Daily Archives: April 22, 2023
Yummy!
Today was lunch at Yummy Yummy, our delicious nearby Chinese Buffet, and then WalMart for our weekly WalMart Stuff™.
Came across this article recently, and it’s amazing how many of these I’ve owned.
20 Most Dangerous Toys of All Time
Some of them are obvious, like Lawn Darts.
And some are hidden like Aqua Dots,
which had the unfortunate property of giving off GHB (the Date Rape Drug) when you got them wet.
And the Mini-Hammocks and Trampolines. Though I think that the ones with the nets enclosing them are OK.
But Slip N Slides?
And who knew the Easy Bake Oven got HOT?
And that Rollerblading Barbie would start fires? In fact it looks like that pretty much any Barbie is dangerous.
And it seems that anything that contains magnets is verboten.
Now as far as the ones I’ve had –
The Gilbert Atomic Energy Lab
The Gilbert (the same people who made Erector Sets) Atomic Energy Lab seems to be a problem because it “actually contained four types of uranium ore”. Which were the little cardboard test cards that come with any Geiger Counter you can buy from Amazon. You could eat them and it wouldn’t hurt you.
Buckyballs – Magnets, again.
Cap Guns – Well, the big problem seems to be that they’re…guns.
Slingshots – It seems they shoot things.
And Yes, the Lawn Darts. (They were Lawn Dart Good)
Based on this article, it’s amazing that I survived my childhood.
Did I ever tell you the one about poking a water moccasin nest with a stick?
A not really long enough stick, it seemed.
Tomorrow is Gator’s for lunch and HEB, well, for HEB Stuff™
Thought for the Day:
April 22, 2010
Shopping Day…
Today was the first day in a while we weren’t on the go, so we slept late and took it easy.
About 10:30 I went over to the office to extend our stay here another 4 days. So now we’ll be leaving on Monday morning. Maybe.
Coming back, I made coffee and we had one of the muffins we brought home from Marie Callenders. Then at 11 am we watched ourselves on The Bonnie Hunt Show while Jan tried to catch up on her journal, but Mister wasn’t much help. He’s never met a horizontal surface he didn’t like.
About noon we headed out for the lunch buffet at Shakey’s Pizza.
Leaving the RV park, we noticed a LOT of new snow on the mountains just west of here in the Los Padres National Forest. It was 37 degrees and raining here last night. Looks like it was colder and snowing in the mountains last night. Here it is almost May and it’s still snowing in California. Isn’t Global Warming wonderful!
After stopping for gas, we headed over to Costco. It was only our 2nd time at one since we became members in Tucson. I guess you could say it’s like Sam’s Club, but different.
Next we stopped off at Albertson’s to get some things that Costco didn’t have, or had too much of. I mean, we didn’t need 5 lbs. of strawberries. A pound would be fine.
We got home about 3pm, just in time for a nap.
Yesterday, coming back from LA we stopped off at a viewing area along the freeway that looks out over Lake Palmdale and the California Aqueduct. It’s really a nice view.
That’s the Aqueduct in the foreground.
Tomorrow we’re going to drive back into LA, eat lunch at Esther’s Taco House, visit Olvera Street, one of the oldest areas in LA, dating from the 1870’s, and then drive Mulholland Dr. thru the Santa Monica Mountains, above Hollywood and Beverly Hills.
April 22, 2011
Bagels and BBQ . . .
My morning started about 10 am with a client phone call as soon as I got up. She was having problems with sending email. She could receive but not send. Turned out to be a corrupted message in her outbox. Deleting it fixed the problem.
Then a few minutes later, our daughter Brandi called to say Hi. She was on her way home early for Good Friday with a 3 day weekend to look forward to.
With all that taken care of, I made coffee and Jan toasted up a Jalapeno Cheese bagel and some great homemade bread.
About 1:30 we headed out to a used bookstore in Lakeside called The Pinetop Book Exchange.
We first met Jim, the owner, when we were here last year, and love roaming through all his great used books. We spent over an hour picking out more books to read. Just what we need, more books. We’ve already got so many to read as it is.
About 3:30 we headed over the Wal-Mart. Jan wanted to get her hair done, and then we did some shopping.
At 5 pm we had dinner at Stolen Recipe BBQ in Lakeside. Probably the best BBQ we’ve had since we left Houston, or Famous Dave’s BBQ even.
After a great meal, we headed back toward the rig stopping at Home Depot and Walgreens on the way, getting home about 7:30.
I finally got back to work on the floor heaters, and finally figured out how to put them back together. So maybe I won’t have to take them apart and clean them for another 4 years.
April 22, 2012
Out of Touch with the World . . .
or Two Flat Tires in One Day.
Wednesday, April 18th
Today was the last day of operation for our rig. So it was a busy day with all the equipment pulling out.
In other news, I had two flat tires today on the ‘dirt road from hell’. The 8 miles was bad enough, but then on Tuesday they brought a road grater in to smooth out the bumps.
Well, it did that all right, but it also traded the worn-down rocks with new, sharper rocks underneath. So I ended up with a second flat before I could get the first one fixed.
This means we’re kind of stranded here I until I can get someone to bring me two new tires. Both of the old ones have cuts in them, not punctures. Almost like someone had stuck a knife in them, so I doubt they can be repaired.
Thursday, April 19th
Since our drill rig and crew pulled out yesterday, we didn’t think we’d have much traffic this morning, but the day turned out to be relatively busy.
I had kind of expected Larry, our supervisor, to show up and tell us to move out
I tried to patch my leaky tires, but without success. Although they’re slow leaks, the nearest town is 35 miles away, and I don’t think I can make it that far.
We also found out why we haven’t been told to move. I was told by a consultant coming through the gate that a new rig on a new site is coming in next Tuesday, and should be operating for about a month. After that, we’ll see.
Friday, April 20th
Although I had the gate open about 5:45, the first vehicle didn’t show up until about 8am. Fine by me. I’ve read 6 books and four magazines since we got here last Sunday. Finally starting to whittle down that stack.
Our supervisor, Larry, showed up today to top off our diesel and water tanks, and also fix a couple of things.
The pump in our sewer system wasn’t working, so the liquid was filling up the collection tank (the small green tank) and not being pumped up into the big green storage tank. This meant everything was just backing up into our grey tank.
I had checked things out and the pump (a submersible macerator pump) had just died. It only took Larry about 10 minutes to replace the pump and test it out.
The other thing that needed repairing was our vehicle alarm bell. It’s one of those old-time gas station bells that rings when you drive over the rubber hoses. Replacing the bell unit fixed the problem.
Then later in the afternoon, we had a weather trifecta . . . rain, hail, and high winds. But our canopy and awnings all came through OK.
Tomorrow I hope I can get our tires replaced so I can get this posted. I also plan to order us a cell phone booster to see if we can get cell/Internet service with it.
And so it goes.
April 22, 2013
I Swear I Haven’t Been Trying to Buy Cluster Bombs . . .
After coffee, I started the morning by heading down to the office to pay up for the next 10 days. It’s nice to be only paying $3 a day again instead of $20.
Wednesday, May 1st, we’ll head northwest about 300 miles or so to spend two weeks at the Las Vegas Thousand Trails. We’re really looking forward to being back there again, especially since it’s cooler there than it is here in Apache Junction.
Here’s another picture of Zoe Nadeau, Landon’s beautiful red-haired 2nd cousin. Hard to believe she’s only about a week old.
Between the red hair and those blue eye, she’s going to break a lot of hearts.
About 4pm we drove over to the #1 Eastern Super Buffet to meet Ken and Paula Lougee for dinner.
Ken and Paula have been gate guarding for the last year and it was good to compare notes. Unlike Jan and I, who moved four times in four months when we were gate guarding, Ken and Paula have been parked at the same gate for over a year.
We had a lot of fun exchanging stories and experiences, and talking about the weird things that happened. They plan on being back on their gate after a month off, while Jan and I plan on gate guarding from August to November this year.
I swear I haven’t been Googling Cluster Bombs, but you know how you Google something and then the next website you go to has ads for what you were just looking for.
So this is what I had pop up earlier tonight.
I’m sorry, but who orders bomblets online?
What if I need something bigger?
Can I get a quantity discount?
Is the DHS going to be checking me out because I wrote about this on the blog?
If there’s no blog tomorrow, you’ll know why.
April 22, 2014
What’s Wrong with this Picture?
I’ve been working on the outline for the Gate Guarding for Fun? and Profit seminar Jan and I will be giving at the upcoming 54th Escapade starting May 12th in Goshen, IN. Since we gave this seminar once before, we’ve done another 3 month stint on a gate, but I’m curious what people might want to know.
So, what, if any, questions do you have about gate guarding? If you were at the seminar, what would you like to know? Leave me a comment.
With days in the mid 80’s and nights in the mid 60’s, I figured that winter had finally departed, but maybe not. By next Tuesday, supposedly another cold snap is coming thru, with highs in the 60’s and low in the 40’s, so don’t pack away your sweats yet.
Like Jan just did today. Oh, well.
At least we haven’t packed the electric heaters away yet.
For dinner Jan fixed salads, and then reheated the rest of our pizza from last week’s Grimaldi’s Pizzeria visit. Done in the convection oven, it’s just about as good as the original.
Later for dessert, we had some of the Peep Cake and Brownies left over from last Sunday’s Easter Party at our daughter Brandi’s.
Tomorrow I may work up the desire to crawl up in the bay and install the slideout shear pin. The only real problem looks to be getting the two tracks aligned so that that slide goes in and out evenly, without tracking sideways.
But then I may just decide to take a nap.
April 22, 2015
The Eagle’s Nest . . .
Our daughter Brandi sent over this photo of our grandson Landon being awarded the game ball from last night’s game.
Yay! Landon!
Early this morning, our neighbor on our passenger side pulled out, and then a couple of hours later another rig pulled in. And this one was our rig’s little brother, a younger American Eagle.
The last time we were parked next to another Eagle was at the American Coach Rally in Gillette WY in 2010. And although we weren’t parked next to them, we did find an almost perfect duplicate to our ‘Beauty’.
The only outward difference is the outside rearview mirrors. Our are chrome and mounted on the front of the rig. Theirs were black and mounted on the side.
Don’t know what year our new neighbor’s rig is, but it’s not very recent because newer Eagles are either 42ft or 45ft, and have tag axles. Not so this one.
A little later I went to apply another epoxy patch to my radiator. I mentioned yesterday that I still found a very slight seepage after my first repair. But after our 3 hours of driving around Vegas yesterday, the coolant in the radiator wasn’t down to any noticeable amount. But I added a little more epoxy just to try and complete the repair
Later Jan and I headed out to have dinner at another Vegas favorite of ours, Claim Jumper. We’ve eaten here on every Las Vegas visit, and it’s our go-to place for steak here.
As Jan and I looked over the menu, I noticed that Claim Jumper is now part of the Landry’s restaurant chain. Entirely owned by Tilman Fertitta, Claim Jumper is just one of over 55 chains and 500 locations, making Landry’s one of the nation’s largest restaurant corporations.
I was surprised to learn all the other places that Tilman owns, like the Golden Nugget Hotel/Casinos in Atlantic City, NJ, Biloxi, MS, Las Vegas, NV, Laughlin, NV, and Lake Charles, LA. And he also owns the Tower of the Americas in San Antonio. Wow!
But what really caught my eye was all the high-end steak places that are part of the Landry group, including Morton’s, Vic & Anthony’s, Simm’s, Mitchell’s, McCormick’s & Schmick’s, and on a slightly lower level, one of our favorites, Saltgrass.
When I mentioned this to our waiter, Greg, (easy to remember) he said all the Landry’s restaurants get their meat from the same supplier, and the same quality. So that by getting a steak at Claim Jumper, you’re paying a third to a half of what you would pay for exactly the same steak at Morton’s or Vic & Anthony’s a few miles away on the Strip. And boy was he right. My Ribeye was one of the best pieces of meat I’ve ever had, so very tender and juicy. Just great!
During our meal, the manager came by our table to see how our meal was, and we got to talking about our RV travels, and all the different Landry’s restaurants we’ve eaten at. Very nice man.
Tomorrow will probably be another nice stay-at-the-rig day. Looking forward to it.
April 22, 2016
More RAM . . .
Well, another day of setting up my new computer, loading software and optimizing the machine.
The new one has 12 GB of DDR3 RAM, but has room for 16 GB, so I took a 4 GB stick from the old machine and maxed out the new one. Within limits, the more RAM, the faster your computer will run. In fact, it can be one of the cheapest ways to speed a computer up if it only has 4 or 8 GB to start with.
The reason for this is that as the computer computes, it uses up memory (RAM) as it runs programs. And if you’re running a lot of different programs at one time, or have a lot of tabs open on your browser, you can reach a point where you essentially run out of memory.
And when this happens, things really slow down. So to keep running, the computer starts paging data out to the hard drive. Now hard drives are fast, but compared to RAM, they’re snail slow. So everything slows to a crawl.
And, even worse, you don’t have to have a lot of programs running at one time to have this problem. You can also run into this by running a lot of different programs one at a time.
A lot of software is not very well written , and has ‘memory leaks’. When a program runs it is allocated a certain amount of memory in a specific area of RAM. And when you quit the program, that memory is supposed to be released and available for other programs. But many times this doesn’t happen correctly and all of the memory area is not released. So over a period of time, the system has less and less memory available for use. One quick fix for this is to just reboot your computer once a day, and get a fresh start on memory usage.
So the more RAM you have, the longer this slowdown is delayed.
One of the problems I’ve run into setting up the new computer is that I can’t get the HDMI port to work. The computer monitor hooks up using a DVI cable, but I use the HDMI interface to connect up our 32” LCD TV at the front of the rig.
My old computer output video on the VGA port and HDMI simultaneously, with no switching necessary. So we just use the TV remote to change the input from HDMI-1 to HDMI-2. But it doesn’t work on this new machine.
When I plugged the HDMI cable from the TV into the computer, it kills the DVI output to the monitor. And nothing shows up on the TV either. I tried a bunch of different things with no luck.
The computer does have a way to switch back and forth between outputs, like you can do on a laptop to output to a video projector. But this doesn’t work either.
So I’ve got some more research to do on this problem.
A little before 5, Jan and I headed out for dinner and Wal-Marting. Our dinner stop was a return to the Asian BBQ & Grill, a place we were first introduced to by Sherry and Clark Bennett back in February, and a return match with Brett and Frankie O’Neal a week later. And it was just as good this time.
We started out with our usual Shrimp and Pork Spring Rolls.
Then we moved on to Jan’s Lemon Grass Chicken
and my Beef Phở, which were both delicious.
Wish now we hadn’t waited so long to return, and we’ll definitely go back in a couple of weeks when we’re back in the area.
Then it was on to Target for a few things before finishing up at Wal-Mart. It was really noticeable how much busier Wal-Mart was compared to Target.
Tomorrow I’ll start prepping to get ready to travel on Sunday, checking tire pressures, putting away stuff, and running through my Checklist.
April 22, 2017
Peggy Sue and Primm Too . . .
We were hooked up and out on Boulder Hwy. heading to I-15S by 9:15 after a great two weeks here at the Las Vegas Thousand Trails.
We were heading for our first visit to the Soledad Canyon Thousand Trails about 15 miles south of Palmdale, CA for a one week stay.
Passing through Primm and into California, we saw the Ivanpah Solar Generating Plant off to the right of the highway.
With almost 350,000 mirrors focused on 3 ‘Power Towers’ it generates as much as 390 megawatts . . . on a sunny day, of course. Really impressive.
Our one stop along the way was in Yermo, CA, just east of Barstow to have lunch once again at Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner. Located right off the Interstate, it is surrounded by two very large parking lots, not only big enough for to park our RV, but big enough to hold a decent size RV Rally.
We’ve stopped here several times before and it’s always been good, and today was no different.
Peggy’s looks like a 50’s diner, right down the waitresses in their lime-green uniforms right down to those little white hats they wore.
Jan had the Patti Page Patty Melt with Curley Fries and Cole Slaw,
while I had the King Kong Burger with a 1/2 pound patty, Cheese, Bacon, and Curley Fries, as well as a really good cup of Navy Bean Soup with Bacon.
As you can tell from the food names above, Peggy Sue’s is loaded with movie memorabilia, because ‘Peggy Sue’ and her husband both worked in the movie industry for years and collected 1000’s of items that they used to decorate the place.
They’re also known for their homemade pies, so we got a couple of pieces to go.
And if you’ve got kids there’s even a dinosaur playground out back.
Back on the road, it took us another 2-1/2 hours to make the last hundred miles, mostly due to having to cut over on SR-18 below Victorville to hook up with the Antelope Valley Fwy, just a few miles above the park.
We got to the park about 3:30 and only 90 minutes later we were finally parked. Turns out Soledad is one of those parks where they give you a map and let you wander aimlessly until you find a site you like.
Unfortunately, for the first hour every site we liked had a small red X on the pedestal, designating it as No Electric, the X being small enough that you pretty much had to get out of your vehicle to see it. Finally I just parked the RV and Jan and I walked around looking for a working site.
We were told that 50 amp was available, but what working pedestals we could find were all 30 amp, and with no 20amp socket to use my AC bypass.
Finally I called the office and asked the young lady where all the 50 amp sites were. She said, “There are a lot of them in Section ‘B’ . . . but it’s full.” Well that was a lot of help.
But with the help of another RV’er we found a nice 50 amp site with trees AND a good satellite view.
So we’re set for the week.
Brandi sent over these pics of Landon’s first hockey lesson.
Looks like he’s up on the skates pretty well.
April 22, 2018
I See Bears . . .
Jan and I left the rig about 11:20 heading up to the Katy area to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at the new Black Bear Diner there.
Although we had planned to meet at 1pm, turns out we both showed up about 12:30, thinking that we’d get our names on the list since we knew there would be a wait. And there was.
We were told about 45 minutes, but then got seated after about 25 minutes, so that was good. But what wasn’t good was the wait for our food. Apparently the kitchen was overwhelmed and it took almost 30 minutes to get our meal.
They really should have held off seating customers to allow the kitchen to keep up. This why you sometimes see restaurants on a wait, and yet there are open tables. It seems people will tolerate waiting for a table better than they will tolerate waiting for their food.
But it’s possible to say it was worth the wait. Brandi, Jan and I all got the 2 Egg Combo with Bacon, Fruit, and an English Muffin.
Really delicious Apple Slow-Smoked Bacon.
Lowell had the Machaca Breakfast Tacos, with scrambled eggs, slow-roasted beef, peppers, and jack cheese, while Landon got the kid’s Chocolate Chip Pancakes.
As I said yesterday we’ve eaten at a number of Black Bear Diners out west and it was good to see that the food is just as good as before. And Jan was happy to see that the BBD in Katy carried her favorite notepads, so she stocked on a couple.
We would have liked to have sat around for a while and talked some more, but the waiting area was still overflowing at 2:15, so we said our goodbyes, got our hugs, and headed back toward Santa Fe.
We did make a WalMart stop for a couple of things, and also to walk off breakfast. I set Runkeeper when we get out of the truck so I can track how far we walk.
One think I noticed is that Black Bear has really changed their look since they’ve moved east. Here’s what the one in Yreka looks like.
And the one in Bend OR even has bears as customers.
And here’s what the Katy location looks like.
Pretty big difference. But the food is still great.
April 22, 2019
It Feels Heavier Than It Really Is . . .
Work today consisted of more working down through my checklist, trying to wrap up as many items as possible, and be sure that I have everything set up so I can log into the computers here at the office from anywhere in the world.
Or at least anywhere in Europe.
This is because I will have to close out the month remotely, and also monitor the upcoming sale that starts May 1st.
While I was at work Jan did a trial run at packing one of the large suitcases that we borrowed from our daughter Brandi yesterday. And when I got home she was a little worried about the weight because she couldn’t lift it off the bed.
And I kind of was too when I lifted it., But I guess it feels heavier than it really is because when I actually weighed it, it was only 35#, well within the allowed 50#.
Jan’s response?
“Oh, Goody. I can pack more now.”
Yikes!
I’ll start my packing tomorrow so I’ll see how it goes with me.
I purchased my ExpressVPN today and then got it set up on my desktop machine, my Asus laptop, my Galaxy Tab 4, and my Samsung S8+ phone.
Pretty easy setup with no real problems. And it was kind of neat to pick a server in Hungary to connect to, and then hit websites back in the US.
Tomorrow evening we’re dropping Karma off at our pet sitter’s about 6:30. Our sitter is also our office manager, and she often does this for people. Karma will have her own room (a bedroom) so she can get used to her new surroundings without any problems. Since she’s pretty blind, she’ll probably bump into things for a while until she gets the layout figured out. But then she has problems here in the rig too when we move stuff around.
Tomorrow is also our last big errand day before we start winding things down for our departure on Friday.
But then there’s always last minute madness to contend with.
April 22, 2021
Big Bubba and Dino Ribs . . .
After another great meal at Texas Huddle Grille (insert obligatory photo of PB&J Bacon Ghost Pepper Cheese Burger Here)
we made a stop by the office to pick up a couple of Amazon orders that had come in. Then it on over to our old Kroger’s to see if they stocked Dorothy Lynch Salad Dressing so we could stop ordering it from Amazon. Well, they do stock it, but not the Fat Free version, so it’s still Amazon, I guess.
And while we were in that area, we checked out the location of a new burger place a friend told us about, Pop Top Burgers, and it looks like a place we’re going to have to check out.
This is their Big Bubba Burger.
It’s got a Beef Patty, Bacon, American Cheese, Grilled Philly Steak Meat, Grilled Onions, Swiss Cheese, Shredded Lettuce, Tomatoes, Pickles, Special Sauce And Topped With A Thick Onion Ring.
It looks really good.
I mean, it’s not a PB&J Bacon Ghost Pepper Cheese Burger, but then again what is?
But the place looks to be worth a try.
Coming home we made a quick HEB stop for a couple of things, plus I wanted to check out their meat selection for our first Sous Vide cookout next weekend.
Jan wants a filet of some sort, and I found a package of two 5oz Bacon-Wrapped Filets already vacuumed packed for her.
And for me I found a package of 3 Ribeye’s, also vacuumed packed, so I’ll have to separate and reseal them, but no problem with that.
For this first try, I not picking the more expensive cut-in-the-store versions, but the somewhat cheaper pre-packaged ones in case I screw things up.
While I was looking over the meat case, I came across this package of ribs.
T-Rex or Brontosaurus?
Does Fred Flintstone know about these?
Coming on home, we made the obligatory Cowboy Coffee stop for patio-sitting a little later.
