, we headed out about 11 am. Turns out it was really good. Better than the place in Las Vegas. Great Hot & Sour Soup. We’ll go back.
Coming back to the fairgrounds about 12:15, we drove over to the Good Sam Rally area to get a day pass. And a lot of good it did us.
After they took our $20 ($10 each) we found out that the rally was over at noon. Seems like they could have told us that ahead of time. The schedule online said that the rally was taking place on Friday and Saturday. Bummer.
Leaving the rally we drove over to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve. It was about 15 miles out in the country. As we got closer we realized that this was the orange hills we had seen in the distance. The California Poppy is state flower of California and the Lancaster is the best place in the state to see them. And the view was really spectacular.
Note the poppies up the hillside.
Almost as pretty as the bluebonnets in the Texas Hill County.
After making the drive we headed back home about 2:30 pm.
Then about 6 Jan fixed her world-famous tuna noodle casserole and we settled in to watch the new Dr. Who.
April 17, 2011
More Landon Skyping . . .
This morning got off to a great start. First with good coffee, but more importantly, with Landon Skyping. We spent almost 20 minutes online with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, having a great time. It was obvious that Landon could see and respond to us, as he would giggle and squeal when we called out and waved to him.
He spent some time playing with his favorite toy, a wooden spoon, that he loves to beat on the floor.
Toward the end he started to show off his ‘almost crawling’ ability. He’s just about got it down. He just needs better traction.
These last two photos were taken from the videos that Brandi sent later in the morning.
These three videos show that Landon has also got a great butterfly stroke for swimming. He just needs a pool to try it.
Later, after we said our goodbyes, for lunch Jan heated up some of the El Pollo Loco chicken, beans, rice, and soup that we brought back from Mesa the other day. And lucky for us, we have enough for another meal. Their marinated fire-grilled chicken is fantastic.
After lunch Jan and I went outside to try and put the cargo bay door back on. We had removed it to take down to RV Renovators in Mesa to get an estimate on the repair for the damage that was done at the fairgrounds in Tucson.
I say ‘try’ to put it back on because we couldn’t get it to latch up. It’s always kind of picky.
I spent the afternoon working on client website stuff, then took a nap, while Jan read, watch TV, and took a nap.
Naps are nice!
A little before 5, after dropping the garbage off at the dumpster, Jan and I drove over to have dinner at the China Buffet. Pretty decent Chinese buffet for a small town.
Tomorrow Jan and I are going to drive a few miles up I-17 toward Flagstaff to check out the Montezuma Castle National Monument Indian cliff dwellings, and also the nearby Montezuma Well oasis area.
We still plan on leaving here Wednesday morning to head over to the Elk’s Lodge in Show Low for several weeks before heading over to Coarsegold, CA and the Yosemite area.
See you back here tomorrow.
April 17, 2013
Here Comes Peter . . .
Really nice weather here in Apache Junction today. A cool front came through and took things from the low 80’s to the high 60’s. Really nice.
Jan and I left out a little after 12:30pm heading for the Sam’s Club at SanTan Village over in Gilbert. But we first took the next exit past SanTan to get a good shot of the new Mormon Temple that’s under construction there.
Very impressive.
Then after our stop at Sam’s Club, we came back a different way so we could stop at a nearby El Pollo Loco to pick up some of their delicious chicken to have for meals later this week.
For the last week or so we’ve noticed this nest built on the sign for our park exit.
Haven’t seen any sign of chicks yet, but maybe before we leave.
The stop to photograph the hawk also gave us a good view of Superstition Mountain, supposed home of the fabled Lost Dutchman’s Gold Mine.
Down at the base there you can see our Countryside RV Resort.
Coming back past the park we made a quick run up to Fry’s to pick up some groceries, and finished up our trip with a couple of Cinnamon Dolce Lattes at the store’s Starbuck’s
For dinner Jan fixed a couple of her delicious Chili Taco Salads, using Skyline Chili. Really good as usual.
Later after dinner, we did a 1+ mile walk around the park, and as usual, encountered a number of these cottontails. We’ve seen as many 10 at one time roaming around the park, with probably a lot more that we don’t see.
Some people put out carrots, while Jan decided to try some of the leftover lettuce from our salads tonight.
Finally one he fits in:
While we were at Sam’s, Jan picked up a slightly larger box for Mister. It’s a tight squeeze, and the sides bulge, but he fits. Just barely.
April 17, 2014
Too Close To Home . . .
or Do You Know What Your Neighbors Are Doing?
Apparently last night there was a murder/suicide right here at the Thousand Trails park in Lake Conroe.
Based on the photos, and the fact that I heard nothing, and had the windows open, it looks like it was on the other side of the park. You can read more about it here.
http://montgomerycountypolicereporter.com/murder-suicide-lake-conroe/
Although it wasn’t announced beforehand, the park water was off most of the afternoon, but we just turned the water pump on and went about our business. Guess they were working on something.
Later for dinner, I fixed us salads, and then we heated up some of the fantastic Chicken and Sausage Gumbo that Chris Yust sent us home with last Sunday after our get-together at their place at the Escapees Park over in Livingston. And I think it aged like a fine wine. It may have been even better than it was before.
Even better, we’ve got another batch in the freezer.
And to round out the meal, I made up some garlic French bread to go with the gumbo. All really good.
Thanks, Chris.
Yesterday, Jan and I had dinner at the Rudy’s BBQ down in Spring. One of our 3 favorite BBQ chains, Rudy’s does it all right. And as usual, I got enough for us to bring home for other meals. Although it’s not a chain, I pretty much have to add Peter’s BBQ over in Ellinger to our favorite list. We’ll definitely go back after we move back to the Colorado River TT this coming Monday.
Our daughter Brandi, and our granddaughter Piper should be very glad Jan and I didn’t come across this Easter (or Halloween) costume when they were this size.
On the other hand, a photo like this could traumatize a kid for years.
But, then, isn’t that a parent’s job.
April 17, 2015
Cupcakes and Hippies . . .
After a nice quiet morning, Jan and I headed out about 3pm for some errands and dinner. Our first stop was right up the road heading into Cottonwood. I had left some keys at a locksmith on Tuesday to be duplicated, so we stopped off today to pick them up.
Then it was out on 89A to drop some mail off at the Cottonwood PO, before heading right down the road to visit the Clemenceau Heritage Museum. But we were 30 minutes too late. Despite the fact that the web said they were open until 5pm, they actually closed at 3pm. So maybe we’ll have a chance tomorrow.
When we were at the Escapade in Tucson last month, Jan ask a friend of ours, Barb Westerfield, where she got the shirt she was wearing. Barb said she got it at the Ye Old Hippie Emporium in Old Town Cottonwood,
so that was one of the places Jan wanted to be certain to visit, so we stopped off there next. Jan quickly found a couple of blouses that she really liked so she was very happy.
After that it was right down the road a little ways to have dinner at Hog Wild BBQ.
This is our second visit here, and we already knew what we were going to have, Just pulling into the parking lot and smelling the smoke coming off the BBQ pit in the parking lot.
And this was what we ordered, the Sampler Platter.
It’s a 1/3 slab (4) of ribs, 1/2 pound brisket, 1/2 pound of pork, garlic fries, two sides (we got Cole slaw and BBQ beans), and Texas Toast. Really delicious.
Even their BBQ sauce is really good, except for the fact that it’s a little wussy. But then I have some of my ‘magic’ powders that takes care of that problem.
And we had enough brisket and pork to have sandwiches later at home, probably after we get to Las Vegas this Sunday.
Finishing up with dinner, and since Barb Westerfield had given us such a good tip on the Old Hippie Emporium, we decided to check out her other recommendation, Irish Rose Cupcakes.
And she hit a home run on this recommendation too. Here’s what we got.
On the top left is my Butterscotch, with my Salted Caramel underneath.On the top right is Jan’s Lemon with her White Chocolate Raspberry. One thing unusual about their cupcakes is that most of them are available in both vanilla and chocolate cakes. Needless to say, both of mine were vanilla. Later tonight we each had a cupcake for dessert, and Jan said her Lemon might just be the best cupcake she’s ever eaten.
Finishing up, here’s a photo of my Sweetie’s pretty painted toes that I did yesterday.
Tomorrow will be our last day here in Cottonwood, at least, for two weeks. We’re heading over to Las Vegas on Sunday. Then in two weeks, we’ll be back here for ten days or so, before we head out to Illinois for our big Memorial Day weekend family reunion. Really looking forward to it.
April 17, 2016
Mea Culpa . . .
First up, blog reader Mike Rado alerted me to the fact that the story I related, about the guy destroying his company with one line of bad code, was a hoax.
When I looked at the story a few days ago when it first appeared, everyone assumed it was true. And I was in good company getting fooled, with company like Kim Komando, Popular Mechanics, and several other tech sites
And for what it’s worth, in the same circumstances, the ‘rm –rf’ command will work exactly as described.
Mea Culpa.
The promised oncoming bad weather keeps dodging all around us, with only the windy part showing up. But they’ve issued flood warnings for the Conroe area, so maybe it’s still in the works. We’ll see.
Sometime later tonight or tomorrow, I’ll start posting Greg”s Favorite Apps to the blog. I’ve already created the pages for the 12 different categories I’ve come up with. and around 80 different apps.
In the past I’ve mentioned 3D printers and all the amazing things they’re doing with them, from printing working guns, to prosthetic limbs for injured soldiers, to replacement duck feet, and even printing food.
But now here’s a 3D printer that will print a house in just a day or so. Check it out.
And even more wonderful things are on the horizon, including the 3D printing of human organs. So no more transplants with all the inherent rejection problems. Instead they’ll just print you up a new heart, lung, liver, or kidney, from your own cells. So no more rejection problems. And no more people dying while waiting on the transplant list for a matching organ.
April 17, 2017
There Was A Reason It Was Free . . .
First off, thanks to everyone for their kind comments and emails about yesterday’s post about the recent United kerfuffle. I’ll keep you updated if any thing more substantial comes along.
Early in the afternoon I headed down to the Home Depot to get a new exhaust pipe for my generator. I had called a nearby garage and a couple of auto parts places with no luck. It seems that no one really does exhaust system/muffler work anymore, except for custom work and special orders.
So at Home Deport I found a 10’ section of 1-1/4” E.M.T. conduit
and a E.M.T. coupling in the Electrical area.
I only needed about 3’ but they only had the 1-1/4” stuff in 10’ sections. I asked them if they could cut it for me to make it easier to get it home. They said No. They don’t cut pipe for you at Home Depot.
Huh?
So I took my pipe down to the plumbing area where they cut it for me in about 30 seconds.
I’ll use the coupling to connect the present exhaust pipe to the new section after smearing the ends of the two pipes with high-temp sealant to seal from any exhaust flumes leaking out.
After talking with the company about my Transfer Switch problems about a month ago, to see if I had missed anything, I ordered a new one this weekend which arrived today. You can read about it here.
Turns out the coil that controls the main contactor had opened up.
I’ll probably replace the unit tomorrow.
About 4pm we headed over to the Strip to have dinner at Jimmy Buffett’s Margaritaville, located in the Flamingo.
And what do you have at Margaritaville?
Why, a Cheeseburger in Paradise, of course!
It was delicious, but it wasn’t a Cheeseburger in Paradise. At least based on the song lyrics. I’ve put the lines together that describe the burger.
But a big warm bun and a huge hunk of meat.
CHECK!
Heaven on earth with an onion slice
NO ONION SLICE!
Medium rare with Muenster’d be nice
AMERICAN CHEESE, NOT MUENSTER!
I like mine with lettuce and tomato,
CHECK!
Heinz Fifty-seven and French fried potatoes.
FRENCH FRIES – CHECK.
HEINZ 57 – NO But I probably could have asked for it.
Big kosher pickle and a cold draft beer.
KOSHER PICKLES – CHECK
NO BEER We had a Margarita, instead.
Now a lot of people think the line is
Medium rare with mustard’d be nice
and many lyric sites say the same thing. But if you notice the lyrics list all the ingredients EXCEPT cheese.
When Jimmy was asked about this, he said it’s Muenster, not mustard. And then he said, “Who the hell puts mustard on a cheeseburger.”
A little disclaimer here: I put Mayo on mine.
As we were walking through the Margaritaville Casino on the way to the restaurant, we were given a coupon for a free Margarita if we spent $20 or more at dinner. Not a problem since our burgers were $15 each.
So, hey, a free Margarita.
But there was a reason it was free. There was absolutely no alcohol in this drink. At first I questioned why they would give us a coupon for a free one anyway. But then I realized that most people who get a free Margarita are going to order paid ones for everyone else. At $10.75 ea.
But Jan and I only ordered one to split. Which probably explains why they didn’t put any alcohol in ours.
April 17, 2018
John Wayne Ate Here . . .
Jan and I headed up to Baytown about 9:30, making the 1 hour trip going up Hwy 146 and crossing the Houston Ship Channel over Fred Hartman Bridge as we came into Baytown proper.
Jan calls this the Sail Bridge, for good reason as you can see. A very beautiful bridge.
We got to our destination a little after 10:30, and while Jan went down to get together with Rudy’s wife, Caroline, Rudy Leggett and I started looking at the problem.
The property owner has a remote-controlled gate, but he wanted to control it from further away, like anywhere in the world. So he purchased what he thought was a BFT cellular gate controller like this from a local fence company.
But after the owner had a friend install it, they could never get it to work right. It was supposed to have video from the gate with two-way audio, as well as remote gate control, all using a phone app. But the only that worked was the video, and only when standing right by the gate.
Rudy had texted me info on the whole layout last week and right off the bat I saw some problems, like this wasn’t actually a cellular connected unit, just WiFi. The cell phone versions are completely different models.
Plus they wanted to hook it up to the router in their house about 600 feet away. They had trenched in conduit and pulled 3 CAT 5 Ethernet cables through it, one to use and two spares. Always a good idea.
However 600 feet of CAT 5 does not a good signal make. At an absolute maximum, a CAT 5 ()or CAT 6 for that matter) is good for 100 meters, or about 328 feet. And that’s under perfect circumstances.
If you want to be sure you’re to have a good signal, 200 feet is a better, more realistic goal. But that would mean digging down to the conduit, cutting into it, cutting and re-connecting the cable, and then inserting two Ethernet switches as repeaters in the line every 200 feet.
And then you’ve got to get power to the switches. Now the obvious thing would be to use PoE (Power over Ethernet) switches, but the BFT manual says that’s a No-No.
They did all this because they didn’t think they could do a WiFi run, but it certainly looks doable to me . . . with the right equipment.
But all of this was moot since the gate controller didn’t work directly at the gate. And we spent several hours trying to get it set up, configured, and talking to the phone app. But nothing worked.
We even tried rebooting the box and starting over, but we were never able to even see the video. Nothing we did looked anything like what the manual said we should be seeing. So at this point I’m pretty sure there is a problem with the unit. So now the owner needs to decide how he wants to proceed.
Giving up for now, we followed Rudy and Caroline into beautiful downtown Baytown to have lunch at a local landmark restaurant, Rooster’s Steakhouse & BBQ.
Besides the good food, Rooster’s was known as John Wayne’s favorite eatery when he was in the area filming Hellfighters in 1967-68,
R0oster’s even has ‘Wayne’s Wall’ commemorating Wayne’s visits.
Hellfighters was loosely based on the life of Red Adair, Adair, ‘Boots’ Hansen and ‘Coots’ Mathews, all famous oil well firefighters, served as technical advisors on the film. And besides Wayne, the film also starred Jim Hutton and my former next-door neighbor, Katherine Ross.
Jan got the Grilled Chicken with Green Beans and Fried Okra, while I had the 2 Meat Combo BBQ Plate, with Brisket and Ribs, along with Green Beans and Fried Okra
The ribs and the sides were all delicious, as was the sauce. But we’ll have to agree to disagree about the brisket. In fact the only times I’ve had brisket like this was up North. Down here in Texas it’s called ‘roast beef’.
Only about 1/8” thick, it was gray and kind of tasteless. Next time I will get the sausage. But we will go back.
After saying our goodbyes to Rudy and Caroline, Jan and I headed home with a stop-over at Kroger’s for a few things And that was it.
A very nice day.
April 17, 2019
Wheeeee!
This morning I put in a call to the Enterprise office to schedule a pickup for 9:30 –10:30
Nirvana (her name) showed up about 10:20 to drive me back to the office in Dickinson. When I reserved the car last night, it said a ‘Ford Fusion or Equivalent’ so I was surprised to find that the Chevy Impala that I was picked up in was my rental car.
Neat!
When I last rented a vehicle last November while I was getting the transmission in our truck rebuilt, I had an Impala then too. And I was very impressed with it. Especially the pickup/acceleration.
The first time I was merging onto the Interstate I punched it and Woww!
I was suddenly doing 80!
Wheeeee!
We’ll keep it until either next Thursday afternoon or Friday morning before we leave. Our car service is supposed to be done about 10:30am, so if I wait until then I’ll have to drop it off early. But then it’s not like we’ll get much sleep Thursday night anyway.
I mentioned earlier that I was going to get a SIM card for my Verizon Galaxy S8+ for use on our European trip. But it turns out that I don’t need one.
When I called Verizon a couple of weeks ago to see if my phone was unlocked so I could use a SIM card, I found that I could sign up for Verizon’s TravelPass for free.
It gives me better access, cheaper rates, and higher data limits. So it looks like I’m good to go. I only have to configure my phone for WiFi Calling and set the Roaming conditions.
We attended the new Alvin Opry this past Friday and we’ll be going again this weekend. But at a different location.
Turns out after only two shows, they outgrew the facilities and have moved right down the street to the American Legion Hall, with a larger venue and much better parking. Looking forward to more great shows when we get back from our trip.
I had mentioned a while back that I was going to get a VPN for our trip, and had decided on ExpressVPN. But several readers thought I should be using NordVPN.
I did do a lot of research on this, especially concerning it’s use in Europe. So I thought I’d pass on this comparison that was part of my decision. ExpressVPN vs NordVPN
Tomorrow we’re going to try and get our wills signed at one of our banks, and also get our pre-cruise haircuts. And probably lunch/breakfast in there somewhere.
Wrapping up, I’ve been using Runkeeper for several years, even upgrading to the paid version somewhere along the line. But recently it has been almost impossible to use.
Despite Google Maps and other location apps immediately getting a GPS lock, most of the time Runkeeper would keep telling me it didn’t have a lock. And a little Googling showed a lot of other people having the same problem. And a lot of different solutions.
For some people turning the GPS off and back on, others uninstalled and reinstalled the program, etc. ,but none of these worked for me.
So finally I just deleted Runkeeper and installed MapMyWalk, another walking/running app. And for the last two weeks it has worked first time, every time, even tracking up inside WalMart and Sam’s.
Well Recommended.
April 17, 2021
Gators And Rainbows . . .
Well, I think someone owes me a commission. Since last night when I posted about the $290,000 ‘box’ on sale right down the street from us, it looks like they’ve got an offer on it.
So now to figure out who I need to call about this.
I did work outside on the patio area for a while, but finally gave up with the rains coming in. Plus I need some some black much.
About 2pm Jan and I headed out over to the Interstate to get our hair cut at the local TGF, though since the last time we were there, it’s now become a CostCutters, rather than a TGF.
We also hit up the HEB right next door for a few things while we were in the area. Then after we were done we stopped off at the Home Depot to get some more black much, and then a quick WalMart stop, before we drove down to Dickinson to have dinner at a brand-new place, Gator’s Bar & Grill. So brand-new, in fact, that today when we walked in at 5pm, they had just opened to the public for the very first time.
It was what they call a ‘soft’ opening in the restaurant business, where you don’t advertise that you’re open, you just let it out by word of mouth. And it seems that the word got out, because there was a crowd in the parking lot when they opened.
And the place started to fill up very quickly.
They’ve done a really good job resurrecting an old Pizza Inn.
Since we hadn’t had lunch, we decided to order an appetizer, the Soft Pretzel Bites with Shiner Bock Beer Cheese.
We ordered the small, but we got the large, so we had plenty to take home for later.
Jan had the Fried Chicken Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries.
Jan said the sandwich was really good, thick and juicy, and she loved the Sweet Potato Waffle fries.
I went with the Cowboy Burgers, an Angus beef patty, with cheese, Texas Toothpicks, and BBQ sauce.
Also really good, especially the ‘beefy’ taste of the patty.
So how did we know about this unadvertised ‘soft’ opening. Well, as it turns out we’ve known the owner for a long time. She used to be the manager of the Monterey’s Little Mexico place right around the corner. And our waiter at the Monterey’s up in Alvin told us about the ‘soft’ opening this evening. So we were there when they opened the door.
And Margie, the owner, remembered us when she was out in the dining area and stopped by to talk for a while, checking up on people we all knew. And we also got to meet her husband Keith.
Really nice people, and really great food. We’ll definitely be back soon.
And to top off a really nice day, we had this coming home.
April 17, 2022
Happy Easter To Everyone . . .
Jan and I were on our way up to Webster and the Saltgrass Steakhouse about 1:30 for our Easter dinner. And even though they were very busy with people waiting, our 2pm reservation got us seated immediately.
We both started off with our usual Wedge Salads, always delicious.
Next up, Jan got her usual Center Cut Filet with Grilled Green Beans,
while I got my fav 16oz Ribeye, again with the Green Beans.
And of course we had to close out the meal by sharing a piece of their Carrot Cake.
And here’s my favorite personal Easter Bunny.
Hippity Hop!
