Since Amazon had delivered my packages a day early on Sunday, I decided to go by the rig first to bring in the packages and drop off some groceries in the fridge. Then it was on back up to the office where I spent most of the day trying to get things working again after we lost power, Internet, and phones during Beryl. And we didn’t actually get the phones working completely until the Spectrum people showed up this afternoon.
Then coming home, I stopped off at HEB to pick up some groceries for my next week of batching it. Then, as soon as our office manager got home, I went over to her house to pick up Karma where she’d been staying since last Tuesday afternoon. And I don’t think she really wanted to come home, since she doesn’t want to leave her carrier.
And here’s another shot of Jan’s doggie companions for the next week.
That’s (l to r) Max, Baxter, and Jack.
Actually they’re really good dogs, always happy to see us and get their pet-pets.
Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and BFF Sophie are staying at the Marriot San Antonio Hill Country Resort, and it really looks nice.
And Landon and Sophie seem to be really enjoying their time together, too.
Looks like fun. And tasty, too.
Thought For The Day:
An octopus is flexible enough to enter your mouth, navigate your digestive system, and leave through your anus.
Better than going the other way, I think.
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2009 – On To New York
2010 – Old Homes and Old Haunts
2011 – On Our Way To Glacier National Park
2012 – On A New Gate
2013 – The Dells, MooseJaw, and More
2023 – Drones, Drones, And More Drones
And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™
July 15, 2009
Goodbye Pennsylvania, Hello New York…
We left Gap, PA about 10:30 am heading north to Florida, NY, a small town about 45 miles northwest of New York City.
We will be here until at least the 26th of July. We’re staying here that long because our daughter, Brandi, and our granddaughter, Piper, will be flying up from Houston on Saturday, the 18th, to spend a week with us, exploring New York City.
Leaving Gap, we passed more of the neat farms that dot the Pennsylvania countryside.
And of course, the obligatory “Amish Buggy Crossing” sign.
We stopped in Flemington, NJ for about 114 gallons of diesel and I’m glad we did. We paid $2.37 a gallon, the best price we’ve seen in several months. But when we got here to New York, the best price we’ve seen has been $2.79 and the highest was $3.03.
We last filled up in North Carolina on June 20th and we went almost 900 miles on this last tank, not quite as good as usual, but we’ve been in a lot of hills since we filled up last, and that really cuts down on mileage.
Normally, we get about 9 to 9.5 mpg driving on the flat, but this time we got about 7.8 mpg.
We took a lot of back roads this trip and consequently spent more time going through a lot of small towns, so our 190 mile trip took us about 5 and a half hours, but it was great scenery.
We pulled into Black Bear Campground about 4 pm. The office is at the bottom of a hill, and the campground is at the top of a hill…a very steep hill.
They told me to get a running start, but even then I wondered if I wasn’t going to have to coast back down and try it again. But we finally made it OK.
July 15, 2010
Old Homes and Old Haunts…
We headed out about 10:30 am over toward Mountain Brook and Irondale. Mountain Brook because my mother used to live there, and Irondale, because as I told our friend Bill Alverson last night, “You can’t have too much Alabama BBQ”. So we wanted to eat lunch at Golden Rule BBQ there in Irondale.
I’ve eaten at Golden Rule for about as long as I can remember. I drove up to Birmingham every month from 1992 to 2004 to visit my mother, and I used to eat here every month.
After a great lunch of jumbo pork sandwiches, fries, and lemon icebox pie for dessert, we drove over to Mountain Brook to check out my mother’s old house.
My parents bought this house in 1972 and my sister sold it while my mother was in the hospital in 2004. My father’s ashes were scattered in the rose garden that used to be in front of the house.
I’m not sure why the new owners removed all the shrubs and landscaping. When my mother lived here there were shrubs lining both sides of the driveway going down the hill. There were also large plants along the front of the house, and a large rose garden out among the trees in the front. They also cut down a number of the tall pine trees.
The place really looks pretty bleak, and not near as good as when my mother lived there.
Next, we drove through Mountain Brook Village and English Village, up over the mountain, and then down into downtown Birmingham. Taking a right on 1st Ave. N., we headed out toward Center Point where we lived and went to college in the early 70’s.
We actually lived in Center Point twice. The first time from Sept 1970 to Apr 1971. We lived in the Colonial Manor Apartments and I was an electronics/video tech at Signal Engineering & Sales.
Here’s a photo of the apartments. What’s interesting is there used to be another row of apartments right on the other side of the fence in the foreground. Now there’s just a big hole in the ground where the fountain used to be. Don’t know for certain, but I suspect it burned down, and they just tore it down rather than rebuilt it.
Colonial Manor Apartments
Our apartment was the one on the top left.
In Sept 1973 we were back in Birmingham and living in the Valley Brook Apartments in Center Point and attending Jefferson State Junior College. I was working as a Broadcast/Video Engineer for the Alabama Educational Television Network.
We lived in the unit to the rear in this picture.
We drove over to Jeff State and found it hard to recognize the campus. The biggest reason was all the trees. The area, as to be expected, is much more heavily forested than 40-odd years ago.
Leaving Jeff State, we headed back to the rig down in Helena. We got back about 3 pm and decided it was a good time for a nap.
About 5 pm we headed off to Alabaster, AL to the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant there. We started to encounter rain as we left the rig, but it slacked off as we got to Alabaster.
We did find this sign on the way. Guess they want to be sure you know where the truck route is.
Coming home about 7 pm, the bottom really dropped out on the rain. It was pouring down by the time we got home.
Tomorrow we’ll head north to Athens, AL for a few days to visit my family there, before heading up to Louisville and The Rally.
July 15, 2011
Black Angus and Jagz . . .
This morning started VERY early, 6 am early, as it were. But we wanted to stop and get diesel on the way out of town, and we were going to lose an hour moving into Mountain Daylight time, so we wanted to try and leave by 8.
In yesterday’s blog, I mentioned that when we got home last night our water was off. Thinking that this was connected to the water problem the day before yesterday when a water main broke in the park, I didn’t think anything about it, and we just used the pump and our internal fresh water tank.
But when I went outside this morning to disconnect the hoses and start putting things away, I found our water faucet had been turned off.
Thinking it was a prank by kids or something, I turned it back on . . . and immediately got soaked from the knees down. Apparently what happened is that our water filter ruptured sometime yesterday and started spraying water everywhere. And I guess someone came along, saw it, and turned it off.
The filter seems to have ruptured right at the bottom of the cylinder.
After getting everything packed up, I pulled out of the park a few minutes before 8 am with Jan following me in the toad.
10 miles later we stopped at an Exxon station on the way into Newport to top off our diesel tank. I put in a little over 75 gallons at $3.99 a gallon. Last time I filled up in Long Beach, WA, it was $4.29, so I thought this was a good deal.
Little did I know.
While we were fueling up, Jan watched the pump while I hitched the toad to the back of the rig, and about 8:40 we were back on the road, a few minutes later crossing the Pend Oreille River into Idaho.
90 miles later, we crossed into Montana, and suddenly it was 11:30 instead of 10:30, as we entered the Mountain Time Zone.
And now in Montana, my great buy on diesel came back to haunt me. We passed several stations showing $3.69, and even one at $3.66 a gallon. Bummer!
And if I’d known, I had plenty of diesel to make it that far with no problem. Oh, well. It’s only money. (sob!)
We did have some great scenery here along US-2. Much of the time we had rivers or lakes beside the highway, and a lot of mountains in the distance.
The road was good, with no real climbs or descents to worry about, and not a lot of curves either. Although mostly two-lane, the road surface was smooth, with plenty of places to pull over for breaks.
All in all, a nice trip and a nice day of driving.
After passing through Kalispell, we pulled into the Columbia Falls RV Park about 2:30, and were quickly led to our site. This is a beautiful park, with full 50 amp hookups, WiFi, and a great 60-channel cable TV system. And of course, the great view too.
And my new satellite antenna worked great, getting a signal in less than 5 minutes. As well, I have 5 bars of 3G on my phone, too.
After relaxing for a while, we headed out about 4 to check out the area and have dinner.
We were both in the mood for a good steak and ended up at Jagz, a really nice restaurant we passed coming in between Kalispell and Columbia Falls.
After a really, really good meal, with Jan having a 12 oz. Strip, and I had a 20 oz. Ribeye, both Black Angus Beef, we got back to the rig about 6:30, stopping off at the office to buy a new water filter at their store.
A little after 8 pm, our friends Al and Adrienne Cox called to talk over our visit with them in Cody, WY next week. We haven’t seen them since this past March in Tucson so it will be good to catch up.
July 15, 2012
Or Maybe Not . . .
Well, now we’re confused. Of course, it wouldn’t be the first time.
When we started up at this gate about a week ago, we were told it would run 7 – 8 weeks, which was perfect for us since it meant we wouldn’t have to move again before we planned on leaving Texas for parts north around the 20th of August.
But then late last week we heard the rig would be here only 30 days. Bummer! That would mean we would have to move again before we planned to leave, or else knock off early and lose a couple of thousand dollars in gate guard pay.
OUCH! You know how much that would hurt me.
But then a couple of days later we heard it was going to be a 40-day drill. Well, that wouldn’t be too bad. We could probably make that work.
So now we don’t know what to figure on. I guess we’ll know more as time goes on.
One thing different on this site is how close the crew trailer is to us. At our last site, it was about 75 yards away.
But at this site, they’re snuggled right up close and personal next to us.
The only real problem is parking for everyone. The last few guys in have to park on the grass, and a couple got stuck during the rains last week. Other than that, no problems, no loud parties, since having any alcohol on site is a termination offense.
This morning we were running low on bottled water so about 11:30am I made a run to the Exxon station on I-37 about 5 miles away. And while I was there I picked up some fried chicken and baked potato wedges. We’ve gotten their chicken several times before and it’s always been delicious, and this time was no exception. Very good.
Then later this afternoon while outside on the gate, I started getting the distinct odor of sewage. Since I had dumped our tanks this morning, I was afraid there was something wrong with our system, but after walking around back, I discovered it was pouring out of one of the crew trailer’s two systems and filling up a nearby ditch.
YUCK!
I immediately called the Company Safety Man to let him know about the problem.
The sewage from the trailer first goes into the small green container (called “the honeypot”). There a macerator pump pushes the sewage up into the big green tank.
The sewage was pouring from the honeypot so I figure either the pump failed or the float valve that controls the pump got stuck.
Either way, some guys from Stellar (the company that supplies the trailer and supports it) showed up with a new honeypot and took care of the problem. All that remains now is to get one of the vacuum truck guys to suck up what’s left in the ditch when they come by tomorrow.
The drill rig up the hill from us started pulling out yesterday.
Gary and Susan, the gate guards for that rig, left the day before for their well-deserved time off before the rig catches up with them. It’s strange to look over that way and just see darkness after being brightly lit for so long.
One thing kind of different with this rig location is how busier we are here than at the previous site, about 4 – 5 pages a day rather than the 2 – 3 pages before. This means we’re logging in 60 – 80 vehicles a day rather than the 30 – 40 a day before. Still not a lot of work.
I asked one of the guys coming through the gate about it and he laughed and said it was because we were so close to civilization now. Before, we were 20 miles out in the boonies, but now we’re just 5 miles off the Interstate. Reps and support guys can cruise through the site, check on their workers, and be back on the road. Then they can write it up in their daily logs how busy they were. And it’s even better for them with two rigs here. So now we know.
July 15, 2013
I’ve never done it this way before . . .
I spent this morning working out our schedule for the next 5 weeks. I now have a reservation at every park or casino we’ll be staying at until August 21st.
I’m not sure I like this. Sometimes I’m not sure where we’ll be tomorrow, much less next month. But we’re on a pretty tight schedule getting back to Houston in time for Landon’s 3rd birthday, and many of the places we’re traveling through are tourist areas and the RV parks are pretty full.
Normally we wouldn’t worry, and just stay at a Wal-Mart, but with the weather in the high 80’s / low 90’s we’d end up running the generator all night just to keep cool. Plus in a number of places, we’re staying as long as a week at a time. So this is just easier.
But I still don’t like it.
About 1pm we headed into the Dells for lunch and some driving around. For lunch we ended up at the MooseJaw Pizza and Brewing Co. Hey, if it’s got ‘moose’ in the name, Jan’s gonna be there.
Getting into the parking lot, we saw their pizza delivery vehicles. Jan now wants one of these as a roof ornament for the rig. As if we don’t already have enough drag up there.
I’ve followed vehicles running on fry oil before. The exhaust smells like French fries and makes you hungry.
Jan even got in on the action with a new chapeau.
After lunch, we spent some time driving around the area checking out all the attractions. The first thing you notice is that this place is one big waterpark. It seems like every motel/hotel has its own small one, and then there are all the other big ones. In fact, “Noah’s Ark” is advertised as the largest waterpark in the US.
We also passed by the location of The Original Wisconsin Ducks. Starting in 1946, they were the very first Duck ride in the US, and now have over 90 vehicles in service.
Since we have taken Duck tours all over the country, we couldn’t miss taking this one. So after we got home I bought tickets online for both a Duck ride and a JetBoat ride.
Tomorrow should be fun.
On another note, yesterday I blogged about how I used the separate 20 amp receptacle on the pedestal to power one of our A/C’s since we’re on 30 amp and the weather’s in the low 90’s.
One reader asked for further info on how I did it. But another one took exception to what I was doing. Here’s his comment that you can still read in the comment section of yesterday’s blog.
So, you were able to scam 50a from a 30a pedestal. It’s called fraud, not something to brag about!
And here was my answer, also still on yesterday’s blog.
Peter,
Strong language using words like ‘scam’ and ‘fraud’, only to reveal your ignorance of the facts.
You might have asked if I had permission to do this, which I did.
You might have asked why I didn’t pay extra for a 50 amp site. That was because they don’t have 50 amp sites, otherwise I would have.
You might have asked if the pedestal is metered, which it is. So using the 20 amp totals on the meter anyway.
You might have asked about the many other park models around here that are running window A/C’s from the 20 amp on their pedestal.
You might have asked a lot of things before using words like ‘scam’ and ‘fraud’, but you didn’t.
You might want to ask yourself why you continue to read my blog.
You might want to know that I would prefer you didn’t.
Hope this explains things.
July 15, 2014
A Boy and His Cat . . .
When I won’t let Mister in my lap because I’m working on the computer, he’s usually pretty content to just lay at my feet, snoring the morning away. And, boy, does he snore. Sounds like a motorboat. As I’ve said before, he’s more like a dog than a cat.
About 11:30 Jan and I headed out for a couple of errands. After we dropped off a bag of garbage at the dumpsters, we stopped at the park office to pick up my Amazon order of the 3 LED light sets that I ordered, as well as a new park access pass for us since the code changed this past Sunday.
Our final stop was the PO right down the road a couple of miles in Morris, which was closer than driving all the way into Batesville. We did have to wait about 15 minutes for the Postmistress to come back from lunch, but it was really nice sitting in the car with the windows down in this beautiful weather
Our dinner place of choice for tonight was Buffalo Wild Wings.
I think the last time we ate at BWW together was a couple of years ago in Las Vegas, but it’s always been one of Jan’s and my favorite wing places. I like the fact that they have a sweet-hot sauce as well as a really hot sauce. Luckily for us, tonight was 60 cent wing night, so instead of getting 10 wings for $9.99, I got 15 wings for $9.00. Nice!
I got my wings coated with Mango-Habanero, which is their 3rd hottest, but I really like the sweetness. But for more heat, I got a side of the Blazin’, their hottest sauce.
Jan got the boneless wings, coated in Asian Spice, along with a side of Hot, which is their 2nd hottest.
As I’ve noticed before, the Blazin’ sauce is not as hot up here as down in Texas. And I’ve noticed the same thing at other places like Hooter’s.
Leaving BWW, we stopped off at Remko Market for a couple of grocery things before getting back to the park a little before 8.
Our high temp for the day was 69 degrees, with about the same tomorrow, which looks to be another Cincinnati tourist day.
July 15, 2015
Saying Goodbye . . .
We pulled out of the Pauls Valley City Lake Park about 8:15 with Jan following me in the truck. Our final destination was the Springhill COE Park about 220 miles away in Barling, AR, just south of Fort Smith.
But our first stop was about 6 miles away at the Comfort Inn on I-35 to meet our co-in-laws for breakfast. Sonja does the breakfast at the hotel and had invited us to stop by. We got there about 8:30 and were surprised to find how extensive it was. We’ve stayed at a number of hotels recently, including other Comfort Inn’s, and this one is the best so far, with a much better selection.
After saying our good-byes, we were back on the road about 9:30 for another short trip right up the road to the Wal-Mart to get diesel. At $2.48 it was the cheapest I’d seen in the area, and since I was down to about half a tank, it seemed like a good idea.
We had a great time here in Pauls Valley getting to spend some time with Sonja and Lendel, and hope we can get back through here soon. And the City Lake Park turned out to be a really nice place. I mean where can you get a view like this for $13 a night for 50 amp FHU.
Very nice.
Originally we had planned to just take I-35 into OKC and then I-40 east. But after checking the route with some locals, I decided to take 19 over to US177 and then north to I-40 saving about 25 miles. And it turned out to be a really good idea. The road was great with only 3 stop signs the entire 30 miles, just rolling through the beautiful countryside.
We pulled into the Springhill COE Campground about 2:45, with the easiest check-in we’ve ever had. I told the lady my name and said we had a reservation for 3 days for site #B3. She said yes, handed me a map, and we were done.
We quickly found our site and got set up. We were happy to see that this one is just about as nice as our site at Pauls Valley.
Tomorrow’s probably a goof-off day, although we may do a movie. We’ll see.
July 15, 2016
A Better BBQ Buffet . . .
Well, maybe not a buffet as such, but all you can eat, anyway.
Jan and I were out the door by 11 this morning, on our way down to pick up our friend Bonnie Horner and take her to lunch.
Getting there about 1pm, Bonnie had a taste for BBQ so we drove just about a mile down the road to Spring Creek BBQ. We’ve met here before, and eaten at other locations a lot over the years, so it was a great choice for us too.
Bonnie had the Stuffed, Chopped Baker,
while Jan and I had the $9.95 Lunch Special.
You get your choice of one of 8 different meats, Brisket, Pulled Pork, Sausage, Cracked Black Pepper Sausage, Chicken, Ham, Turkey, or Ribs, all you can eat, and then all the veggies, sides, and rolls you want.
Now that’s a BBQ buffet.
We sat and talked for a good bit before adjourning back to Bonnie’s for more. Finally saying our goodbyes, we left Bonnie’s a little after 3pm, and headed over to Chris and Linda’s in Friendswood to say ‘Hi’ and pick up our mail. Along the way, we stopped at the Buc-ee’s in Pearland to get gas for the truck. Really nice price at $1.85. This is one of the original Buc-ee’s, in the conventional convenience store size, not one of the newer mega-mart ones.
Talking about Buc-ee’s, the new one in Katy is now under construction at I-10 and Cane Island Parkway, and should be open by Memorial Day next Year. Looking forward to it.
Our visit with Chris was kind of a hit-and-run thing, with a bathroom break, a bag of mail, and a quick hug. By now it was 4 pm and we wanted to get back on the road heading home to hopefully get ahead of the Friday going home traffic. And we did pretty good, getting to Brandi’s about 5:15 with only a few slowdowns and no real problems.
The big news is that Landon has lost another tooth, this one on the bottom, and the first one from natural causes.
Regular readers will remember that last November Landon was roughhousing with Miss Kitty, their 120# Black Lab, and hit his head on Kitty’s head, knocking out two upper front teeth, with this result.
Then this past March Landon was running and hit his mouth on his father’s hard knee, knocking out another one, as you can see here.
But this one came out on its own.
On another Landon note, his summer school visited an art museum this morning, and he had a good time. But as they were leaving, Landon looked around and then spoke up, “Where’s the Mona Lisa? I want to see the Mona Lisa too.”
They told him it wasn’t here right now and he seemed to be satisfied. And when we asked him this afternoon where he heard about the Mona Lisa, he looked surprised, and said, “Last year in kindergarten, of course.”
Of course.
I don’t know about you, but I didn’t learn about the Mona Lisa in kindergarten.
Heading back to the rig about 6, we made a stop for a coffee at Starbuck’s before getting back home about 7pm.
Wrapping up for today, I’ve been hoping that we might have a little cool spell so I could get back up on the roof and finish cleaning the bedroom AC evaporator coil. But that idea hasn’t worked out so far, with 99+ degrees as far as the eye can see. And I want to get it done before we leave here for Gulf Shores on the 31st.
So what I’ve decided to do is sometime in the next few days, I’m going to go up on the roof a little before sundown, around 8pm, and prep for the cleaning. I’ll remove all the screws and pull the hose up, all ready to get started. Then early the next morning, around 8am, and before it gets too hot, I’ll go back up and finish the job.
The first part will be to mask off the hole that leads down into the bedroom so the spray cleaner and the water won’t drip down onto the bed. Then I can spray the coil with cleaner, let it soak, and then flush it clean.
Normally it takes a couple of repeats to get a coil completely clean, but I should be able to get it done before it gets too hot.
Hopefully. We’ll see.
July 15, 2017
Need A Kitchen Cleaver?
We still didn’t do anything or go anywhere again today. The only thing different from yesterday was that it poured down rain for a good while this afternoon with more to come, apparently.
In fact, we supposedly will have slightly lower temps (high 80’’s) and a lot of rain over the next few days.
Looks like the domain transfer is proceeding faster than usual, and should be done in the next day or so. Hopefully, the client will get caught up on his end and the site will be ready to go as well.
Need a Kitchen Cleaver? Check out this one from the upcoming website.
This one is sold as either a Camping Knife or a Kitchen Cleaver. The only real difference is that the Camping Knife version comes with a leather sheath.
I love the textured look of the Damascus Steel blades. Made from Spring Steel and Nickel billets, these are heated and hammer-forged, then folded over, reheated and hammered again. This is done a minimum of 250 times, producing the no two-of-a-kind patterns you see here.
This one has a California Olive Handle and a Padouk Bolster. If you don’t know what a Bolster is (and I didn’t, either), it’s an extra piece of handle-type material between the blade and the handle.
Here’s a knife with a Cholla Cactus Handle. Note the bare tang/blade between the handle and the actual blade.
And here’s the same blade with a Cholla Cactus handle and a Bone bolster. In this case, the voids in the cactus are filled with blue epoxy to smooth out the handle. You can also choose red or pearl (white).
The addition of a bolster both strengthens the blade and helps the balance of the knife.
And it looks neat too.
With 24 handle material possibilities, and 24 bolster possibilities, along with 14 different blade types, you can get over 8,000 different combinations.
So be the first in your neighborhood to collect them all.
Tomorrow morning we’ll head down to Brandi and Lowell’s in Katy to see Landon’s hockey practice, and then have dinner. Sound like fun.
July 15, 2018
I Feel Better Now . . .
First thing this morning, well, after having my coffee, I pulled the Splendide washer completely out of its cubby and rolled it out into the kitchen.
I took the top off first to see if I found any problems up top, but nothing looked wrong. So my next step was to put the top back on and turn the whole thing upside down. And after taking off the bottom panel, I immediately saw the problem. And I understood what had caused the water leak.
This had bothered me initially, since all I had done was pull the unit partway out, and take off the back panel to check the drive belt. Nothing I did should have affected anything to do with the water or drain hoses. But when I found this, I understood.
This is the output hose from the drain pump that empties the water out after the wash and rinse cycles. I guess it had pulled loose when it was stretched tight when I had the unit partly out.
I feel better now that I know what caused the leak. But the repair will have to wait until tomorrow because I needed to get ready so we could head out for lunch and some errands.
Jan and I drove up to Webster about 2pm, bent on having lunch at the local Cheddar’s, another of our favorite local places. We had thought that by not getting there until about 2:30, we would avoid any wait.
We were wrong.
We had an almost 20-minute wait, and they were still on a wait when we left about 45 minutes later. Guess Sunday’s not the best time to come to Cheddar’s if you’re in a hurry. Luckily we weren’t
Jan got her usual Key West Chicken and Shrimp with Green Beans and Baby Carrots, while I got my usual Veggie Plate with a bowl of the Chicken Tortilla Soup, again with Green Beans and Baby Carrots for me too.
One thing kind of funny was that since we both have the Green Beans and the Baby Carrots, we’re aware of what the menu says the calorie count for each is – 60 calories for the beans, and 40 calories for the carrots.
But today, the menu still said the carrots were 40, but now the beans were 80, not 60 calories. Now that’s a 33% increase, so what’s up?
When our meals came I did notice that the serving size of the beans seemed to be somewhat larger, but not a third larger. And maybe they tasted better too. Finally, out of curiosity, I asked our waitress. I think she was puzzled that we even noticed, but she said she’d ask.
She came back a few minutes later and smiled as she said that they were surprised anyone noticed. She confirmed that the serving size had been increased and that they were using more bacon in the recipe. Well, more bacon makes everything taste better.
What can I say, I notice things.
Our next stop was on up the Interstate to the Home Depot to take a look at things we want to upgrade or fix, and the prices. We’d made a list of things at the house the other day, so wanted more ideas.
Then it was over to the house for a few minutes to drop some things off. The house looks pretty good, for being almost 40.
I do need to get my hedge trimmer out and even up the foliage in front of the bedroom window.
Coming back toward Santa Fe, we made a quick stop at the storage room to drop off/pick up a couple of things and then it was back home for the night.
Tomorrow it’s back to work.
July 15, 2019
The Saga Continues . . .
We’re getting really close to being caught up getting the 100’s of orders out that we were behind on. But now we have to go back and make all the paperwork match.
Since most of our orders were from long-time repeat customers, we decided to just chance it and send out the packages before we charged the cards, just to get everything moving.
Since we’re now down to pretty much just the daily orders, we’ll probably start to run the cards tomorrow and see how it goes.
Last night we got together with long-time friends, Barbara and Tom Linklater.
I’ve known Barbara since I did IT support back in the early 2000’s for the company where she works and we’ve been friends ever since. So we try to get together for a meal every couple of months,
And Barbara being a fantastic cook, we were happy to meet up at their house over in League City at South Shore Harbor. And as usual, the meal was delicious.
Also with us was Barbara’s brother Mike and his wife Chris, who we had met a while back.
After a great meal, good friends, and probably a little too much wine, we finally headed home about 10:30.
I said too much wine, but with my BPPV still acting up, I think the wine really kind of canceled it out by spinning my head in the other direction.
Whatever works.
Normally Monday is an eat-at-home night for us, but since I’ll probably be working every day this week, I thought I deserved a treat, so we decided to try out a new Mexico place just off FM646 that Barbara had said was really good. And she was right.
Called Abuelo’s, Spanish for Grandfather, it’s somewhat a high-end place, especially compared to Los Ramirez, where the cost of our meal, Jan’s Grilled Chicken Breast with Shrimp and Broccoli,
and my Beef Fajita Taco Salad,
only totals $18.14. And that includes drinks.
From the moment you walk in, you can tell this is a classy place, very nicely decorated.
The word of the day here is ‘Fresh’. Everything is made in-house, from the salad dressings to the multiple favors of their salsas.
From front to back, it’s a Roasted Pepper Chunky version, a Tomatillo and Pineapple, and a Hot Habanero, and in the bowl, a regular Red Sauce. All really, really good, especially the Tomatillo Pineapple.
We both started out with a bowl of the Chicken Tortilla Soup.
The secret to good soup is not really the soup. It’s the seasonings. Otherwise, it’s just dingy water. But they’ve got the seasoning thing down perfectly.
Really good soup.
Strangely enough for a Mexican place we both ended up having salads, mostly I think due to the pictures in the menu, and the description.
Jan had the Chicken Fajita Salad,
with lettuce, corn, tomatoes, red cabbage, red onion, olives, green pepper, guacamole, and of course, Grilled Chicken. As well as their great homemade Ranch Dressing.
I had the Grilled Chicken Salad,
with lettuce, red onions, mandarin oranges, apple slices, nuts, strawberries, raisins, jicama, avocado, and of course, Grilled Chicken. This salad is a lot like the one we get at Chili’s, but with more stuff.
Both really good, and we had enough left over to bring home for later.
Jennifer, our office manager, is out of the hospital and staying with her parents, so she’s on the mend. Though it still could be the end of the week before she’s back.
July 15, 2020
Buycotts and Car Rentals . . .
I came home a little early this afternoon so I could pick up Jan and then we headed over to the Enterprise Car Rental place in Dickinson to pick up our Ford Fusion. Then we came back over to Santa Fe to drop off our truck at Mike’s Auto Repair so he can find and fix our A/C’s Freon leak.
I had allowed some extra time to pick up our car since it always seems to take a long time to actually be on my way. But it turns out that the WuFlu really speeds things up.
There’s a sign blocking the entrance saying to Wait Outside For Assistance. And after about 30 seconds a young lady came out with a computer tablet, asked my name, had me initial in four places, sign in one place, walked me around the car which she had already started, handed me the computer key, and I was pulling out. All in less than 5 minutes.
It turns out that apparently, the Enterprise staff doesn’t like to be outside in the 97° temps any longer than they have to.
Then after dropping the truck off at Mike’s we headed on up to Alvin to have dinner at Monterey’s Mexican Restaurant, one of our long-time favorites. Just as delicious as always.
While Jan and I were at WalMart yesterday, we did our part for the Goya ‘Buycott’, though it was not easy because the shelves were pretty bare. But we got some Black Beans, some Red Kidney Beans, some Chipotle Chilies, and a couple of other things.
One guy in Virginia set up a GoFundMe account with a goal of $10,000 to buy Goya products to donate to food banks and pantries. He raised $190,000 in just a couple of days.
You may or may not have heard about Comet NEOWISE which is now visible is the northern hemisphere skies. The closest approach is supposed to be next week on July 22nd. But here’s a couple of photos of the comet, both in locations we’ve been to, and both really spectacular.
This first one is pretty obvious.
However you may not recognize this one, but it’s taken over the Rim Rocks above Billings, Montana.
Hopefully Jan and I will be able to see it here in the Houston area before it leaves the area. But if we miss it this time, it’ll be back around in another 6,800 years.
Watch for it.
July 15, 2021
A Glass Carrot . . .
I mentioned yesterday that we were going to see Yakov Smirnoff this Saturday. In the past, we’ve seen the Smother’s Brothers and 3 of the very funny Tuna Texas shows, among others.
But with all the COVID stuff seeming to go away, I was surprised when we got our emailed tickets and found that we will be required to wear masks during the performance, in fact as long as we’re in the building.
Hopefully, Yakov will not be wearing one too.
And apparently the concessions and the bar are not open either. This seems funny since all the local movie theaters, AMC, Regal, Cinemark, etc. are no longer requiring masks. And it’s been so long since I’ve worn one, I’ll have to dig one out.
I didn’t get a chance to take a look at my work WiFi problem, but because she was behind processing yesterday’s orders, and today’s new ones coming in too, the office manager asked me to wait until tomorrow to take a look at it.
Turns out there’s apparently a power glitch due to a passing thunderstorm in between when it was working and when it wasn’t. So that will give me a place to start. But I have run across this problem a couple of times in the past, and it turned out to be a problem with the motherboard.
So it may be about time to think about replacing this machine. It’s the only one that was here when I came back four years ago, and the dates on it indicate it’s almost 6 years old. So even if I get this problem fixed, I might be replacing it anyway.
Came across these photos of the elusive Glass Octopus found deep in the waters off Australia.
Sometimes Nature is just amazing. But I’m sure what the ‘carrot’ is all about.
And here’s a neat video to go with it.
July 15, 2022
Not A Typo . . .
Several of our readers wondered if my Costco gas purchase this past Tuesday, for $3.89, was a typo. And I assured them that it wasn’t. And today, 3 days later, Costco has it for $3.75.
And the Sam’s Club and the Buc-ee’s down in La Marque, where it’s always cheaper, has it for $3.57.
Nice, but a long way to go to get back down to the $1.42 I paid 18 months ago, in November 2020.
I got my Samsung Galaxy SmartTags today, the only things I bought on Amazon Prime Day(s). But a lot of you bought a lot of other stuff. Amazon said that they sold over 300 million items during those 2 days.
I did my part. What about you?
And though I got my 2/300 millionths of Amazon’s sales in only two days, other things seem to take a lot longer to ship. I ordered something from another company on July 7th. And later that day I was told that my package had shipped and was given a UPS Ground Tracking #. However, when I checked with UPS, the tracking said that though the shipping label had been printed, they had not yet received the package.
And that’s what the tracking said, up until Monday the 11th, when it suddenly appeared in the UPS system. And then 3 days later I received it.
I know that when we ship something via UPS, the tracking number is generated when the label is printed. But as soon as it is picked up by the UPS man that afternoon, it gets scanned in and shows up in their system.
So did it just sit on the company’s loading dock for 4 days or what?
Not sure exactly what’s going to happen this weekend, but I’m sure we’ll have fun.
July 15, 2023
Is There Anything They Can’t Do?
Drones are being used for many things these days.
Things like search and rescue, photography, firefighting, traffic monitoring, surveillance, and even warfare.
You can also annoy Amazonian alligators as I showed in yesterday’s blog.
You can even reconstruct ancient buildings and ruins.
From the Roman Colosseum,
to the 6th Century Whitby Abbey.
But recently they’ve started adding to, or even replacing 4th of July fireworks shows.
This one, a combo of both drones and conventional fireworks in North Richland Hills, TX, set a Guinness World Record for using the most drones to date, with 1002 individually controlled units.
And this one, from Sydney, Australia this past May was part of their Vivid Sydney, which is a world-renowned festival of light, music, and ideas.
Of course, sometimes it all goes very wrong, like this drone show in Vilnius, Lithuania this past February.
They say the drone shows are safer than fireworks, but I’m not sure that applies to getting hit in the head by a crashing drone.
Ouch!
Lunch today was at Los Rameriz once again, with Jan getting her usual Pechuga Rellena, which is a Grilled Chicken Breast layered over Grilled Shrimp, and Grilled Broccoli, and then covered in melted cheese.
It seems that they put the entire plate under the broiler to melt the cheese since it comes out too hot to touch. And then they add the lettuce/tomato mix and the half Avocado right before it comes to the table.
Looks so good I was almost sorry I didn’t order it.
Then afterward, it was our weekly Wal-Mart visit and then home.
But when we were at Wal-Mart, I came across this sign at one entrance.
Supposedly the lights will be dimmer and there will be no background music.
They don’t mention what they’re going to do about the crying kids and screaming babies, several of which I heard during our visit today.
All in all, a very nice Saturday.
