Lunch today was our first visit to BoomerJack’s, a new sports bar that just opened right next door to Twin Peaks.
The interior is pretty much the same ‘post-industrial’ look that most places seem to have now, but with a lot of monitors, of course. Including one really big one that I’m pretty sure is a projection system.
Jan and I had already perused the menu online, so we were ready to order as soon as Ana (Anastasia) brought our drinks.
We both started out with really good Salads,
and then Jan moved on to the Blackened Catfish, with Steamed Veggies.
I went with the Six Wings covered with their Mango Habanero sauce, along with a side of the Ghost Pepper sauce.
The wings/sauce were really good, but compared to the ones from the late, lamented Texas Huddle, they’re much smaller.
But the food was really good, and we both agreed we’d be back.
Next up was Kroger’s for a few things, plus Jan’s prescriptions. Then heading home, we looped by Texas Huddle to see if anything was happening, but it was still dead.
I had asked Anna if they were still hiring and she said yes, so when got home I texted Juana, our out-of-work Texas Huddle server to let her know. She had been waiting to see what was going to happen with Huddle, and said that she had been told that Huddle was permanently closed, so she was going to start looking. Hope it works out for her.
Since I received my Celestron Eclipse Camera Filter the other day, I had been meaning to try it out on the sun, but it’s pretty much been cloudy every day since, but hopefully I’ll get to check it out soon.
I figure it should show me the sun’s disk with or without the eclipse. I’ll let you know.
We have a number of LED flashlights scattered around the rig, but it seems every time we grab one it needs new batteries, so I decided to check these out.
At $35/pair, a little pricey, but they’re really bright and always ready to go. Hopefully, I’ll save on batteries.
Coming up, we’ve got the Alvin Opry tomorrow night, so probably a short blog. Jan’s all giddy because the main act is John Mark Davis, her secret crush. Well, not too secret, I guess, since I know about it.
And of course, dinner at Monterey’s Mexican beforehand as usual.
And don’t forget that this Sunday morning at 2 am, it’s Spring Forward time once again.
Thought for the Day:
If voting made any difference they wouldn’t let us do it. ~ Mark Twain
Almost like Twain knew what was going on today.
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.
March 7, 2009
Throwing Rolls…
Yesterday, Jan and I had a late lunch/early supper at Lambert’s Cafe up in Foley, about 8 miles north of here. Lambert’s is known as the home of the “Throwed Rolls”
And they really mean it!
The place has a rustic look and feel about it, with large wooden tables and bench seats.
And they really mean the part about “Throwed Rolls”. Waiters walk around with big trays of fresh-baked yeast rolls a little bigger than a softball, waiting for someone to yell out or hold up their hand.
And suddenly a roll is sailing across the dining room…sometimes 20 or 30 ft. If you miss it, keep your eyes open because a replacement is right behind it. When they’re really busy, you may find 3 or 4 rolls under your table, left over from the previous uncoordinated occupant. I’ve sometimes seen 2 or 3 rolls in the air at the same time criss-crossing the room.
And the servings are enormous. I had a BBQ Pork Steak that came out in a large aluminum skillet about 15″ in diameter. After eating until I was stuffed, I still had enough for two more meals to take home.
Jan had the Fried Chicken. It looked like she had two or three chickens piled on her plate.
Hmmmm!, leftovers.
The other neat thing, besides the great ‘sides’ that come with your meal, are the ‘pass-arounds’. Waiters stroll the aisles with large buckets of fried okra, black-eyed peas, fried potatoes and onions, pasta and tomato salad, and sorghum and apple butter for the rolls. They will load you up with as much as you want.
Hmmmm!, more leftovers.
When we’ve gone here in the past during the summer, there’s been as much as a 2 hour wait. And it’s easy to see why.
Before pigging out at Lambert’s, the morning was dedicated to fixing things around the coach. After Lambert’s, I was too full to do much more than nap.
I oiled the balky retractable step that didn’t want to close all the way when we left Houston, replaced the outside water filter, worked on the hitch pins that I had trouble with when we got here, screwed down the pull handle at the door, and started work on rearranging the contents of the plastic storage bins in the basement.
And I’ve still got plenty left to do to keep me busy.
March 7, 2010
A Cold, Wet, Windy, Uncomfortable Day…but I’m still having fun…
Today was early bird arrival day here at the Rally.
And boy was it a mess.
It was cold, wet, windy, and very uncomfortable. It even hailed for a while. But we still managed to get in excess of 180 rigs parked in some semblance of order.
Or maybe, only slight disorder.
But tomorrow should be better. The weather should be warmer and dryer, we hope. And we only have about 70 or so rigs still to come in. We’ll see.
As they say, tomorrow is another day.
Hopefully better.
March 7, 2011
Rally Days are Here Again . . .
This morning started out early, way, way too early. But we got moving with a lot of hot coffee and some of those delicious cranberry muffins our friend Gina made for us. Toasted in the oven and slathered with butter, they are fantastic.
So we hit the ground running about 8 am, (well, maybe not running) but after working at pretty much a dead run yesterday, today was almost restful. We only had about 2 dozen rigs come in, and they were pretty spread out during the day. It seems a number of rigs still haven’t shown up, very possibly due to the very high winds we had here today. So we still may have a few stragglers tomorrow.
Most of my day was spent fielding questions and complaints, but nothing really major. A lot of it was just being sure people knew they needed to go to register, and where registration was, etc.
Finally at 3 pm we shut down parking and got everyone together in the Main Hall for the Welcome Meeting.
About 5:30 Jan and I headed down the street to EAT . . . well, to eat at EAT. EAT is our favorite local Chinese buffet place, and the favorite for a lot of RV’ers since we saw many familiar faces there.
About 7 we had our evening meeting that started with a great talk and Q&A session with a Marine Captain from the Marine Corps Air Station across the street. She answered a lot of questions, and was very informative. So much so, that she got a standing ovation at the end. We really appreciate her service to our country.
Then it was time for everyone’s favorite, the Door Prize drawings, with a wide assortment of things, from restaurant gift cards, books, and computer GPS mapping software, to stays at RV resorts. With even more on coming nights.
Tomorrow is another early morning with Jan on gate duty starting at 8 am. We always have locals who come in on day passes, and Jan will be handling that at the front gate.
And I have to finish up my prep for my seminar tomorrow entitled “Ten Things to Never Do with Your Computer”. Hopefully, everyone will get something out of it.
That’s it for today. More tomorrow.
March 7, 2013
Not Much . . .
is pretty much what happened today.
Jan’s still staying with Gina, and will be until I pick her up on Saturday.
So it’s just me and the cats.
And the deer. So yes, I not only have to feed the cats while she’s gone, I have to feed the deer too. And she said no fair feeding her 9 pound cat to my 27 pound cat.
Darn. I could have killed two birds with one stone, or one cat . . .
Never mind. She’s probably reading this.
Yesterday, on our way up to Fredericksburg, we made a potty stop at a Love’s Truck Stop just off I-10, and while wandering through the truck accessories area, I found these.
They’re called Wiper Huggies. They’re a pair of spring-loaded braces that are installed on your wiper arms and are supposed to increase the force pressing the wiper blades against the windshield.
The online reviews are mixed, but for $5 I thought I’d give them a try. I’ll let you know how they work out.
Later in the morning, I drove down to the guard shack to pick up a package that had come in for me. I’m still ticked off at this $2.50 charge to hand me a box.
The rest of the afternoon I spent working on some of my projects around the rig. Slowly but surely, I’m making a dent in the list.
And tomorrow, pretty much the same as today.
March 7, 2014
Our Truck-House . . .
We had another beautiful sunny day, just perfect for this segment of bin decluttering. I managed to get through every bin in the basement area. But this first pass was only a throw-away/send-to-storeroom pass. But I got 6 big garbage bags to take to the dumpster, and a big plastic bin of stuff to go to our storeroom in Houston tomorrow.
Since it’s supposed to rain here on Sunday I probably won’t do anything, but Tuesday, after we get to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails on Monday, I’ll get back to work. I want to pull all the bins out of the basement and then scrub them down and hose them out.
Then I can start sorting through the stuff and then rearrange it all into categories.
Here’s the list of categories that I’ve come up with so far.
Lubes / Adhesives / Paints
Plumbing / Hoses
Electrical
Tools
Computers / Satellite / Cables
Electronics
Books
Towing
Air Tools
Lawn / Holiday Decorations
Coach Spares / Tools
Cleaning / Waxing Supplies
Airplanes / Helicopters / Toys
If you’ve got any further ideas or suggestions, let me know.
As I sort things into the bins I’m going to try to do an inventory so I can keep track of what I’ve got.. While I’ve been going through things lately, I come across stuff that I had forgotten I had in the first place.
Today I came across a list of the 10 Best BBQ Chains in the U.S.
Jan and I have eaten at 2 of these, and I’ve eaten at another one by myself.
Jan and I both loved Famous Dave’s and eat there whenever we’re near one. We’ve eaten at the Dickey’s in Los Cruces and weren’t overly impressed.
I’ve eaten at the original Jim N’ Nick’s in Birmingham and didn’t care for it. I liked Golden Rule BBQ there much better.
But Sonny’s BBQ should have been on the list, too. It’s not nationwide, but neither is Famous Dave’s.
We’ll keep this list in mind and try to check out some of these as we travel around the country.
Finally, Out of the Mouth of Babes:
Lowell, Brandi, and Landon drove up to Oklahoma yesterday to visit Lowell’s parents. When they told Landon they were going to visit his grandparents, he asked, “The ones that live in the Truck-House?”
That’s us. I guess we’re now Truck-Houser’s.
March 7, 2015
Recaps and Coconut Ice Cream . . .
Recapping yesterday:
Jan and I were up at 5:30 this morning so we could get on the road around 7, since we had a 265 mile trip to the Pima County Fairgrounds in Tucson for the upcoming 55th Escapade RV Rally.
We were hitched up and on our way a little after 7 am. Jan was a little worried about ice on the road since it had gone down to 28 last night, but with no moisture, it wasn’t a problem.
About 100 miles along the way, we passed through Lordsburg, and Kranberry’s Restaurant, our usual breakfast stop on this trip. But since we wanted to get to Tucson as early as possible and get parked, we passed it by. We like to stop here because the food is good, and they have RV parking in the rear. In fact, normally there are several Class A’s and 5th wheels parked with us.
Regular readers know that I usually drive 55mph when we travel, which I admit does feel kind of slow on I-10 in west Texas where the speed limit is 80. And there’s the tollway near Austin that has an 85mph speed limit too. But I like to be able to see some of the countryside, and my fuel mileage is better, so 55 works for us.
There are two-lane roads in Texas with a 70 mph speed limit, and I will drive 60 on those, and try to pull over to let traffic by when I can. But since we wanted to make good time, I bumped it up to 65 today.
I could definitely see the difference in MPG. At 55, my Silverleaf VMSpc engine computer display showed me using about 6.5 gallons per hour of diesel. At 60 I use about 7.5 gph. And at 65 I’m using about 8.5 gph. So I used an extra 8 gallons of diesel, or almost $23 worth, to get there 40 minutes earlier. Not sure how well that works in the long run.
What was kind of funny was that doing 65, I was passed several times by Class A’s that must have been doing the 80 mph speed limit or better. Two of them had very distinctive paint jobs, and who do you think I found right in front of me waiting to get parked at the Escapade? Lotta good it did them.
We stopped along the side of the road about a mile from our exit to the park and unhitched the truck so Jan could follow me in. The rally asked everyone to do this to cut down on the congestion.
For the first day, the parking went pretty smoothly, and we were in our spot and set up in less than 45 minutes. At first our power didn’t work, but they got it fixed in about 20 minutes, and so far it’s been pretty robust. We’ve been at other rallies where the 30 amp power was kind of iffy, but we haven’t had an outage yet.
As far as today, Saturday:
Jan and I were able to sleep in some this morning, a big improvement from yesterday’s 5 am wakeup call. Mostly we just took it easy, with coffee and the sopapillas left over from our visit to La Posta in Las Cruces Wednesday night.
About noon we walked over to the Registration area to turn in our data sheet and get our badges and info packets. After that we walked around checking out some of the booths,
A little after 5pm we drove up to Luckie’s Thai, one of our favorite local Asian places. We discovered this place several years ago, and always go back when we’re in town.
Although the food is delicious, they’re not the most organized place. The girl taking your order at the window will stop and take a phone-in order in the middle of taking your order, and your food comes out in dribbles and drabs, i.e., first Jan’s Sesame Chicken came out, then about 5 minutes later, my General Tso’s Chicken. Then about 5 minutes later, our Coconut Ice Cream desserts, which I sent back to hold in the freezer. Finally about 10 minutes after that, the Hot and Sour Soup I ordered.
But it was all good.
Getting back home, I worked on our upcoming seminar. It’s called Gate Guarding For Fun? and Profit, and will be held on Wednesday the 11th in the Old Pueblo Hall, Room 1 at 11:30am. So check us out.
Tomorrow is the first day here that the vendors are open, so Jan and I will be checking them out early. Then at 1pm I have a meeting for the seminar speakers, followed at 3pm with the official opening get-together for the rally.
A busy day.
March 7, 2016
Seven’s A Lucky Number . . .
We did our 1-mile walk this morning amid a lot of wind, very nice as a tailwind, but it really sucked as a headwind.
We did sit outside for a while, which was OK since the rig blocked the wind from our chairs, Luckily for us, since my anemometer showed wind gusts of almost 25 mph, when I walked out into the open.
But finally, it started spritzing a little so we headed inside, just ahead of a heavier drizzle. We’re still looking at 3 or 4 more days of rain, so this is probably just a little taste of what’s to come. But before it got a good start, I had a chore to finish up.
Now that the washer seems to be working OK, I needed to re-install the vent deflector cover on the outside of the rig, so that any rain doesn’t get blown back into the dryer vent. That only took a few minutes and then it was on to a couple of more things.
Getting back inside, I started the seventh load of laundry in the re-repaired washer, and during the rest of the afternoon, it ran through its cycle with no problems, so I guess the seventh time really is the charm.
Back inside I finished up with the washer cabinet by installing the keeper bar and the doors, so hopefully it will be a couple of more years before I have to take them off again.
I did a printout of my Pantry List for Jan so she could tape it up on the pantry door. Since Alexa does everything in lowercase, which is hard to read, I first ran it through a program that lets me capitalize every word. So, rather than reading like this,
fifth shelf left side hazelnut coffee
fifth shelf left side jim & nicks cheese biscuit mix
fifth shelf left side mini-moo half & half creamers
fifth shelf right side lance captain’s wafers
fifth shelf right side drinking straws
fifth shelf right side hot tea packets
it now looks like this. Much more readable.
Fifth Shelf Left Side Hazelnut Coffee
Fifth Shelf Left Side Jim & Nicks Cheese Biscuit Mix
Fifth Shelf Left Side Mini Moo Half & Half Creamers
Fifth Shelf Right Side Lance Captain’s Wafers
Fifth Shelf Right Side Drinking Straws
Fifth Shelf Right Side Hot Tea Packets
Then I also tacked up a pen so Jan can add and delete stuff as it’s used and replaced.
![Pantry Door_thumb[2]](https://ourrvadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Pantry-Door_thumb2.png "Pantry Door_thumb[2]")
Then every now and then I’ll update the master list in the computer and then print out a new one.
Jan and I have decided that Karma must be able to tell time. She spends most of the day sleeping up on the dashboard, but then every day at almost exactly 4 pm, she comes back to her food bowl and meows to be fed. Smarter than the average cat.
About 4:30 Jan and I headed up to La Grange to have dinner at the Sonic Drive-in. We both really like their hot dogs, Jan’s Chili-Cheese Coney with Grilled Onions and my New York Dog with Mustard, Sauerkraut, and Grilled Onions.
After that, it was right down the road to the Wal-Mart for a prescription and a few supplies, before finally getting home just as it started to rain again.
Another nice day in the neighborhood.
March 7, 2017
Balmorhea and Southern Star . . .
In between the heavy rains this afternoon, I tried to top off my coach batteries with distilled water. (My engine batteries are sealed), but found I didn’t have enough distilled water left, so it went on the Wal-Mart list for later this afternoon.
Next up I called Saddleback Mtn. RV Park in Balmorhea, TX to double-check our stay this coming Saturday, and I’m glad I did, since they’re booked solid for the foreseeable future. And this is even with all the new sites they’ve added.
So my next call was to the Southern Star RV Park. It’s a nice little park in Van Horn that we stayed at two years ago when it was a Passport America Park. It’s not now, but it’s still a good deal, and even better there’s a really good steak house right next door for dinner.
And luckily for us, they have a site for Saturday. So now we’re booked all the way through the end of April, and a few parks after that.
Later, about 2:30 Jan and I headed out for some errands before meeting Ed and Debi Hurlburt at the Conroe Golden Corral.
Our first stop was the local Academy so I could pick up another bottle of Biobor Biocide for our rig’s diesel tank.
I bought a bottle here last year and so I wanted to pick up another one since mine’s getting low. Academy normally carries it in their Marine section, but either they were out or don’t carry it anymore. I’ll check the Academy down in Clear Lake later on.
Then it was on to the Lowe’s for some vinyl tubing, but their stock was so scattered and disorganized that I finally gave up trying to find the size and length I needed.
Then it was on to the Sam’s Club right next door to pick up a prescription, and then to Wal-Mart for a couple of more prescriptions and some groceries.
We normally get our prescriptions at Wal-Mart, usually on their $4/$10 plan if possible. But some others are much cheaper at Sam’s on my Business Plus card. In this case, it would be $62.82 at Wal-Mart, but it was only $10 at Sam’s.
Then it was on to the nearby Golden Corral to meet up with Ed and Debi for one last meal together, at least for 4 or 5 months. We’ve eaten here a number of times and it’s pretty good. And much better than the Ryan’s right down the road.
Finally saying our goodbyes for now, Jan and I headed out, this time for a stop at Kroger’s for another prescription, a 3-month supply of Jan’s breast cancer medicine, Anastrozole.
In the past we’ve gotten it for about $55, but this time it suddenly skyrocketed to $171, of course with no explanation. But looking online, I found I could get it from Kroger’s under GoodRx for $27, a big difference. So done and done.
Getting home, I finished up adding water to my batteries, so that job was done.
We’ll leave for Colorado River TT about 10am, calling ahead so that we can meet the propane guy to top off our tank before we park.
Then Friday we’ll head for Tucson.
Finishing up, several of our readers have asked for a Karma the Cat update.
At about 16 months now she’s a big kitty now.
March 7, 2018
Got Root?
Why, yes. Yes, I do.
Since I started back working for my old client back in August, I’ve been trying to get full access to everything, especially the Linux-based Webserver that hosts our two websites. Well, today the last wall crumbled.
I finally got full ‘root’ access to the webserver, i.e. ‘God’ level. This means I can now install the new SSL certificate. . . just as soon as I can figure out where the previous guy hid it. But it’s only a matter of time.
And more importantly for the long haul, I will now be able to expedite moving the websites off the in-house server and up to Godaddy.
Colorado State University just recently accidentally sent out 11,000 acceptance emails to prospective students. Including some who had already been turned down, some who had not been officially accepted yet, and some who had not even applied.
And now it looks like The Grand 1894 Opera House down in Galveston is trying do its part. This morning I got TWO copies of this email, reminding us that we had tickets to see The Smothers Brothers on 11/11/07.
PERFORMANCE REMINDER
We’re delighted that you have tickets to Smothers Brothers on 11/11/07, 12:00 AM at The Grand 1894 Opera House.
We look forward to seeing you at the show! If you have shared your tickets with friends or family – please forward this reminder to them
.
If you are unable to attend this performance, we hope you will consider returning your tickets to The Grand which provides you a tax credit for your donation.
Thank you for being a Grand patron!
Sincerely,
Ticketing Services Staff – The Grand 1894 Opera House
409-765-1894 or 800-821-1894
This was a last little getaway weekend we had, staying at a bed and breakfast down there. But really this was a little getaway right before our big getaway. Two months later, on January 6th, we picked up our American Eagle from the dealer in New Braunfels, and one month later we were on our way to Alaska.
After I got home from work Jan and I headed back out to have dinner at Pho 20. But before we got out of the park we got a text message from our friends Rudy and Caroline Leggett. They were in the area and wanted to get together for dinner. So we told them to meet us at Pho 20.
Although we’ve talked on the phone a number of times, the last time we got together was a couple of years ago when we were both at the COE park in Fort Davis, AR, and had dinner together.
Rudy and his wife shared a plate of Chicken Fried Rice and a couple of Spring Rolls, while Jan, still working her way down the Chicken menu, had the Tempura Chicken, and of course, a House Crunch Salad.
I went back with an old favorite, the Chicken Breast Pho with Mixed Veggies, a little of everything.
Everything was delicious as usual.
It was great seeing Rudy and Caroline again, and we hope to do it again soon up in Pasadena.
March 7, 2019
Well, Did He Ever Return? No, He Never Returned …
And his fate is still unlearned.
Well, the blog theme is back. though I’m still trying to get everything lined up again. But the emailed blog part should be working again.
Although it was supposed to rain all day today, it was pretty nice this morning and the same was forecast for this afternoon. So I decided to wait until we got back from lunch to work outside on my rig wipers and maybe, pre-loosening the oil filter.
But of course, it was pouring down rain when we got home. so that took care of that.
Jan and did head out about 12:30, for lunch/breakfast at our new fav, SnoozeAM. We’ve kind of become disillusioned with The Egg and I, due to the lackluster service we had on recent visits. And since Jan found they have her favorite Avocado Toast,
she’s a happy eater, too.
Although I really like their Shrimp & Grits, it’s pretty high in calories, so I went back to the Snooze Classic 3 Egg Breakfast, with Bacon, Fruit, and an English Muffin.
But on the way, our first stop was Rudy’s BBQ for another shaker of their coarse ground pepper and 3 bottles of their BBQ sauce.
After lunch, I dropped off Jan at her favorite nail place for a No-Mani/Only Pedi. She really likes this place because of all the hygienic measures they take.
While she was there I made a run over to the nearby O’Reilly’s to pick up a couple of bundles of shop rags for my filter change out.
Just when you think they can’t come up with another scam.
He may fly forever in the skies above us.
He’s the man who never returned.
Subject: Nigerian Astronaut Wants To Come Home
Dr. Bakare Tunde
Astronautics Project Manager
National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA)
Plot 555
Misau Street
PMB 437
Garki, Abuja, FCT NIGERIA
Dear Mr. Sir,
REQUEST FOR ASSISTANCE-STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL
I am Dr. Bakare Tunde, the cousin of Nigerian Astronaut, Air Force Major Abacha Tunde. He was the first African in space when he made a secret flight to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979. He was on a later Soviet spaceflight, Soyuz T-16Z to the secret Soviet military space station Salyut 8T in 1989. He was stranded there in 1990 when the Soviet Union was dissolved. His other Soviet crew members returned to earth on the Soyuz T-16Z, but his place was taken up by return cargo. There have been occasional Progrez supply flights to keep him going since that time. He is in good humor, but wants to come home.
In the 14-years since he has been on the station, he has accumulated flight pay and interest amounting to almost $ 15,000,000 American Dollars. This is held in a trust at the Lagos National Savings and Trust Association. If we can obtain access to this money, we can place a down payment with the Russian Space Authorities for a Soyuz return flight to bring him back to Earth. I am told this will cost $ 3,000,000 American Dollars. In order to access the his trust fund we need your assistance.
Consequently, my colleagues and I are willing to transfer the total amount to your account or subsequent disbursement, since we as civil servants are prohibited by the Code of Conduct Bureau (Civil Service Laws) from opening and/ or operating foreign accounts in our names.
Needless to say, the trust reposed on you at this juncture is enormous. In return, we have agreed to offer you 20 percent of the transferred sum, while 10 percent shall be set aside for incidental expenses (internal and external) between the parties in the course of the transaction. You will be mandated to remit the balance 70 percent to other accounts in due course.
Kindly expedite action as we are behind schedule to enable us include down payment in this financial quarter.
Please acknowledge the receipt of this message via my direct number 234 (0) 9-234-XXXX only.
Yours Sincerely, Dr. Bakare Tunde
Astronautics Project Manager
March 7, 2020
OK, Who Smuggled The Snake In?
Or I guess it could be a water moccasin. But it would be a long swim.
And just where is St. Patrick when they need him?
I mean, they gave him a whole day, and a parade and everything.
Ireland records first-ever venomous snakebite
Who’s the patron saint of snake-charmers?
When I did a dump on Thursday I noticed a pinhole leak in my sewer hose, so after checking WalMart’s prices, I reordered the same one I bought from Amazon 5 years ago.
I’ve never had one last for 5 years before so I thought I’d go this route again. Of course, some of them died from an errant Weed Eater, so nothing’s sure.
R.I.P. DirecTV?
It seems that the word of the street is that AT&T, who now owns DirecTV, is thinking seriously about shutting it down. In fact, according to this USA Today article, they are no longer marketing the service except in “more rural or less dense suburban areas.”
The problem is that DirecTV is bleeding subscribers, down from 20 million in 2015, to 16 million now, all the result of ‘cord cutting’, I.e. everyone getting their TV via streaming on the Internet rather than cable or satellite.
Supposedly one of the remedies for this is for DirecTV and Dish to merge into one larger unit. Not that Dish is in any better shape than DirecTV. About half the size of DTV, Dish is hemorrhaging viewers at just about the same rate.
To me, this possible merger of two ‘failing’ companies reminds of the merger of Sears and Kmart. Merging two almost-out-of-business companies just gave them one larger almost-out-of-business company. Probably the same here.
We’ve been DirecTV subscribers since 1997, ten years since we started RV’ing, and while the park Wi-Fi here is fast enough to stream even without our satellite dish, it will be a lot more ‘iffy’ when we travel. Either way, I would hate to see DirecTV go away.
Wrapping up, Miss Karma and I will be on our own most of next week. Brandi and Lowell are picking up Jan tomorrow so she can Landon/dog/cat sit during Landon’s Spring Break next week. Then I’ll go up and get her Thursday afternoon.
But at least we’ll have lunch at King Food before they go.
One Last thing.
Don’t forget to Spring Forward tonight.
March 7, 2021
I Hate ‘Updates’ . . .
After some heavy caffeinating, I went outside about 12:15 to replace the motor/fan combo on our rear Fantastic Vent Fan.
With Jan supervising from the patio, and Karma on the lookout from her travel cage,
I climbed up on the roof (cue The Drifters) and got started.
Jan says I’m not allowed to be up on the rig roof without her supervising. When I asked her if she was going to catch me if I fell off, she said “No”, but she would call 911. Well, don’t I feel better.
And it turned out to be pretty quick and easy. The first thing was to remove the vent cover,
leaving me this.
Then, 4 screws and two snips of the power wires, and the old motor/fan was gone. The quilted foil is from the vent insulating cushion.
And after another 5 minutes, the new one was in place and connected up. The new wires already had crimp connectors installed, making it really easy.
So 45 minutes and a couple of tie-wraps, and I was done. Then Jan came inside and tried it out and it worked fine. And it’s a lot quieter than the old one, too.
Taking a break, we headed out for lunch at Denny’s about 2pm, with both of us getting the same favorite, their Ultimate Omelet with Bacon, Sausage, Mushrooms, Onions, Roasted Red Peppers, and Cheese, along with Fruit instead of the Hash Browns, and an English Muffin.
One thing about these Ultimate Omelets is that there’s as much piled on top as inside. Delicious as on every visit.
Back home, and ingesting more caffeine, I started in on my AC problem, taking off the inside cover, allowing me access to the Control Assembly up inside the unit.
And while I was looking up at it, all of a sudden, there was a sizzling, cracking, pop, and an orange glow from inside the case behind the multi-color connectors on the right side. And then some smoke came streaming out.
Now I’ve been in this long enough to know that once you let the ‘magic smoke’ out of a piece of equipment, it will no longer work.
So I removed the two nuts holding it in place and popped off the back and found this.
A wire had burned off the connector to the AC compressor relay, so much so that it had charred the insulation for about 3 inches back up the wire. Definitely an indication of a dead short, without a fuse or circuit breaker’s intervention.
So later this week, I’ll have to start tracing things back.
I hate ‘Updates’, software updates, in particular. I can’t tell you how many times over the years that I had a piece of software ‘updated’ into uselessness. Recently it was Evernote, where I actually had to download an old version to get back to one that worked for me.
Then on Friday, February 26th, Godaddy updated my WordPress blog software with the latest version, and since that I’ve been having a lot of behind-the-scenes errors, making it hard to upload daily blogs, answer comments, etc.
So now I’m trying to see if I can ‘downdate’ WordPress.
I Hate ‘Updates’.
March 7, 2023
Country Cookin’ . . .
Lunch today was, as hoped, at Kelley’s Country Cookin’ over in Alvin, and if there’s one thing Kelley’s is known for, besides really good food, is the size of their portions.
And my ‘cup’ of Vegetable Beef Soup is a perfect example. I’ve seen smaller ‘bowls’ at other places. And on top of that, it’s more Beef Vegetable then Vegetable Beef, since there were several more large chunks of Beef underneath there.
And it was really good.
Jan got one of the Thursday Specials, the Grilled Fish with 3 sides, in this case, Broccoli-Cheese Casserole, Green Beans, and Fried Okra. And this, with two large Catfish fillets, was only $10.49
After the soup, I got the Grilled Chicken Breast Salad.
So much food, that I had leftovers, and it’s the only time I’ve taken home chicken from a grilled chicken salad, a lot of chicken. In fact, I’ve got enough for a whole ‘nother meal.
Delicious!
Then it was on back down the road for Jan’s long-delayed visit to pOpshelf, a very upgraded version of a Dollar General, with much higher quality merchandise, and no food, except for snack stuff.
And a much brighter look to the store.
One of Jan’s new favorite stores.
I was able to get my new Roku installed and set up yesterday. And it was really easy, pretty much leading me through it. One thing nice was that it gave me a long list of streaming apps and let me choose which ones I already use, and it downloaded and installed them for me.
And I was thinking that my Firestick didn’t offer to do this. But then I thought that it might have offered it too, but since I had not installed any apps on anything yet, I probably just bypassed the offer.
The only downside is that we now have another remote to keep track of, along with the dozen or so others we already have.
But it’s working well so far, though we have used it to watch anything yet.
But soon.
