At least I’m not itching all over like I was yesterday. But my left shoulder is swollen up about twice normal size, hot, and a little itchy.
Because of this, I didn’t go into work today, but of course, I still had to process invoices and bill PayPal orders. But this stay-at-home day gave me time to concentrate on my HD failure on my computer at work. Or rather my SSD failure, since it’s a Solid State Drive.
I have been assuming that the problem was with the drive itself, since I was having so much trouble getting a new drive installed and the system image file moved over to the new drive, I decided to check things out at home.
So Monday I brought the ‘defective’ SSD home to try it on my machine using one of these SATA to USB adapters.
And it turns out that the drive is just fine. All my data is intact.
So I went on Amazon this afternoon and ordered a new (to me, or Renewed as Amazon calls them). Should be here Friday. Unfortunately, it wasn’t on a Prime Day sale.
Finally, I want to thank everyone for the many get-well wishes comments and emails.
Thought For The Day:
“What you allow, will continue.”
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2009 – The Hudson River Valley
2010 – Family Fun And BBQ
2012 – Landon-Skyping And A Chrome Buffalo
2013 – All Trains, All the Time
2014 – Fort Smith And Rudy & Caroline
2017 – More Landon On Ice
2018 – What’s Your Bacon Number
2023 – Tel Burna Excavations
And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™
July 17, 2009
Peekskill and the Hudson River Valley…
Today Jan and I drove the 30 miles over to Peekskill, NY to get to a larger town nearer to New York City. We wanted to go by a motel or someplace that had a brochure rack that had a lot of stuff for New York City. The places around here had more things for this area and not a lot for New York.
And we hit the jackpot. So now we have plenty of stuff to look over to help plan for Brandi and Piper’s arrival tomorrow.
Heading back we came across the Cortlandt Colonial Restaurant, and liking the look of the place, decided to stop for lunch. And it was a good choice. Beautiful restaurant, excellent food, and good service. What more can you ask for?
Coming home we stopped at a scenic pullout and took pictures of the Hudson River Valley below us.
This is the place the Americans stretched a 600 yard, 65 ton chain across the river to prevent the British from sailing up the river during the Revolutionary War. It was a great idea, but the British never tried to break the chain. They just captured the forts on either side and removed the chain. Although I guess it really didn’t do them any good in the long run.
Later this afternoon, I set out all of our menagerie of flamingos, pelicans, moose, cats, and other assorted items in preparation for tomorrow’s arrival.
July 17, 2010
Family Values…
We’re staying here at the Northgate RV Travel Park here in Athens, AL. The park is owned by my uncle Dr. Ed Calvin, and managed by his son, Wes.
It’s a nice little park, mainly for transients, although he does have a few long-termers.
One of the real pluses is the fact the park is in the middle of a working farm, with about 50 sheep,
goats that are kept for their milk,
and, of course, what’s a farm without horses and cows, too.
About 12:15 pm we picked up my Uncle Ed and Aunt Jan at their house near the RV park and drove about 20 miles south to Decatur, AL to meet my Uncle Tom and Aunt Lenette Calvin at Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ. Their pulled pork is second to none, but their hot sauce could be a lot hotter. And the homemade coconut cream pie that Jan and I split for dessert was great!
From left to right below: my beautiful wife Jan, my uncle Dr. Ed Calvin, his wife Jan, my aunt Lenette Calvin, and my uncle Tom Calvin. My uncle Tom played pro ball for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1952 – 1955 as a halfback and kicker. He then coached Alabama high school football for 45 years, and is acknowledged as the “Winningest Coach in Alabama High School History”
Lenette Calvin is well-known in local and national gymnastics and has worked with Béla Károlyi at his training camp in Houston, TX. She presently owns a gymnastics training facility called Calvin Twisters in nearby Decatur, AL.
We had a great time and spent about 2 hours talking about old times, family and friends.
We got home a little before 4 pm and it was time for a nap.
About 5:45 pm we headed out for supper. I wanted to check out another local BBQ chain, Lawler’s BBQ.
On our way to supper, Jan shows off her new “Nana” shirt in anticipation of Baby Landon’s approaching arrival.
Lawler’s turned out to be kind of a disappointment. I had a rib and pulled pork combo plate. The thing I really didn’t like was that the ribs had been parboiled before grilling. This is done because it allows the meat to be cooked faster. You can always tell because the meat just falls off the bone and has no real texture, it’s kind of mushy. I could pick up a rib bone and shake it, and all the meat slides off. The other BBQ places I’ve had ribs recently, like Sonny’s BBQ, Famous Dave’s BBQ, Country’s BBQ,, or Jim and Nick’s BBQ all are slow-cooked from scratch on the grill, and taste much better.
Leaving Lawler’s and heading home, we stopped by Walmart for some things, and then got home a little after 7. All in all, a very nice day.
July 17, 2011
Sunday with Landon, But No Chicken . . .
About getting up this morning about 10:15, and having our coffee and bagels, about 11:30 we Landon-Skyped with Lowell, Brandi, and of course, Landon.
And as usual, Landon was a ball of fire, never still for a minute. In fact Lowell sometimes had problems keeping him in the camera frame.
Lucky for us, we’ll be seeing them in about 3 weeks when we all meet for a family reunion at my sister-in-law Debbie’s in southern Illinois.
We can’t wait!
About 2:30 Jan and I drove over to the Midway Swap Meet that we had passed on the way into Columbia Falls. They didn’t have a lot of booths but it only cost $1 each to get in, so we weren’t disappointed. We did buy some Hot Pepper and Jalapeno Jelly, and some Huckleberry Jelly after trying some samples.
Coming back into town we stopped to get a closer look at a chrome buffalo we had passed before. Turns out it really is chrome. It’s made from pieces of car bumpers and other chrome parts. Some are cut to shape, and some are just pounded into place.
It even has a Chevy emblem on its forehead.
A really neat piece of artwork.
We decided to have a late lunch at The Nite Owl again, after supper there last night.
We both wanted some more of their delicious Broasted Chicken, but as it turns out, we were out of luck. They don’t start serving the chicken until 4 pm. Bummer!
But we did make up for it with some really good sandwiches. Jan had her favorite Rueben, and I had a delicious Club Sandwich, both with fries.
After a great meal, and leaving the restaurant, I saw this neat old Chevy parked on the side of the parking lot.
But I really got a start when I looked in the car. For some reason, this guy rides around with a large stuffed gorilla in the backseat.
Maybe he uses it to drive in the HOV lanes?
Getting back to the rig, it seemed to be a good time for a nap. And it was.
Our son Chris called about 7 pm to check in and bring us up to date on things with his family.
Then about 8 pm Jan fixed us a light supper of a slice of leftover pizza, and Wheat Thins with cream cheese, and some of the Hot Pepper and Jalapeno Jelly that we bought at the Swap Meet today.
Tomorrow we’re going to make the 100 mile round trip on the “Going To The Sun” road through Glacier National Park about 16 miles away.
July 17, 2013
All Trains, All the Time . . .
First off, if you don’t like trains, this blog is probably not for you.
You’ve been warned.
About 11:30 this morning Jan and I headed about 30 miles south of here to the small town of North Freedom, WI to take a train ride and visit the Mid-Continent Railroad Museum there.
We were scheduled to take the 1pm train ride so we got there about 12:30 to have a chance to check out the trains and of course the gift shop before our ride.
The gift shop had this display of famous train ad posters. Don’t think they’d be able to do these today without a lot of screams of protest. Too bad.
While Jan stayed in the air-conditioned station I spent some time walking about the train yard.
First I checked out our upcoming ride. I thought the engine looked kind of familiar, and after checking it out, discovered that this was a type of engine built for switcher use on military bases, so I know I saw them when I was doing DOD contract work.
This one was built in 1954, and rebuilt in 1986 with a new Cat engine.
They even have a number of unusual train buildings, including this early 1900’s crossing tower, used to control several crossing gates in an area.
This unique snowplow dates from 1912 and was in use as late as 1986. Although it required a locomotive to propel it, it had its own steam boiler system to power the rotary blade.
This is another unusual locomotive. It’s a 2-10-0 ‘Decapod’, built in 1928 by the Baldwin Locomotive Co, and was in use up until 1959. The longest and heaviest locomotive in the collection, it is scheduled for rebuilding and refurbishing to running condition.
Built in 1884, this Baldwin 2-6-0 locomotive was rebuilt in 1904 and remained in commercial service until 1963. Bought by the museum, it was in service here until 1991. It too is scheduled for refurbishing.
Another unusual loco, this Shay has an offset boiler that allows the engineer a better view of the track in front of him without hanging his head out the window in the weather. But this means the boiler is smaller and the locomotive has less range. But since this was primarily a local switcher, it wasn’t a big problem.
The other unusual thing about this Shay is its drive mechanism. While most steam locomotives have steam cylinders on each side and the wheels on each side are driven separately.
But this Shay has vertical steam cylinders that drive only the wheels on one side.
But since these are solid-axle wheels, these worm gear drives transmit power to both sides.
At 1 o’clock the conductor yelled “All Aboard” and we headed out into the Wisconsin countryside on our 14 mile, 55 minute ride. Arriving at the end of the line outside the remains of La Rue, a town that used to be the home to a large mining operation, we got off the train and while we were all feeding the mosquitos, our engine was switched to a siding and moved back to the now new front of the train for our trip back to the museum.
Now back on the main track, our engine couples back to our caboose and we headed back to the station.
Getting back, I checked out the rebuilt equipment housed in a large building across the street.
This beautiful example of a Great Northern caboose was built in 1925 and was in service until 1970.
This is a self-propelled passenger car built to run train routes that would be uneconomical for a larger train. Nicknamed “Doodlebugs”, these combined a power unit and a passenger/baggage area into one piece of equipment, and could also pull a couple of freight cars when necessary. Built in 1925, this unit served until the 1950’s.
This is another version of a snowplow. Built in 1906, and being pushed by one or more locomotives, it was especially effective in removing heavy snow drifts up to 16 feet in height. This one was last used in 1959.
Leaving the train museum we headed back to Wisconsin Dells. Based on online reviews, we planned on having an early dinner at Colotlan Mexican Restaurant, right in the heart of downtown Dells.
A small place with only about 15 tables and some counter stools, it’s a family place with Carlos, the father, and his wife and daughter running the place. Good chips, good salsa, and delicious food really make this place a find.
Jan had her favorite Chile Rellenos, and I had Bistec y Rajas y Queso, steak chunks grilled with poblano peppers and covered in cheese. Very, very good.
Getting back home, and since we’re looking forward to the new Bruce Willis movie, RED2 coming out, we decided to watch our DVD copy of the original RED, which came out in 2010. If you haven’t seen it, check it out. It’s a great movie, really funny with a lot of action, and some really great characters.
July 17, 2014
Fixed It!
A few of our blog readers are having problems reaching the new blog. It does seem to affect mostly people who are reading the blog using readers of some sort, not directly going to the blog through their browser.
On a better note though, several blog readers say that the new blog now looks better on their iPads and other tablets, so that’s good.
One downside for me with the new blog is that I can no longer use Microsoft’s Live Writer to compose and post each day’s blog. My new blog host requires an sFTP (secure FTP) connection, and Live Writer doesn’t support that. Hopefully one of these days, Microsoft will get around to fixing that, but I’m not holding my breath.
So, in the meantime, I have to upload the blog and the photos separately. But in doing this, I was very disappointed in the quality of the photos. They looked much worse in the blog than they did on my computer.
But I finally figured out what was happening. If you use the Media Library loader within WordPress, it recompresses the already-compressed .jpg files, really messing up the photo quality. But I found an ‘Add to Server’ plugin that lets me sFTP directly to the Media Library without using the built-in loader.
Problem solved.
A little before 8pm I headed out to help our neighbors, Larry and Linda Merritt, with a water heater problem. So I grabbed my voltmeter and headed over there. Turns out they had just had a new Attwood until installed and it didn’t seem to be working on either gas or electric.
The first thing I noticed was that the water heater was hot. All the pipes, the temp/pressure relief valve, everything was hot to the touch, and hot air was coming from the exhaust vent. But no hot water was coming out of any faucet. I turned off the electric and turned the gas on, with no result. The gas part never ignited. But my thought at this point was that maybe it wasn’t starting up due to the fact that the water was already hot.
My next thought was that either the new unit wasn’t plumbed correctly, or the mixing valve on the back was misadjusted and only letting cold water through. Along the way, we noticed a valve switching between ‘Normal Operation’ and ‘Water Bypass’. It was set to ‘Normal Operation’, but so we decided to try it in ‘Bypass’ mode. And it now worked.
At first, we thought it was either labeled wrong or hooked up wrong. But when I fooled with the knob, I discovered the knob could just be pulled off and put back on pointing in any direction. Which appears to be what happened.
So that took care of the problem. And once we used some hot water and cooled down the tank, the gas part ignited with no problems.
For dinner, Jan made up a skillet of Cheesy Macaroni and Beef with Beans and Habanero Rotel. Very, very spicy and very, very good, along with garlic French bread.
Tomorrow we’re heading into the Cincinnati area to have lunch with a friend who lives in the area. Really looking forward to it.
July 17, 2015
Hot Dogs and Catfish . . .
About noon Jan and I headed out for hot dogs and shopping. We’ve both been jonsing for a good hot dog, and that usually means Sonic. We both went with our usual, Jan’s Chili Cheese Coney, and my New York Dog, with mustard, sauerkraut, and onions. Along with their fresh-squeezed limeade, it’s a really tasty meal.
Then it was on down the road to the Best Buy, where I was looking for a new 3G aircard Wi-Fi router. My Cradlepoint CTR-500 which I’ve had for about 8 years has gotten very flakey, sometimes working, but mostly not.
I can of course plug my aircard directly into my computer and it works great. But then I no longer have any Wi-Fi in the coach to connect our Galaxy Tab and Kindle Paperwhites to the Internet. That means I then have to hotspot my Galaxy S5.
The first thing I did was to check with Cradlepoint to see what they had. But as it turns out, they’re out of the small, portable Wi-Fi router business, and only sell big routers for businesses.
So next I checked with the local Verizon store and also struck out. They no longer have anything for a 3G aircard. They would however sell me a 4G MiFi. Of course, I would have to give up my 3G unlimited data aircard. Yeah, right!
Verizon referred me to Best Buy and said they would have one, but Best Buy didn’t have any idea what I was talking about. So now I’m back to square one. I found a couple on the Internet but the reviews weren’t very good, so we’ll have to see what else I can find.
Rudy Legett and his wife Carolyn showed up at the site right across from us around 4pm. After catching up for a while in their Foretravel, we all headed out for dinner at Calico County Restaurant.
With 4 stars on Yelp, and the promise of good country cooking, we thought we’d give it a try. The place turned out to be Black-Eyed Pea doppelgänger, and very good in its own right.
Jan, Carolyn, and I all had the Catfish,
mine with the Baked Squash and Fried Corn on the Cob.
Rudy, of course, just had to be different, and went with the Smothered Steak.
Don’t know if this is a chain or not, it did have that look, but we’d certainly go back again if we come across one.
We had a great time getting to see Carolyn and Rudy again and hopefully we’ll be able to do it again soon.
Tomorrow we’ve got a 280 mile trip over to West Memphis, AR and the Tom Sawyer RV Park right on the Mississippi River. We’ll stay there for a couple of nights before moving on to the Cherokee Landing Thousand Trails for a couple of weeks.
July 17, 2016
Murdoch . . .
Today is the halfway point of our one-month stay here at Colorado River, so I wanted to check our electric usage so far. So right after I got up, I went outside and took another photo of the the meter like I did two weeks ago when we changed over to this plan.
Turns out that so far we’ve used 980 KWh. And at 12 cents a kWh, that comes to $109 for the two weeks, so about $220 or so for the month. About what I’d figured. So hopefully no surprises when we leave here on the 31st.
Apparently Miss Karma not only recognizes the whipped cream can, but she now knows the words “whipped cream’. Today when I asked Jan about the dessert, Karma was asleep up in the front window, behind the TV. But as soon as I said the words ‘whipped cream’, I heard a thump behind me as she hit the floor and came running, meowing along the way.
Note that I had not opened the fridge, or shown her the can, or anything else that normally attracts her attention.
We just hope she doesn’t learn the word “declawing” which is in her future. Otherwise, we could be in trouble.
Jan and I have gotten hooked on the new (to us, at least) series Murdoch Mysteries. Now in its tenth season, it’s a Canadian Broadcasting series, it’s set in 1890’s Toronto.
The series follows William Murdoch, a police detective, and Dr. Julia Ogden, one of the first female medical examiners as they solve puzzling crimes. One of the neat things is that with the show taking place at the beginning of the scientific age of police investigations, you find the foreshadowing of many of today’s technical marvels, like microwave ovens, night vision goggles, and Area 51.
A really good series, it’s syndicated and usually shown in a late night spot. In Houston it’s on a CBS affiliate, while in New York it’s on ABC. Check it out.
While we’re hunkered down trying to avoid the heat, Landon and his cross-the-street’ friend, really enjoyed Landon’s backyard water slide.
That might even get me out in this heat.
July 17, 2017
Playing Tag . . .
At 89° it was a little cooler today, with the promised rain finally showing up in the late afternoon. But it didn’t last very long, only about 45 minutes or so.
Once again we didn’t leave the rig, though I did go outside to close our gray tank so I’ll have enough gray water to flush the hose after I dump our black tank in the next few days.
I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that access to the Trinity Site was allowed twice a year, in the spring and in the fall. Specifically, it’s the 1st Saturday in April and the 1st Saturday in October.
So if you want to make it this year, it’s on October 7th, 2017.
Here’s a good link for directions and more information.
Some of you may have noticed that some of Landon’s hockey photos were a little blurry. That’s because I was shooting through this.
That’s an awful lot of impacts. Ouch!
At the very end of hockey practice, they all play Free Tag.
First, all the kids line up opposite the 6 coaches. Then at the whistle, the kids scatter with the coaches chasing them. When a kid is tagged, he is out until, or if, another kid tags him. When all the kids are tagged, the coaches win.
Then after about 5 minutes, they switched and the kids chased the coaches. And the kids actually have somewhat of a strategy. When they tag a coach, one kid stays by the coach to keep him from being tagged free,
When I see Landon next time I’m going to suggest that rather than everyone chase the coaches willy-nilly all over the rink, that they should all swarm one coach, surround him and then tag him, again leaving a guard. And then pick another coach and go after him. I think they might win that way.
July 17, 2018
You Can Never Have Too Much Bacon . . .
Again, a day without a lot going on.
We had a great lunch at our favorite King Food, and our favorite Garlic Chicken with Jalapenos. One thing nice was that when we walked in the door, the owner saw us and, knowing we always order the Jalapeno dish and knowing he was out, told us he’d be right back and rushed out to buy some.
Then it was a stop at Lowe’s and Home Depot, still looking at stuff for the house. Then after stopping off at the house and taking some more measurements, we headed back by Sam’s and WalMart before heading home for the night.
I did get the washer repaired and reinstalled tonight, and it’s running a test load right now. So we’ll see.
Yesterday I was reading an article about “Degrees of Separation” and the math used to calculate the possibilities, and it made me remember a blog I did about 18 months ago, so here we go again.
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 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?
Or even, what famous people have you met?
July 17, 2019
Pretty Much Caught Up . . .
We’re just about caught up with the orders at work, almost finished with the website orders that came in last night and this morning. And that includes processing the credit cards as we ship.
I’ll wrap those up tomorrow morning, plus any new ones that come in overnight. Then I’ll get on the phone and call the few people with denied cards. And strangely enough, I have two cards that when I input the charge, it says the card has expired, even though one of them has a 7/20 expiration date, and the other is 10/23. So I’ll have to call on those too.
But what I’m able to do with the new orders is debatable, since I’ll be the only one at the office tomorrow and Friday. Jennifer is still out until Monday, and Dr. Heimlich will be at a conference for the next two days.
So we’ll see how that goes.
Besides a couple of External Hard Drives for work, my big contribution to Amazon’s Prime Day profits was this TACKLIFE 7-1/2 “ circular saw.
A great deal at only $19.95, since the normal price is $53.
I got this comment on the blog yesterday that didn’t get posted because I have to approve every post the first time.
When I asked Jan if I could click on the photo link, she said, “Go ahead. I dare you.”.
I’m not quite sure how she meant that.
July 17, 2020
Good News And Bad News . . .
I got a call from Mike’s Auto Repair this morning telling me what they’d found with our truck.
First off, the problem I’d been having with my rear brakes wasn’t my fault. I had replaced the rear pads, rotors, and calipers last November so I was wondering if there might have been a problem with something I did. But as it turns out the problem was caused by a bad master cylinder.
And my transmission problem was caused by a leak in one of the transmission lines rubbing up against a flange by the catalytic converter.
And that’s the good news.
The bad news is that my A/C Freon leak seems to be coming from underneath the dash around the evaporator and header cores, and not under the hood. I had kind of figured this because I saw no signs of leakage on any part of that system. Normally with a fairly heavy leak like mine, you’ll see some evidence of oily residue around the leak area. But I didn’t see anything like that.
And the reason that this is bad news is that it means the dash will have to be disassembled to get to the leak. Very time-consuming and expensive. And by ‘expensive’, probably around $1000. OUCH!
Oh, well. it’s only money . . . a lot of money! Sob!
July 17, 2021
I Know What The ‘Carrot’ Is . . .
We’ve got a busy week coming up. Tomorrow we’re meeting Brandi, Lowell, and Landon up in Katy at Astor Farm To Table on Mason Rd., near their house. We went there once before in their old location, but now they’ve moved to a bigger place right down the road. And they have a very interesting menu.
It’s a fusion of South African and Latin American food, with a twist on everything. You can check out their menu here. Astor Farm To Table Menu
Where else can you get an order of African Lamb or Goat Curry or a salad made with Buffalo Mozzarella? But you can also get things like Steak, Pork Chops, or Breakfast. So even Landon is happy.
But what I want to know is who has to milk the Buffalo to make the Mozzarella?
Then Monday Jan’s driving me into work and then heading up to the SH Tollway and Westpark area to meet a friend for lunch. On Tuesday, we’re meeting our friends Debi and Ed Hurlburt up in Conroe for lunch. After that, on Wednesday, Jan’s having lunch with an old friend from her working days. So she’ll be driving me into work that day too.
On Thursday, Jan has a doctor’s appointment. Next up, on Saturday we’re meeting Janice and Dave Evans down here in Webster for lunch.
Whew!
So next Sunday will certainly be a needed day of rest
About 3:30 we headed down to Galveston to see Yakov Smirnoff at the 1894 Grand Opera. And as we were told, everyone had to wear a mask. It was the first time I’ve worn one in months, and I had forgotten how much I hate them.
And it seems most other people didn’t want to wear them either. So much so that before the show started a ‘mean’ lady was roaming the audience making people put their masks back on, or pull them up over their noses.
But as soon as the lights went down and the show started, the masks started disappearing again.
We didn’t get home until almost 10pm, so I’ll save talking about the show and dinner afterward for tomorrow’s blog.
When I posted the stuff about the Glass Octopus the other day, I wondered about the ‘carrot’ inside the body.
Well, now I know what it is.
It’s the octopus’s digestive gland/organ and they can move it around in their body. But apparently they normally keep it vertical to make it harder to see them from above or below, helping to hide them from predators.
So now you know.
July 17, 2022
Coolest Day In History . . .
On this date in 1902 Willis Haviland Carrier completed his design for the modern Air-Conditioner.
Here’s a short video about that.
I can’t imagine living in Houston without AC
Thank you, Mr. Carrier.
Some of our readers ask for an update and more info on my new BeHear NOW Hearing Assistants.
Here’s the layout of the headset and the controls.
I was concerned that the headset had to be Bluetoothed to my phone to work, but it doesn’t. You just have more control over the settings.
Pro:
Among other things, Jan will never again have to remind me that my turn signal is still on when I use these. I can hear the clicking now. I’m still amazed at all the things I can hear now that I couldn’t hear before.
And I’m still amazed at how well these mask out background noise
Con:
The only thing so far is that I wish the control stalks that hang down around your neck were a little longer. For me at least, it would be easier to access the control buttons.
The retail price of these is $249.95, but until August 1st you can use the code ‘blowout80’ and save $75
July 17, 2023
Tel Burna . . .
Our niece Stahlie (actually First Cousin, Once Removed) is a world-traveling, college-trained archaeologist.
She just finished up the 2023 season of the excavation of Tel Burna, a 9th century B.C. area, that, in fact, may be the location of Libnahin, a city mentioned several times in the Bible.
She’s also recently been doing excavations down the Miami area, excavating Native American sites before any new development is allowed.
And she’s been globe-trotting for a while now.
How many people do you know who’ve been photobombed by a Communist Chinese soldier on the Great Wall of China back in 2014?
So Proud of You!
Hope to see you soon, Stahlie.
