Monthly Archives: August 2024

Jan’s Home And Doing Great!

First off Jan wants to thank everyone for their prayers and good wishes. They are much appreciated.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s short blog, Jan did great with no problems during the operation. They did have a pathologist check the parathyroid to be sure the tumor growing on it was benign, and it was.

The reason they wanted to stay overnight was that they wanted to run some blood testing a few hours apart to confirm that her calcium level and parathyroid levels were dropping. So they ended up doing one blood draw last night and then another one this morning.

Both came back really good so she was good to go home.

But it seemed to take forever. There was so much paperwork to be gone over and signed. Then you wait and more paperwork appears. And some of it was done virtually with a nurse on the TV. But we were finally on our way about 2:45.

Coming home we made a Kroger’s stop for a few groceries and a prescription that the hospital had called in.

Then it was finally home a little after 5pm.

Great shot of the Galveston Seawall sometime in the 1940’s.

Looks like the biggest difference is that now parking along the Seawall is parallel.

He/She/It Got Me Again. But now I know where he/she/it lives.

Coming into the rig this afternoon, I got hit by another (the same one?) yellowjacket. The wasp was coming out the bottom of the arm of our large foldout awning.

This time I was stung on the heel of my left hand. Guess I wasn’t hit as badly as last time, since my hand didn’t swell as much and I didn’t get dizzy or sick to my stomach.

Die, Bug. Die.


Thought For The Day:

‘Anybody who truly believes that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach obviously flunked geography.’


Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2011 – Prairie Dogs and Dinosaurs

2016 – Gulf Shores Memories And The World’s Tiniest Hooters

2017 – Family Memories In Athens AL

And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™


August 3, 2009

Provincetown Bound…

Today we drove the 60-odd miles out to the tip of Massachusetts’ boot called Provincetown.

MA Map

Provincetown is a really beautiful area that reflects its long history.  It is where the Pilgrims originally landed in 1620 and signed the Mayflower Compact, though they later decided to settle across the bay at Plymouth.

A little-known fact is that the Pilgrims were originally headed for the Virginia area, but stopped in Provincetown and didn’t want to go any further because they had run out of an essential provision…beer!

Provincetown

The tower, called The Pilgrim Tower, is not a lighthouse as I first thought, but is a 252-foot tall brick monument erected in the early 1900’s to commemorate the landing of the Pilgrims in 1620.

Pilgrim Tower

2009 – Provincetown Bound

We also visited the nearby Cape Cod National Seashore area looking out over the Atlantic Ocean.

Cape Cod Seashore

and the Old Town Lifesaving Station that dates from the 1800’s.  From here the rescue boats were dispatched to save crewmen on boats that had run aground nearby.

Old Town Lifesaving Station

The area is covered in Queen Anne’s Lace and Rosehips.

Queen Annes Lace

I did not realize that Queen Anne’s Lace is actually the Wild Carrot and has an edible root.  But it also looks very similar to the Water Hemlock, which is deadly.  So be careful if you’re snacking.

Rosehips

Rosehips are also edible and a good source of Vitamin C and were used by sailors to prevent scurvy.

Heading home, we again passed by our rental house from 1972.

Falmouth House

The house was divided into 3 apartments. We lived on the ground floor, someone else lived in the basement, and the owner lived on the 2nd floor.

And here’s a picture of the Mcdonald’s where Jan worked while we were here.

Falmouth McDonalds

It’s amazing these places are still here after almost 40 years.

We’re still looking for the efficiency apartment we lived in first.

Tomorrow we’re taking the ferry over to Martha’s Vineyard.


August 3, 2010

Rainy Day Monda…eh..Tuesday…

We woke up this morning to rain outside and a headache for Jan, so it was a good morning to lay around the rig.

About 12:30 we drove over to our favorite Chinese buffet here in Elkhart, North Garden Buffet. Another of our top 5 Chinese restaurants.  It was really good.

Leaving the restaurant we headed into downtown Elkhart to drop off some letters at the Post Office and then drove back to the rig

Later in the afternoon, we talked to Michelle from Phoenix Commercial Paint about doing some repainting on our coach. She’s going to come by tomorrow to take a close look at what we want done.

We got this group wedding picture from our son-in-law Lowell. From left to right: Me, Jan, Brandi, Lowell, Lowell’s mother, Sonja, and Lowell’s father, Lendel.
GroupWeddingPhoto

Thought I’d give you this repeat link from our stay in Celina, OH last year. They have a great 50’s style restaurant in nearby St. Mary’s that also houses a really good Elvis museum.

Check it out. Lost in the Fifties, again


August 3, 2011

Prairie Dogs and Dinosaurs . . .

After checking local reviews, we decided to try Country Kitchen, a national chain. They have locations in 22 states, but we’d never heard of them. But luckily for us, the reviews were right. I had a double cheeseburger and Jan had a Spicy Chicken Sandwich. Both very good.

As far as the movies go, we didn’t have a lot of choices – Cowboys and Aliens, Captain America, and The Smurfs 3D.

But two out of three weren’t bad. We saw Cowboys and Aliens last night and decided to see Captain America tonight. And we did.

We both really enjoyed C & A. Good story, with a lot of twists, great effects, and anyway, any movie with Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and big, nasty aliens, has got to be good.


This morning was a tourist day, so we started it off with breakfast at Country Kitchen. After all, if it was good for dinner . . .

And after a great breakfast, our first stop was Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND, about 35 miles west of here on I-94.

After getting our National Park Passports stamped at the Ranger Station, and checking out Teddy’s Maltese Cross cabin on the grounds, we headed out on the 36-mile scenic loop around the park.

And of course, the first thing that caught Jan’s eye were the prairie dogs. Lots and lots of prairie dogs.

Whole towns of prairie dogs, as a matter of fact.

Prairie Dogs 2

It’s like they have their own personalities.

Here, the wife is giving her husband a smooch before he goes off to a hard day of finding seeds, leaves, grasses, and roots, and also dodging hawks. Life can be rough on the prairie.

Prairie Dogs 1

These three neighbors had a spat over who went down the wrong burrow, and now they’re not speaking.

Prairie Dogs 3

The guy on the right just discovered he’s on camera.

Prairie Dogs 4

These two are getting ready to race. and the other is doing the “Ready, Set, GO!”

Prairie Dogs 5

And we did see some really beautiful scenery. This park is part of the Dakota Badlands and it shows.

TR Scenic Loop 1

TR Scenic Loop 2

TR Scenic Loop 3

There are several herds of wild horses in the park, and we saw quite a few.

TR Wild Hoses 1

And toward the end of our drive, we also saw this female deer high up on a ridge grabbing a snack.

TR Deer

Leaving the park we headed back east on I-94 a few miles and stopped off at Painted Canyon, which is really just a continuation of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Painted Canyon 1

It’s easy to see why they call it Painted Canyon.

Painted Canyon 2

Painted Canyon 3

Painted Canyon 4

Again heading back toward Dickinson, but still within the park boundaries, we saw one of the several large bison herds in the park.

TR Buffalo 1

TR Buffalo 2

Passing through Dickinson, and going about 10 miles out the other side, we turned south on the Enchanted Highway. Following up we saw some more of the really neat, very large, metal sculptures along the way.

This grasshopper was huge, but I kept looking for the giant seagulls.

Enchanted Highway Grasshopper

A pheasant family, complete with chicks.

Enchanted Highway Pheasants

And Jan got this great shot of a field of sunflowers.

Sunflowers

Again coming back into Dickinson we checked out the Dakota Dinosaur Museum.

Although not as extensive as the one we saw in Thermopolis, WY last week, they did have some interesting stuff like this cast of a T-Rex skull, found just 200 miles from here in Montana.

T-Rex Skull

And this very nice display area.

Dakota Dino Museum 1

This is a REAL Triceratops skull, weighing about 1500 pounds. The weight of these fossils is why most of the assembled skeletons you see in museums are fiberglass casts. They would weigh 10’s of tons and would be very difficult to suspend safely. It’s not really purple, it just looks that way under the light.

Triceratops Skull

And Jan and I both really liked their large collection of beautiful rock specimens.

Mica

Agate

Quartz

By the time we left the Dino Museum, it was almost 5 pm, so we decided to check out a place others had recommended, although they couldn’t remember the name of the place they were trying to recommend.

It turned out to be the Dakota Diner, and once again the recommendations were spot on. The place was jam-packed and really, really good.

After dinner, we came back to the rig for a while and then headed out to see Captain America at the movies.

The movie, subtitled “The First Avenger”, was very well-done, and held very close to the original comic book origins. I hated it when they take a known character and then just completely change the storyline.

This Captain America movie is the final one that will unite Iron Man, Thor, and Captain America, along with other superheroes in next summer’s “The Avengers” movie.

Tomorrow . . . Fargo.  The city, not the movie.


August 3, 2012

An Unexpected Day Off . . .

First off, a price update on the Diesel Kleen fuel additive I mentioned a few days ago. One of our readers, Rod Ivers, alerted me to the fact that Wal-Mart carries it, and much cheaper. I paid $14 for it on Amazon, but Wal-Mart has it for $7.57.

Nice difference.

The rig skid went off pretty much on schedule, but we weren’t here to see it.

WE GOT THE DAY OFF!

Our Company Man decided to treat the rig ‘skid’ like a rig move, so no logging. Then about noon on Wednesday, he told us to not start logging again until 8am Thursday morning.

YAY!

Talk about a nice surprise. After we sat around for a while, stunned that we were both inside the rig at the same time, we got cleaned up and headed into San Antonio.

After some shopping, we ended up at one of our favorite places in San Antonio, the Magic Time Machine for dinner about 5:30. Our waitress this time, Tinkerbell, (in the past, we’ve had Wonder Woman, The Joker, and The Mad Hatter) asked if we’d ever eaten there before. I told her we’d been eating there since the early 80’s, probably before she was born. She said that then maybe her mother had waited on us since she worked there back then. Small world.

And talk about making us feel old.

We got home about 8pm to find the rig skid had gone off with no problems, but they were still trying to get all the surrounding structures back in place. I did get some shots of the two big cranes coming out through the gate. They just barely fit.

Crane 1

Crane 2

So, after a night of actually being able to sleep in the same bed together, we were back on the gate at 8am, or at least Jan was, since that’s her shift.

Oh well. Back to work.

The last few nights on the gate I’ve been checking out the thousands of free movies and TV shows on our Kindle Fire. Well, free if you have Amazon Prime, which to me is a must-have for any RV’er.

The free movies include everything from recent ones like “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, to classics with John Wayne, and some of my favorites like 1956’s “Forbidden Planet”, and 1960’s “The Time Machine”.

As far as TV shows, they’ve got everything from “The West Wing”, BBC’s “The Tudors”, “The X-Files”, “Mythbusters”, “Sons of Anarchy”, and “The Deadliest Catch”, to oldies like “Alf”, “The Greatest American Hero”, and “Fawlty Towers”. And in many cases, it’s every episode from every season.

Check it out.

That’s about it for the latest episode of Life on the Gate.


August 3, 2013

Last Day in Elkhart . . .

I’m not exactly sure what this family is trying to convey, and I’m not sure I want to know.

Mooning Family Grapic

Since we travel tomorrow I had a few chores to take care of this morning. First up I got my Craftsman 150 PSI Air Compressor out of the back of the truck and spent about 15 minutes to top off a few of my rig and truck tires.

Air Compressor

This compressor is great. It’s not very big, but has no problem airing up rig tires to 110+ without straining.

Next up I wanted to scrub the carpeted mat that’s under my pilot chair, so I took it out to the picnic table, sprayed it down with Awesome, and then let it soak for a while. Later I came back and scrubbed it with a big brush and then hosed it down. After it dried in the sun, it was spiffy clean and dry.

While we were coming down from the Soo Locks I noticed we were out of washer fluid in the rig so while we were at Wal-Mart the other day I picked up a gallon of the RainX washer fluid. I’ve had this in both vehicles for a couple of years now and it really makes the rain bead up and roll off. The gallon jug just topped off both the rig and the truck so now I’m good to go.

Later, about 1:15 Jan and I headed out to see RED 2 at the Elkhart theater. We had really enjoyed RED when it came out in 2010 and RED 2 didn’t disappoint either. With Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Anthony Hopkins, you can’t go wrong.

And unlike R.I.P.D. yesterday, RED 2 made you snicker, chuckle, and laugh out loud all the way through. In fact the R.I.P.D. people should have gotten Jon and Erich Hoeber, the writers of RED, to punch up their script. This was a FUNNY movie. John Malkovich can make you laugh just by how he moves his eyes.

Even better I read that they’ve started working on RED 3. We’re really looking forward to it.

Coming home, we made a quick stop at CVS before getting back to the park and meeting up with blog readers, Marvin and Joan McClain. They just got in last night and we had planned to have dinner with them at El Maguey.

McClains-Marvin and Joan

We had met them previously at a rally, but this is the first time we’ve had a chance to really get to know them. And we had a great time talking with them and trading stories. In fact we didn’t leave until 2 1/2 hours later. Hopefully, we’ll get to meet up with them again soon.

Getting back to the park I checked in with Gita at the park office.

Tomorrow we’ve got a 330 mile trip down to Vandalia, IL to spend a few days with Jan’s sister Debbie and her family. Since we’ve got a long day, and we need to get diesel as we leave here, we’re heading out about 8pm. It will help that we’ll pick up an hour going back into Central Daylight Time.


August 3, 2014

Our Old Kentucky Hom . . . er, RV Park

We got hooked up and pulled out about 10:15. We took I-71 in toward Cincinnati, and then headed south on I-275. Normally we would have just stayed on I-71 until it hooked up with I-75 and we crossed the river into Kentucky.

But we had noticed the other day that part of I-71 was closed for construction for the next few days, so we avoided it by taking the long way around via I-275. About 130 miles down the road, we stopped off at the Pilot near Pendleton, KY.

This was the perfect fuel stop. When you pull into the Auto/RV entrance, the RV pumps are directly in front of you. So no twisting around trying to get lined up. My RV PLUS card worked perfectly, and I got about 50 gallons at $3.72 per gallon. They also had a long-handled scrubber/squeegee there so my windshield got sparkly clean too.

And it about 15 minutes we were ready to go. But before we hit the road again, we closed the windows and turned off the fans. The temperature in the rig was up to about 78° so we cranked up the generator and turned on the A/C’s. We’re far enough south again that we’ll probably be doing this every trip day until we’re back in Houston.

My Silverleaf computer display said we’d gone about 400 miles and used a little over 50 gallons, so that’s about 8 miles per gallon. Lower than normal for us, but we’ve been in all this hilly country and it does take its toll.

About 25 miles before we reached our stop for the night, we passed back into the Central Time Zone where we’ll be for the rest of the year.

We pulled into the Singing Hills RV Park about 2:30 and got checked in and set up.

Singing Hills is on the road leading to Mammoth Cave National Park, but you have to know it’s here to get here. There are no signs out on the Interstate, or even along the road leading to the park. The only reason I found it was that it’s a Passport America Park and showed on a Delorme Street Atlas map overlay. At $18 for a Full Hookup site, it looked good, but we’ve been fooled before, so it was off to RVParkReviews.com to check it out. And it still looked good, so we had our stop. And since it was summertime, and the Mammoth Cave area is tourist bait, I called and made a reservation this past Monday.

Singing Hills RV 1

Singing Hills RV 2

Turns out the place is a 44-site family-run park with all pull-thrus, perfect since we planned on eating in the rig tonight and not unhooking the toad.

Tomorrow we’ll make a 190-mile trip to Athens, AL to spend 5 days catching up with all my relatives there,  before heading down to spend a week in Gulf Shores, AL, where I grew up.

Really looking forward to seeing all the family.


August 3, 2015

Home in Alabama . . .

Several readers pointed out a problem with the Northgate RV Travel Park link I posted in yesterday’s blog. It’s fixed now.

As a disclaimer, I must point out that Northgate is owned by my relatives, but it’s still a very nice little park. Nothing fancy, no bathroom/showers, and no laundry.  Just level, gravel FHU sites, with good 50/30 amp power, great water pressure, and Wi-Fi.

It’s the perfect basecamp to explore the Huntsville/NASA/North Alabama/Southern Tennessee area.

I spent part of the morning troubleshooting a problem with the electric side of our water heater. We’ve been using the LP side for the last two weeks, due to the power situation at Cherokee Landing TT. But when we tried to switch back to the electric side yesterday, it didn’t work.

Found a 15 amp fuse for the 12V side and it was fine. Couldn’t find a 120V circuit breaker for it anywhere, so I called American Coach for some help. They said if it wasn’t in the panel under the bed, it would be at the bottom of the drawer cabinet where the inside access to the water heater is.

So that’s my next place to check tomorrow. But since the LP side still works, I’m not in any big hurry. I do have an idea what’s actually wrong with it, but I want to do some more research.

A little after 4pm Jan and I headed out to have dinner at the Chili’s about halfway between here and Huntsville. It’s been a while since we’ve been to a Chili’s, but we were surprised to see how many new items were now on the menu. In fact we both went with something new.]

Jan went with their new Spicy Shrimp Tacos with Avocado.

Chili's Spicy Shrimp Tacos

Served with Citrus-Chile rice and black beans, Jan said it was all delicious, maybe the best shrimp tacos ever.

As for me, the Smothered Prime Rib Burrito caught my eye.

chilisundergroundburrito

Stuffed with large chunks of prime rib, black bean salsa, three cheeses, and Citrus-Chile rice, and covered with two different sauces, it was really good, and very filling. By the time we finished, neither of us even thought about dessert, even splitting one as we often do.

Don’t know if it’s just this location, but besides the menu, Chili’s has really upgraded their interiors. Very nice inside.

Tomorrow we plan on heading over to Huntsville for some shopping and eating.


August 3, 2016

Gulf Shores Memories . . .

Our first day in Paradise (well, we like it a lot) started off with a morning of thunder, lightning, and rain. But it did really help to keep things cool.

In fact I don’t think it got much hotter than the mid-80’s, so that was really nice. Jan caught up on a couple of loads of laundry that had built up since we left Colorado River. But after the rainy start, the afternoon cleared up with some sun, but still stayed cool. Very nice for our first full day here.

Around 3 we started talking ‘linner’, and even though we usually concentrate on seafood while we’re here. we have one other favorite – Hooter’s. But not just any Hooters. It’s the World’s Tiniest Hooters.

It even says so on their sign.

Hooters - Tiniest

It’s located right across the road from the beach, just east of the main beach intersection. And the reason it’s the tiniest is that it’s actually a doublewide trailer, still on the wheels. So supposedly it can be towed away in case of an approaching hurricane, but I’m not sure how practical that would be.

We were lucky to get the last table, and a line started soon after. Like I said it’s a small place. And busy as they were, it took a while to get our food. But it wasn’t like we were in any hurry, just happy to be back on the road.

Jan got the Chicken Strip Cheese Sandwich on Texas Toast with Curly Fries, while I got my usual 10 wings, naked (no breading), all drums, with 911 sauce, which Jan also got on her sandwich strips.

Now 911 used to be their hottest sauce, which is why we ordered it. Well, except for the secret, off-menu ‘Elvis’ sauce that only some stores had. But after turning in our order, I was looking over the menu and discovered they’d added a new sauce, “Triple Dog Dare”. Wish I’d known that before I ordered.

Guess it gives me something to look forward to next time.

Finishing up, we drove around for a while, checking out all the new places that have sprung up since we were here a year ago. And for me, I remember long stretches of open beach that are now covered with wall-to-wall condos as far as the eye can see. But yet I still see places that were that were here more than 60 years ago when I grew up here.

Everything changes and yet stays the same.


August 3, 2017

Heading Back Home . . .

After goofing off the morning, Jan and I headed out about 1pm to meet up with my cousins Anna Jean and Marjorie, and Marjorie’s husband Walter.

We had a great time talking about the past, and gossiping about other family members who weren’t there. That’ll teach ‘em.

Anna Jean, Marjorie, and my mother were first cousins, all about the same age, and grew up together. So they always have new stories about my mother.

And sometimes new photos too.

Mother in the Army

This one was taken in mid-1942 when my mother was an Army nurse stationed at Fort Benning, GA. This was before she was transferred to West Point.

This is another one from that time period.

Mother

We spent over four hours together and the time really flew by.

Anna Jean Marjorie Walter Jan

Anna Jean, Jan, Marjorie and Walter

We finally said our goodbyes to everyone and headed out. Jan was getting pretty hungry and thinking about chicken, so we decided to try the nearby Zaxby’s. We had tried one years ago, but neither of us remembered whether we liked it or not. So we took a chance.

Zaxby's Chicken

And lucked out. Very good Chicken Strips and dipping sauce. Much like Raisin’ Cane’s.

Finishing up, we stopped off at my Aunt Virginia’s to say goodbye, before we headed by to the RV Park. Or at least to my Aunt and Uncle’s right next door.

I wanted to install LibreOffice on my Aunt’s laptop so she won’t have to buy MS Word, and also say our goodbyes here too.

Tomorrow we’ve got a 237-mile run down to the Benchmark RV Park in Meridian, MS, a very nice Passport America park.


August 3, 2018

Sold?

Well, as of about 1:45 this afternoon, we’ve probably sold the house, or at least I signed the contract and sent it back through DocuSign.

I say ‘probably’ since I won’t really consider it SOLD until the check is in our hands. Or it’s not really SOLD until the check clears the bank.

As it stands now we will close on or before August 24th. Come on ‘before’. We just want to be done with this.

Brandi and Lowell also got some good house-related news today. After the 54-page report from the inspectors on Tuesday, the owner has agreed to make the required repairs, so they’re still a go for an August 31st close. Though theirs may also be a few days earlier. So we’ll all see, I guess.

I left the rig about 2:45 and headed up to Katy to pick up my lovely bride for the weekend. Unfortunately, I have to give her back to Brandi and Lowell Sunday afternoon and won’t get her back again until next Friday. But she’s having a good time with Landon so it all works out.

I got up to Brandi’s a little after 4, before Jan, Landon, Lowell, and I headed back out a little before 5 to meet Brandi at La Finca, our favorite local Mexican restaurant.

Also meeting us there were friends Chantelle, Eric, and Maddox.

La Finca Group

And of course, the kids, Maddox and Landon, couldn’t be bothered to look up from their tablets.

La Finca Kids

I had my usual Marcos Taco Salad with Beef Fajita meat, and that’s a lot of meat in there.

La Finca Marcos Salad 2

Chantelle is a travel agent and we spent a good bit of time talking about our upcoming European River Cruise, probably next spring sometime. Right now we’re looking at one of the 15-day cruises along the Danube, running from Budapest to Amsterdam, or vice versa.

Plus as I said before, Jan wants to see London, Paris, and Versailles either before or after the cruise. But we’ll see how it all plans out. This will almost certainly be our one and only trip to Europe so we might as well make the most of it.

And on that note, we want to get by the Post Office this week to renew our passports. Don’t want to wait until the last minute and pay extra.

Tomorrow I’ve got to drop off a key for the house buyer and then we’ll probably have to rent another storeroom for a couple of months (yeah, right) so we can go ahead and get everything out of the house and then sort through it later.

We’ve still got a lot of family photos, scrapbooks, and other stuff that we need to look at. Hopefully we can get another 5×5 unit close to our other one.


August 3, 2021

And A Hobo, too . . .

Well, with the cooler temperatures, came a lot of rain, about 4” worth according to my rain gauge. And it was still raining this morning, so no coffee out on the patio. But on the plus side, we didn’t have to water anything.

We had planned to take Branson Scenic Railway train ride while we were there, but after a little checking, we decided to skip it.

Branson Railroad F9 Locomotive

It seems that during December they only do the nighttime Polar Express Christmas train at 4:45pm and 6:30pm. So we would be trapped on a train full of kids wearing pajamas (and some parents too), hopped on free Hot Chocolate and Cookies, and on the way to pick up Santa Claus and bring him back from the North Pole.

Oh, and there will be Christmas Carolers and a Hobo, too.

As Jan said, “Oh Hell, NO!

So we can cross that off.

With the rain letting up, we headed out about 1pm to first have lunch at Los Ramirez once again. Pechuga Rellena and Beef Fajita Taco Salad.

Delicious!

Then it was on up the road to the big HEB on League City Pkwy for some things that our local HEB was out of. After that it was a stop by the office to pick up a couple of Amazon orders that came in, or were coming in. Since we got there and just waited in the parking lot, tracking the delivery on my phone, before the Prime van pulled in.

Next up before heading home was a quick stop at Kroger’s for a couple of prescriptions, for me this time. And once again Kroger’s Pharmacy Plan came through. The two prescriptions, that would have been $24 at WalMart/Sam’s, were a total of $6 at Kroger. One of them was on their ‘Free’ list, and the other one was only $6.

Nice!


August 3, 2022

A Long Day . . .

Or at least it seemed that way.

Jennifer, our office manager, came into my room and said she knew I was getting ready to leave in a few minutes, but wondered if I could take a look at a UPS update message on the Shipping computer before I left.

Confused, I looked at my watch and said, “But it’s only 10 till 3.”

She said, “No”. And when I looked at my phone, I saw it was 3:27pm, and I leave at 3:30.

Don’t know what happened with my watch, but now I know why the day seemed to be dragging.

But I did get the UPS update taken care of before I left.

Came across this fantastic Lego project that might interest Landon.

Lego Clockwork Solar System

It’s a clockwork version of our solar system made from Legos.

And even more amazing, it’s 99.8% accurate. Check it out below.

I mentioned after our Immersive Monet exhibition that we were told that Immersive King Tut would be coming this fall.

Immersive King Tut 2

And now we’re starting to see Facebook ads for it.

Looking forward to it.


Our daughter Brandi has been a lady of leisure this week. At least, kind of.

After working out her two-week notice at her old job, she was originally supposed to start at her new position as an Assistant Vice President on July 31st. But her new company suggested that she take a week off to relax a bit and start on August 7th.

But not one to actually take it easy during her time off, Brandi spent the time reconfiguring her office to facilitate her working from home full-time.

As I mentioned in yesterday’s blog, lunch today was at our Webster Twin Peaks, but it turned out to be sans Sylvia, our usual server. When I texted her this morning to be sure she was going to be there, she said she was off today. But she confirmed that her best friend and designated backup server Victoria was working.

We both started with salads, and they do one of the best house salads around.

Then Jan tried something a little different with their Keto Avocado Smash Burger,

Keto because it was sans Bun.

I got a past favorite, the Lunch Special Soup and Half-Sandwich, with the Green Chile Chicken and a BLT.

All delicious as always.

When we decided to have lunch at TP today, we didn’t know that today was the last day of Bikini Week.

Miss Victoria

Jan was happy to see that they were all wearing wraps around their waists. She says that sometimes it’s just too ‘cheeky’ around there.

I didn’t get a vote.

And while we were there they were putting up a new banner showing that next week was Back To School Costume Week. Which I’m pretty sure will translate to Naughty Schoolgirls.

And we’re (I’m) getting to eat at Twin Peaks again next week.

Yay!

Coming home, we made a quick stop at Marina’s Bakery so Jan could get some Keto stuff to take with her up to Brandi’s on Sunday. As far as the reason she’s going up to Brandi’s is that she’s going to be Landon/Doggie Sitting for a few days while Brandi’s going through orientation for her new position. Then I’ll pick her up on Thursday on our way up to meet Debi and Ed at The Woodlands Twin Peaks for our monthly get-together.

We got a text this afternoon from the Sam’s Club Optical Department saying that our new glasses had come in. Quick service, as it just took a week. We’ll go up Saturday morning to pick them up.

 

 

 

 

She’s Fine . . .

Just a short blog tonight.

Jan came through her parathyroidectomy with no problems, but she ended up spending the night at the hospital.

Originally her operation was scheduled for 11:30am, but due to her surgeon having to do a couple of emergency procedures, hers got pushed back until about 2pm.

So they didn’t have time for all the test values to come back that they wanted to check.

So I’ll pick her up sometime late tomorrow morning or early afternoon.

More then.

And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™


August 2, 2009

At Home in Buzzard Bay…

Today was a travel day.  We moved about 140 miles east to Buzzard’s Bay, MA on Cape Cod.

The trip was smooth and uneventful for a change.  Traffic was light and the roads were pretty good.

After we got settled in, we headed down the Cape toward East Falmouth where we used to live.

I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but Jan, Chris, and I lived here in 1972 while I worked for the Department of Defense at Otis Air Force Base.

We were really surprised that we were able to find one of the houses we lived in while we were here.  It’s still there, and I think it looks better now than it did then.

We also think we’ve found the McDonald’s that Jan worked at while we were here.  We’ll have to check it out further to be sure.

We’re still going to be looking for the efficiency apartment that we rented for a while.  It will be interesting to see if it still exists also.

After our little time trip back to 1972, we stopped off at Seafood Sam’s for supper.  I had the Lobster Bisque and the Lobster Salad Roll, and Jan had the Mac and Cheese with Lobster Chunks Casserole.  It all was good.


August 2, 2010

Like being back home…

We started out the day by hanging around the rig enjoying a quiet morning. For the first time since February we don’t have to be anywhere for over a month.

Fantastic!

About 11:15 we headed out to El Maguey, our favorite Elkhart Mexican restaurant. And we were happy to find that it was just as good as when we left here last November.

After a delicious lunch we drove over to a WalMart near Goshen. According to the Walmart website they were the only WalMart in the area to stock the cranberry oatmeal that she likes. Unfortunately the website was wrong and they didn’t have any. But amazingly, we found other stuff to buy. Who knew?

Parking at the WalMart we encountered this older American Tradition, from the same manufacturer as our Eagle. Based on the body style and the fact it doesn’t have any slides, I think it’s a ‘96 or ‘97. Still looks good, though.

OldAmericanTradition

Right next to the Tradition was something we had heard about last year. Many of the WalMart’s here in Amish country have covered areas for the horse and buggies.

AmishBarn

Although I don’t think this one is an Amish buggy!

AmishBarn2

I found it really funny to see that an Amish mother and son, who were walking into the store after parking their buggy, were wearing bright pink Crocs.

Leaving the WalMart, we drove across the street to one of our favorite stores, Tractor Supply Company. Jan was looking for a magazine she likes called “Countryside”, but the new issue wasn’t out yet. I did find a neat Tractor Supply T-shirt, though.

Coming home, we decided to take the scenic route and avoid the Interstate/Toll Road.

Big Mistake!

It seems like every road around here is under construction, including ones that were under construction when we were here last October. It took us over an hour and 15 minutes just to drive the 20 miles back to the rig. I think we must have gone through at least 6 different construction zones/detours.

The Toll Road is looking better!

Getting back to near the park,  we noted how different this stand of trees looked from last October.

More FoliageSummer

More Foliage

For supper we had left-over hot wings from Quaker Steak and Lube, and chips with a dip made with a mix Jan bought at the Rally in Louisville.


August 2, 2013

Missed it by that Much . . .

We woke up this morning to heavy rain and a lot of thunderboomers that lasted most of the morning, but by early afternoon it had all faded away to just a heavy overcast.


I’ve heard of houses on stilts, but RV’s?

He better hope a strong wind doesn’t come up.

RV on Stilts 2

Jan and I headed out to Mishawaka about 1:45pm. We were planning on seeing a movie, R.I.P.D., that started at 2:50, but we left earlier than normally necessary because there was a wreck at Exit 69 on the I-90 Toll Road that was blocking traffic in both directions. But since we were getting on at Exit 92 and off at Exit 93, I figured we should be OK. But I added extra time anyway. And I’m glad I did.

When came over the hill to our Mishawaka exit, the traffic was backed up as far as we could see, ending right after our exit. If we’d been 5 minutes later, we would have been blocked from our exit and stuck on the Interstate, behind 14 miles of backed-up traffic.

We really wanted to like R.I.P.D. (Rest In Peace Department). The concept of a Police Department that retrieves evil ‘deado’s from the earth and returns them to the afterlife is a fun concept. But it just didn’t click. We didn’t dislike it, but we wanted more. It was close.

Other movies like Ghost, Ghostbusters, Men in Black, and Betelgeuse took similar off-the-wall concepts and made them hits. But the common thread in all these movies was humor, a lot of humor. Don’t get me wrong, R.I.P.D. had humor. Jeff Bridges as an 1880’s Wild West U.S. Marshall was great. And Ryan Reynolds held his own as the “rookie”. But overall, it was a miss. A near miss, but a miss still.

Leaving the movie, we stopped off at Sam’s Club to pick up a prescription that wasn’t ready the other day. Then it was on to a nearby Famous Dave’s BBQ for probably the last time this year. They don’t have any down in our area, so we wanted to get in one more shot. Since we’d had popcorn at the movie, we weren’t super hungry so we split a rib platter along with an extra side. The ribs were delicious, and even after splitting the platter, we were too full for the Bread Pudding that we usually split.

Heading home, we saw that the Interstate was now clear, making a lot of drivers happy.

Tomorrow we’ll get ready to travel on Sunday, and maybe take in another movie, RED 2, at the local theater. Then El Maguey for dinner.


August 2, 2014

Told Ya!

Today is our last day here in Ohio for this year.

And after a nice, slow morning, we all headed back over to Lebanon, OH to check out some of the shops and old homes. But what we found was a large street fair and car show going on in the downtown.

So after avoiding the $5 and $10 parking lots, we finally found a parking spot and walked around for an hour or so, checking the shops, stands, and, especially, the cars.

This is one that I haven’t seen before. It’s a very nice 1929 Essex. Made between 1918 and 1932, Essex started out as a Hudson Automobile subsidiary, before becoming just another model in the Hudson line in 1922.

In fact, by 1929 Essex was third in sales behind Ford and Chevrolet.

Lebanon 1929 Essex

When I caught a glimpse of this one as we drove by, I thought it was a Chevy, but when I got close, found it was a 1933 Plymouth.

Lebanon 1933 Plymouth

This photo doesn’t do this 1939 Ford Coupe justice. It looks white in this photo, but it’s actually a deep lustrous pearl. Coats and coats of pearl lacquer.

Lebanon 1939 Ford Coupe

This beauty is a 1948 Buick luxury touring model, and even has power windows.

In 1948!

Lebanon 1948 Buick

This 1976 Stutz Blackhawk is the first one I’ve ever seen in person. Manufactured from 1971 to 1987 by the Stutz Motor Company, the body was handcrafted in Ghia in Italy and then shipped to the US where it was mated with a GM chassis and engine.

Lebanon 1976 Stutz Blackhawk

The body had 22 coats of hand-rubbed lacquer that took six weeks to apply. The Blackhawk was so prized that they were reserved years in advance. In fact, Elvis Presley outbid Frank Sinatra for the first one. And at one time Elvis owned 4 Blackhawks.

Other notable owners included Lucille Ball, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lewis, Liberace, and Willie Nelson. The Shah of Iran reportedly owned twelve of them.

Although very popular with the rich crowd, they were finally done in by changes in US auto safety laws.

This is a 1951 Chevrolet Coupe pulling a 1976 Jayco camper.

Lebanon 1951 Chevrolet

I like the period radio on the shelf.

Lebanon 1976 Jayco

After driving around a while longer, we stopped off at a nice used bookstore for a while, before ending up at the Acapulco Mexican Restaurant about 4pm. This is the same place we ate at this past Tuesday with the Boggs family of The Boggs Family Ministries, and it was so good we had to do it again.

Jan had her Pollo Loco and I had the Carnitas Acapulco, both the same as last time. And just as delicious.


Under the heading, See I Told You They Were Good For You, a recent study shows that the main ingredient in chili peppers, dietary capsaicin, significantly decreases the chance of colorectal and bowel cancer, lowers blood pressure, boosts memory, and increases longevity as much as 30%.

And all y’all thought I was just crazy. Not saying I’m not, but I was right about this.


August 2, 2015

A Trifecta of Bad . . .

Jan and I pulled out of our site here at Cherokee Landing Thousand Trails about 9:45, bidding a not-fond adieu to probably the nicest bad park we’ve ever stayed at, especially for two whole weeks.

We’ve certainly stayed in worse places, much worse in fact. But only for one night, not fourteen. But as nice as the basic park is, I.e. wooded sites, but still with satellite access, fairly level, quiet, and not much traffic, overall, it sucked.

But Cherokee Landing is a Trifecta of Bad. Bad power, bad water pressure, and bad Internet. I’ve already mentioned the ‘fake’ 50 amp pedestals, consisting of a 50 amp receptacle connected to a 30 amp, actually three 30 amp breakers in series between the main breaker panel, the ‘real’ 30 amp box, and the ‘fake’ 30 amp box.

And, believe it or not, some people actually end up paying an extra $3 per night for this ‘50’ amp service, though we didn’t have to.

As far as the water pressure, according to my pressure meter, we were getting between 15 and 20 psi, the lowest I’ve ever seen at a park. To be sure it wasn’t just our site, I tested the sites on either side of us with the same results.

The pressure was so low that if I turned our Oxygenic shower nozzle upside down, the water wouldn’t even fountain up, but just run down the sides. So after a day or so of this, we started just using our internal water and our pump. Much better. But it would take over an hour to refill the 100-gallon tank from the shore water because of the low pressure. Just pitiful.

I realized I can’t really blame the park for the bad Internet, but it was just one more thing that was a constant irritation.

OK, so I’m finished ranting now.

As we had planned, we pulled into the Cracker Barrel in Corinth, MS about 10:30 to have breakfast. Although they had RV spaces, they weren’t big enough for us to fit. So we parked across about 6-8 spaces along the very back of the lot. Luckily they have a really big parking lot, so we weren’t putting anyone out. We of course left the genset running to keep Mister comfortable while we were eating.

Finishing up, we were back on the road about 11:30 for the last  115 miles. I did get a chance to see my new AC voltmeter in action.

AC Voltmeter on the Road

As I said, I can see whether or not the genset is running from the dashboard, but not that the transfer switch is putting power to the coach. So this lets me monitor that.

We pulled into the Northgate RV Travel Park about 1:45 and got set up. We plan on being here until Thursday visiting relatives. Then it’s on to Gulf Shores for a week.

Really looking forward to both visits.


August 2, 2016

Two Disappointments in a Row . . .

Finishing up on yesterday’s adventures, we pulled into Hollywood Casino RV Park a little after 1pm. And that was pretty much the high point of our entire visit.

Following the signs I parked in front of the office and went in to register. Or tried to. There was a small well-worn piece of paper on the door saying the office was closed, and to use the phone in the laundry room around the corner to call the casino hotel front desk to check in.

The phone was a direct line, so the first dozen or so times I tried, I just got a busy signal. But finally it rang through to the front desk, where I was told, “Front Desk. Please hold.”

And I did, for the next 10 minutes or so. Until I hung up and started over. And then just repeated the same scenario.

Finally giving up, we drove around to find an empty site. Which wasn’t a problem because it was only 25% full, if that.

Unlike last night at Poche’s, all the sites here are back-ins, so we found a nice site, got unhitched, and backed in. My plan was to hook up shore power so I could turn off the generator that was running the AC’s, and then drive over to the Casino and check in. But turns out the pedestals were padlocked.

Hollywood Casino 1

So I drove over to the Casino, stood in line, a long line, and finally got checked in. Turns out that they didn’t even have my reservation correct. They had us coming in today, and not yesterday. Even though I made the reservation online and had my confirmation email on my phone.

But it didn’t matter since the park was pretty empty anyway. The only reason I even made a reservation was because they were so full when we were last here in 2009. But a lot has changed since then.

By the time I got back to the rig, the security guard had unlocked the pedestal so I got plugged in. Like last night, I didn’t hook up water or sewer. Just that much less to do tomorrow.

In fact, I didn’t even set up the satellite dish, since there was nothing we wanted to watch or record that night, so we just read and computered.

About 4:15 I called the shuttle to take us over to the Casino. But it turns out that there is no more shuttle. It’s now a security guard in a Chevy Malibu.

As we were on our way through the park, I noticed that the entire park had a slightly run-down look, with unmowed areas and little or no edging around the pads.

Hollywood Casino 2

It was a really nice park, so it’s a shame to see it let go like this.

Once in the casino, our first stop was the Player’s Services desk to get our Rewards Cards. The last time we were here we each got $25 of slot cash on our cards, but not this time.

Zip, Zero, Nada!

Next we headed upstairs to eat at the Epic Buffet, a misnomer if there ever was one. We remembered this as being a good buffet, but no longer. It was now more on the level of a mediocre/bad Golden Corral. And the advertised Asian and Cajun food areas weren’t even open.

Monday night was supposed to Ribeye Steak night, but it was more like small, thin, end-pieces night. They were about 3” square, tough and chewy, and even Jan thought they were way overdone.

The one redeeming thing was the big pile of boiled shrimp. Very fresh and crisp. It was really good, and I ate more of that than anything else.

Butt the really bad part was the price – $20.99.

Our favorite casino buffet, at Boulder Station in Las Vegas, at $9.99, has much, much better food at less than half the price.

A real disappointment.

Coming back to the rig, in the Chevy Malibu again, the security guard mentioned how they had gotten rid of the shuttle, as well as a lot of other cutbacks. And it really shows.

Getting back to today, we were hitched up and on the road to Gulf Shores, AL by 10am. Rather than get back on I-10, we decided to take the scenic route by staying on US90 as it follows along the Gulf beach for about 35 miles. We stayed on this until we got to Ocean Springs, MS where US90 moves inland. Back on I-10 we passed through the Mobile tunnel, and getting across Mobile Bay, we got off at SR59 which took us all the way to Gulf Shores.

We pulled into the Gulf State Park a little before 1pm, and I went in to get registered. And got a big, big shock.

We stayed here last August, although in a different, slightly cheaper area, and we paid about $250 for the week. So I was really stunned to find a week this year was $380.00! That’s almost $60 a day.

Now I know they’ve added $35 a week ‘Resort Fee’, but where did the rest come from?

Gulf State Park Site 483

In contrast, Luxury RV Park, where we stayed in 2008, is just as close to the beach (a couple of blocks away) as Gulf State Park, and it’s only $240 a week.

So from now on, it’s Luxury RV for us.

But things got better when we headed out to have dinner at Desoto’s Seafood Kitchen. As usual we got the Seafood Platter, with Flounder, Shrimp, Oysters, and Crab Claws.

Desoto's Seafood Platter 2

For sides, Jan got their delicious Sweet Potato Casserole with Pecan pieces and the Fried Green Tomatoes, while I got the Casserole and French Fries. It’s always great, and this time was no different.

It almost made up for the Gulf State Park.


August 2, 2017

The Great American BBQ Tour . . .

I spent a good part of the morning working on the mobile site for the new website, trying to get everything to line up correctly.


The Godaddy Website Builder program automagically generates a mobile site on its own, but it needs to be tweaked, sometimes a little, and sometimes a lot. But I can’t really finish it up until I get the last website corrections from the client. So it’s hurry up and wait. As usual.

Later I put in a call to my cousins Marjorie and Anna Jean to set up a get-together tomorrow afternoon.

About 3:30 Jan and I headed down to Decatur to have dinner at Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ. Often listed as one of the top 5 BBQ places in the US, several walls are covered with their awards and certificates.

Big Bob Gibson's Awards

And even their red BBQ sauce and their white BBQ (for chicken and turkey) are award winners too.

Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Red Sauce

Big Bob Gibson's BBQ Red Sauce 2

Big Bob Gibson's White Sauce

Jan got the BBQ Chicken with Mac N Cheese and Green Beans,

(No photo. Hers came out blurry)

while I had the 2 meat Combo with Ribs, Pulled Pork, BBQ Beans, and Potato Salad.

Big Bob Gibson's Combo Plate 2

Very, very good, making it very obvious why they’ve won so many awards.

And of course we had to finish up with some of their famous pie. Jan got the Coconut Cream,

Big Bob Gibson's Coconut Pie

while I got the Lemon Cream

Big Bob Gibson's Lemon Pie

This makes the 3rd installment on our Great American BBQ Tour, with one more to go – the Sonny’s BBQ in Brandon, MS, where we’ll stop for lunch on Saturday on our way home.


Coming back to Athens we drove around for a while checking out places we used to live.

This is the house my parents bought when we moved back from Colombia, South America in 1963. It was brand new then, and it still looks pretty good.

36 Sandra Lane House

I attended the 10th grade at Athens High while we lived here, and then the next year I went off to Columbia Military Academy for my Junior and Senior years.

Greg CMA photo

See, I did have hair back in the day.

Jan and I, and our son Chris, lived here for a while before we moved to our own house (a duplex) nearby.

115 Hammonds St House

Again, it still looks pretty good.

After we’d been here a while I got on with a DOD contractor and we moved to Beaufort, SC where I worked at the MCAS (Marine Corp Air Station) at Parris Island. I was working on avionics and radar systems on F-4B, C, D, & S Phantoms.

Marine F-4B Phantom

In some cases we were stripping out all the avionics, electronics, and the engines, testing everything, and then putting it all back together again.

Getting back to the park, we went next door to visit my Aunt Janice and Uncle Ed. Their son Wes owns the RV Park here. And they have a lot to do with Jan and me getting together.

Ed was a veterinarian, and he and Janice lived in Sanford, FL in 1967 where he had his practice. I came down to visit for a while, and saw an ad for a job over in Titusville at Florida Wonderland, a local amusement park there. And that’s where Jan and I met.

Tomorrow will wrap up our last full day here in Athens before we head home on Friday.


August 2, 2018

And The Bidding Is On . . .

Tomorrow I’ll drive up to Katy to pick up Jan for the weekend, before Brandi, et. al. come back down and pick her up again for next week.

Then I should have her back for Good Friday week.

I don’t know what’s happened with the gas prices recently. The price has been jumping all over the place. When we left on our trip June 21st, the price of unleaded was around $2.95, and then when we got back 2-1/2 weeks later, it had dropped down to about $2.55. Then it dropped a few more cents a week, finally coming down to $2.47. Which it was when I went to work one morning,  planning on getting gas on the way home.

But by that afternoon it had popped up to $2.54 where it still is today. So who knows?

I mentioned last night that I was going to get with a real estate lawyer to go over some questions I had about a few sections of the Texas Real State Commission contract that I wasn’t clear on.

Well, it looks like I’ve saved myself several hundred dollars. I found a 2+ hour YouTube video that goes over the TREC contract in detail, paragraph by paragraph. And so far I’m about 45 minutes into it. Hopefully, I’ll be able to finish it up tomorrow.

I just got off the phone with the guy I mentioned I was waiting for in last night’s blog. And we have a new high bid, higher by $1500, AND he said he’ll put down $5000 in earnest money, rather than the $200 the previous bidder had promised.

Keep those bids coming in, guys.


August 2, 2020

Well, That Was Easy . . .

Based on what I had heard I thought it was going to be a pain, but it turned out to be pretty easy.

The first thing I did was to unplug our DirecTV DVR from the satellite dish. And then I called DirecTV to have them suspend our service. I was expecting to be turned over to Account Retention or some such office. But I was able to do it all just by talking to the computer.

When I told them I wanted to suspend my account, they said I could suspend it for at least one month but no more than six months. So to make it nice and even I chose December 31, 2020. And that was it.

Easy Peazy!

And the reason I disconnected the satellite from the DVR first is that when they turn off or suspend your service, they also shut off your DVR so you can’t play back any of your previous recordings. So since we still have movies and old shows we might want to watch, this will keep it working.

Later Jan and I headed up to Clear Lake about 1pm to first have lunch at Snooze. Jan had her usual Bravocado Toast,

Snooze Bravocaod Toast 3

while I went with the Classic 3 egg breakfast.

Snooze Classic Breakfast 3

Then it was over to WalMart for a prescription and some supplies before finally heading home about 4pm.

Yesterday we had a late lunch at Los Ramirez Mexico once again. Jan always gets the Pechuga Rellena, a grilled chicken breast over a bed of grilled shrimp and broccoli, and covered in cheese.

Los Ramirez Pechuga Rellana 3

And I tried something a little different with the Spicy Beef Fajitas with Charro Beans.

Los Ramierz Spicy Beef Fajitas


August 2, 2021

A Cool Front . . .

Several readers wondered about how the new sprinklers worked on our hibiscus tree watering system.

Hibiscus Sprinklers

The little red caps let you adjust how much water comes out, changing from just a slight drizzle to spreading out over a foot on each side. Perfect for this.

Readers will remember how I ordered these 24” and 30” high Flamingos from Facebook,

New Facebook Flamingos

The ad said they were made in the USA and shipped from California.

What I got were these 8” tall, broken flamingos, shipped from China.

Wrong Flamingos

While I’m trying to get my money back through PayPal, I’ve been trying to at least salvage these by gluing them back together. But with no luck so far.

I’ve tried Super Glue, Gorilla Glue, Contact Cement, and several others. But so far I haven’t found anything that will stick to whatever resin these are made of. I guess next I’ll try to drill a small hole in each piece and try to piece them back together that way.

Looks like the I-40 bridge that crosses the Mississippi at Memphis, and was closed in May due to a major structural failure, has finally reopened.

Finally, looks like we may be getting a cold/cool? front coming through over the next couple of days. While our recent temps have in the low/mid 90’s, tomorrow’s high is supposed to be about 86° with a low in the mid-70’s. Nice.

Only In Texas

Of course it sure seems like we’ve had cooler summer than normal anyway. So far we’ve not had a single temp in the 100’s, or even the high 90’s. And that’s reflected in our power bills this year vs last year. Maybe our usual summer temps moved out west for this year


August 2, 2022

Bridges And Caviar . . .

We were going into Webster this morning for my Physical Therapy, but ended up going in about 30 minutes due to a ‘perceived’ problem at work. I say ‘perceived’, because it wasn’t really a problem. My client just wasn’t doing it like I told him.

And wrote down for him.

Today was my 4th Physical Therapy training session, again with Jennifer, the same trainer I had last time. We ran through my standard set that I’ve been doing at home, and then added a couple of more short ones.

Finishing up a little before 2pm, we drove over to The CookShack for lunch. It’s been a few months since we’ve been here, and we’ve been missing their chicken.

Jan had the Shack Salad, with Grilled Chicken, Avocado, Dates, Almonds, Goat Cheese, Cherry Tomatoes, Corn and Champagne Vinaigrette, and a separate Chicken Tender.

Cookshack Shack Salad with Tender

I took the simple route with 5 Tenders, Texas Hot, of course, and a side of Texas Caviar.

CookShack 5 Tenders

Texas Hot is their hottest standard version, with AMF their super-duper, sign-a-waiver version. I’ve done AMF twice, both versions, 1 & 2, but it was more for the challenge, not for a really good meal.

What they call Texas Caviar is made up of Black Beans, Corn, Red Peppers, Purple Onions, Tomatoes, and Cilantro.

All really good as before.

Finally we headed home for the night.

In one of yesterday’s past blogs, I mentioned my past troubles on the Atchafalaya Basin River Bridge over in Louisiana, on I-10 between Breaux Bridge and Baton Rouge. 18.2 miles long, it spans the Atchafalaya Basin, the nation’s largest river swamp, containing almost one million acres of America’s most significant bottomland hardwoods, swamps, bayous, and backwater lakes.

And gators. Lots and lots of gators.

Originally the speed limit on the bridge was 55mph, but somewhere along the line, they increased the auto speed limit to 60, while keeping the truck limit at 55mph. And supposedly making them stay in the right lane.

Of course like most speed limits, the bridge limits are mostly ignored, by both cars and trucks.

But since there were 269 crashes on the bridge in 2021, with 2 deaths and 89 injuries, authorities have decided to crack down on speeders.

By timing you crossing the bridge with cameras at each end.

If you make the 18 mile trip in less than 18 minutes, you get a ticket.

An expensive ticket.

Effective August 1, 2022, the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge carrying I-10 is now a “highway safety corridor,” per a recently signed law. As a “highway safety corridor,” the standard fine for speeding of $175 would double to $350 following a one-time warning. Subsequent speeding violations would result in $1000 fines.

Anyone who makes it across the 18-mile-long bridge in under 18 minutes would been in violation of the 60 m.p.h. speed limit for passenger vehicles and the 55 m.p.h. speed limit for trucks.

So no more doing 70+.


August 2, 2023

I’m Happy . . .

First off, I’m happy because it’s a Twin Peaks two-fer this week and next. Tomorrow Jan’s taking me to our local Twin Peaks for lunch, and then next Thursday we’re meeting friends at the Twin Peaks up in The Woodlands.

This last week or so has been pretty typical for this job, and not having a lot to do with the IT consulting I was hired for.

1. I filed to get my client out of jury duty. Not really hard since my client is 82 and the cut-off age is 70. But still a lot of online forms.

2. Spent a couple of days translating a new epilator manual from Pol-English to American English.

3. Found a trick on YouTube to get my client’s wife’s 2017 Nissan Altima’s stuck hood unlatched. This is so I could then check the A/C system for Freon level, because it didn’t seem to be cooling very well.

And as it turned out, it’s not low on Freon, but filled right up to the tippy-top.

And after asking some questions, I figured out what the problem was.

Her Nissan is black, not the best vehicle color to have in Texas in the summer. And she mostly just drives around the Clear Lake area, seldom getting above 40-50 mph. So when she leaves home, she just turns on the A/C and goes.

Now a black auto in the Texas summer is probably 140° inside, and it takes a good while for the A/C to cool that down. So I explained to her that when she leaves home she needs to roll all 4 windows as she drives to get all that hot 140-degree air out. Then once she feels it start to cool down inside, she can raise the windows.

Then at some point she can set the A/C to Recirculate to cool it down even further. Turns out that she had no idea what Recirculate was and had never used it.

When she came back today she said now that she knows what to do, she’s much more comfortable.

So if she’s happy, then my client’s happy. So I’m happy, again.