Monthly Archives: May 2023
No Grits . . .
Since they were close by Jan’s toeies appointment set for 2:30, we had lunch at Snooze once again, with Jan getting her usual Bravocado Toast.
Rather than my usual Shrimp and Grits, I went old-school with the 3 egg Classic with bacon,
and getting fruit rather than the hashbrowns. And we split an order of their Maple and Black Pepper Glazed Bacon.
So yes, I had more bacon to go with my bacon.
What’s your point? It’s bacon.
Then it was on over to High Class Nails so Jan could get a Pedicure. She’s been going her for years and even has a favorite young lady who does them.
And they look great.
Finishing up, we headed down I-45 to the Tanger Outlet Mall, so Jan could pick out her Mother’s Day present, a new, larger Vera Bradley purse.
The new one is on the left.
Thought For The Day:
A 6-year old brought home a note from school demanding a ‘immediate emergency meeting’ with his parents.
When his mother got there, she was shown this ‘very disturbing’ drawing her son had done, and ask for an explanation.
His mother looked at the drawing, and said, “It’s simple. A family vacation.
“Snorkeling in the Bahamas.”
“Did you even ask him?”
Since I know a few of you don’t make it all the way down through the Retro-Blogs™,
I thought I’d repost up here our time on our European Viking River Cruise today in 2019.
May 9, 2019
Wertheim Am Main, Germany
5/9/2019
Our Skirnir docked in Wertheim at 8:30am, and after an early breakfast we left on our Wertheim Walking Tour by taking the train about 9:15. Or a Mini-Train anyway.
And of course, as it’s been for the last few days, it was cold and rainy.
As we came down the gangplank there was a supply truck backed up starting to unload supplies, which strangely enough, seemed to be mostly made up of alcohol.
And for the first time I saw how the ship sometimes hooks up to shore power.
They would rather run their shipboard generators, but sometimes they have to use shore power for environmental reasons, and rather than try to wrestle with one really big, really heavy cable, they use 10 smaller ones.
The train dropped us off in front of the Spitzer Turm, also known as the Leaning Tower of Wertheim.
Tilting due to 800 years of Main River flooding, it was originally started in the 1100’s and added to in the early 1200’s. About 120 feet high, it once served as a prison for drunkards and “quarrelsome wenches”.
It really doesn’t tilt as much as the photo shows due to lens distortion, but it is said to be a couple of degrees further along than Pisa.
Like its slightly younger counterpart in Italy, there are regular attempts to stabilize it, with some success, I guess, since it’s still standing.
Wertheim is first mentioned as a city in 779A.D, and some of the many buildings supposedly have been around about that long, especially the ones known as half-timber houses.
And apparently the blue ones are a sign of wealth.
We made our way through the rest of the town taking in the many colorful houses and shops.
We also noticed a few of these ‘corner blocks’ that was the signature of the builder and his workers.
The date is kind of hard to make out, but it says 1595, kind of a youngster here, relatively speaking.
In the background of this city photo, you can make out the remains of Castle Wertheim at the top of the hill.
Dating from the early 800’s, the castle remains in ruins.
This colorful church has a strange history.
Originally it was a Catholic church, but with a change in local rulers, it was given over to the Protestants. Then another ruler, and it was back to the Catholics.
Rinse, Lather, Repeat.
Finally the citizens rebelled and divided the church between the two religions, and everyone was happy.
Getting back to the ship about 12:15, we saw the group getting ready for the 15 mile bike ride starting at 1pm.
Better them than Jan and I.
Heading out about 12:45 we got a better look at Castle Wertheim along the Main.
Further along we passed another castle on a hill, but bigger and more modern, it seems,
And more of the vertical vineyards, these bigger and more commercial it looks like.
About 5:00 we docked for a short time at Freudenberg to pick up the Bike tour riders, and then we were back on the way.
Later, a little before dinner, I looked out our room window and saw this.
This is the wall of the lock we were in, about 6 inches away. And it’s same on the other side, too.
At 443 feet long and 38 feet width, the Skirnir, and the other Viking river cruisers, are sized to fit in the smallest lock along the Danube/Main/Rhine rivers. And they cram in every inch they can.
Tomorrow:
Cruising the Scenic Middle Rhine ending up at Koblenz in the afternoon.
May 9, 2009
Art Deco Tour…
Today we took a drive about 30 miles up US 1 to Miami and Miami Beach.
On the way we stopped for lunch at Tony Roma’s, a restaurant we used to eat at a lot when there was one in Webster near where we lived in Friendswood.
We started at the bottom of Collins Ave. on Miami Beach and drove up thru the Historic Art Deco hotel district, past the famous Fontainebleau Hotel, and all the way up to Bal Harbour.
Driving that route brought back some old memories.
When we moved back from Colombia, South America in 1963, my mother, sister, and I stayed in a hotel in South Miami Beach for a month waiting for my father to follow us back.
A friend I made that was also staying at the hotel and I spent a lot of time roaming up and down Collins Ave.
Right across the street from the Fontainebleau was the dock site where the TV series “Surfside 6” was filmed, although the show was no longer on the air by then.
There were also a lot of Jewish deli’s in the area where I was first introduced to bagels, lox and cream cheese.
We’re still planning on driving up to Cape Kennedy on Monday for the Space Shuttle launch if the weather holds.
We’ll see…
May 9, 2011
Lindo Michoacan . . .
This morning started out slow because we had a scheduled power outage this morning for some maintenance here in the RV park. At our rig the power went off about 7:30 and then didn’t come back on until about 9:30.
Then about 12:30 Jan and I headed out to do some errands.
Our first stop was the Wal-Mart where Jan got a pedicure and I got a haircut, my first since we left Houston the first week of February.
Jan said I needed one because my hair was getting ‘fluffy’ in the back. Hey, with as little hair as I have, fluffy is good.
Isn’t fluffy the same as ‘full-bodied’?
I then did some shopping there, and as soon as Jan was finished with her pedicure, we drove over to Sam’s Club to pick up our prescriptions.
Then it was home just in time to go right back out at about 2:30 to meet Tom and Barb Westerfield at Lindo Michoacan, our favorite Las Vegas Mexican place. Usually both the food and the service are excellent, but this time just the food. I think the problem was that the first waiter took our order and then got off work. The second one didn’t know we wanted separate checks, who ordered what, etc.
But we had a good time anyway.
After the meal we drove over to pick up our mail. Jan got nice Mother’s Day cards from Brandi and Landon, and then she talked to Brandi on the way back to the RV park.
May 9, 2012
Be Careful What You Wish For . . .
It’s been kind of hot the last few days, so we thought it would be nice to have some cooler weather.
And we got it. Along with about 3 inches of rain, and it seems like about 6 inches of mud.
But it is cooler, and will be only in the low to mid 80’s for the next few days. And in fact, right now at 1:30 am, with the wind chill, it’s downright cold.
But it did get cooler.
Jan had a girl’s day out this afternoon. She and one of the gate guard wives down the road drove over to Pleasanton for an afternoon of shopping. Except for our trip from our old gate to this one almost two weeks ago, this is the first time she’s been out and about. They ate at a really good Chinese buffet called Yummy, and even brought me some home. And yes, it was yummy.
One thing Jan brought us back from Wal-Mart were some real rain ponchos. The ones we’ve been using for the last few days are transparent blue with ‘Maid of the Mist” on them in large while letters. We got them in 2009 when we visited Niagara Falls and rode the famous boats.
But I’m not sure the new ones Jan got will be any less conspicuous since they’re fire engine red.
I finally broke down and ordered a Kindle Fire the other day, and it should be in at the office tomorrow, so I’ll drive over and pick it up. It’s always fun playing with a new toy.
I also ordered a new Lucite grab bar handle from Fleetwood for our coach. They get brittle after a while from the UV rays, and ours broke a couple of weeks ago. It still lights up so I’ll just have to replace the bar itself.
I guess the rig resolved their drill bit problem. After being stuck at about 11,500 feet for three days, they were at 12,400 last night and almost 14,000 tonight. And watching the rig from here, they seem to be making steady progress.
They certainly have a lot of interesting bugs around here. One of them are these large (about 3 inches long) grasshopper/locusts? There are also a lot of smaller green grasshoppers that are everywhere.
When Mister’s outside, he’ll go over and sniff them, but that’s about it.
That about covers it for the last few days. I’ll give you a Kindle Fire review after I have a chance to play with it for a few days.
May 9, 2013
Wall, at least it got here pretty quick . . .
but it’s the wrong one.
Well, it’s the right one as far as it’s the one they said I needed. But it’s not the one I need.
And I’m not quite sure that they know exactly which mirror I have. I have looked over every square inch of my mirrors, including inside where the missing mirror goes, and there’s not a number of any kind to be found anywhere on it.
Anyway, the mirror they sent me is about an inch too narrow and about a quarter inch too short. It also has a heating strip on the back and mounts completely differently. Although my upper main mirror is heated, the lower one is not. So this is not my mirror.
Since we’re going on a daytrip to Oatman, AZ tomorrow, it’ll probably be Monday before I can get back with them.
About 2:15 we headed down to Boulder Station Casino so Jan could play Bingo. She quickly found that this is high-tension Bingo. They call a number every 12 seconds and Jan was playing 6 cards so she couldn’t look away. Plus there were a lot of side games to keep track of, too.
But it was all for naught. Here’s Jan burning through $18 of Bingo cards.
I think Jan really prefers the laid-back Knights of Columbus Hall type of Bingo like she’s played back in Houston.
‘The games last about an hour and start on the odd hours, 11, 1, 3, etc., so we were finished up about 4 and decided to have dinner at the casino buffet once again.
Then it was time to give Boulder Station some more money so here’s Jan losing $20 in the slots. And it didn’t take long. Bummer.
Coming back to the park, I stopped off at Smith’s Grocery Store gas station to fill up. Using my magic Fred Meyer’s card, it was only $3.15 a gallon. Very nice.
Tomorrow we’re taking a daytrip back down to Oatman, AZ, an early 20th century gold mining town. But the big attraction for Jan is the multitude of wild burros wandering around the through the town. She’ll be in hog heaven. Well, maybe burro heaven.
Then coming back home we plan on stopping off at the access point to the walkway that crosses the new Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge. I want to walk out on it. Jan’s somewhat iffy about it.
Hopefully I’ll have some better photos than this one from the Internet.
May 9, 2015
Old Friends and Good Food . . .
Jan and I got really excited this morning when a little before noon there was a knock on the door, since we were thinking it might be some news about our repairs.
But it was better. It was our friends Dick and Phyllis Schell who drove over from the Verde Valley Thousand Trails to make a Costco run. And since they were in the neighborhood, they decided to come by and say “Hi.”
And even better, after talking awhile, we decided to go to lunch together. Jan and I had had our eye on a nearby place called Speed’s Hanger Deli. With 4-1/2 stars on Yelp, and only about half a mile away, it was high on our list.
The place turns out to be the endcap in a non-descript office park, but inside it’s an eclectic mix of military poster art and souvenirs.
The 3 page menu has over 80 sandwiches listed, plus sides and desserts.
The sandwiches were enormous, and delicious. As you can see from the page above, all the sandwiches have military names.
I had the aptly-named ‘Fatman’, (along with ‘Little Boy’ one of the two atom bombs dropped on Japan) with grilled roast beef, capicola bacon, pastrami, grilled onions, provolone, mozzarella, and pepper jack cheeses. I then added jalapenos and horseradish mayo.
Jan got the ‘Rosie the Riveter’ with roast beef, sautéed with mushroom and onions, topped with melted Provolone cheese.
Dick had the ‘Zero’ Meatball sandwich.
Phyllis got the ‘H-111 Heinkel’ Turkey sandwich.
it was easy to see how Speed’s got 4-1/2 stars, our sandwiches were great. We’ll definitely try to schedule a trip back before we leave.
As usual when RV’ers get together, we spent more time talking than eating, and didn’t go our separate ways until after 2pm.
Hopefully we’ll get out of here and back over to Verde Valley before Dick and Phyllis leave the area. But if not I’m sure we’ll see them down the road soon.
May 9, 2016
It’s A Trap!
to quote a famous fish-headed Admiral.
Since I’ve been downloading so many updates and upgrades to our granddaughter Piper’s laptop, and since the 3G and 4G internet service here at Lake Conroe is so sucky, I was considering subscribing to the park’s new FAST WAVE Wi-Fi service.
Nobody at the park seemed to have any idea what kind of speeds I would be seeing, and there was not a phone number or email address on the signup site to ask them.
So after waffling a bit, I logged in and signed up, paying for 1 week at $14.95.
Big mistake.
As soon as I got online, I first went to Speedtest.net to check the speed. And immediately decided the service was misnamed.
SLOW WAVE was more like it. Kind of like Jumbo Shrimp or Pretty Ugly.
Speedtest showed me about 2.5 Mps, slower than I was getting at Colorado River on 3G, much less the 30 – 40 Mps I was getting on 4G. The only thing actually faster was the Ping time. It was 20 ms rather than the usual 100 ms I get on 4G. That means when you click on something on the web, it will only take 20 thousandths of a second, rather than 100 thousandths of a second, for something to happened.
Big Whoop!
The only redeeming thing, and the reason I didn’t call and cancel immediately, was that it does take the load off our AirCard bandwidth, so we’re not slowed down while the laptop is updating.
As it was, I spent a good part of the afternoon downloading about 1.5GB of 216 Win7 updates and getting them installed. Now I’m still trying to get all the drivers installed, but they don’t make it easy.
As I figured, our ‘power problem’ that we had at Colorado River has not happened here. This afternoon both the front and rear a/d units were running, so I cringed as Jan started the microwave. And . . . nothing. No problem at all.
So it’s all Colorado River’s fault.
May 9, 2017
A Two Part Problem?
After our 20° night three days ago , we had a 24° one night before last, and then 29° last night.
And we’re looking at 40° tonight. At least that’s the temp forecasted. But our temps out here in the woods seem to always run 3 – 5 degrees lower. So we could be looking at the mid 30’s tonight.
I spent most of the afternoon working on my Kwikee step problem. It was working fine when we left Los Cruces back in March, but later that afternoon when we checked in to the Cochise Terrace RV Park in Benson, the step started grinding when it extended.
And grinding when it retracted too, as well as not retracting all the way.
When I called Lippert (the now-owner of Kwikee) they immediately told me my problem was the motor/gearbox and they would be happy to sell me a new one for only $250. Right!
At least not until I’m sure that’s what it really is.
First thing I did was to drop the motor to look at the gears. Because of the grinding/chattering I kind of expected to find a tooth or two missing from either the motor gear or the interfacing one in the gearbox. But they all looked good.
So next with the motor hanging loose, I had Jan open and close the the door and listened to the motor as it ran. And it sounded just fine, with no noise beyond the normal motor sounds.
Next I pulled the cotter key and disconnected the gearbox linkage from the step mechanism so I could move the step in and out by itself. And in doing this I found that the step was binding at the bottom of its movement.
And when I scrunched further underneath the rig I found that the whole frame was slightly bent, pushed toward the front of the rig. But how it happened I don’t know. The entire step mechanism was replaced after our blowout in May 2015, so it’s just two years old.
I got my crowbar out of the truck and tried to bend the step back into alignment with only a little success. I couldn’t get enough clearance to really straighten it out, but I did make some improvement. To fix it completely I may have to remove the entire step mechanism to get it completely straight.
After spraying all the moving joints with while lithium grease the mechanism was moving a little better, so I put it back together, hoping I had fixed the problem. And it kind of did.
It was moving a lot better, but I was still getting the chattering. But now I noticed that the step came all the way out, but the motor kept running, and chattering.
So, is something causing the motor to not shut off when it should? But that’s for next time since it was getting dark. But it looks like a two part problem.
For dinner tonight we finished off the rest of the Baldy’s BBQ from yesterday. Still great. And hopefully we’ll get in another visit before we leave.
Then later for dessert we finished off the last of the Gingerbread Banana muffins that our friend and neighbor Dina Pickens dropped off a couple of days ago.
Tomorrow we going in to Bend to see “Guardians of the Galaxy” and then have dinner again at Red Robin and then make a Wal-Mart run .
May 9, 2018
Well, That’s Not Going To Work . . .
We are now the proud owner (renter?) of a 5’ x 5’ storage unit at the Extra Space Facility in Dickinson, only about 15 minutes from here. We’ll take some stuff over Friday morning and also pick up some bins.
When I called earlier today to check out pricing, I also confirmed that they did NOT required insurance like the Public Storage place does. And although I was told that the monthly rent would be $28, but I thought I’d seen it online cheaper. And I was right.
If I booked it online, the monthly charge dropped to $23. That’s $60 a year saved. Nice!
The two actuator remote controllers that I ordered for my remote dump valve system came in today, and I quickly discovered that this idea wasn’t going to work.
I had planned to use this 2 gang outlet box to hold the remote modules with 1/4” phone jacks mounted on the front plate to plug in the actuators. But I found that through I had measured everything, I hadn’t allowed for the extra protrusions. So the modules won’t fit.
So it was back to Amazon to order a larger case, which should be here Friday.
So hopefully I can get it all put together this weekend. I’ve got a handle on how I want to mount the actuators on top of the valves, but I’m still not sure how I’m going to connect the actuator shaft to the dump valve handle. I want something that I can quickly and easily disconnect so I can dump manually if I want. So I’m still chewing on that.
About 5:30 this afternoon I cranked up our Onan generator to be sure it was good to go our visit from the RV Mobile Lube guy on Friday afternoon. He’ll want to warm it up to change the oil. I was happy to see that it started right up with no problems, and about 45 seconds later the transfer switch kicked over and we were running on the genset.
One thing I’ve noticed before is that the transfer switch is fast enough that the DirecTV /TV combo didn’t even glitch, nor did the front AC. I had turned off the rear AC, because the generator stutters a little with both AC’s running until it gets up to speed.
Now I’m probably going to hear from readers that I shouldn’t start the generator with the AC running. But that’s you should let the genset come up to speed and stabilize before you put it under load. Which is why my transfer switch has the 45 second delay build in. In fact the only way I know that it has switched over is the voltage dropped from 124VAS to 121VAC, the standard output voltage for my genset.
However, though the switchover to the genset is pretty unnoticeable, the change back to shore power drops out both the DirecTV DVR and the TV. But it doesn’t seem to affect the AC or the coffee pot clock.
But at least we’re ready for the lube guy.
May 9, 2019
Wertheim Am Main, Germany
5/9/2019
Our Skirnir docked in Wertheim at 8:30am, and after an early breakfast we left on our Wertheim Walking Tour by taking the train about 9:15. Or a Mini-Train anyway.
And of course, as it’s been for the last few days, it was cold and rainy.
As we came down the gangplank there was a supply truck backed up starting to unload supplies, which strangely enough, seemed to be mostly made up of alcohol.
And for the first time I saw how the ship sometimes hooks up to shore power.
They would rather run their shipboard generators, but sometimes they have to use shore power for environmental reasons, and rather than try to wrestle with one really big, really heavy cable, they use 10 smaller ones.
The train dropped us off in front of the Spitzer Turm, also known as the Leaning Tower of Wertheim.
Tilting due to 800 years of Main River flooding, it was originally started in the 1100’s and added to in the early 1200’s. About 120 feet high, it once served as a prison for drunkards and “quarrelsome wenches”.
It really doesn’t tilt as much as the photo shows due to lens distortion, but it is said to be a couple of degrees further along than Pisa.
Like its slightly younger counterpart in Italy, there are regular attempts to stabilize it, with some success, I guess, since it’s still standing.
Wertheim is first mentioned as a city in 779A.D, and some of the many buildings supposedly have been around about that long, especially the ones known as half-timber houses.
And apparently the blue ones are a sign of wealth.
We made our way through the rest of the town taking in the many colorful houses and shops.
We also noticed a few of these ‘corner blocks’ that was the signature of the builder and his workers.
The date is kind of hard to make out, but it says 1595, kind of a youngster here, relatively speaking.
In the background of this city photo, you can make out the remains of Castle Wertheim at the top of the hill.
Dating from the early 800’s, the castle remains in ruins.
This colorful church has a strange history.
Originally it was a Catholic church, but with a change in local rulers, it was given over to the Protestants. Then another ruler, and it was back to the Catholics.
Rinse, Lather, Repeat.
Finally the citizens rebelled and divided the church between the two religions, and everyone was happy.
Getting back to the ship about 12:15, we saw the group getting ready for the 15 mile bike ride starting at 1pm.
Better them than Jan and I.
Heading out about 12:45 we got a better look at Castle Wertheim along the Main.
Further along we passed another castle on a hill, but bigger and more modern, it seems,
And more of the vertical vineyards, these bigger and more commercial it looks like.
About 5:00 we docked for a short time at Freudenberg to pick up the Bike tour riders, and then we were back on the way.
Later, a little before dinner, I looked out our room window and saw this.
This is the wall of the lock we were in, about 6 inches away. And it’s same on the other side, too.
At 443 feet long and 38 feet width, the Skirnir, and the other Viking river cruisers, are sized to fit in the smallest lock along the Danube/Main/Rhine rivers. And they cram in every inch they can.
Tomorrow:
Cruising the Scenic Middle Rhine ending up at Koblenz in the afternoon.
May 9, 2020
Whataburger, Again . . .
Yesterday as the nurse was wheel-chairing me out to the truck after my ‘procedure’, she told me to be sure and get something to eat on the way home. But when I mentioned Whataburger, she hesitated for a few seconds and then said that maybe a ‘greasy hamburger’ wasn’t a good idea, as delicious as they were.
So I took her advice and had one of the much-vaunted Popeye’s Chicken Sandwich after we got home, the Spicy one, of course. And it was as good as its reputation. Really good.
The only thing that disappointed me was the fact that they don’t offer it with lettuce and tomato. But still really good.
So, of course today was Whataburger day. And as usual, we ordered ahead and picked it up before parking over in the WalMart parking lot to chow down.
Wednesday afternoon, the Blue Angels did a flyover around Houston, visible from most of the area. I was at work, so I went out about 5 minutes before the scheduled time, and got to watch them go by.
I think I mentioned a while back that in 1970 when I was working as a DOD contractor at the MCAS (Marine Corp Air Station) Beaufort, SC, which was the airbase part of Parris Island, I got a chance to work on one of the Blue Angel’s F-4J’s.
I was a little leery being sent out to the flight line to work on a ‘J’, especially a Blue Angels ‘J’ model, since I had only worked on ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ models previously. But luckily for me, the problem wasn’t with the upgraded engines, radar, and fire control systems, the main differences with the ‘J’.
It’s kind of fuzzy now, back in the mists of time, but I seem to remember that it was the power feed to a control panel to the pilot’s right, slightly behind the ejection handle. But I have no memory what it was for.
I do remember I had to call in the Egress guys to safe the ejection seat before I worked in that area. Getting ejected like that would ruin your whole day, through I might have survived since the ‘J’ model was the first one to have zero-zero ejection seats. Well, except for being blasted through the canopy. This means that you can be sitting still on the runway and probably survive an ejection, but I would have had to be strapped in. With previous models, you either had to have some airspeed or altitude to make it out safely.
But the trade-off for pilots was that the increased thrust on the seat necessary to get you high enough for the parachute to work, led to spinal and back problems due to the G-forces on the pilots. But later models used a two-stage version where a cannon shoots you out of the plane and then a rocket motor takes over to get you up to the required height, reducing the stress.
I really enjoyed getting a chance to work on a Blue Angels F-4J, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more if I had gotten the back seat check ride the pilot had promised me. I knew he planned to take the plane up to check out my repair so I asked him if I could ride along. But their schedule changed and I missed out because they left early.
Strange as it might seem, it was not unusual for this happen. In fact along the way, I got rides in an A-37 and an TA-4K Skyhawk. And ironically, the Blue Angels transitioned to the Skyhawk from the F-4J in 1974, which they stayed with until 1986 when they moved up to the F/A-18.
Well, once again I’ve wandered off my original topic and where I was going with it.
Though it was originally scheduled for this past Friday, the 75th anniversary of VE Day, Victory in Europe Day. But because of weather it got put off until tomorrow afternoon.
There will be about 30 WWII planes, ranging from a B-25, P-51 Mustangs, a Bell P-63 King Cobra to a Grumman Albatross Seaplane, and many more.
You can see more about the Lone Star Fly-Over times, route, and the planes here.
Wrapping up, I’ve talked about Shelley Luther several times over the last few days. She was the Dallas salon owner who defied a contempt of court order and reopened her salon because both she and her 19 stylists were getting to the point they were having a problem just feeding their kids, much less paying the bills.
Thrown in jail and fined $7000 because she refused to apologize to the judge for her ‘selfishness’, for as she said, “try to feed her children”, the country rallied to her cause, donating over $500,000 to a GoFundMe account.
Plus the Texas governor issued an Executive Order, and the Texas Supreme Court ordered her immediate release after two days in jail.
And now, giving back to the cause, after paying her lawyer bills and mortgage, she also helped her stylists catch up on their bills. Then she’s trying to help with the bills of two other stylists who were arrested in Laredo for performing hair services from their homes.
Good for her. Glad I donated, too.
May 9, 2021
Mother’s Day 2021. . .
During another nice coffee-on-the-patio morning, I gave Jan her Mother’s Day gifts, (her card was waiting for her when she got up earlier). First up was a warning sign to keep potential trespassers at bay.
Next up was a repeat.
A couple of weeks ago I ordered a couple of Flamingo cups for Jan from Facebook, but they arrived like this.
The company was quick to refund our money so no problem there. But then I thought to try Amazon, and surprise, I found exactly the same cups, and for half the price. So I ordered another pair.
And of course, Amazon knows have to pack and ship things, right?
Well, kind of, I guess. Or 1 out of 2 ain’t bad.
While one cup came through just fine, the other one looked like this.
And I’m surprised that even the one came through safely, since it wasn’t even packed as well as the first order.
They just stuck the same flimsy box in a paper bag, with no padding or bubble-wrap whatsoever.
I contacted Amazon, told them to send me another one, and to pack it better this time. It’s supposed to be here tomorrow, so I guess we’ll see then.
About 2:45 Jan and I headed down to Galveston to have dinner at the Saltgrass Steakhouse there. And luckily I had made a reservation last Sunday since when we got there, there was 90 minute wait.
But we were seated immediately, with the window-view table we requested. And though they were jam-packed, our service was great, and the food was as delicious as always, starting with our Wedge Salads.
Then spurning her usual filet, Jan got a Sirloin Strip, since that’s what we’re going to try first with our Sous Vide setup.
For me, it’s always a Ribeye, medium rare.
Then as if we weren’t stuffed enough, we rounded things out by sharing a slice of the Carrot Cake, the size of which amazing.
And it’s amazingly good, too.
A really nice Mother’s Day for both of us, with Jan giving me my due, saying she couldn’t have been a mother without me.
There’s a joke here somewhere, but I’m not going there.
May 9, 2022
Could’ve Been Worse . . .
I spent most of today at work trying to configure a new computer for our Shipping Dept. I want to get it into place by this week so it can be up and going for a couple of weeks before I leave on vacation for two weeks starting on the 26th of this month.
I’ve still got to set up the two different shipping label printers (one for UPS, one for USPS), and also the weigh scale. And then finish final configuration of the UPS program itself. Hopefully I can finish it up on Wednesday.
After my frustration during my recent toilet repairs, I saw this article, Toilet Struck By Lightning, and realized my problem could have been a lot worse.
It could have been lightning!
It seems that a lightning strike came down through the exhaust vent and hit the toilet. Luckily it was a vacant apartment, but someone was scheduled to move in the next day.
So this is my problem, my poop is too old?
Effects of Aging Have Been Reversed by Putting Young Mouse Poop in Old Mice
It sounds like something that might have come out of a sci-fi novel, but it’s based on cold, hard, printed research: transplanting fecal microbes from young mice into old mice seems to reverse key signs of aging in the guts, eyes, and brains of the older animals.
When the poo microbes were transferred from young to old mice, this inflammation showed signs of reversing. When the transplant was moved the other way, signs of gut aging and inflammation began to appear in the younger mice.
Tomorrow we’re heading into Houston to first have lunch at the Katz’s Deli in the Montrose District before seeing the Ramses exhibit
at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
Really looking forward to both.
Toeies . . .
Today was a typical Monday at work, since I didn’t really do anything in my normal job description (like I really have one!).
I purchased things for my client’s home, made his quarterly tax payments, edit some booklets for his wife, and worked on his ‘95 Thunderbird.
Otherwise, not much happened today.
Tomorrow is lunch at Snooze, followed by Jan getting her toeies done. Then it’s on back down to our area for a WalMart stop.
Thought For The Day:
Since I know a few of you don’t make it all the way down through the Retro-Blogs™,
I thought I’d repost up here our time on our European Viking River Cruise today in 2019
May 8, 2019
Würzburg
Würzburg, Germany 5/8/2019
Our ship docked at Würzburg at 7am after traveling all night from Bamberg, but we got to rest up since our Würzburg Residenz and Walking Tour didn’t start until 1pm. So we had plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast and a nice lunch with our friends before we headed for the buses.
Our first stop was, of course, the Würzburg Residenz.
Originally the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg resided in the Marienberg Fortress located on a hill overlooking the Main River and the city.
Note the vertically-planted vineyards. We saw vines planted like this all over Europe, but they’re apparently being phased out due to government safety regs. It seems that the workers slipping and rolling all the way to the bottom is a real problem. So now they’re moving to terracing.
But the Prince-Bishops thought that the Fortress was just too small to measure up to their exalted position. This is what they thought was too dinky for them.
So in 1720 construction was started on the Residenz, but like a lot of these projects, it dragged on through several different rulers, and it took 24 years to finish the exterior buildings, and then another 36 years to finish off the interiors in 1780..
But it was worth it as you can see from these exterior shots.
And what it looks like from the read, out over the gardens.
Unfortunately, like many of these places, the Residenz had a ‘no photos’ rule. Now, of course, I can understand a ‘no flash’ rule, but really, why no photos at all?
And as usual, somebody’s taking photos because they’re all over the Internet, so you get to see some of those. And the place is really something.
We spent a couple of hours touring the palace, and as happened in Nuremberg, when we came out, it had gotten much colder and was now sprinkling. None of which was forecast. Nothing new, of course.
We started the Walking part of the tour, heading into town, about a 15 minute walk, first checking out the Old Stone Bridge.
The first bridge here was built in 1120 A.D., but was destroyed in a flood in1342. It was rebuilt, and, until 1885, was the only to get to Wurzburg from across the river.
Of course, when it was built, it was a pedestrian bridge, and still is.
As we walked around we came across a number of these burled trees.
I don’t know what the story is on these, but there’s nothing on the Internet about them.But they were all over the place.
Our next stop was at St. Michael’s Church.
Like many churches over here, there have been a series of churches here, with the first one dating to 1221 A.D.
This incarnation dates from 1763, a veritable youngster in this area.
As this point, as evidenced from the raindrops on the photo above, and the fact that it was getting even colder, we decided to end our participation on the walking tour and headed back to the bus. And so did a lot of others.
One last fact is that in 1895, William Roentgen, working in his lab in Wurzburg, discovered X-Rays, and in 1901 was awarded the very first Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery.
The same one that Sheldon won.
Later at about 7pm, warmer and drier, and with a nap under our belts, we met our friends for dinner.
We both started off with the Ginger Carrot Soup,
Really declivous, and reminded us of the fabled Pie-O-Neer in Pie Town, NM.
Jan had the Grilled Tilapia,
while I once again had my favorite Angus Ribeye. You just can’t have too much steak.
And for dessert, we both had the Apple Strudel.
You can’t go wrong with Apple Strudel in Germany.
Next Up: Wertheim Am Main (Wertheim on the Main River)
May 8, 2009
And Panthers too…
We got into our park here in Homestead about 2:30pm.
We had a great drive through the Everglades. Didn’t see any Florida panthers, but did see their signs.
Our park is called GoldCoaster RV Park and it has over 550 spaces. It’s got both RV sites and permanent mobile homes. Because it’s off-season for Florida we got a week here for only $100.00.
While we’re here we plan on seeing the Coral Castle, take an Everglades airboat tour, and hopefully, drive up to Cape Kennedy on Monday to see the Shuttle launch.
They say there’s an 80% chance of good weather for the launch so we’ll see.
We still don’t know exactly when we will be heading down to Keys, but sometime in the next week.
May 8, 2010
Monterey and Carmel…
We left the rig about 9 am and headed south to Monterey and Carmel, about 160 miles away.
About 40 minutes later we were crossing the Golden Gate Bridge and heading into San Francisco itself. We stayed on SR 1 thru town and on out the south side and along the ocean.
Around Half Moon Bay we pulled over to get some shots of the rocky, but beautiful Pacific coast.
There’s all sorts of vegetation clinging to the cliff sides.
A little further down the road we stopped off at the Pigeon Point Lighthouse to take a look. There’s also a hostel here. 
A little while later a client called with a computer question so I pulled over a handy turnout so I could talk safely. Jan immediately notice a vendor selling fresh cherries at the other end, so she grabbed my wallet and took off.
And they were delicious. I think this was the first time I’ve ever eaten fresh cherries. Except for maraschino cherries, I’ve never been a big fan, but these are really something. Later on we passed some cherry tree orchards along the coast.
About 30 minutes later we came into Moss Landing where we planned to have lunch. Somewhere along the line, I made a note of Phil’s Fish Market as a good place to eat, so we were going to give it a try.
When we found it I knew immediately that it was going to be good. There were absolutely no signs on the highway advertising the place. It was way off the beaten path. You had to know where it was to get there. And when we got there, it was very difficult to find a parking place.
Phil’s is located in working waterfront area, with docks, boat yards, and warehouses, and people were parked along the side of the road, in little nooks and crannies, and in the parking lots of closed on the weekend businesses.
And the food was great. You order at the counter and then try to find a open table. Although there was a long line, it moved quickly and it wasn’t long after we sat down that a waitress showed up with our food.
Jan had the Fried Shrimp and Oysters and I had the Fried Fish and Shrimp, and they were both great. Well worth the stop.
Leaving the restaurant and walking back to the truck, we passed a somewhat rundown house with a fantastic flower bed, with a little bit of everything.
Leaving Moss Landing we headed about 20 miles further south to Monterey and took a drive around the Bay. Everywhere we looked we had a great view!
This seal didn’t look too happy to have his picture taken.
Following the coast around the point we passed thru Carmel. Actually it’s really Carmel-By-The-Sea, but everyone abbreviates it. The coastal drive was maybe even more beautiful than Monterey Bay.
After Carmel we turned north and headed back home, taking the more direct Interstate route. One of the towns we passed thru was Morgan Hill, recently in the news because the Assistant Principal sent home a number of students for wearing red, white, and blue clothing on Cinco de Mayo. After it all blew up in their faces, the school quickly backed down and apologized.
Coming back into the fairgrounds where we are staying, we found a field full of large geese grazing in the grass.
Where we’re staying is really kind of primitive. It’s just a scraggy open field with about 6 hookups. We’re the only ones here except for the caretaker.
It really doesn’t compare with where we were at Park of the Sierras. But it is quiet and the power is good. 
Tomorrow is going to be a stay-at-home Mother’s Day.
May 8, 2011
Mother’s Day II . . .
Got up about 10:30 this morning, and after a Mother’s Day kiss for Jan, and coffee and a Cinnamon Crunch muffin for breakfast, I started my day.
Jan got Mother’s Day calls from our son Chris and our daughter Brandi so that made her day.
After working on some Internet jobs, I started on some more chores.
First up was to check the tire pressure in the driver’s side inside rear tire. Back in Show Low and Williams I was having trouble with the pressure dropping overnight. But now, suddenly, the problem has disappeared. Hopefully for good.
Next was the big window awning on the coach’s right side. It wouldn’t open when we got here, but getting out the ladder and fooling with it a little seems to have fixed it.
Then, last I wanted to repair the slide-out tray on my computer desk. The screws had pulled out on one side and needed to be replaced with larger ones. It took Jan’s help to hold it in place while I worked underneath with the drill driver, but a little effort got it fixed.
By then it was getting close to 3 pm when we headed out to the Mother’s Day Buffet at the Boulder Station Casino right down the road. We had about a 30 minute wait in line, but, as previously, the meal was delicious.
We got home a little after 5 to find the high winds had blown over our sat dish so that took a while to get set back up.
And the high winds were from the big weather changes we had the last few days. Three days ago we had a high of 98 degrees here in Las Vegas, and tomorrow the high is supposed to be 69 degrees.
Nice!
May 8, 2013
Getting out of town just in time . . .
Another nice night last night. The temp dropped into the mid 50’s so it was great with the windows open and the fans going. But that’s not going to last very long.
Today the high was 75, but by Monday it’s going to be 97, with 101 on Monday and Tuesday. Really glad we’re leaving for South Lake Tahoe on Wednesday, with highs in the high 60’s/low 70’s and lows in the high 30’s. Really, really nice.
About 11am I called Pacific RV Parts to order my replacement lower mirror. There was no problem getting the mirror on its way via UPS, but what did tick me off was the shipping cost.
The mirror was $20, but they charged $14 for UPS Ground shipping from California. For a 1# package! If you go to the UPS website and figure the cost for a 1# package from Garden Grove, CA to Las Vegas is $8.05, not anywhere close to $14.
About 5:30 we picked up Jim & Peri Dean and headed by down to Lindo Michoacan. Jim and Peri have been blog readers for a while and when they found out that our visits here would overlap, they suggested that we get together for dinner.
Although we weren’t able to get a window table this time, it was nice to be able watch the lights come up on the Strip as the sun went down.
After a great dinner and a lot of good conversation, we took the long way back to the park by taking a leisurely drive up ‘The Strip’ checking out the lights and the new casinos that have appeared since we were here two years ago. Jim said he really enjoyed the drive, because since I was driving this time, he got to sightsee. Glad to oblige, Jim.
We got back to the park about 9pm and said our goodbyes. We had a great time getting to know Jim and Peri, and certainly hope we can get together again before we leave next Wednesday.
Tomorrow Jan wants to try Bingo at Boulder Station Casino. We checked out the game the other day, and it was quickly obvious that they play a much faster game her than Jan is used to. They call a new number every 12 seconds and play a number of games that Jan hasn’t seen before. So she figures there will be some trial and error until she gets the hang of it.
May 8, 2014
Called on Account of Rain . . .
OK, we tried to have our coffee and muffins outside this morning, we really did. But the weather just wouldn’t cooperate. Well, it did to start with, but that only lasted until the raindrops interrupted. It stayed pretty overcast all day with a lot of rain promised that never really showed up.
Maybe we’ll try again tomorrow.
One of the things I forgot to mention the other day amidst our close shave at the Flying J over in Brookshire was that I used my Flying J RV Plus credit card.
This is a deal between Good Sam Club and Flying J, and so far it’s worked great since I got it last year. This is not a discount card like the RV Frequent Fueler card that I had for years. That card promised discounts and promised to let you charge up to a $500 fill-up on your credit card. But it seems about half the time it didn’t work,
Either you didn’t get the discount, or even more of a pain, it wouldn’t let you do more than a $100 or $150 fill-up on your credit card.
But this one is a true credit card and always works. And the discounts always work too. On diesel it gives you the cash price, and then an additional 6 cents off that. On unleaded, it gives you a 4 cent discount.
In additional, you can also charge items inside the store, and even meals in any restaurants there.
As far as the card limits, if you elect to pay the bill manually. you have a $1000.00 a month credit limit. And if you let them do an automatic withdrawal from your account, you have a $2000.00 limit per month.
Since I don’t let anyone pull money out of my account, I find the $1000 limit works fine for me.
Check it out.
Later in the afternoon, Jan baked up a big batch of Pumpkin Spice cookies. Even the smell drifting through the coach was delicious.
For dinner we heated up the leftovers from our visit to Ichibon last night. And we made it any better by adding Sriracha sauce and some of the special hot sauce from Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro, which by the way, we’ll be eating at tomorrow night.
Tomorrow morning we’ll head back down to the Clear Lake for Jan’s oncology visit, which will hopefully finish things up.
May 8, 2015
Well, As They Say . . .
No News is No News.
And that’s what we got today. Zip, Zero, Nada.
In fact we never even saw anyone from the service department at all today. I kind of wondered if maybe they take a half day off on Friday afternoon. And I don’t expect much this weekend either.
About 5pm Jan and I headed out for dinner, with a first stop at the Fry’s right across the street for a few groceries. Then it was on to BiGA Café (yes, that’s the way they spell it) over on Miller Valley Rd, just a few miles away.
At first glance, it doesn’t seem to be big enough to be a restaurant. Or at second glance, either. It’s small, with only 8 tables that seat 28 folks, with another 5 stools at the bar. And they were all filled when we got there.
But the 4-1/2 stars on Yelp with 46 reviews explains why they’re so busy. The menu is American comfort food, with a flair.
The menu explains that ‘biga’ is an ingredient used in Italian bread making, that makes the bread more ‘complex’. Not really sure what that means, but the homemade bread that they use in their sandwiches tells the story.
Their menu partially changes every week, and actually everyday as they cross things off when they run out.
Jan had the BLT with Cheddar cheese and Basil Mayo. I would have gotten a picture, but while I was taking the photo of my sandwich, she started eating hers because she said it looked so good.
;I got the Pastrami Reuben on Rye with the Green Chile Mac N Cheese, while Jan got the Potato Salad with hers. Although it’s hard to tell from the photo, these bread slices are a good bit bigger than a standard bread slice, so it makes for a heck of a sandwich.
I tried to order a cup of the Chicken and Sausage Gumbo but they ran out a few minutes earlier. Bummer. It looked really good.
We split our side dishes so each of us got some of both, And both were good, especially the Green Chili Mac N Cheese. Although it looks kind of plain in the photo, ;it was delicious, not really hot or spicy, but the green chili flavor really came through.
For dessert Jan and I split an order of their Salted Caramel Bread Pudding, and I think we got just about the last piece of it too. And I’m really glad we did,
It was really great. Ranks right up there with the Krispy Kreme Bread Pudding at Lulu’s in Gulf Shores, AL.
Tomorrow, who knows. I may start trying to trace out the shredded wire bundle, mostly out of boredom, and wanting to get something moving here.
May 8, 2016
Time Heals All Wounds . . .
and Internet Connections?
First up, night owls and early risers may have noticed that I didn’t upload the blog last night as usual. Don’t know what problem was, my blog writer program couldn’t connect to the blog server. But it worked fine this morning about 7am.
Jan and I were both up at our usual travel-day 6:30 am, and pretty much ready to roll by about 7:45. But we wanted to make our regular visit to have the breakfast buffet at Schobel’s Restaurant down in Columbus.
But they usually don’t have the buffet set up until about 8:30, so we waited to until about 8:15 to leave the rig.
It’s hard to believe they can put together this good of a buffet for only $7.95. Scrambled eggs, (or you can order them the way you want them. No extra charge.), potatoes and onions, grits, crispy bacon, patty sausage, link sausage, grilled ham, chicken fried something (pork, chicken, or steak. It varies), sausage gravy, biscuits, and bread pudding.
Really good.
Back at the rig, we were hitched up and leaving the park by 10am. The trip was pretty uneventful except for the usual windy conditions. And as usual, it’s always a headwind.
Out on I-10 my Silverleaf was showing about 7.5 mpg doing 60 mph. But as soon as we got passed Katy and into Houston proper, the wind starts to be blocked by all the buildings and our mpg started to creep up. And by the time we got around to heading north on I-45 I was showing 8.7 mpg.
We pulled into the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails about 12:15, got a nice site in the ‘E’ ring, and got set up. Then my problems began.
I could not get my computer to connect to anything. Or well, it would connect. It just showed No Internet Access. Zip, Zero, Nada. No matter whether I was using a direct Ethernet connection to my Cradlepoint router, or connecting by Wi-Fi.
So my thought was a problem with the Cradlepoint. But then I found that my Galaxy Tab could connect just fine. So next I hotspotted my Galaxy S5 phone and connected the computer to it via Wi-Fi. Still No Internet Access.
But again, the Tab connected to the phone just fine. So it was obviously the computer. But it worked fine before we left Colorado River. But then I remembered.
I’ve learned to always shutdown the computer the night before we travel, because a number of times in the past, I’ve shut down right before we were ready to leave, and then saw –
Installing Update 1 of 55.
Do Not Turn Your Computer Off.
Crap!
So I shut the computer off the night before. Which I did last night. But when I shut down this morning, I got the Installing Update 1 of 1.
But it only took a couple of minutes, and it was done. So maybe this was the culprit. But until I could get online, I couldn’t find out what this morning’s update was for.
So next step was to invoke the connection troubleshooting functions built in to Windows. So that that point I started on another project.
The HD in our granddaughter Piper’s HP laptop had died (that seems to be going around a lot lately) and I was going to replace it with a new one, and then re-install Windows 7, which it had originally, and then upgrade it to Windows 10.
I can’t go directly to Win10 because I only have a product key for Win7. So I have to do that one first, and then I can do the ‘free’ upgrade to 10.
So after I got the laptop apart, the old drive out, the new one in, and was installing Win7 from the USB stick, I happened to look over at my computer monitor and it was showing a website.
So I guess either the troubleshooting routine found the problem and fixed it, or it fixed itself. Either way it was working.
Well, working except for the crappy Internet service in Conroe. It seems to get worse every time we come.
Back at Colorado River, with the recent XLTE upgrade, I was showing about 45 Mps on 4G and about 2.75 Mps on 3G. But here today, I’m showing only about 1.15 Mps on 4G. I’m afraid to look at 3G.
If I was even more paranoid than I actually am, I might think it’s a conspiracy to force us to use the park’s new FastWave Wi-Fi system for $3.95 a day, or $14.95 a week.
They wouldn’t be that sneaky, would they?
About 4:30 we drove over to Culver’s for Jan’s Mother’s Day dinner. It’s not that I’m not cheap, I am. But’s it’s what she wanted, and we avoided the crowds.
Then it was on to Wal-Mart for a few things, and Starbuck’s on the way home for a couple of Cinnamon Dolce Lattes.
Unfortunately, our new favorite Smoked Butterscotch flavor is no more.
May 8, 2017
That’s Karma, Not Emma . . .
OK. Despite what yesterday’s blog said, it’s Karma, not Emma.
I guess my only excuse is that for the first year we kept calling her Emma out of habit, and she wore one of Emma’s old tags, because it did have our phone number on it.
And of course, both names end with ‘ma’. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
We finally did get Karma her own tag at the Escapade back in March, when we had the Two Crazy Ladies make one for her.
Later in the morning our next door neighbor came by with some delicious homemade Gingerbread Banana muffins.
And we know they were delicious because we each had one for lunch. While she was here we made plans to have dinner down in La Pine at the Cinco de Mayo Mexican Restaurant sometime later in the week.
Next up was to see if I could get the bracket down that holds our Sony rear camera monitor. And by taking the TV and the DirecTV DVR I was able to finally get that last screw out.
And in doing so, I may have discovered where the noise is coming from. The bracket was cracked through two of the five screw holes which may be causing the ‘popping’ sound as we drive.
But I thought I’d go ahead and try to shockproof everything by cutting up a large rubber washer and placing it between the bracket and the overhead panel.
Then I put smaller rubber washers between the monitor and the bracket.
Then I put it all back together. But of course I won’t know if my fix works until we’re back on the road on May 17th. If doesn’t work I’ll probably have to have the bracket cracks tack-welded. But we’ll see.
About 3:30 we headed into Bend to have dinner at Baldy’s BBQ, another of our favorite local places. But first we made a detour by the local Dodge dealer to try and get a new coolant recovery tank cap, but no luck. They didn’t have them in stock.
Getting to Baldy’s I was planning to order their delicious ribeye, so I was disappointed to find out that they no longer offer it on the menu.
So Jan and I went to their strength. It is a BBQ place after all.
Jan got the full rack of ribs with Fries, Beans, and Mac N Cheese.
I went with the BBQ Combo with Beef Brisket, Pulled Pork, and Smoked Ham, along with Salad, Beans, and Corn Pudding.
All really, really good, and of course, plenty of leftovers.
Coming home about 6:30 we stopped off in Sunriver to get a car wash. As usual when we’re in the mountains and are using the PacBrake we got a fine mist of oil on the truck due to blow-by. Unfortunately the car wash didn’t do a very good job so I guess I’ll have to redo it by hand.
Tomorrow I’m going to pull the motor out of the rig step and see if I can figure out what the grinding noise is, and if I can fix it.
May 8, 2018
Nicer Than I Expected . . .
Jan and I headed out about 1pm with our first stop at the Monterey’s up in Alvin for lunch, Jan getting her usual Chicken Ixtapa,
and my big bowl of their great Chicken Tortilla Soup,
the Chicken Tortilla Soup that all others are compared to.
Then we headed back down Hwy 6 and then FM517 to check out storage units. For a long time, before and after we started RV’ing, we had a large storage unit, at 10’ x 25’. It started out as a temporary storage area for our furniture while we were remodeling our house in the mid-90’s. And then it just hung on like a bad cold.
But this time we’re downscaling, probably to a 5’ x 5’ unit, the smallest size they seem to have, at least around here. What we’re looking for is a place to off-load seasonal stuff like our electric heaters, winter quilts and clothes, and then stuff we don’t need unless we’re traveling, like our Brake Buddy braking system.
At first I was thinking about getting 3 of those large plastic shelving units, which would run about $90 and then we’d stack plastic storage bins on them. But then I realized that if we’re just stacking the bins, what do we need shelves for?
The first place we tried, and the one we’re most likely to use, the clerk was at lunch, so we’ll have to check back. But according to their website, a 5’ x 5’ would be $23 per month. Not a bad price, I guess.
Heading up I-45, Jan remembered that there was one of those multi-story Public Storage places at the Victory Lakes exit so we decided to take a look.
Turned out to be about what I expected. Well, except for the price or prices. First off, the price was $42 per month. But then there’s the $25 lock purchase fee, one time only though. And of course you’re required to have insurance on your contents. Which runs a minimum of $11 per month. And then there’s first and last month’s rent.
I’ve rented apartments with less trouble. So we’ll check out the $23 place later this week. Hopefully it’s priced a little more reasonably.
Then it was on to WalMart to pick up new prescription for Jan that got updated after her blood work the other day, and a few other things.
Next up I stopped off at my clients to pick up an Amazon package that had come in this morning. It seems like I’m always looking for a screw, or nut, or bolt, digging through drawers and bins. So when I saw this assortment on Amazon I thought I’d give it a shot. And it’s really nicer than I expected.
It’s a 1300 piece set of SAE bolts, nuts, and washers, metric bolts, nuts, and washers, and an assortment of metal and wood screws, packed in three nice trays that combine into one case.
Deluxe Hardware Assortment
Check it out.
Finishing up, we made a last stop at Harbor Freight for a set of set drill bits for my remote dump valve project. Then it was home about 6pm.
A very nice day.
May 8, 2019
Würzburg
Würzburg, Germany 5/8/2019
Our ship docked at Würzburg at 7am after traveling all night from Bamberg, but we got to rest up since our Würzburg Residenz and Walking Tour didn’t start until 1pm. So we had plenty of time for a leisurely breakfast and a nice lunch with our friends before we headed for the buses.
Our first stop was, of course, the Würzburg Residenz.
Originally the Prince-Bishops of Würzburg resided in the Marienberg Fortress located on a hill overlooking the Main River and the city.
Note the vertically-planted vineyards. We saw vines planted like this all over Europe, but they’re apparently being phased out due to government safety regs. It seems that the workers slipping and rolling all the way to the bottom is a real problem. So now they’re moving to terracing.
But the Prince-Bishops thought that the Fortress was just too small to measure up to their exalted position. This is what they thought was too dinky for them.
So in 1720 construction was started on the Residenz, but like a lot of these projects, it dragged on through several different rulers, and it took 24 years to finish the exterior buildings, and then another 36 years to finish off the interiors in 1780..
But it was worth it as you can see from these exterior shots.
And what it looks like from the read, out over the gardens.
Unfortunately, like many of these places, the Residenz had a ‘no photos’ rule. Now, of course, I can understand a ‘no flash’ rule, but really, why no photos at all?
And as usual, somebody’s taking photos because they’re all over the Internet, so you get to see some of those. And the place is really something.
We spent a couple of hours touring the palace, and as happened in Nuremberg, when we came out, it had gotten much colder and was now sprinkling. None of which was forecast. Nothing new, of course.
We started the Walking part of the tour, heading into town, about a 15 minute walk, first checking out the Old Stone Bridge.
The first bridge here was built in 1120 A.D., but was destroyed in a flood in 1342. It was rebuilt, and, until 1885, was the only to get to Wurzburg from across the river.
Of course, when it was built, it was a pedestrian bridge, and still is.
As we walked around we came across a number of these burled trees.
I don’t know what the story is on these, but there’s nothing on the Internet about them.But they were all over the place.
Our next stop was at St. Michael’s Church.
Like many churches over here, there have been a series of churches here, with the first one dating to 1221 A.D.
This incarnation dates from 1763, a veritable youngster in this area.
As this point, as evidenced from the raindrops on the photo above, and the fact that it was getting even colder, we decided to end our participation on the walking tour and headed back to the bus. And so did a lot of others.
One last fact is that in 1895, William Roentgen, working in his lab in Wurzburg, discovered X-Rays, and in 1901 was awarded the very first Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery.
The same one that Sheldon won.
Later at about 7pm, warmer and drier, and with a nap under our belts, we met our friends for dinner.
We both started off with the Ginger Carrot Soup,
Really declivous, and reminded us of the fabled Pie-O-Neer in Pie Town, NM.
Jan had the Grilled Tilapia,
while I once again had my favorite Angus Ribeye. You just can’t have too much steak.
And for dessert, we both had the Apple Strudel.
You can’t go wrong with Apple Strudel in Germany.
Next Up: Wertheim Am Main (Wertheim on the Main River)
May 8, 2020
Würzburg and It All Came Out OK In The End . . .
Heard back from DakotaPost, our SD mailing service, and our Stimulus Checks are on the way down here via Priority Mail. Yah!
Is this the end of Buffets and Cafeterias?
Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, a chain of 97 locations nationwide has announced that they’re shutting down permanently, as they see no way forward in the WuFlu environment.
And I would imagine cafeterias like Luby’s and Piccadilly’s are in the same boat. And I know Ryan’s was already on the ropes as well as Home Town Buffet and Old Country Buffet, also. So can Golden Corral be far behind?
The problem is that these places can’t even afford to open with only a 25% occupancy requirement, or probably not even at 50%. They depend on moving a lot of people through at a steady pace, otherwise they can’t even recoup their costs on the food that they’re putting out.
Jan and I are worried about our local favorite Yummy Yummy. The sign on their door says that they’re closed temporarily and will reopen soon, but I don’t see how until the occupancy % is pretty much back to 100. Crossing our fingers.
Oh, on a separate note, Logan Roadhouse has also filed for bankruptcy, but again they were already having troubles pre-WuFlu.
On a personal note, a few weeks ago after our annual physicals, our doctor gave us both ColoGuard tests to take and send in. Well, last week they came back, with Jan’s coming out negative, but mine came back positive.
Rut Roh!
The last time I had a colonoscopy was December 2007 while I still working full-time and had insurance. Everything was fine, and in fact the doctor was surprised that I had absolutely no polyps whatsoever, especially since I had never had any removed before.
I told him I figured it was all the extremely hot stuff I ate, and that it just cauterized everything down there. He laughed and said, “Could be”.
Reading up on the ColoGuard test, I found in the fine print that it has 13% false positive rate. This from a test that costs $650. So as a double-check, I got a FIT test from the drugstore to check for blood. And it came up negative.
The ColoGuard test actually checks for suspicious DNA that might indicate cancerous polyps, while the FIT just checks for bleeding polyps that might be cancerous.
My doctor has given me a FIT test every other year for a while now and it’s always come back negative too.
So setting up the appointment last week, yesterday was Prep Day for today. And I must say they’ve really improved the whole prep thing. Last time it was a gallon of really foul tasting, chalky liquid that almost made you gag when you drank it. In fact the prep was much worse than the actual colonoscopy.
But this time it was really easy. The SuPrep kit came with two 6oz bottles of liquid and 16oz plastic cup. At 5pm yesterday, I dumped one of the bottles into the cup, topped it up to 16oz with Lipton’s Diet Green Tea and drank it down.
It was a clear liquid with a vague cherry flavor, and mixed with the Green Tea, it was very palatable. Then within the next hour I had to drink two more 16oz drinks.
The only thing that bothered me was the cost of the SuPrep kit. It was $105! And it was just a mixture of sodium sulfate, potassium sulfate, and magnesium sulfate. Now I can buy a pound of food grade sodium sulfate on Amazon for $10, as well as the potassium sulfate (potash), and magnesium sulfate (Epsom salts). So for about $30 I could enough of this to make about a hundred kits.
Guess that little plastic cup must be really expensive.
Then at 9pm I had to do it all over again. And all I can say, boy, this stuff will clean you out quick.
I was told that I needed be there at 11:30 for the 12:30 procedure. And for once they were right on time.
After I was prepped in Pre-Op, inserting the I.V., blood pressure cuff, pulse oximeter, etc., I was rolled into the endoscopy suite at 12:21 and woke up back in my Pre-Op room at 12:45pm. Wow, that was quick. I didn’t even remember dozing off.
And it seems that it was quick because once again I had absolutely no polyps, just a little bit of diverticulosis on one side that’s never caused me any problems.
So I guess I’m one of the lucky 13% of false positives.
In other words, it all came out OK in the end.
BTW you can thank Jan for the fact that I didn’t post the color pictures I was given of the inside of my colon.
May 8, 2021
Happy Almost Mother’s Day . . .
We spent a time this morning sitting out on the patio with our coffee, while wondering how much longer we’ll be able to do this before it gets too hot.
So we’ll just have to enjoy it while it lasts.
Yesterday Brandi posted something Landon gave her for Mother’s Day, and it brought tears to everyone’s eyes.
Brandi said he did this completely on his own, typing it up and decorating it, and every line relates to something about our families.
So sweet.
Oh, BTW He’s ten.
And following up on this, about 4pm we met Brandi, Lowell, and Landon up at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood in Webster for a Mother’s Day get-together.
While Jan got her usual Catfish Filets and Veggies,
I tried something new on the menu, their version of a Wedge Salad.
Really good, and a great addition to their menu.
Lowell got his favorite Chicken Fried Chicken and Fries,
while Brandi got the Chicken Fried Steak and Mashed Potatoes.
Just as delicious as always, and why we’ve been eating here for over 20 years.
Brandi brought along some of the product from her backyard hydroponic garden, Butter Lettuce, Romaine Lettuce, Thyme, and Baby Zucchini.
It started like this,
And a few weeks later, it looks like this.
Looking forward to adding this to next week’s salads.
And on another restaurant note, our long-lamented Monterey’s Mexican Kitchen, the one in Dickinson that never reopened after damage from Hurricane Harvey, is scheduled to reopen soon. At least that’s what the banner says that just went up on the front. They’ve been working on it for a couple of months, so it looks like it’s almost done.
Looking forward to it.
Looks like the Chinese booster rocket should be coming down in the next few hours, but no one yet knows where. And we may not until it actually hits something. Or someone, I guess.
It’s like one someone said, paraphrasing Yakov Smirnoff, “In America, you go to Space Station. In China, Space Station come to you”.
May 8, 2022
She Chose Wisely . . .
Especially to Jan, Brandi, and Linda. But also to all Mother’s everywhere.
When I asked Jan where she wanted to go for Mother’s Day, I was expecting her usual go-to place, the Saltgrass Steakhouse down in Galveston. But she surprised me by saying the Pappasito’s Cantina up in Webster.
Now we used to eat here fairly often, but it’s probably been at least 15 years, or maybe more, since we’ve been there. So last Sunday, today being Mother’s Day; I went online and made a reservation.
And as it turns out, she chose wisely.
Turns out that TXDOT decided this past Thursday that starting Friday, to completely close down I-45 both north and southbound leading into Galveston, channeling 3-4 lanes down to one lane on the feeder. And Friday people were reporting that it was taking people 3 hours to drive the 10 miles between La Marque and Galveston.
And the same coming back north.
Jan chose wisely.
Even though we had a reservation, we didn’t know what to expect. Sometimes a reservation doesn’t seem to speed things up. Plus we’ve been spoiled by Saltgrass where we’ve been seated immediately, even though there was a large crowd waiting.
So when we checked in at the desk about 5 till 2, and were told they would text us when our table was ready, I thought to myself, ‘Here we go’. But then they called us for our table right at 2pm.
Great!
And we got a very nice table on the enclosed patio.
Jan had the Camarones Tijuana,
with Broiled Butterflied Rock Shrimp With Chicken And Beef Fajita, Guacamole & Pico De Gallo.
Jan said it was delicious, especially the Rock Shrimp.
I had the El Sombrero,
with a Beef Fajita Soft Taco & Cheese Enchilada, With Guacamole & Pico De Gallo.
We both had leftovers to take home, specifically so we have room for dessert.
Jan had their Homemade Tres Leches,
with a Rich Mexican Vanilla Cake Soaked In Three Milks & Topped With Meringue.
While I had the Dulce de Leche Chocolate Pecan Pie,
With Vanilla Ice Cream & Homemade Cajeta (Caramel Sauce).
Note that we had the desserts packed to-go because we didn’t think we’d be able to finish them either.
And we weren’t. So we had desserts to take home too.
Finally done with our delicious meals, we made quick stops at Sam’s for Jan’s Joint Juice, and HEB for a few groceries, before getting home about 4:30.
For Mother’s Day I got Jan a pair of these earrings.
They’re Sterling Silver, and look like this on an ear.
I know they’re kind of off the wall, but when Jan saw them a couple of months ago, she went ‘Oohhhh!’
So I filled that away for Mother’s Day.
And here they are.
