Our RV Adventures

First off, a very Happy Birthday to our favorite son-in-law Lowell.

And as I’ve said before, of course, he’s our only son-in-law, but even if he wasn’t, he’d probably still be our favorite.

I picked up Jan at Brandi’s a little after noon, and was happy to see Lowell up and around, and doing good. He said that the hardest part is getting out of bed in the morning. After that, he feels fine.

So happy for him.

Leaving Brandi’s we drove over to the nearby Grimaldi’s for lunch, starting with the Spinach Salad,

and then moving on to an 18” The Don pizza.

As I’ve said before, we always get the largest one, so we have plenty (over half) to bring home for tomorrow.

Then it was right across the street for Jan’s Trader Joe’s visit. I’m always happy to see Jan come out with a big smile on her face.

Finally heading south, we were back at the rig a little after 3pm.

Rig Sweet Rig, Jan says.

Saw this posted on Facebook yesterday.

Texas Huddle Sports Bar Is Closed…Again!

Don’t know the whole story yet, but last year they were closed for several months due to non-payment of rent. This was confirmed by the Locked Out notice on the front door. But according to their FB page, they were having A/C problems.

For Two Months!

Right!

This time supposedly it has something to do with the non-payment of taxes.

Their FB page’s last post was Feb. 6th, and nothing is mentioned about what would probably be their busiest day, Super Bowl Sunday.

Stay tuned.

This is new. When checked the tracking on an Amazon package that was being delivered this evening, I found this.

So now I guess I know who to blame if my order gets delivered to the wrong RV site.

Landon was showing off his latest 3D printer creation. It’s the Mech version of Godzilla.

It’s almost 2 ft. tall, and had to be printed out in pieces and then assembled later.

It’s really something.

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Thought for the Day:

Maybe Monday doesn’t like you either.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.

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February 11, 2012

Herons and Sherman . . .

I was up about 8 this morning, mainly because I don’t sleep well when Jan’s not here. Of course she’s not far away, just over at Brandi’s, Landon-sitting for the weekend while Brandi and Lowell take a break.

I picked up Jan and Landon about 10:15 and we headed over to The Egg and I for breakfast. I hadn’t expected it to be too busy since most breakfast places are busier on Sunday, not Saturday.

But boy was I wrong about Egg and I. We had a 20 minute wait, but Landon was great, just spent the time looking around at all the people and pointing at things.

As usual he was a good eater and plowed through his pancake and fruit like Sherman through Georgia.

One funny thing that happened at the end of the meal was after he had been eating with the spoon, he banged it on the plate several times pretty loudly, and I said “No, Landon. Don’t do that, Don’t bang your spoon on the plate like that.”

He looked up at me kind of solemnly, and then took the spoon and tapped it on the plate very softly, “Tink, tink, tink.” And then looked up at me again with a big grin on his face. He knew exactly what he was doing.

Brandi and Lowell are going to have their hands full with this one, believe me.

Finishing up breakfast, we drove over to Fry’s Electronics so I could pick something up, and Landon fell asleep on the way, so Jan stayed in the car with him. And when I came back about 20 minutes later, they were both asleep.

Leaving Fry’s we headed down to the rig to show Landon around and introduce him to Mister the cat. On the way we stopped off at the bank and then Kroger’s for some Powerball lottery tickets for tonight’s 325 million dollar drawing.

Getting to the rig, Landon was really fascinated by our cats, Mister and Emma, especially Mister. His cat at home won’t let him get near, but Mister was just rubbing up against him and purring.

Landon also spent some time riding Jan’s Moose Footstool and watching Barney on the TV.

He’s crazy about Barney so Jan had prerecorded some episodes to keep him entertained.

Before heading back to Brandi’s, Jan went outside with Landon to let him help her feed the birds, and I got some shots of the heron and the Roseate Spoonbills.

They’ve gotten a lot redder since we got here in November.

Getting back to Brandi’s, and getting Jan and Landon squared away, I headed over to a client’s for a while, still working on finishing up some last-minute tasks.

Leaving the office and heading back to Brandi’s, I got a call from Sam’s Optical saying Jan’s glasses were ready . . .  for real this time. I told them we’d try to get by before they close at 7 pm.

Getting to the house, we decided to have dinner at Barcenas Mexican Restaurant right down the road, but looking at the time, we went by Sam’s Club first to get Jan’s glasses, and then it was on to the restaurant.

Then after leaving Jan and Landon back at Brandi’s, I drove back over to my client’s for a while.  Earlier this afternoon I had been making the System Recovery Disks for all three new computers, but ran out of DVD’s. So I picked up another 100 pack while we were at Sam’s, and now I was back to finish the job.

I got back to the rig about 9:45 and then started back to work on this laptop I’m upgrading. Another long day.

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February 11, 2013

More of the Same . . .

Yesterday started off with another breakfast at The Egg & I for Landon, Jan, and I. Landon got his favorite Mickey Mouse pancakes this time, and ate a lot better than yesterday.

After another delicious breakfast, I dropped Jan and Landon off at Brandi’s, and I headed over to a client’s office to install the HP Deskjet 1000 printer I picked up for him the other day.

By the time I finished up and made a quick stop at Home Depot, Brandi and Lowell were home from their weekend. They wanted to show us another model of home they’re interested in, so we drove over to Pearland to take a look. They still plan on buying up in the Katy area, but the same model is also down here in Pearland which is a lot closer.

Getting back to the rig, Jan and I immediately both napped out. She, because keeping up with a 30 month old is exhausting, and me, because . . . well, just because.

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Jan and I left the rig a little after 7 this morning heading up to our doctor’s office for my yearly checkup. We always try to get our appointments the very first thing in the morning, so we never have to wait because they’re running behind.

After a clean bill of health for another year, Jan and I headed over to Webster to once again have breakfast at The Egg & I. And yes, that’s 3 days in a row. Love that Hazelnut coffee.

Later, after stops at a couple of clients and a quick pass through Home Depot, we made our weekly pilgrimage to Wal-Mart for a bunch of stuff. Then it was next door to Sam’s Club for our prescriptions.

Next up it was a stop at Kroger’s for a few things that Wal-Mart was out of, along with a full tank of gas.

After a quick at Brandi’s to wish Lowell a Happy Birthday, and pick up our mail, we headed back to the rig.

By now it was almost 3:30, and since Stomp’s Burger Joint was on our way, we decided it was a good time for a last shot at one of their delicious burgers.

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February 11, 2014

Landon’s Man Cave . . .

First off, Jan and I want to wish our son-in-law Lowell a happy birthday!

Landon has decided he likes to sleep under his bed, rather than in it.

To this end, he’s established a nest under there with all his favorite stuff. Looks like he’s really comfortable.

On the subject of ‘under things’ I spent some time today thinking about the best way to fill in the pedal area under the dashboard.

The area is just too lumpy and uneven to fit the flooring in there. So I think I will find a piece of rubber mat to cut and fit under there. It should look pretty good. We’ll see.

I had also hoped to spend some time working outside on some projects, but with it raining on and off, and the temps never getting out of the 30’s, working inside seemed a better idea. At least the next several days are supposed to be better.

Later, Jan and I cleaned up and put things back into place that had been moved while Chris was putting the new floor down. We’ve also been going through a lot of stuff and throwing out some more stuff.

I also got the last of the three chairs wired back up. The big problem is hooking up the cable that controls the rotation release. There’s only about 3 inches between the floor and the bottom of the pedestal and you’ve got to hold the cable in place while trying to get the circle clip installed. Not easy.

But after a lot of fiddling, I finally got the last one done. I was surprised to learn that, unlike the front two chairs that only lock in forward position, the computer chair only locks sideways. I’ve never rotated it that far so I never noticed.

I also need to go by Home Depot or Lowe’s and get some trim strips to cover the edges where the new floor butts up against the wall. I’ll check on this tomorrow.

For supper tonight we had the rest of the Grimaldi’s pizza from yesterday. Still great. I think one thing that makes Grimaldi’s pizza so good, besides the fact that they use the same flour, same water, and the same coal-fired oven they use in New York, they use sliced mozzarella cheese on the pizzas, rather than shredded. That makes the cheese more of a solid covering, and you can taste the difference.

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February 11, 2015

They Admit It Was Defective, But . . .

I’m set up with RV Mobile Lube for late morning tomorrow. They’ll be doing a complete Full Service Oil Change which consists of changing engine oil, oil filter, primary and secondary fuel filters, lubing the chassis and driveline, checking all fluids, and correcting tire pressures. And they will also be doing a Coolant Service which consists of testing the coolant, and changing the coolant filter. Costs should be around $400.

I called the Starlights RV Lights people today about a problem with my Smartlight 1000 patio lights. In 2008 I bought a pair like this one for our rig.

It’s a motion-sensing light that turns on and off at night, but shuts down during the day. They worked great, but did have a problem. When they turned on as you came home at night, they turned off too quickly, and the sensors didn’t look down enough to trigger when you were at the door.

But by 2012 they had come out with a new model with a longer activation time and a better look-down angle. In addition, they now used a very bright LED bulb, so at a Rally in September 2012 I purchased two new ones, this time in black, because the original white ones had started to yellow slightly.

A couple of months ago, I noticed mine had both stopped working, even manually. But with all our oscillating back and forth between the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails and the Colorado River Thousand Trails, I didn’t have a chance to check them out until the other day. And what I found was this.

Both of the sensor lenses on either end looked like they had been smashed out, which of course let water in and killed the lights. Jan thought maybe someone had poked them out for some reason (sometimes she’s more paranoid than I am) but our son Chris thought they might have just deteriorated from the sunlight.

And he was right. When I climbed up on the ladder, I found that the plastic was so brittle that merely touching it with your finger made pieces break off.

So I talked to Customer Service about my problem. The guy said that that they knew about the problem, and that the first run of the new LED models were done by a different manufacturer who used an inferior plastic for the sensor lenses.

I said I knew I was out of the one year warranty, but since this was a manufacturer’s defect, did they have any remedy. He said they would be happy to send me new replacement lenses, but when I reminded him that the units were already dead, he agreed that that wouldn’t help much.

So now I guess I’m supposed to buy two new units ($100 – $150) and hope I don’t run into the same problem after another two years, again with no support.

It’s really a shame when a company takes a good product and then destroys their reputation by failing to support it with their customers.

Not Recommended.

Our son Chris showed up about 8:30 this morning and finished up his part of the fiberglass bumper repair today.

Remember it started looking like this

and now looks like this.

and started like this

and now looks like this.

The passenger side started like this

and this

And finished like this

and this.

Now when the wind dies down, I’ll mask off the area and spray on some sand-able primer, and do the last bit of sanding and prep work before spraying on the final coats. Again when the wind dies down.

Chris did a great job, and I really appreciate all his hard work.

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February 11, 2016

Jan and I Missed Our Chance . . .

Or Joining the Tenth Mile High Club

I slept in late this morning, actually no later than my normal 10 to 11 am, but later than all the recent early departures we’ve been doing lately. So that was nice for a change. Especially since I didn’t go to bed last night (this morning) until about 3:30 am.

We didn’t walk this morning, both because we didn’t want to, and because we made up for it yesterday. I turned on Runkeeper when we got out of the truck in Fredericksburg, and from start to finish, we walk 2.54 miles. Of course it was stretched over several hours, but it all counts, right?

For breakfast this morning, we had coffee and our Buc-ee’s kolaches, Jan’s Ham & Cheese,

and my Sausage, Cheese, and Jalapeno version.

The sausage link in these is very spicy, and very good.

And as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, along with our kolaches and muffins we picked up for breakfast, we also got a couple of their Sliced BBQ Brisket sandwiches to have for dinner after we got home last night.

This was our first time to try the BBQ there, and like everything else from Buc-ee’s we’ve had so far, it was very good. I got mine with pickles and onions, while Jan got hers without.

These are done on the big “Quarter Pounder”-sized buns, so they’re a good handful/mouthful, and well worth a visit to Buc-ee’s.

Later in the afternoon, I replaced the floor mat hooks that I had installed in our truck back last December.

But I had two problems with them. One, I didn’t like the white color, and Two, I needed to move them further back because the ones on the driver’s side interfered with the position of our  Brake Buddy auxiliary braking system when we’re towing.

So now it looks like this. Much better in silver, I think. And while I was at it, I also installed the two hooks on Jan’s side as well.

Another job checked off the list.

Tomorrow afternoon I going over to the welder’s and pick up my screen door hinge, repaired or not. But hopefully repaired.

Karma is still doing well, and she’s fitting right in. It’s easy to see that she’s putting on some weight, though I doubt she’ll ever get in Mister’s 25+ pound territory. I guess she’s eating a little more regularly now.

One thing she does have in common with Mister, is that she almost never makes a sound. Certainly not a meow. If anything it’s more like a squeak. So maybe that’s what she learned from, since she had several squeaky toys that the people who were feeding her had bought.

Mister was the same way, only doing a silent meow for the first year or so we had him. And even later he was always pretty quiet. So maybe it had to do with them both being ‘on the run’ so to speak.

I put in an Amazon order which should be in this coming Monday. One of the items is a full harness for Karma so we can see how she does outside.

Back last April we spent two weeks at the Las Vegas Thousand Trails, and one of the things we did was a nighttime ride on the 550 foot High Roller Ferris Wheel right off the Strip behind the Flamingo Casino.

You can read about our adventure here: Riding the High Roller

Last week, not to miss an opportunity to join the Mile High Club, though really it’s more like the Tenth Mile High Club, I guess, a couple was arrested after applying for membership in the club. Hanky Pinky on the High Roller

And in case you might be thinking about making your own application, here’s some tips that might help keep you out of jail. High Roller Tips

I guess Jan and I missed our chance.

For this year, anyway.

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February 11, 2017

Winding Down . . .

We’re down to our last four days on the gate before we leave this coming Wednesday. And as of tonight, the gate is pretty dead, with only 4 vehicles and 16 out. And hopefully it will stay that way until we leave.

Jan and I went out for lunch today, for our last meal at Maya’s Mexican Restaurant, our favorite Mexican both here and in Kenedy/Karnes City. And once again we had the Sizzling Fajitas Regias, a combo of Beef, Chicken, and Grilled Sausage, along with the onions and the large grilled jalapenos.

And it was so ‘sizzling’ that I had to wait for some of the smoke to clear before I could get a good photo. One place we’re going to miss.

The other one will be La Bella Tavola, the local Italian place that we like so much. And we definitely will eat here one more time before we leave too.

The Hack Attack is back.

Or at least it was yesterday. In the space of a little over 3 hours I had over 1000 attempts to break into the blog. I don’t know what they’re looking to do, but they sure want to do it badly.

There is a large oil facility right across the street from us, up on a hill. And there is a guard trailer there, the size of a small camper, but obviously a company deal. And several times a night the guard apparently comes outside to smoke his pipe.

And I’m pretty sure he’s smoking Borkum Riff, a bourbon whiskey-flavored pipe tobacco (Hey, two vices in one) that I smoked more than 50 years ago.

It’s amazing how even scents can bring back memories.

One of our readers mentioned Johnny Cash, so I will see his ‘Johnny Cash’ and raise him Chet Adkins, Floyd Cramer and Gene Watson, all of whom I met when our band was playing in Nashville clubs when I was going to Vanderbilt.

And turning over my hole cards, I have Dung Chow Ping, the then-Chinese Premier, AND Barbi Benton, pretty much the ‘Queen’ of the Playboy Playmates. I met both of them when they were being given tours at Johnson Space Center when I was there.

I still have an autographed picture of Barbi somewhere. I think Jan hid it.

And I won’t even mention, as blog reader and friend Tricia said, Katherine Ross’ hair dryer.

And, oh yeah, Sean Connery. Did I mention Sean Connery?

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February 11, 2018

Too Many Alexas . . .

The Russians have too many Alexas on their various Olympic teams. The announcements of these names keeps turning on OUR Alexa, making her light up and ask what we want . . . over and over again.

Make it stop!

After a cold, damp, overcast morning, Jan and I headed up to Clear Lake a little before 4pm to have dinner once again at Cheddar’s, pretty much our favorite ‘comfort food’ establishment.

Jan got her usual Key West Chicken and Shrimp, with Green Beans and Carrots,

while I followed up on her theme of Green Beans and Carrots with my Veggie Plate, and a croissant, of course.

After dinner we drove by Chris’ house to say Hi and pick up our mail, and then it was on to the nearby  Kroger’s to get gas. It’s nice to see the price starting to creep back down, but unfortunately a lot slower than it went up.

I was reading recently about two guys who had been arrested for stealing a gold bar for the Mel Fisher Museum in Key West, FL. Apparently in 2010 they smashed a display case and took off with this $550,000 gold bar.

Although they caught the guys seven years later, they’ve never recovered the gold bar. Probably because it was quickly melted down, though I guess it’s possible that it was sold to a private collector.

Jan and I visited the Mel Fisher Museum in 2009 when we were RV’ing in the Keys. We both held this bar at one point, but Jan got an even bigger thrill.

A lady at one of the counters was unpacking a box of new gold artifacts and asked Jan if she wanted to hold one. A gold coin about the size of a silver dollar, the lady said that yesterday it was on the ocean floor.

Jan said the coin was actually hot in her hand and it made a real impression on her.

Just think how hot the stolen one would be.

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February 11, 2020

First Cousin Once Removed . . .

After a light breakfast about 8:30 here at the hotel this morning, we headed out about 11:30 to meet my cousin Margie and her husband Walter at the nearby 306 BBQ.

She’s the daughter of my grandmother’s sister, so Google says she’s my First Cousin Once Removed, but I’ll stick with just ‘Cousin’.

We’ve eaten at 306 BBQ a number of times before and always enjoyed it, so we were happy to meet Margie and Walter there.

Jan had the BBQ Chicken with Squash Casserole and Brown Sugar Green Beans,

while I got the 2 Meat Plate (Ribs and Pulled Pork) with Baked Beans and Collard Greens.

One thing funny did happen while we were ordering at the counter. Athens being basically a small town, pretty much everyone knows everyone else. So when a gentleman spoke up and said ‘Hi’ to Margie and Walter we didn’t think anything about it. But since we were all ordering, Jan and I didn’t get introduced.

I’ve mentioned in the past when we were visiting up here, I found myself checking out people around us in stores and restaurants, wondering if I would run into one of the 3 girls I dated when I lived here in the mid-60’s. But then I realized that I was looking for the young ladies as they looked when they were 16 or so, the last time I saw them, and not at them in their late 60’s or so like they would be now.

I also mentioned that a few years ago, when my most serious girlfriend, now divorced, moved back to Athens from Michigan, she called my Aunt Virginia and in a roundabout way, inquired as to my ‘present marital status.’

Well, after lunch when we were back at Margie and Walter’s, I found out that the gentleman at the counter with us was the younger brother of that girlfriend. I think he was 2 or so the last time I saw him, and still in diapers.

Oops!

Like I said, Athens is a small town.

Tomorrow we’re getting together with my Aunt for a late lunch and then some time together at her house.

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February 11, 2021

Hunkered Down . . .

First off, Jan and I want to wish Lowell, our favorite son-in-law, a Happy Birthday today.

However we won’t mention the fact that he’s our only son-in-law. But, he would be our favorite one, anyhow.

Jan had another of her yearly doctor appointments today, so after that was done we headed down to the Cracker Barrel in League City for Jan’s Thursday ritual, their Turkey and Dressing.

Jan says they’re the only place whose Cornbread Dressing comes close to hers. In fact over the years, several holidays we’ve bought a couple of big pans of it there for large get-togethers.

I will also sometimes have the T&D, but today went with breakfast.

Three eggs, over medium, bacon and sausage . . .  and grits. You can tell CB is a Southern favorite since I think every breakfast comes with grits.

Coming home we made a quick Kroger stop in Dickinson, and then wrapped up with coffee at, where else, Cowboy Coffee, finally getting home about 5pm.

The temperature today never got above 48°, and was only there for a couple of hours before it started dropping. And it’s pretty much supposed to stay in the 40’s/30’s range through the weekend and then into the 30’s/20’s range.

In fact Monday night we’re looking at a low of 19°. And SNOW, since it’s supposed to be raining too. And we’ve heard about single digit temps up north of Houston.

So we’re just going to hunker down and try to stay warm. Sunday I’m going to disconnect from shore water and then put my heat lamp in the water bay for a couple of days. That’s worked for us down to 6° without any problems.

BTW that was in Garrison, MT in March 2008 on our way to Alaska. In fact it’s the coldest temperature we’ve ever encountered anywhere, even in Alaska and Canada.

Of course there’s this temperature in Fairbanks in Feb. 2009 that a friend sent us after we left there in late September 2008.

Makes the 19° here look a lot better, now doesn’t it?

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February 11, 2023

Happy Birthday, Lowell!!

First off, a very Happy Birthday to our favorite son-in-law Lowell.

Of course, he’s our only son-in-law, but even if he wasn’t, he’d probably still be our favorite.

Like most of our Saturdays, this was a busy one.

First up was a haircut for both of us with Kristina at our local CostCutters, nee TGF. She does a great job on my beard.

Then it was on up to the Webster area to have lunch at Texas Huddle once again. We often go on Sunday, but tomorrow, Super Bowl Sunday, is not the day to go to a Sports Bar.

We both started with their really good Side Salads, hers with Bleu Cheese dressing,

and mine with their great Jalapeno Ranch. Which is so good that I asked our server, Juana, if it was a commercial brand like Kraft or Newman’s that I could buy at the store. She quickly told me that all their dressings and sauces were made-in-house.

Bummer!

Jan got her usual what I call a ‘deconstructed’ Keto Mushroom Cheddar Burger, I.e., one with no bun.

I got my usual Wings, all Drums, with Flaming Raspberry sauce.

But this time I only got 5 instead of 10, since I usually can only eat 3 after the salad. And I did have 2 wings left over to bring home.

I’ve mentioned before that we have 3 favorite servers, ones who remember what we always order, and even bring us our drink order when we sit down.

One is Miss Angie at our local Denny’s, the much-mentioned (and shown) Sylva at Twin Peaks, and Miss Juana here at Texas Huddle.

She’s a real sweetie, and we’re not the only ones who ask for her specifically.

Leaving Huddle, we stopped by the office so I could install a ‘new’ laser printer at the office manager’s computer. The pickup rollers and the tension springs in the paper pickup path were just worn out. My client had me try to install another used one yesterday that he was sure was a working one.

It wasn’t. It would not even connect via USB.

So I went back today to install a new one, a Canon D570, that he’d had stashed away for a while. Don’t know why he didn’t want to use it to begin with. But the new one connected right up with no problems, and only took about 45 minutes. And that included unpacking the new one.

Last up was a stop at the nearby Kroger’s to pick up a couple of prescriptions before heading home.

Another nice day.

Jan has always been a real ‘Grease/John Travolta’ fan, so she really enjoyed seeing this T-Mobile commercial with Travolta and a ‘Grease’ theme.

This will be shown during tomorrow’s Super Bowl.

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘til I pick Jan up tomorrow.

Yay!

I plan on getting there around noon and then Jan and I will have lunch at Grimaldi’s, followed by a Trader Joe’s stop for Jan.

Me, I just read in the car.

I spent the day taking care of a few chores around the rig while the weather is nice. Recently the days have been in the low 70’s and low 60’s, but after tomorrow’s 73, tomorrow night it’s 43° and raining.

I put in a call to the Galveston Saltgrass Steakhouse this afternoon to double-check our Valentine’s Day reservation. I originally made it about 3 weeks ago, got the email confirmation and thought everything was fine.

Until I got an email from them yesterday changing the time from 5:30 to 5pm. And then 3 minutes got another email changing it back to 5:30 again. But when I checked with Galveston they had no idea what I was talking about, and said my reservation was for 5:30 and was just fine.

A mother online said her 6-year-old loves owls, and she is begging to go to the Owl Restaurant. This is where she meant.

Well, in her defense, it does have an owl on the front of the building.

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Thought for the Day:

What if when you can’t sleep it’s because all the sleep servers are overloaded and spots only open up when other people wake up?

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

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February 10, 2011

Landon and Kitty, and No Moose. . .

2 Days and Counting . . .

First off, Brandi sent over these photos of Landon and his new best friend, Kitty. And yes, Brandi and Lowell have a 105 lb. Black Lab/ Shepard mix named Kitty who just dotes on Landon.

I sure hope Kitty is just licking and not tasting here.

We left the rig this morning about 10am for a morning of errands, with a little breakfast thrown in for good measure.

Our first stop was Fry’s Electronics where I was looking for a XM Radio antenna for a client. With no luck on the antenna, we headed over to the Egg and I for a little breakfast with some of their great Hazelnut coffee.

Next it was off to Best Buy for another try for an XM antenna, and once again, no luck. They did suggest that I just buy a complete XM Radio for $70 just to get the $8 antenna.

Ain’t gonna happen. I pulled out my Blackberry, went online to Amazon, and had a new antenna on the way in about 3 minutes. Done deal.

Then since I was right there, I ran next door to Lowe’s to get a 3/4” deep well socket to make it easier to pull the coach chairs up to finish removing the last of the carpet.

Then it was time for my semi-annual haircut, which as Jan said “wouldn’t take too long.” I think her snicker was the worst part.

After a quick stop at the bank, we made our last stop at a client’s for a few minutes, and then we headed back home to the rig.

Getting home Jan started packing up for our “test drive.” We’ve been parked here for 5 months, and I didn’t want to be trying to leave on Saturday morning and find something isn’t working. You know, things like the leveler jacks won’t come up, the slide won’t come in, little things like that.

I had plugged in the engine heater last night just to be sure the oil was somewhat thinner than Vaseline, so with fingers crossed, I started the engine, and let out a big sigh as our ‘ole faithful’ roared to life.

After a few seconds I had good oil pressure, so I started raising the leveler jacks. And once again, no problems. Now it was time for the slide to come in, and again, no problems. Well, maybe a little more groaning than normal, but hey, it’s been 5 months.

Three for three so far.

Then while I went out and unplugged and stowed the power cable, Jan was out with her broom, ready to sweep the concrete pad to clean off the gravel I had earlier washed out of the leveler jack feet. While I was outside I did notice the coach was slow to come up on the front airbags, and I could hear a lot of escaping air. When this first happened to me several years ago I thought I had a leak, but was informed that this was the air system automagically venting water from the tanks. Then after a few minutes the hissing stopped and the rig came up on the front bags.

Finally, back in the coach, I put it in reverse and slowly backed out of the site. Again no problems.

So while Jan was sweeping, I made the short loop around the bayou/marina area, just to check things out in general.

The first (and only) problem showed up when we tried to put the slide back out. And it was dead.

Not a sound or anything going in or out. After checking the fuses, I did what I always do when I have a coach problem. I called American Coach for help. And as usual, Deb at American came through.

After first asking if the keylock was On, she suggested I check the Air Brake knob. And she was right. I knew the Air Brakes were set because I heard them when I pulled out the knob.

But I apparently hadn’t pulled the knob out quite far enough. As soon as I touched it, it jumped a little bit and clicked. Trying the slide again showed that fixed the problem. Apparently I had pulled the knob out far enough to set the brakes, but not far enough to trigger the interlock switch. I guess it makes sense to interlock the Air Brakes and the slide, I just never thought about it before.

After getting us hooked back up again, I gave my new Sears Air Compressor a workout by topping off all the rig and toad tires. It took the rig tires up to 105 lb. on the front and 100 lb. on the rear with no problems. I love this thing. So much easier than using the onboard air compressor.

One funny thing came out of all this. Our two cats, Mister and Emma, normally ride in the front seat with Jan, and as soon as I started the engine they both raced to her seat to get ready to travel. But since I had some stuff on the seat, there was only enough room for one of them. So they were kind of sitting on top of each other, almost like playing musical chairs. Wish I’d had the camera.

About 4:30 we headed up to Webster for one last dinner at King Food with our friends Bob and Maria. We had such a great time we ended up talking for almost 3 hours before we split up.

Leaving King Food, we stopped off at Sam’s Club for a few things before heading over to Brandi’s for a last goodbye. It’s hard to think that the next time we see Landon he’ll be a year old.

Finally it was time to head home again after a very busy, but productive day. And tomorrow will be even busier as we wrap things up before heading out on Saturday.

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February 10, 2012

A Landon Weekend . . .

Today started with a heavy downpour that began during the night and continued into the late morning.

About 11:30 I headed into town on a bunch of errands. But my first stop was the RV park office so I could get our reservations set up for next year, and also to let them know when we would be leaving.

Then it was on to Fry’s Electronics to take back some bad RAM. It’s a very bad feeling when you take a client’s very expensive laptop apart to install new RAM and when you turn it on, it’s DEAD!

The procedure in this case is to reverse what you just did, so I installed the old RAM back in.

And it worked again. WHEW!

So now I put the new RAM back in . . . and it’s dead again. So then I took the other stick of new RAM that was in the second slot and put it in the first slot. And it worked fine.

Again I put the first stick of new RAM back in, and it’s dead again.  So now I know for sure that one of the two new sticks is bad. So it’s back to Fry’s to swap it out.

This was Patriot RAM, one of the top names, and I’ve never gotten a bad stick before. But it sure gave me a fright this time.

My next stop was a quick one at a client’s to let them know I’d be in the office tonight working on some things.

Then it was on to Sam’s Club to try and get our prescriptions straightened out. It ended up taking me about 45 minutes, but I did make one big improvement. I got the $717 for a 3 month supply of the drug down to $10 a month.

Before leaving Sam’s I filled up with gas and then headed back to the rig to pick up Jan so we could turn back around and come back up to Brandi’s.

We’re Landon-sitting (well, Jan’s doing most of it) this weekend while Brandi and Lowell take the weekend off to celebrate his birthday out of town, so we had to stop off at their house to get the car seat so we could pick up Landon at his Day Care. He seemed really glad to see us which made Jan happy.

Getting him strapped in, we drove up to Sam’s Club again, this time to pick Jan’s new glasses that they’d called and said were ready. I know they said they’d expedite them, but we just turned the order in yesterday afternoon, so it was hard to believe they would be ready this soon.

And they weren’t. It was a false alarm, but they should be here in the next day or so. As long as they get here before we leave next Thursday, we’re fine.

Leaving Sam’s, we drove up I-45 to the Golden Corral Restaurant for dinner.

This is a good choice when we’ve got Landon because there are plenty of choices for him. One thing he really, really liked was the chocolate syrup from the chocolate fountain. You might say he really got “into it”.

Landon fell asleep on the way back to Brandi’s, and it’s always amazing how, although he never opens his eyes or wakes up, he knows to pull his arms out of the straps and then hold them up for you to take him out.

When we got back to Brandi’s, Lowell’s sister Sherry was there to help Jan if she needed it getting Landon to bed, so I headed over to my client’s for a while.

I did manage to finally get the UPS software problem fixed so I’m glad that’s out of the way.

I finished up and headed back to the rig about 9 after a long day. Getting back to the park I did get this shot of the moon rising over the bayou.

Unfortunately the photo doesn’t do it justice.

Tomorrow I’ll head back over to Brandi’s about 10 am to pick up Jan and Landon for breakfast at the Egg and I, and then we may bring Landon back down to the rig to show him around and introduce him to Mister.

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February 10, 2014

Two Weeks and Counting . . .

This morning started early, at least for Jan. She was up at 5 AM to be sure she was awake when Landon woke up. Since Lowell had to leave for work around 5:15 and Landon’s daycare doesn’t open until 6, we filled in the gap, which is why we spent the night here at Brandi’s.

And you can never tell how early Landon will get up. Brandi left on her business trip at 4 AM this past Saturday. And Landon, hearing the commotion, was up at 3:30.

Upset that his mommy was leaving, Landon started crying until Lowell told him they’d go out for donuts after Brandi left. So Landon stopped crying, kissed his mommy goodbye, and was ready to go out for donuts. And go out they did.

Note the time on the clock at the top of this photo. After Brandi left, Lowell and Landon drove around, but found no donut shops that early on a Saturday morning. Landon then saw a Denny’s and said, “There’s Denny’s. Denny’s has blueberry pancakes. I want blueberry pancakes.”

Which is why Lowell and Landon ended up as the only people in a Denny’s at 4:35 AM. And why Jan was up at 5 AM to be sure he didn’t want to go out for pancakes when his daddy left?

On the other hand, I was able to sleep in until 8:30. After all, Landon didn’t need TWO people to watch him.

I fixed coffee in Lowell’s K-Cup Keurig brewer, and one thing I noticed is that his machine starts up much quicker than my machine, which takes about a minute or so before the coffee starts flowing. It may be because his has a water reservoir built into it.

Lowell said we didn’t have to take Landon to his daycare until a little before 10, so we got to spend some time with him. For breakfast he decided he wanted to have a Chocolate Chip Eggo waffle, so I fixed him one up.

And then he wanted a second one, so back to the toaster. So Landon’s breakfast was two Eggo waffles and two glasses of chocolate milk. But this was probably because he didn’t really eat much of anything for supper last night.

Later, Jan was trying to get him dressed and told him, “Landon, come here and put your shirt on.” Landon said, “Say the word, Nana. Say the word.” Jan said, “What word, Landon?”

Landon looked at Jan and said,” Say please, Nana, Say please!”

Out of the mouth of babes.

After dropping Landon off at his daycare, Jan and I left about 11 AM and drove over to Grimaldi’s Pizzeria for lunch. Our favorite pizza place anywhere, we try to eat at one whenever we’re near. Rather than just repeat what I’ve said about Grimaldi’s before, and why it’s so great, you can check out what I’ve posted before.
http://ourrvadventures.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/no-bones-about-it/

Leaving Grimaldi’s and heading back toward Clear Lake, we stopped off at a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee and a couple of donut holes to finish off a great morning.

The reason we were coming back so early was that Jan had her eye doctor appointment this afternoon. She had thought (hoped) that it was time to get her cataracts done, but the doctor said that her eyes were doing great, with no new problems and no reason to have the surgery yet. So it was all good.

Leaving the doctor’s, we stopped off at a client’s for a few minutes before picking up some prescriptions at Sam’s Club.

Then it was back home to the rig, with Mister very glad to see us.

Tomorrow will be probably a stay-at-home day, very cold and rainy.

Lastly, two things. First off, we’re starting our two-week countdown here at Galveston Bay RV Resort. We plan on leaving here on February 24 and then spending two weeks at the Colorado Thousand Trails in Columbus, TX. So we’re going, but we’re not going far.

Lastly I’ve posted a couple of new things under the ‘What Were They Thinking? tab at the top of the page. Check’em out.

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February 10, 2015

A Happy Kitty . . .

Today was nice. It was the first time in about a week that I hadn’t had to be up by 8am. And tomorrow I’ll be back up early since Chris will be back over to work some more on the fiberglass repair problem.

But today we slept in and made it a stay-at-home day.

I did have one project for the day though, I wanted to flush the rig’s water heater. With all the medical stuff last year,  I didn’t get to it then, the first time I’ve missed it in 7 years. Rather than just repeat myself, here’s the link to how I did it two years ago. Water Heater Flush. And since I skipped a year, I used the vinegar treatment that I mentioned here.

I remember when I did this after our first year on the road at the end of 2008. It was pretty obvious that it had never been done before on our 1999 American Eagle. When I used this Water Heater Cleaning Wand,

‘gunk’ just came pouring out. In fact I think it must have been half full of stuff, because after the flush, we seem to have a lot more hot water.

And today, probably because of the vinegar, I got a lot more stuff out than in other years, a lot of black ‘gunk’ and little white stones of calcium carbonate.

So that’s another thing checked off my list.

Later in the afternoon I went up to the office to pick up my Amazon mail. And Mister was happy for two reasons.

He got a new box to play in,

and the box contained 48 cans of his favorite cat food.

Apparently the flavor he likes is very popular, and no matter where we shop, they’re quite often out of it. So checking Amazon, I found I can buy it cheaper online, and get Prime two-day shipping.

So Mister’s a happy kitty.

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February 10, 2016

Rustlin’ and Grazin’ . . .

Today was our Fredericksburg road trip, so I was up at about 8:30am and we were out the door at 9. And after a quick stop at the park dumpster to drop off some garbage, we were on the road west.

Our first stop was the Buc-ee’s at the Luling exit about 60 miles away for a potty stop, a breakfast kolache, and coffee.

And friends.

Our next-door neighbors, Vance and Bonnie Clegg, had left out for the Lake Medina Thousand Trails about 15 minutes before we also headed out, and we both got to Buc-ee’s about the same time. This was their first time to stop at one, so we got to show them around a bit before we said goodbye again.

Hopefully we’ll cross paths again soon.

Our next potty stop was the Love’s at the Comfort exit for US 87 about 110 miles later. Then we only had about 20 miles to Fredericksburg and our lunch.

So our first stop was Der Lindenbaum, a German restaurant right on Main St. We’ve eaten here for years, and it’s always been great, probably the best German food we’ve ever eaten.

Jan always gets her favorite Jager Schnitzel, which is a breaded pork cutlet covered in a mushroom wine sauce, along with red cabbage and German potatoes.

Over the years I’ve worked my way around their menu, this time settling on the Zwiebel Schnitzel, which is also a breaded pork cutlet, but with a pan-fried onion sauce, as well as the red cabbage and potatoes.

Although we didn’t get there until about 1pm, the place stayed pretty full the entire time. Then after a great lunch, we headed out to check out the many shops up and down the streets.

Jan checked out quite a few stores, but didn’t really find anything that caught her eye.

Finally on the other side of the street, we came to Rustlin’ Rob’s Texas Gourmet Foods, a long-time family favorite.

Rob’s has pretty much every sauce, butter, rub, jam, jelly, salsa, preserves,  and dip you can think of. And even better they’re all available to sample.

Every little alcove has something different. One has just a large number of ‘butters’.

Amaretto Pecan Honey Butter, Honey Chipotle Butter, Chocolate Banana Peanut Butter, Praline Pecan Honey Butter, Jalapeno Honey Peanut Butter, etc. In fact they have over 40 different flavors.

As I said, every flavor of every type are available to taste-test.

And they have either wheat thins, or pretzels available for your tasting pleasure

It’s very easy to just ‘graze’ from one item to the next, which is why we never come here before Der Lindenbaum. We would be too full afterward.

And another thing to note about Rustlin’ Rob’s is that it’s the original home of Jan’s Moose Footstool that I mentioned last week.

But no more moose are in stock now.

After checking out the rest of Main St, along with some bench-sitting and people-watching, we made our way back to the truck, and drove about 5 miles east to visit Wildseed Farms, another place we always check out when we’re in the area.

Billed as the largest wildflower farm in the country, it’s a fun place to visit with a lot of paths and walkways through trees, bushes, and flowers.

Inside is a lot of other stuff that makes Jan happy.

In fact, this was the only place where Jan found something she just had to have.

Finally heading back into Fredericksburg, we made a quick Wal-Mart stop and then another one at the Fredericksburg Pecans store for a big bag of shelled ones.

This was another place that had samples, four different varieties of pecans that are supposed to taste different, but neither Jan nor I could tell the difference. Maybe it’s just us.

Then we were back on the road toward home, again stopping at the Love’s right before got back on I-10E.

We had kind of thought about stopping off at one of our two favorite San Antonio restaurant’s, either La Fonda on Main, called the best Mexican Restaurant in San Antonio, or the Magic Time Machine. But as we got closer, we both realized we were still just too full from Der Lindenbaum and ‘grazin’.

So we headed on around San Antonio to our last stop, again at the Buc-ee’s at the Luling exit. Besides our potty break, we got a couple of their BBQ Brisket Sandwiches for dinner after we got home, and also a couple of their great kolaches, and a couple of cranberry muffins for breakfast the next couple of days.

Leaving Buc-ee’s, we checked in with our daughter Brandi and her Strep Throat. She’s feeling a little better, and neither Lowell nor Landon have come down with it so far.

And neither have we.

Knock on wood.

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February 10, 2017

So What’s Your Bacon Number?

And No, it’s not how many strips you had for breakfast.

Well, the frack stuff is mostly gone and the coil tubing stuff is mostly here. But there are still a few dribbles and drabs of both wandering in and out.

Luckily for me, but unluckily for Art, my daytime counterpart, the big stuff can only be moved on Texas roads during daylight hours. Or at least from one-half hour before sunrise until one-half hour after sunset.

Which means Art got the brunt of the traffic while my night should be relatively calm.

I mentioned a while back that I was trying to come up with a better gate vehicle sensor. Although our Mighty Mules normally work great, they’re still at the mercy of any RF interference, like we’re seeing at this gate.

Day in and day out, the most reliable system seems to be the old-fashion gas station bells with the rubber hoses, exactly why our previous gate guard company, Gate Guard Services, still uses them.

But with that reliability, comes some problems. Like hundreds of feet of fairly expensive rubber hose. At least if you want the ends out far enough to give you ample warning of an incoming or exiting vehicle so you can…you know…wake up.

So I decided to combine the best of both the purely mechanical and purely electronic systems.

So I still will use a length of rubber hose as the actual vehicle sensor lying across the road. But instead of running the hose all the way back to the bell, I will connect the hose to a mechanical pressure switch.

Available in various pressure sensitivities and costing $20-30, they will momentarily close a switch contact when a vehicle runs over the hose. This way I can just run wires back to the control box.

I can buy a 1000 ft. spool of twisted pair wire for about $50, giving me as much as 500 ft. of warning in either direction, just pulling out as much as I need, and then winding it back on the spool when I’m done at that gate.

And even the control box is simple.  A small plastic box, a wall wart 12v power supply and a couple of buzzer or chime modules with different tones to let you differentiate between ins and outs.  Kind of like the doorbell modules where the front door one goes “Ding Dong” and the rear door goes “Dong”.

If you wanted to get a little fancy, for a few dollars each you can buy those record and playback modules that come in the greeting cards that let you record your own message. Then you could have one saying, “Vehicle Coming In” and the other saying “Vehicle Coming Out”.

So it’s something I’ll be trying out on our next gates later this year.

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So what is your Bacon number?

A couple of days ago I was reading an article about the “Six Degrees of Separation” concept. First put forward in the late 1920’s, it says that any two people on earth can be connected by only five other people in between.

And computer simulations done in the 1970’s seem to show that you only need three degrees of separation to connect any two people in the US.

Just to clarify, a ‘degree of separation’ is from one person to another. So if I know one person, that’s one degree. And if they know another person, I’m two degrees from that second person. And so on.

There’s even been a couple of games invented that use this idea, the most famous being “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”. Which is where your Bacon Number comes from.

The idea is to connect the actor Kevin Bacon to any other actor in as few degrees as possible, but only by using movies they were in.

For example, Kevin Bacon to Elvis Presley. This is an easy one.

Elvis Presley was in Change of Habit with Edward Asner.

Edward Asner was in JFK with Kevin Bacon.

So with Kevin Bacon always having a Bacon Number of 0, that means that Edward Asner has a BN of 1 and Elvis has a BN of 2.

And strangely enough if you want to add in plays (the movies of their day), you can give John Wilkes Booth (yes that one!) a Bacon Number of 5, or even a 4

JWB was in an 1863 production of Macbeth with Louisa Lane Drew.

Louisa Lane Drew was in an 1896 production of “The Rivals” with her grandson Lionel Barrymore.

Lionel Barrymore was in “It’s A Wonderful Life” with Jimmy Stuart.

Jimmy Stuart was in “Airport ‘77” with Jack Lemmon.

Jack Lemmon was in “JFK” with Kevin Bacon.

But someone else brought JWB’s Bacon Number down to a 4 with this shortcut.

Lionel Barrymore was in “Right Cross” with Kenneth Tobey.

Kenneth Tobey was in “Hero At Large” with Kevin Bacon.

But another game takes this to a more personal note, with someone picking a famous person from history, and then the rest try to link themselves to that person with the smallest Bacon Number, still using that concept.

For example, Jan and our son Chris, (not sure about our daughter Brandi) met Michael Jackson in Montgomery, AL when he came to the TV station where I worked in the mid 70’s. He was appearing in town and came by the station to do a promo.

So Jan has a BN of 1 to Michael Jackson, and oddly enough, a BN of 3 to Elvis Presley through Lisa Marie Presley.

For me, I was thinking more historical, and was surprised to find that I have a BN of 3 to Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin.

When I was 9 or 10, I met, shook hands with, and talked to Eleanor Roosevelt when she was on a book tour in Nashville, TN in the late 50’s. So that gives me this.

From me to Eleanor Roosevelt to FDR to Churchill and Stalin at the Yalta Conference in 1945. So a BN of 3.

Unfortunately Eleanor did not go to Yalta, otherwise it would have been BN of 2.

But I was astounded to find that I had a BN of 2 to Adolf Hitler from two different directions.

In the mid-60’s my father was working for Boeing on the Apollo project in Huntsville, AL. Boeing had a big party for the employees and my father took me along. When I found out that Werner Von Braun was there, I went and introduced myself in the stumbling German that I was taking at the time. (Hey, at least I didn’t call him a jelly donut like JFK called Berlin)

And since von Braun knew Hitler, that gives this.

Me to Werner von Braun to Adolf Hitler. So a BN of 2.

As for the other path, I mentioned a few days ago that I worked as a Broadcast Engineer at a black radio station (Oh, the stories I could tell) in Birmingham, AL in the early 70’s, and so got to meet Jesse Owens, the famous Olympic athlete who embarrassed the German athletes at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.

Contrary to popular ‘knowledge’, Hitler did shake Owen’s hand, because the Olympic Committee demanded it, but Hitler did refuse to ‘congratulate’ him.

Me to Jesse Owens to Adolf Hitler. So a BN of 2 there also.

Now that you’ve heard my Bacon Number stories, let’s throw it out to our blog readers.

What’s your shortest BN to a famous person?

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February 10, 2018

The King is Dead . . .

Well, by the time the rain stopped and the weather cleared, it was really too late to fool with taking down the last awning. Maybe tomorrow. At least that’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

As I had hoped, today turned out to be a do-nothing day, just reading, napping, computing and snacking. A perfect day.

The King is Dead. Long Live The New King.

For the last 4 years I’ve used a Bubba Keg like this for my morning coffee.

At 34oz it holds the 5 cups I brew with a little room to spare. Actually, I brew 8 cups, but Jan’s mug holds the other 3 cups. I had another, smaller before that, but I wanted something a little bigger.

But although it was foam-filled, the Bubba Keg just didn’t my coffee warm for more than a couple of hours. But since I normally nurse my caffeine fix over the day, I wanted something a little better.

I had looked at the stainless steel vacuum mugs like the Yeti and the Ozark Trail models, but they weren’t large enough, only 30oz, and that was to the very rim. So a week or so ago when I saw this at WalMart I got one immediately.

It’s the new 40oz model from Ozark Trail, WalMart’s brand. But it needs a handle, so I immediately ordered one from Amazon.

Unfortunately these new mugs haven’t been out long enough for someone to come out with a lid that seals like they have with the smaller ones.

All the new ones just have the drinking hole in them. So I’ll have to find some way to seal it up when I’m taking it into work.

Our daughter Brandi and her family are presently scattered around the country. Brandi herself is out in San Diego at a ‘business conference’. That’s her on the right.

Yep, looks like business to me.

Notice how these ‘business conferences’ are always in places like Las Vegas or Miami, or San Diego? And never places like Duluth, or Des Moines?

Why is that?

And while Brandi is partying out west, Lowell and Landon were up in Pauls Valley, OK with his parents, celebrating Lowell’s birthday, for which Landon and his grandma Sonja baked him a birthday cake.

Sounds like fun.

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February 10, 2019

Green Beans and Cockroaches . . .

Jan and I headed up to the Sugarland area about 11, to meet up with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, for Landon’s hockey practice. Actually it’s all practice since they’re still learning the necessary skills and don’t play in games yet.

We took gloves this time and dressed a little warmer so we were a lot more comfortable than last time. It’s cold in there.

Since we were last at one of these practices a few weeks ago, Landon had been taking skating lessons on the side, with two under his belt so far. And it really shows.

He’s taking lessons from a female figure-skating instructor, learning more of the fundamentals of just skating, rather than hockey. And now he can skate backward pretty good and he’s much more fluid on the ice.

I think he’s signed up for 10 lessons, so he still has 8 more to go, so that should make a big difference in his skating skills.

After practice was over we all headed over to the nearby Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, our usual place to eat. But, usually this time, it was really busy. Normally by now the lunch crowd has thinned and there is plenty of parking and tables.

But today the place was jammed packed. And when I asked the waitress why it was so busy today, she looked at me like I was from another planet, and said, “It’s CRAWFISH SEASON!” And yes, she said it in all caps, too.

Well, excuse me!  When I was growing up in south Alabama, crawfish were for bait. Nobody would dare eat a ‘mudbug’. They were just giant cockroaches.

Jan and I noticed that they had new menus since we were there a few weeks ago, and they’ve added some new sides, one being Grilled Green Beans.

With Lowell getting the Chicken Fried Chicken, and Brandi a Boudin Link, Jan got her usual Grilled Catfish Fillets and the Green Beans, while I got Shrimp Gumbo and the Grilled Veggies.

Wish I’d gotten the Green Beans. I will next time. They were grilled with onions and bacon, and were delicious. At least I think they were, based on the small amount Jan was willing to share.

Next time, for sure.

I did surprise Landon with a kit that I think he’ll like.

It’s from the Smithsonian people, and lets you build a 2-1/2 foot tall rocket, which looks pretty much like a Saturn 5, I guess. Told him I wanted pictures.

I went online this evening to renew the PO Box that we have here in Santa Fe, and found they offered a new service.

You can now receive packages from any shipper, UPS, FedEx, etc., at your PO Box. It’s a free additional service called Street Addressing.

You just go online, log into your PO Box account, and click the Street Addressing box under Additional Services. You will have to drop off some paperwork at the PO to finalize it, but that’s all there is to it.

Neat!

Tomorrow it’s back to work, hoping to see that my webserver hard drive cloning job is done. Maybe.

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February 10, 2020

“You’re A Car”

After visiting the hotel’s ‘Coffee Bar’, our Extended Stay America’s version of the Free Breakfast, we were packed and on our way by 9:15am.

Except for our initial keycard problems, our stay here was pretty nice. Our room was really a studio apartment, with a 4 burner oven/stove, a large apartment-sized refrigerator, and a microwave.

Plus the dining table made a nice computer table. A very nice stay for about $70 a night, including all taxes.

Although a little disconcerting to start with, the ‘Coffee Bar’ turned out to be pretty nice. Especially since the coffee was really good.

Plus they had pre-packaged muffins and granola bars, as well as 4 different flavors of do-it-yourself oatmeal.

And since this is a long-term residence type of place, with a stove and fridge, they even have an online cookbook for cooking on the road.

Although we were heading for Athens AL, about 180 miles north, we made a zig-zag stop at the Golden Rule BBQ out in the Irondale area of Birmingham about 90 miles along the way.

I’ve been eating here since the early 60’s, but I’m a youngster in regards to this place. It’s been in business since 1891, yes, almost 130 years. And it’s listed as the oldest continuously-operating restaurant in the state of Alabama.

So they must be doing something right.

Jan and I got the same thing, a Jumbo Sliced Pork Sandwich, mine with Outside Cut, and fries.

‘Outside Cut’ means that the meat is cut from the outside char or ‘bark’, giving the meat a little sweet crunch. Delicious.

And of course, we had to each have a piece of their famous homemade pie. I got my favorite Lemon Cream,

while Jan got a slice of the Double Chocolate Cream but she wouldn’t let me take a photo of it so no one would know she had dessert. You didn’t hear it from me.

Though it was raining a little as we left Montgomery, it started coming down in sheets as we got out on the other side of Birmingham. So much so that finally I got behind a brightly-lit semi and followed him, hoping he could see the road better than me, since I couldn’t see it at all.

This long-distance trip in our truck is the first one we’ve done like this since 2015 and it takes a little getting used to. So as we are pulling into a Rest Stop, Jan reminds me, by saying, “You’re a car”, that I need to stay on the Auto side, and not the Truck/Trailer side. Everything helps, I guess.

We got into our Day’s Inn in Athens about 2pm, and got unloaded during a lull in the rain into our very nice room.

A King, Non-Smoking room for only $66/night total. A great deal from Expedia.

Later, around 4:30 we drove right down the road to do something unusual for us. Two meals in one day. But it was to keep up a tradition.

We always have dinner on our first night in Athens at the nearby Catfish Cabin, and hey, who wants to mess with tradition, right?

We both had the Blackened Catfish Filets with Steamed Veggies.

And of course a basket of their fantastic homemade hushpuppies.

Really, really good.

Catching up on yesterday, we met up with long-time friends Kathy and Weylan, up in the Prattville area at the Longhorn Steakhouse there.

Jan and Kathy worked together here at Jackson Hospital back in the mid-70’s and have stayed in touch. So we always get together when we’re in the area.

While Jan and Kathy were talking over old times, Weylan and I were talking over old jets, specifically F-4B, C, and D Phantoms, his in the Air Force, and mine as a DOD tech working on Marine F-4’s at the Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort SC, part of Parris Island.

For about 3 years, I worked for both Lear-Siegler and Qualitron-Aero, moving around the country to different bases, ones like Otis AFB on Cape Cod MA, and England AFB in Alexandria LA. Jan and I really enjoyed this, but our son Chris was reaching school age and we didn’t want to have him changing schools every few months. So we settled down after that and I went back to working as a Broadcast Engineer.

It was really good getting to see Kathy and Weylan again, and we’re looking forward to next time already.

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February 10, 2021

Next Up In The Queue . . .

I mentioned the other day that we’ve started watching Disney+’s The Mandalorian, a Star Wars spin-off, and we enjoyed episode 3 a lot more than the first two. And that’s because I realized that it would be a lot more enjoyable if we could actually see more of what was going on.

Even the daylight scenes seemed awfully dark and muddled. So before we watch episode 3 I went into our Samsung TV’s settings panel and changed the Picture Mode to Dynamic and then bumped the Brightness up from 0 to 3.

And it didn’t seemed to make a lot of difference with normal programming, but really brightened up this episode. We could actually tell what was going on for a change.

We’ve also been looking for the next series that we want to watch, and I think we’ve decided on Battlestar Galactic. No, not recent one where the Cylons looked human and Starbuck was a girl. But the original one from the late 70’s that starred Lorne Green. It only ran for one season of 24 episodes, so it shouldn’t take us too to long watch it all.

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February 10, 2022

Stranger Than Fiction . . .

We met our friend Tricia up in Pasadena this afternoon at the Pine Street Café which is part of a Wedding and Event Venue called Silver Sycamore. With a rustic look, it also includes a hotel and saloon, as well as individual cabins as part of a Bed & Breakfast.

A really neat place.

And a really good café, too.

Jan and I started out with a serving of their Baked Potato Soup.

I actually liked the flavor of it a little better than Gator’s version, but the texture was strange. Rather than chunks of potatoes, it was just smooth, with the texture of Cream of Wheat.

Tricia got their version of Eggs Benedict with roasted potatoes.

Looked really good.

Jan got the Grilled Turkey and Sautéed Spinach Sandwich with Provolone Cheese,

while I went with the classic BLT.

All really, really good.

Coming home, we dropped off an Amazon return at the FM646 UPS store. No box, or packing. Just walk in, hand them the item, they scan the QR code and hand you a receipt. Then about 5 minutes later, I got a text saying the cost had been credited to my Amazon account.

Nice.

I was happy to see how well the Jeep ran, my first time driving it since the repair. And I don’t know if it was just wishful thinking, or the new O₂ sensor, but it did seem a little peppier.

I’ve mentioned before about what a great artist our grandson Landon is. Brandi texted us this photo this evening showing his latest masterpiece.

A family on their street brought home their new baby today and found this chalk drawing on their driveway when they got home.

I told Landon he needs to always sign his artwork.

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February 10, 2023

Poker Face . . .

After about 3 days of having problems streaming Poker Face on Peacock TV, it suddenly worked last night. For some reason when we tried to watch originally, it would lock up at the first commercial. And the only way to get out of it was to reboot our Amazon Firestick.

But the problem was only on Poker Face. Other Peacock programs had no problems.

But once we got to watch it, we both really like it.

Poker Face is kind of a combination of The Fugitive and Route 66.

Charlie Cale is a young woman with a very unique ability. She can tell if someone is lying. In person, or even over video.

In the first episode, while she working as a cocktail waitress in a Nevada casino, she solves the murder of a friend of hers, imbuing the anger of the casino owner who makes it his mission to have her killed.

Then in the second episode, Charlie is on the run, being chased by Benjamin Bratt, her ‘Lt. Gerard’. Her car breaks down in a small New Mexico town where she solves another murder.

Every episode will have well-known guest stars like Ellen Barkin, Simon Helberg, Nick Nolte, Rhea Perlman, and Judith Light, and a new murder for Charlie to solve using her strange talent.

Check it out.

Through a scheduling mix-up, Jan had a last-minute appointment to get her blood work done for her upcoming endocrinologist appointment. So it was off to a nearby Quest Diagnostics to get stuck and have some blood sucked out of her.

Now Jan really, really, really doesn’t like needles. In fact that’s why she went into Medical Records rather than Nursing. Well, that and she doesn’t like to see blood either.

But she got through it, so to reward her for not screaming when they stuck the needle in, we went to Gator’s Grill for dinner.

We both got a Side Salad with their really good made-in-house Buttermilk Ranch.

For her entrée, Jan got their Grilled Chicken Sandwich on a Keto Bun,

while I got a big bowl of their also made-in-house Chipotle Beef Veggie Soup.

Finishing up we topped it off with a couple of their Keto Blueberry Muffins.

Keto or not, undoubtedly the best muffins I’ve ever had.

Yesterday I posted a video of SpaceX’s first full-blown Super Heavy Booster test-firing 31 of its 33 engines. The reason for 31 of 33 was that one engine was shut down right before ignition and 1 was shut down a couple of seconds after. But SpaceX said that the Starship would have made orbit with no problems.

Then today I came across this mockup video of what the original Space Shuttle would have looked like launching from the Cape.

As I’ve mentioned before, the original Shuttle design utilized a manned Flyback Booster. Engine-wise the Booster engines were just essentially identical to the ones in the Shuttle itself. After the Booster separated from the Shuttle/External Tank, the pilots flew it back to the Cape for a dead-stick landing, just like the Shuttle would do later at the end of its orbital mission.

Note that the Flyback Booster replaced the SRB’s that were used on the final design that actually flew into space. And also note that with no SRB’s there would have been no Challenger explosion.

Also, one early version of the Shuttle itself had jet engines mounted so that it could actually fly a powered landing, rather than just dropping like a flying brick.