I got an early wake-up call from Rob, our park owner, this morning asking us to move our vehicles down a few spaces so he could upgrade the gravel in our parking space. So we went from this,
to this.
Looks really nice. And this stuff seems to compact and become solid as it ages, almost like asphalt.
While this was going on, I had a chance to check out the zoom setting on my S21 Ultra cellphone using my Eclipse filter.
Looks like 60x will be about right. Even though at that setting, it’s a digital zoom, and not an optical one, it still looks good.
Not as many sunspots as the other day.
About 1:30 we headed into Webster for our monthly Alvin Opry Alumni get-together, at Saltgrass Steakhouse once again.
And we’re going right back to Saltgrass again next month, the third one in a row.
We had to kill the owls to save the owls.
Feds propose killing nearly 500,000 ‘invasive’ owls to save Calif. native owls
On Monday, 75 wildlife organizations sent a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland asking her to abandon the plan.
The goal, according to the plan, is to eliminate habitat competition between barred owls and native northern spotted owl and California spotted owl, two endangered subspecies of spotted owls. While still in its early stages, the proposal calls for shooting an estimated 470,900 barred owls — primarily with shotguns — across land in Washington, Oregon and California over the next 30 years.
And what do you do when your endangered owls are attacking your endangered shorebirds?
ENDANGERED OWLS PREY ON ENDANGERED HAWAIIAN STILTS
Kind of like the saying in Vietnam, “We had to destroy the village to save the village.”
Leading into Easter weekend, thought I end the blog with this great version of Hallelujah, done by sisters Cassandra and Callahan Star.
Thanks, Anne.
Thought For The Day:
Someone said that not believing in the existence of aliens is like taking a spoonful of water from the ocean, and then saying sharks don’t exist because there’s none in my spoon.
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
March 28, 2009
Well, we’re still upright…
That’s about the best I can say.
Last night was a real experience. The wind was blowing so hard that I went out about 3am to let the window awnings in. Luckily, it wasn’t raining but boy, was the wind blowing. I also cranked down the roof TV antenna since it was also making noises I had never heard before.
The satellite dish had already blown over earlier in the evening, so it was no longer a problem. I just left it there.
While I was outside I kept hearing the strangest chirping, snapping sound coming across the swamp behind us. At first, I thought it was some animal in the swamp. But I finally realized it was the sound the wind made hitting the still-out awnings of the RV’s behind us across the swamp.
And then about 4am I went back out to cut down the windchimes that had been hanging from the awning arms and were now being slammed against the side of the coach.
And then about 6am a burst of thunder that sounded like it was about 5 feet over our heads, made the coach rock on the levelers. Man, that was loud!
And then today, not having got a lot of sleep last night, Jan and I stayed around the coach all day, napped, and ate leftover pizza.
Hopefully, tomorrow will be better…
March 28, 2010
Over the Hump to Pahrump…
Today we started out by heading over to the Blueberry Hill Family Restaurant for a very good brunch. They advertise that everything is made from scratch, including the fresh-squeezed orange juice, and it shows.
Then it was off to Fry’s and then next door to the Border’s Book Store.
Then it was “over the hump to Pahrump” as they say here. “The hump” is a long climb up and over a mountain range. And the view on the trip was spectacular.
Pahrump is a town of about 30,000 people located about 50 miles from Las Vegas. Its real claim to fame is that it is home to the closest legal brothels to Las Vegas.
But before we tracked them down, we wanted to check out the Escapees RV Park in Pahrump. And it was nothing to write home about. It had little in the way of shade and was really kind of desolate.
Unlike another RV park right down the road a piece. And it was Terrible. Or, rather it was Terrible’s. Like many casinos, Terrible’s (yes, that’s the name of a chain of casinos) has an RV park attached.
And this one was very nice. A lot of green landscaping, shade trees, and a nice lake.
This is a place we wouldn’t mind staying at.
And then it was off to find the whor…eh, the brothels. And it didn’t take long.
It turns out that they were at the end of the road we were already on.
There are two brothels here in Pahrump, Sheri’s Ranch and The Chicken Ranch. And to make things convenient, they’re right next door to each other.
Based on the signs it’s really kind of hard to tell what kind of place Sheri’s Ranch ( Warning! This link is a little risqué ) is.
But the Chicken Ranch ( Warning! This link is a little risqué, too) is a different story.
They’re pretty upfront about it.
Although The Chicken Ranch in Pahrump is named after the famous one in La Grange, TX, as depicted in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”, there is no direct connection.
Our curiosity satisfied, we headed back to Las Vegas. And by the time we got back, we decided it was time for supper. Since we enjoyed Blueberry Hill so much for lunch, we decided to try it for supper. And, once again, really good.
March 28, 2011
Thousand Trails in the Mail . . .
After coffee we slowly got the morning started around 9:30.
After Jan talked to Al & Adrienne about getting together tomorrow for lunch, I spent time talking with a client for a while, and then about 11:45 I went up to the RV Office and paid for our site for two more days. They told me that we would have to start using another entrance/exit to the fairgrounds since they are repaving the main entrance before the Pima County Fair starts on April 14th.
Then about 12:30 I called the fairgrounds office and found out my Priority Mail envelope had arrived, so I jumped in the truck and headed over there.
I was waiting for my paperwork from Thousand Trails so I could get it turned back ASAP, so we can head up to the TT park in Camp Verde, AZ within the next few days. We can only stay here for a few more days before we have to leave because of the upcoming fair.
I got the papers filled out and faxed in, and then called them to make my transfer payment over the phone. Hopefully, I will have our membership number in the next couple of days so we can head north.
While I was driving around the fairgrounds we got these photos of some of the RCS carnival equipment.
This is one of their large dormitory 5th wheels.
And out on one of the side lots are a bunch of the ride trailers.
About 5:30 Jan and I drove over to Jack’s BBQ for supper. According to the online reviews, Jack’s is the best BBQ place in Tucson, and the reviews were pretty accurate. Jan had a BBQ Beef/Pork sandwich, and I had the Sampler Platter with a little of everything. All very good.
After dinner, we drove over there to get a DQ fix.
Then it was home for the evening.
March 28, 2012
Good News, so far . . .
Today started out with breakfast at Denny’s. Much, much better than yesterday’s IHOP fiasco, believe me.
In other news I decided not to win last night’s Mega-Millions drawing, to allow the prize to rise to the largest amount in world history, $500 million.
That’s Half A Billion Dollars!!
After breakfast Jan and I drove over to Rush Truck Center to check up on our RV repair But when we got there Clayton and our RV were both gone. He had taken it on a test drive. Yay!
About 20 minutes later Clayton pulled back into the lot with our RV. And after talking to him, it turns out things were a little different than we thought.
First off, the engine stopping had nothing to do with coolant in the oil, or my thinking I had run out of diesel. The problem was one of those UNKNOWN codes that my Silverleaf couldn’t read. It indicated a fuel sensor problem on one of the engine fuel rails. Replacing this sensor and adding fresh oil got the engine up and running with no other problems. It started with no further priming. And apparently ran just fine, EXCEPT . . . but back that in a minute.
But now the problem is, where did the coolant come from? They still don’t know. That’s one of the things that the test drive was supposed to look at. But by the time we left, the tech still hadn’t checked the oil for more coolant, but Clayton said he’d call me later this afternoon if they found a problem, and he never did. So I guess they didn’t find more coolant.
Clayton said they’ve occasionally heard of this happening, and apparently never happening again. At this point, I don’t think I want to spend big bucks to tear into the engine without having some idea what the problem is.
So unless they find something else today or tomorrow, I’ll probably just start checking the oil every day we travel and keep a close eye on it.
Now for the EXCEPT – Clayton said both exhaust manifold gaskets were leaking. I had already figured out that I had a leak in the exhaust system somewhere since my Pac Brake doesn’t work as well as I thought it should. Plus I’ve never been happy with the engine power when accelerating uphill from a dead stop.
Clayton also said that the pressure test yesterday showed one leaky radiator hose that was only going to get worse, and should be replaced at some point.
I told him to go ahead and replace the gaskets and the hose, and get it out of the way. He said the hose would have to be ordered and would be in tomorrow morning, and said we should be ready to go late tomorrow afternoon.
I figure we’ll just wait and leave for Balmorhea on Friday morning.
After finding out things were looking up, Jan and I headed back to our room for more of the hotel good life, basically doing nothing, but again reading and napping. Jan’s read 4 or 5 books since we got here, and I’ve 4 or 5 really good naps. We’re both happy.
For dinner, we wanted to try Chachi’s. Clayton, the manager of the truck repair center working on our RV had recommended it, and online reviews certainly reinforced it. So about 5 pm we drove over there. And unlike a lot of good Mexican places, this wasn’t some hole-in-the-wall place, but a very nice restaurant in a small shopping area.
Not only was the food delicious, but the prices were great too. A 3 item combo plate (in my case, two enchiladas (counts as one item), q Chile relleno, and a tamale, with rice and beans was only $8.50. And according to Larry, our waiter, everything is made inhouse, tortillas, tamales, etc.
It certainly tastes like it. We may even come back tomorrow.
When we got back from supper, we had these email pictures from our daughter-in-law Linda, of our granddaughter Piper’s prom invitation.
Pretty inventive way to ask her and looks like he got a ‘YES’ check on it.
March 28, 2013
A New Favorite . . .
This morning I got back to figuring out why my dashboard gauge lights quit working. After getting some more info from American Coach on how the circuit was wired, I started tracing the wiring back and after wedging myself in between the driver’s seat and the underside of the dashboard (not an easy job, believe me), discovered that the problem is with the headlight switch. Or at least the dash light dimmer part of it.
The switch is one of those that you pull out to turn the parking lights/headlights on and then rotate the knob to dim/brighten the dash lights. I did find out that the switch is a standard truck part so a replacement would be easy to find, but getting it out looks to be a problem
I would try to spray some contact cleaner in it, but it looks to be pretty sealed up so I would probably have to remove it to do that, and then I’m right back where I started.
I’m going to look at it some more, but I’m kind of tempted to just disconnect the dash light wire plug from the switch and then short across the wires so the lights are on full bright all the time, since that’s the way I drive with it anyway.
More tomorrow.
My Priority Mail package finally showed up today that our daughter Brandi sent out on Monday. It should have gotten here yesterday, but according to the USPS tracking, it was “MisSent” (whatever that means) out of the Tucson PO yesterday and got lost.
A little before 4 Jan and I headed out to check out Brushfire BBQ. We read good online reviews about it, and it certainly smelled good when we drove by.
As we were just leaving the coach, Mike and Cheryl Sipes stopped by to say Hi and drop off a menu for the Hot Wok, a place they say is even better than Luckie’s Thai.
This means it must be fantastic, because Luckie’s is really, really good. Hopefully, we’ll be able to try it before we leave here on Sunday.
And Brushfire turned out to be really, really good, too.
In fact I think we have a new favorite BBQ place here in Tucson.
It’s as good as Famous Dave’s, a couple of bucks cheaper, and a lot closer to the fairgrounds.
Jan had the Half Rack of Baby Back Ribs with Grilled Green Beans and a Loaded Baked Potato, and I had a combo plate with Sticky Ribs (St. Louis Style) and Beef Brisket, with Grilled Green Beans and Grilled Corn on the Cob.
The meat was moist, tender, and very flavorful. But even as tender as it was, it had some texture to it. I hate it when they parboil the ribs first to make them cook faster when they’re being smoked, and the meat turns out just mushy. Yeah, it does ‘fall off the bone’, but that’s because it’s been boiled to a pulp.
And the Grilled Green Beans were outstanding. As the description says, they’re cooked on the grill and come out crisp, but still tender, and delicious.
My only regret about Brushfire is that we didn’t go sooner. They only have two locations, both here in the Tucson area, so it will probably be next year before we can go back.
BUMMER!
We got home a little after 5 and I got back on the taillight problem. I got the old, ‘extra’ taillight converter out of the system and patched around, and now the rig part of the system is working fine.
But getting that part working revealed another one. I’ve apparently got a bad ground somewhere in the truck’s wiring. If I hook my test box up to the truck, the lights work fine. But if I hook the rig up to the truck, the turn signals work fine, but the left taillight doesn’t work and the right taillight is much brighter than it should be. An obvious grounding problem
I think I know where the problem is, but I finally ran out of daylight, so I’ll try to finish it up tomorrow.
I did have a couple of blog readers drop by to say Hi while I was working on the taillights, but I didn’t get their names. Sorry. But it is always nice to know people enjoy the blog.
March 28, 2015
Good Mexican Food and Zombie Outbreaks . . .
I did manage to get a coat of paint on the center portion of the rig bumper early this afternoon before the sun hit it. I’ll do another coat on everything in the next day or two. After that, I’ll sand it with some 2000 grit and see what it looks like after I polish it up.
So far the timer I put on my Powermax converter/charger is working perfectly so far to keep both sets of batteries charged, so I can do away with setting up the separate charger each time. Good so far.
Jan and I recently stumbled into a new TV show we kind of like. It’s on the CW network and it’s called iZombie. Now, although Jan and I like such ‘supernatural’ shows as Grimm and Once Upon A Time, zombie shows and movies have never really been our ‘thing’. But this show came on one night while I was working on the blog, and after a bit, I started paying more attention.
The heroine, Liv Moore is a medical student, who after being scratched during a party that became a zombie outbreak, becomes a zombie herself. Finding herself now craving brains, she decides to go to work in the city morgue, easing access to her needed nourishment. She’s aided in this by the Chief Medical Examiner who knows her secret and is studying her condition, hoping to find a cure.
But there’s a catch. After a brain burrito, or some brain sushi, she sometimes takes on the memories, feelings, and talents of the brain’s donor. And after partaking of a murder victim’s brain, she sees ‘visions’ of their death, which she then uses to help the police solve crimes. Of course, the police detective she works with doesn’t know she’s a zombie. He just thinks she’s psychic. I don’t know which would be harder to believe.
The thing that makes this show really good is the humor woven into the plots, as well as Liv’s comments to the audience as she goes about her secret life.
The first two episodes have already run on the CW on Tuesday nights, but if you want to give it a try, TNT is rerunning the show from the first episode, starting this Monday, the 30th. Check it out.
About 4:30pm we headed over to Los Gringos Locos (The Crazy Americans) for dinner. Even getting there at 4:30 they were already on a wait, and it didn’t get any less busy as the evening went on. But then it is Saturday.
Everyone enjoyed what they had, and I have a new favorite dish there: the Carne Asada.
The meat was extremely tender and perfectly grilled. And it comes with a Cheese Enchilada, as well as rice and beans. Really good.
Tomorrow I’ll get back on my magnetic shade project and continue sewing the magnets in place.
March 28, 2016
No Cooling, No Cooling . . .
or Up On The Roof!
I was actually up a little early this morning, but was feeling a little ‘blah’ so we didn’t walk or sit outside. Just had our coffee and cereal in the rig.
Sometime during the night, our Direct TV DVR glitched and reset itself to no channels. I first tried powering the receiver off and on a couple of times, which has helped before, but not this time.
So I called and asked them to reset it from their end and they said they would. It seems like we have to do this every couple of years or so, Apparently, the receiver gets a garbage code command from the satellite and goes into ‘dork’ mode (yes, that’s a technical term). But after a few minutes, still nothing. But I thought I’d wait a while before I called them back.
I checked in with Barbara about 11 to see if there had been any change in her refrigerator problem. She said ‘No’, but that her tech guy had finally called her back, and agreed with me about it probably being a blockage (great minds think alike), but didn’t think much of the idea of turning the unit upside down for a while. I don’t either, because by the time you get it out, you might as well put a new residential unit in.
Around 2pm, feeling better after coffee, I drove over to Barbara’s to try another way to possibly clear the blockage. I had a foot-long piece of dowel and a small hammer, and my idea was to use the dowel rod and the hammer to gently tap along the 8 ammonia tubes visible at the top of the access panel. There are 4 tubes in front, and then 4 more behind those and offset upwards. I figured there might be a chance that this would break the crystals loose and free things up.
But when I got there, Barbara said the unit had died completely sometime that morning, with no lights working at all, not even the one inside the unit. All this indicates a loss of 12vdc to the fridge so after checking the fuses on the control board, I tracked down and checked the fuse sending 12v to the unit from the rig, but it was good too.
Before I could go any further, Barbara said she was researching residential types to replace it. I did go ahead and use the rod and the hammer to lightly tap along all the visible ammonia tubing, in case I do get a chance to look at it further.
The unit Barbara is trying to replace is a Dometic Royale RM3862, which is no longer made. But nothing on the residential side of things is showing up either.
The problem is the size. It’s 60” high, 24” wide, and 24” deep. Looking at the cabinet, she might be able to gain an inch or so on height and width, but unlike many installations where there is a drawer underneath, in her rig that’s where her heater lives.
I posted the question on RV.net and a couple of other forums asking for info, but haven’t heard anything back yet.
Finishing up at Barbara’s I drove down to the office to pay my 50 amp add-on fees, and get my car tag and gate codes.
Getting back to the rig I found I had a couple of problems of my own. One, Direct TV still wasn’t working, so I put in another call, and found out THEY have a problem. For some reason, they cannot uplink any codes to a certain swath of receiver addresses.
Every receiver has its own individual address. That’s how they can send a pay-per-view movie to only your receiver, and not everyone else’s. It’s like your computer’s IP address, where your computer is the only one in the world with that particular address.
So now we wait.
But Two is the big problem. My almost new (6 months old) Coleman Mach 15 AC that I installed (with help from my son Chris and son-in-law Lowell) back last August, is not cooling. It runs, but it just doesn’t cool.
My first thought was that it was maybe frozen up, so I ran just the fan for a while. I didn’t really think this was the problem, since the humidity is really low, and the fan is blowing strong air, but with sunset coming it was about all I could do.
So tomorrow it’s Up On The Roof to see what’s wrong with the compressor. Maybe just a bad capacitor. Well, I can hope, can’t it.
I’m assuming it’s still in warranty. I’ll check tomorrow.
March 28, 2017
Weather Watch . . .
The weather the last few days has been really nice, with highs in the mid-70’s and low’s in 40’s/50’s.
In fact, at noon, it was still only 69° here. Just about perfect. And even better, on Friday the high is supposed to 68° and sunny.
I’m still waiting to hear back from the RV Glass people, and really hope we can get this taken care of before we leave for Las Vegas on April 8th
I also put in a call to Arizona RV Awnings down in Wellton, AZ to get some info on replacing our rig’s Carefree window awnings. Before that Jan and I went outside and measured our present ones to see what we needed.
Based on their website we should be able to get heavy-duty Sunpro replacement fabric for all four for around $430, which includes free shipping. But our thought is to pick them up ourselves on a day trip down to Gila Bend and Yuma. So maybe we can get a discount since they won’t have to pay for the ‘free shipping’.
I’m still waiting to hear back from ‘Eric’ who’s supposed to answer my questions and take my order.
Later I stuck my phone camera underneath the rig’s Kwikee step so I could get the part numbers for the step (It’s a Series 28) and the motor I need to replace.
Blog reader Steve Mesz clued me in on the fact that many of these step motors are Ford power window motors, so I’m going to follow up on that.
For an early dinner we finished off our leftover Famous Dave’s BBQ from yesterday, along with some Bush’s Brown Sugar and Bourbon Grilling Beans. Then tomorrow Jan’s doing a big slow cooker batch of her world-famous chili. Really looking forward to it.
Tomorrow we’ll run some errands and take care of a few other chores, and hopefully, I’ll hear back from my windshield glass and awning people.
March 28, 2018
Switches and Shastas . . .
Well, our truck is finally back home after the latest repair. Hopefully the last one for a good while.
As I had hoped, (and maybe prayed a little) it did turn out that the problem was not a faulty oil pump, but instead, just a clogged oil pickup tube and pickup screen in the oil pan. That’s what 277,000+ miles worth of gunk will do. But it’s all cleared out now, and hopefully good for another 277,000 miles.
I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been gradually automating a number of things around the rig. The first one was our power converter, which needs to be power-cycled twice a day so it will keep the engine batteries charged. Others, like lights, the TV, etc., are just for convenience, or for fun.
I started out using these TP-Link Switches,
but they’re expensive, $22 each, and they’re big. Big enough that they cover up the other outlet on the wall plate. But they allow me to control them from anywhere using an Android app, and locally from our Alexa.
So next I tried out these PECHAM WiFi Switch units.
At $11 each they’re half the price and half the size. The only real downside is that it will only handle 10 Amps vs 15 Amps for the bigger ones. But nothing I’m controlling uses anywhere near that current, so cheaper is better.
Another nice thing about these is how quickly these can be set up. Once you’ve installed the app, just plug in the unit to an AC outlet, hit Search on the app, and in a few seconds you’re done. Then you can give it a name and it’s ready to go.
Our son-in-law Lowell recently alerted us to the fact that one of our favorite diners has come to town. Black Bear Diner, a staple out west, has a new location out in the Katy area, with more to come around here.
We’ve also enjoyed the very first ‘Black Bear’ Diner located in Weed, CA., home of Mt. Shasta.
I put the name in quotes because it’s actually called the Hi-Lo Diner. Hi-Lo was the first, then there was a divorce. So one side went down the road a piece to the city of Mount Shasta, and utilizing the same newspaper-like menus and décor, they named it the Black Bear Diner, and a chain was born.
We’re looking forward to checking it out soon.
Tomorrow I’ve got a 1:30 appointment with my GP again to rerun some tests. She’s unhappy about my calcium levels. And after I did a little research I think I know what the problem is. I’m not getting enough calcium.
Doh!, right?
I figured that I was getting enough calcium from my vitamins, but looking at the bottle it only gives me 20% of my daily needs. And since I don’t eat a lot of milk, dairy, cheese, etc., that wasn’t enough. So I’ve started taking Viactiv chews to make up the difference.
But we’ll see what the doc says, I guess.
March 28, 2019
Red Green . . .
No, not this guy, who can build pretty much anything with duct tape.
It’s more like Red v. Green. As in Antifreeze.
Jan had her very last doctor’s appointment today, a wrap-up with her oncologist. But since it was at 12:30 we decided to have lunch first, this time at East Star Chinese Buffet, where we haven’t been for a while.
We knew we were getting there early, about 10:45, and figured we’d just wait until they opened at 11. But we found they were already open, so we went in and got started. However they were still putting food out, but somehow we did find enough to eat. Really delicious, and of course, VERY fresh under the circumstances.
Afterward, we had enough time for me to pick up a couple of things at WalMart before heading over to the doctor’s office.
Since Jan had already gotten a good report from her mammogram so this was just a final checkup. One thing that Jan was hoping would happen, and did, was that since it’s been 5 years since her cancer, her doctor took her off her cancer preventative, Anastrozole, that she’s been taking.
She started out on Tamoxifen, but had a very bad reaction to it, saying it made her feel like she was crawling out of her skin. So after a few months, the doctor switched her over to Anastrozole. And she’s had no problems since. But she was glad to be off it anyway.
And after another stop, we were on our way home for the day.
I talked to Cummins again yesterday, but not about my oil filter, or my Onan Genset. This time it was about antifreeze, and the whole Red v. Green thing.
Our RV has the Green diesel antifreeze in it, and though I don’t use a lot, the green version is getting harder and harder to find. In fact, truck stops like Flying J and Pilot no longer carry it, at least the ones I’ve checked. And the last time I bought some I had to order a case of 4 from NAPA. And the price has doubled since then.
So I’m probably going to change over to the Red version sometime in the future. But I’ve heard a lot of stories about whether or not they can be mixed, with people who should know on both sides of the issue.
Plus now, there’s all the in-between colors, like pink, orange, and yellow. Mixtures that some say can be used to transition between the other colors.
But what I really wanted to know was what I needed to do to change over from Green to Red, since I’ve heard various stories about that too. But what I got pretty much confirmed what I already thought. So according to the Cummins Tech –
Drain the Green antifreeze, fill the engine with distilled water, and then run the engine for about 15 minutes. Then ideally, drain the water and do this again.
Finally, change out the coolant filter and fill the engine with the Red stuff, and I should be good to go.
But first, there’s my engine oil leak problem, and of course, my long-neglected Onan Genset problem.
It’s always something.
March 28, 2020
Fixing . . .
After a quiet, isolated morning, I spent the afternoon on the rig’s roof working on our Coleman Mach XV AC unit.
I mentioned the other day that our front AC wasn’t draining, but was leaking down into the rig. So grabbing my tools Jan steadied the ladder while I got up on the roof.
It takes a bit of time to get the unit apart, because of all the screws that seal up the evaporator side of the unit. You don’t want any outside air leaking in.
But I also had to take the sides off so I could get to the drain holes. I had brought an old coat hanger up with me just for that purpose, so I was able to poke it down in there to open up the hole.
I know they keep the hole small as part of keeping the unit sealed as much as possible, but next time I have to do this I’m bringing up a drill bit to ‘waller’ it out a little bit more.
After the built-up water had drained away, I dumped some water/bleach solution down in the drain pan to kill any more fungus/mold to help prevent the problem from reoccurring for a while.
I had originally planned to clean the ‘gunked-up’ evaporator coil, but when I looked at things, I decided to just do it while I was up there. I had Jan pass me up the can of coil cleaner I got the other day, and a towel to cover up the opening down into the coach.
After getting the coil nice and clean, I buttoned the AC back up and came down.
Jan doesn’t want me up on the roof until she’s sitting outside watching me. A while back I asked her if she was going to try and break my fall if I fell off the roof. She said, “No, but I will call 911.”
It’s the little things in a marriage that keep things interesting.
For dinner tonight I did another batch of Chicken Tenders in our Ninja Foodie Digital Air Fryer. As before I dipped the tenders in egg whites and then rolled them in crushed BBQ Pork Rinds.
Though you can buy Pork Rind Panko, I crush my own using a Ziploc bag and a heavy jar. This is because the pre-crushed Panko is about 6 times the cost per ounce as the ones in the bag.
And 25 minutes later at 400°, this was the result.
The egg white batter gives them a crispy crust, and the pork rinds get them a delicious crunch.
Don’t know why, but the distinctive BBQ of the Pork Rinds seems to disappear with the taste of the chicken.
Tomorrow if the weather holds we’ll try and get started on assembling our storage shed.
March 28, 2021
Well, 90% Anyway . . .
Jan and I headed up to Webster about 12:30 to have lunch at Snooze once again, but first I went by the office to start up a cloning job to an SSD drive, so it would be finished, or almost finished, by the time we got done with lunch,
Even getting to Snooze a little before 2pm, we still had a 20-minute wait for a table. But as usual, it was worth the wait.
When we got back to the office the clone job was finished, so I shut down the computer, opened the case, and moved the SSD driver over in place of the regular HD. As I was doing this I did notice that there were two HD’s in the case, not just the one I had expected. And this quickly turned out to be an unexpected problem.
So when I connected the SSD drive in place of the two HD’s and rebooted, I got a Boot Error saying it couldn’t find the Boot Block on the SSD. So I hooked the two HD’s back up and booted up into the BIOS area. And there I saw my problem.
The two HD’s weren’t configured as two separate drives, but a RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) array. And I’m assuming it was a RAID 1 array, which means that the two drives are mirrors of each other, so that if one fails, the other one takes over.
Well, as it turns out you can’t clone a RAID correctly, so I’ll have to break the array and try again. But that’s for another day.
While I had the case open I installed the new TP-Link WiFi 6 high-speed network card, and then booted up and found it worked fine. Then I went in and reconfigured that network settings . . . again.
For some reason, often when we get a Win10 update from MS, it goes through and configures all the network settings back to the default, I.e. no network. So then I have to go in and set it all up again.
Have I mentioned I hate ‘updates’?
Close to finishing up, I installed the final WiFi card in the Point of Sale computer and got it working. So sometime this week I’ll get all 3 machines moved over to the new, much faster network. So I guess I got 90% done of what I wanted to, so not bad.
And sometime in here I need to break the RAID array apart so I can re-clone that drive, and also clone the POS computer too.
Busy, busy, busy.
Coming coming back toward home, we made a quick HEB stop for a few HEB-specific things that Jan likes, finally getting back to the rig a little before 6pm, a long, but interesting day.
March 28, 2023
Whether I Wanted It or Not . . .
Well, despite my blocking it every way I could, all of a sudden, about 11am, my HP desktop rebooted and started downloading and installing Windows 11.
But at this point, there was no way to stop it without probably screwing up things completely so I just had to let it go. And about 30 minutes later, and after several reboots, I was running Win11.
And all I can say now, is So Far, So Good. Everything seems to be working OK, though I did have to reset a number of things, like the WiFi signal.
The only really obvious difference I’ve seen is the new look of the requestors and pop-up windows.
Anyway, I’ve got 10 days to easily roll back to Win10. After that, I would have to reinstall Win10 from scratch.
I’ll keep you updated.
Lunch today was at Snooze once again, with Jan getting her usual, favorite Bravocado Toast,
while I got the 3 egg omelet, with something I haven’t had in an omelet before, Shrimp.
As well as Ham, Jack Cheese, and Pico de Gallo.
I always get the Fruit instead of Hashbrowns, and a Grilled English Muffin.
Delicious as always.
Then it was on up to Kroger’s to pick up a prescription and down to WalMart for additional stuff. And after P.O. stop for our mail, we were home a little after 4pm.
Nice Day!
Getting back to our Fredericksburg visit last Tuesday, after our delicious Der Lindenbaum German meal, including the fresh-baked German Marble Rye bread,
we drove around the town for a while before checking into our La Quinta Inn a little after 3pm, and were in for the night.
A very nice hotel.
Friday morning we headed out toward Kingsland, with our first stop at the local HEB for gas, according to GasBuddy the cheapest gas in town. And it showed since we had to wait in line for about 10 minutes.
Our next stop was only a few miles down the road, and the other reason, besides Der Lindenbaum, for our visit.
And that was Wildseed Farms.
A large gift shop, plant nursery, clothing store, and snack bar.
One of Jan’s favorite places, and she always finds something she just has to have.
Then we were back on the road for the hour-long trip over to Kingsland and our son Chris’ place, seeing a LOT of Bluebonnets and Paintbrushes along the way.
Getting there a little after 1pm, we spent some time sitting out in Chris’s great backyard.
He and Linda have put a lot of work into it, with something new every time we visit.
I’ll have more about our trip tomorrow.
