Our daughter Brandi sent over a copy of Landon’s class schedule for this upcoming school year.
She said the schedule is wrong for ENG 1 listed at the top should be AP (Advanced Placement) also, like Human Geography and Computer Science. Don’t know why some are listed twice. Brandi’s checking on it.
Had to look up what Human Geography is all about.
Human geography or anthropogeography is the branch of geography which studies spatial relationships between human communities, cultures, economies, and their interactions with the environment, examples of which include urban sprawl and urban redevelopment.
OK, I guess.
Brandi said that in addition to his Freshman (9th grade) year in High School, he’s also signed up for a Robotics Club, and that he and Sophie had registered for a volunteer organization.
Sounds like he’s got a really full year coming up.
NASA is about to make its most important safety decision in nearly a generation
As soon as this week, NASA officials will make perhaps the agency’s most consequential safety decision in human spaceflight in 21 years.
NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are nearly 10 weeks into a test flight that was originally set to last a little more than one week. The two retired US Navy test pilots were the first people to fly into orbit on Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft when it launched on June 5. Now, NASA officials aren’t sure Starliner is safe enough to bring the astronauts home.
Three of the managers at the center of the pending decision, Ken Bowersox and Steve Stich from NASA and Boeing’s LeRoy Cain, either had key roles in the ill-fated final flight of Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003 or felt the consequences of the accident.
At that time, officials misjudged the risk. Seven astronauts died, and the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed as it reentered the atmosphere over Texas. Bowersox, Stich, and Cain weren’t the people making the call on the health of Columbia‘s heat shield in 2003, but they had front-row seats to the consequences.
The question facing NASA’s leadership today? Should the two astronauts return to Earth from the International Space Station in Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, with its history of thruster failures and helium leaks, or should they come home on a SpaceX Dragon capsule?
Despite the pitfalls, many people at NASA believe this is the safer choice, although Boeing says it is confident in the Starliner spacecraft’s ability to return the crew to Earth.
But ultimately, it’s NASA’s call. The lives of two government employees are in the balance, and taxpayers paid Boeing for most of the Starliner spacecraft’s development costs. So far, NASA and Boeing have committed at least $6.7 billion to the program.
Personally, I think the ultimate decision should be from the two astronauts who could possibly burn up on reentry, rather than the big-wigs at Boeing and NASA sitting in their comfy chairs behind their big desks.
Just saying.
Thought For The Day:
The probability of you drinking a glass of water that contains a molecule of water that has also passed through a dinosaur is almost 100%.
Personally I think it’s the ‘passing through’ part that bothers me.
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2011 – Rural King and iCarly
2012 – An Abundance of Riches
2013 – Last Day of Relative Fun
2014 – I Went 4 for 4
2016 – Theo Wesley Calvin, Jr.
2021 – Razzoo’s
And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™
August 12, 2009
Au Bon Pain and no Duck…
Today was our day to do the Boston tourist thing, so we headed out about 9:30 am for the 30 mile drive to Boston. But first, we stopped off at McDonald’s for a Chicken Biscuit for breakfast.
It was very overcast when we got there, in fact, the tallest buildings were disappearing into the low-hanging clouds.
We found a parking garage near where we were going to catch the Old Town Trolley tour.
One more city and we’ll have the complete set. We’ve ridden the Old Town Trolley in Key West, St. Augustine, Savannah, and Washington, DC, and now Boston.
All we lack is the one in San Diego, which we’ll do next year when we go through there again. We were in San Diego in February 2008 and really enjoyed the city. It’s a beautiful place and we look forward to going back..
I had already bought our Trolley tickets online so we just walked the several blocks to the #1 Trolley stop and boarded our ride.
Our 1 hour and 45 min tour took us past just about all of Boston’s famous spots.
Paul Revere’s house
Old North Church – “One if by Land, Two if by Sea”
U.S.S. Constitution – “Old Ironsides”
Bunker Hill Monument
Boston Massacre site
Cheers – TV bar
Fenway Park – Home of the Boston Red Sox
Harvard/MIT/Cambridge
Boston Tea Party site
After completing our tour we got off near the Museum of Science because we wanted to take the Boston Duck Tour, which originated from there.
On the way there we stopped for lunch at Au Bon Pain (The Good Bread), a soup and sandwich place that I had heard of before. The Italian Wedding Soup that I had was delicious!
After lunch, and looking at the map, we decided to take a taxi the rest of the way to the Museum. And it was all for naught.
We got there about 2:15 pm, and when I went to get the tickets, I found the first time we could get a duck tour was 4:30 pm. After thinking it over we decided that after the hour and a half tour, we would be trying to leave downtown Boston during going-home traffic, and this is something we didn’t want to do.
So calling it a day, we took a taxi back to the garage. But before we left, we walked across the street to Starbucks for a coffee, and then down the street a ways to hit some gift shops.
Leaving the parking garage, I was surprised to find that it costs $36 to park for less than 5 hours in Boston.
Ouch!
We made the drive home and then sat outside the rig watching Mister roam about.
All in all, a nice day.
August 12, 2010
Pretty Toes and Pizza…
Today started out with Jan heading out about 10 to get a pedicure at the nearby WalMart. I got up about 10:30 and started removing the 3 cargo bay doors that I’m going to take over to Michele at Phoenix Commercial Paint this afternoon.
The doors came unbolted with no problems, but they were still attached to the coach by the hinge area. I wiggled, pulled, and tugged on the doors and eventually got one of them off. But I was stuck on the last one. Finally though the door came right off.
Jan got back a little after 11 and fixed us sandwiches from the leftover pork loin from Lunker’s the other night.
About 2 pm I loaded up the doors and drove over to Michigan to drop them off with Michele.
The rest of the afternoon we pretty much just goofed off around the rig. Then, about 5 pm Jan, and I headed over to Mancino’s for a great meal of pizza and garlic breadsticks. On the way we made a quick detour to drop some letters off at the Post Office, and then it was on to supper.
Getting back to the park about 7:15 we again drove around the park checking out all the new rigs that have arrived.
Tonight is the first night for the Perseid Meteor Shower sometime after midnight. I’ll try to take a look later, but with the lights in the park, and possible clouds, don’t know what I will be able to see.
August 12, 2011
Rural King and iCarly . . .
This morning started just like yesterday, with all of us meeting at Robbi’s Restaurant in Vandalia for breakfast about 9. Part of the Day’s Inn Hotel, it’s the local’s hangout for breakfast, where everyone knows everyone, and their business.
After a good breakfast, we split up. Brandi and Lowell headed over to St. Louis to visit the Gateway Arch, and maybe get in a little gambling, while Jan and I (well, Jan, really) took care of Landon for the day.
The rest of us first stopped off at Rural King, kind of a combination of a Tractor Supply Store and Menard’s, and then headed over to, where else, Wal-Mart.
Driving back to Debbie’s, we passed the towing yard and saw the results of a tour bus/semi-trailer collision about 10 miles east of Vandalia yesterday.
The tour bus was carrying Miranda Cosgrove, actress, singer, and star of “iCarly”, and her family. “iCarly” is in its 4th season on Nickelodeon, and apparently a big hit.
The news reports say that the semi-trailer jackknifed and overturned on I-70 W. Miranda’s tour bus then plowed into the empty trailer.
Miranda ended up with a broken ankle, and luckily, no one was killed.
But the results look like this.
No mention of what caused the trailer to jackknife.
Getting back to Debbie’s and getting things unloaded, I headed back to the rig to take some ‘Momentum’ and lay down. I pulled a muscle in my back yesterday and it had really started to bother me.
But Jan lost no time snapping some more photos of Landon.
Here he’s discovered a whole basket of Beanie Babies, with his cousin Laura and her daughter Ella.
And here, Landon wishes PaPa (me) would stop taking flash pictures of him.
We had a great dinner of homemade tacos and burritos with all the fixin’s, courtesy of Debbie, Jan, Christina, Tana, and Laura.
Brandi and Lowell showed up about 7:30 pm, and then Jan and I headed back to the rig about 8:30 after a long day of Landon-wrangling.
And we’re going back for more tomorrow.
August 12, 2012
An Abundance of Riches . . .
I mentioned in the last blog that we heard there was another catered meal on the way, and it showed up. The very next day,
This one was a little different, but very, very good.
It was really a buffet, with fried shrimp, fried chicken nuggets, fried catfish, fried mushrooms, French fries, hushpuppies, baked beans, turnip greens, mac ‘n cheese, green beans, and homemade banana pudding for dessert.
A guy could really hurt himself. And I think I did.
And once again we hear there’s another meal in the pipeline. I hope my stomach can take it.
We’ve been back in the high temps the last week or so. It was officially 106 degrees here yesterday (Friday), but our thermometer showed 113. Today it was 102 and 110.
A cool spell.
Now up in Celina OH where we’ll be in two weeks, it’s in the low 80’s in the daytime and the mid 50’s at night. A guy could get used to that.
Luckily our water misting system is still doing its job keeping us pretty comfortable. Sometimes I’ll turn it off for a few minutes to do some paperwork, or something I don’t want to get damp, and it’s amazing how fast it gets just downright HOT and sweaty.
Our daughter Brandi passed on the latest bit of Landon-lore, about Landon, Kitty, and The War of the Toys.
Kitty (I don’t know. Don’t ask.) is their 125# Black Lab who adores Landon and is very protective of him. When Landon was just a baby, Kitty wouldn’t let anyone near Landon that she didn’t know, until Brandi or Lowell told Kitty it was OK.
But like siblings, they sometimes fight, usually over toys.
Brandi said the other day she and Lowell heard Landon yelling “Mommy, Daddy, Mommy, Daddy”. Looking up they saw Landon and Kitty in a tug-of-war over a toy. Brandi said they told Landon he was going to have to take care of himself.
Looking around, Landon saw another toy that Kitty liked. Letting go of the contested toy, Landon picked up the other one, showed it to Kitty, and threw it across the room. Kitty dropped the toy in her mouth and took off after the new toy. Landon then scooped up his prize and headed off in the other direction. Mission accomplished.
Smart Kid!
My small computer fan that had been in orbit over Texas for the last several days (see the last blog post) finally came to earth.
Although it is really a computer fan, it’s for my Black & Decker Battery Charger. The fan died a while back, and because of that, while the charger works fine in 2 amp and 10 amp modes, it shuts down due to overheating running in 25 amp mode. The charger is still under warranty, but Black & Decker has sold off their battery charger line and others to a company called Baccus Global. And their ‘warranty’ support leaves a lot to be desired. With having to pay postage both ways, along with a $15 ‘evaluation fee’, I was fast approaching the cost of a new charger.
So I decided to take the charger apart and see what was what. Turns out that the fan itself has just died, so a quick check on eBay found a replacement. I’ll get it installed and checked out in the next couple of days.
August 12, 2013
Last Day of Relative Fun . . .
Today is our last day here in Athens, and our last chance to get together with my Aunt Virginia and Uncle Theo, or Ninny and Buddy as I’ve always called them. So Jan and I headed over to their house about 11:15 to meet Ninny.
After catching up for a while, we headed out for lunch at Rosie’s Mexican Cantina over in Huntsville before visiting Buddy at the Floyd Fann State Veteran’s Home.
We always try to eat at Rosie’s every time we visit here since it’s the best place we’ve found in the area for Mexican. So after a great lunch and more catching up, we drove over to see my Uncle Buddy.
He has been at the Veteran’s Home for the last several months getting physical therapy and rehabilitation to help his walking ability.
My Uncle Theo (Buddy). who will be 91 next month, is here as a WW2 combat veteran. He fought in the North African Campaign, landed at Normandy on D-Day, and then as a Staff Sergeant, started out with Patton’s Third Army when it became operational in August 1944. Staying with the 3rd all the way to the end of the war, he was awarded the Bronze Star, Two Purple Hearts, and was one of a select few to receive the French Legion of Honor medal, awarded by France for conspicuous honor fighting during that campaign.
We spent about an hour catching up since last year. He’s so animated and cheerful, it’s hard to believe he’s almost 91.
Getting back to their house, we talked with Ninny a while longer before heading back to the rig about 5pm, leaving with a homemade peach pie and some of her wonderful Banana Nut Bread. You can’t beat that.
On the way home we made a couple of side trips to CVS and Wal-Mart. Coming out of Wal-Mart, it was pouring down rain and I got soaked getting back to the truck. I was afraid it would be raining when we got back to the rig since the storm was headed that way, but we got back just ahead of it.
Tomorrow, we’ve got a 230-mile trip down to Meridian, MS for the night. Then it’s Breaux Bridge, LA on Wednesday night, and into Houston on Thursday.
August 12, 2014
I Went 4 for 4 . . .
Today turned into an errand/chore day for me. We hadn’t washed the truck since we left Houston back in May, and it had gotten pretty dirty since then. But before I did that, I had a couple of returns to make.
Last week when we were up in Athens, AL, I bought a $25 bottle of R-134a Freon when I thought my truck A/C problem was low Freon. So when I found out I had an A/C compressor clutch problem instead, I didn’t need $25 of Freon. So back it went to Wal-Mart.
Next up was Home Depot. Since I hadn’t had any luck finding a replacement setscrew for our American Standard single handle lavatory faucet., at least locally, the other day I bought a generic replacement handle kit that was supposed to work with Delta, Price Pfister, and American Standard faucets.
Well, it may work with Delta and Price Pfister, but not with my American Standard. So I thought maybe the setscrew in the replacement kit would fit my original handle. But no luck. So back it goes to Home Depot.
Then it was off to the car wash to get all the road grime off. Of course, we’ll be putting it right back on when we make the two-day trip back to Houston starting this Friday.
I mentioned yesterday about the possibility of us gate guarding up near Huntsville, TX this year, instead of down in the Whitsett area. I had heard that pretty much everyone had bumped the gate guard pay up to $150 per day. But I was curious if this was so in other areas too. Friend and blog reader Lynette McHenry told me the $150 is now the standard everywhere.
Good to know. That’s an extra $700 every four weeks.
About 4pm Jan and I made our pilgrimage up to Foley and Lambert’s Throwed Rolls, one of our favorite places. There are three Lamberts around the country. The other two are both in Missouri, and during our travels, we’ve managed to eat at all three.
Of course, besides the great Southern comfort food, the other attraction is the ‘throwed rolls’. And they do throw them. In some cases, 30 or 40 feet across the dining room.
Jan and I were sitting at the far front of the restaurant and the rolls come out of the kitchen at the rear. The guys come with trays of rolls bigger than softballs, hot out of the oven, and start yelling, “Hot Rolls, Hot Rolls!”.
Immediately hands go up all over the dining room and rolls are arcing through the air.
Some are easy underhand tosses to a young girl or boy a few booths away, and some are full-on overhand spiral passes that almost brush the ceiling.
I went 4 for 4 on the rolls that came my way. But there was a 5th one that I don’t count.
It was the ham’s fault, the one pictured above, hanging just behind Jan’s head. The guy throwing the roll had to pull it just as he launched it due to a lady suddenly standing up between him and me. So it ricocheted off the ham and almost hit someone at the table beside us.
At least that’s the story I’m going with.
Two things though. First, you’ve got to cushion your roll as you catch it, softening the catch as much as possible. Otherwise, the soft, hot roll just flattens in your hands.
And second, those hams hanging up there are real. I had figured they were plastic, but I noticed how the ham didn’t move at all when the high-speed roll hit it. So I felt it as we were leaving, and it was real. Who knew?
August 12, 2015
Last Day on Pleasure Island . . .
Today was a day of wrapping up our stay here. It was a week that seemed to last only a couple of days or so. Maybe we’ll try two weeks next year.
I did make a couple of phone calls this morning, one to Jamie, our Gate Guard Services supervisor for the last three years. I know things are really tight in the guard business, but I thought I’d get our name in the queue anyway.
My other call was to the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts in Friendswood, TX, near the house. Regular blog readers might remember that while we were in Las Vegas last April, the radiator in our Dodge Dakota truck developed a leak, After a couple of tries, I was finally able to patch it using JB Weld. It lasted about 5000 miles, including the 3000-mile round trip from Prescott, AZ to Vandalia, IL, and back for our family reunion.
But then it started leaking again . . . and I repaired again . . . and again. It quickly became obvious that the part plastic/part metal radiator was just plain rotting out. I can’t imagine why it didn’t last. It’s only got about 240,000 miles on it.
They just don’t make things like they used to, I guess.
Anyway, it finally started leaking on the backside where I can’t reach it without removing the radiator. And if I have to take the old one out, I might as well put a new one back in. According to my Haines and Clymer manuals, it should only take a couple of hours.
But I’ve been nursing it along until we get back to Texas. Although I could do it myself, that would leave me doing it at an RV park with no way to go back to the auto parts store for that one extra part that you didn’t think or know you’d need.
So I was checking with O’Reilly Auto Parts to be sure they had one in stock. So Jan and I will drive down to Friendswood on Sunday morning, pick up the new radiator, and Chris and I will install it.
At least that’s the plan.
About 1:30pm Jan and I headed up to the theater on the other side of the canal to see the new superhero movie, Ant-Man. The latest from the Marvel people, it stars Michael Douglas as Hank Pym, inventor of a suit that lets a man shrink to the size of an ant, or smaller, but still have his normal strength. He can also mentally control real ants as well, and use them to travel or fly.
But this story picks up years later in the present where Hank recruits a new person to wear the suit to prevent the suit’s secrets from being sold on the open market.
This all probably only makes sense to someone acquainted with the Marvel universe. As I’ve said before I really enjoy how Marvel manages to link up all their movies, as well as the Agents of SHIELD TV show.
We both liked Ant-Man and look forward to the next one. (there’s always a next one.) And lucky for me I have a beautiful wife who enjoys these movies as much (well, almost as much) as I do.
After the movie, we headed back down to Wintzell’s Oyster House for dinner. We just ate here this past Sunday, and enjoyed it so much we wanted to have our last Gulf Shores meal here. And in fact we enjoyed it so much we both ordered the exact same thing we had before.
Jan had her Cajun Seafood Pasta, with Shrimp and Scallops.
I once again had the Low Country Boil,
and we both started out with their really good salads.
And this meal only cost about half as much as our meal at King Neptune’s last night, and it was much, much better. A really good last meal here in Gulf Shores.
Before heading home we made a quick stop at the new Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market in Orange Beach for a few things.
Tomorrow we’ve got a 300-mile run to Breaux Bridge, LA, before we head on into the Houston area on Friday.
August 12, 2016
Out in the west Texas town of El Paso . . .
Jan and I were disappointed in the Perseid Meteor Shower last night. We were told to expect around 3 meteors a minute, based on the forecasted 160 to 200 an hour. But as I mentioned in yesterday’s blog we saw 12 in about an hour. So one every 5 minutes or so.
When we went in at 1am, I told you Jan, “You realize that as soon as we shut the door, the sky is going to light up like fireworks.
So did anyone out there see the big show? Let me know.
About 1:15 we drove over to my Aunt Virginia’s house to pick her up for lunch. We ended up having to wait about 30 minutes for the yard guy to finish up, and then we were on our way.
We took Virginia’s Lexus since it’s easier for her to get in and out, and headed over to Huntsville to have lunch at Rosie’s Cantina, a really good Mexican restaurant here.
Jan and I both agreed that the décor here reminds us a lot of Pappasito’s in the Houston area.
And the food here is as good as pretty much any place in Houston. Jan had the Chile Relleno with spicy beef inside, while my Aunt Virginia had the Chicken Quesadillas, also Landon’s favorite.
I had the Tacos al Carbon with Beef Fajita meat. Charro Beans, and Mexican Rice which was really good, with the beef fajita meat tender and flavorful. Jan and Virginia both said theirs was really good, and both had enough to take home.
Me, I was hungry and ate all of mine.
Later, heading back to Virginia’s, we stopped by the cemetery to see my Uncle Theo’s grave and the new headstone. He died in May of 2015, and I talked about him here.
Here’s some of that post:
As it turns out, Uncle Theo not only landed at Normandy on D-Day in June 1944, but he was also was part of the Operation Torch landings in North Africa in November 1942, and the Operation Husky landings in Sicily in July 1943. In all, he fought in 7 campaigns during the war, and received a Purple Heart with Oak Leaf Cluster, signifying that he was wounded twice, both times in France.
He also fought in the last major offensive of the war, the Battle of the Bulge during December 1944 – January 1945. Dug in near Bastogne, Belgium, he said it was so cold nobody wanted to fight. “We could see the enemy, but we didn’t shoot at them, and they didn’t shoot at us.”
Among the many medals Uncle Theo received were a Bronze Star, the Belgium Fourragere, and the French Legion of Honor.
Back at Virginia’s, we spent some time just talking over family and friends.
Finally saying our goodbyes, we got back to the rig about 6:45. Tomorrow we’re getting together with my cousins Anna Jean Lee and Marjorie Walker.
I say ‘my cousins’, but I’m not exactly sure where they rank. They are my grandmother’s sister’s daughters.
So I think that they are my first cousins once removed, but after that, I get a headache.
But I know we’ll have a good time together.
Finishing up, it looks like I’m going to have to double-check our route home. I saw this evening that there’s severe flooding in the Lafayette/Breaux Bridge area of Louisiana, which is one of our scheduled stop-over points on our way back to Houston on Tuesday.
So when we stop in Meridian, MS on Sunday night, I’ll decide then if we’ll continue on to Breaux Bridge, or stay on I-20 through Jackson and Shreveport and then down to Houston.
I guess we’ll see then.
August 12, 2017
A Yen For . . .
Yen.
I spent the day working on my new/old client’s problems, but at least I could do it remotely using TeamViewer, which lets me see and control the computer desktops at the client’s office from my laptop here at Brandi’s in Katy.
I’m finally starting to get a handle on things. In many cases, I’ve figured out what the other guy has done, but for the life of me, I can’t figure out why he did it.
I do know that the superfast SSD (Solid State Hard drive) and the increased Internet bandwidth (up to 400 Mbps) that he said was needed to host the website, were not needed or used for the website he was hosting on a server in the backroom. But instead was being used to slake his online game-playing addiction.
In fact the webserver that was running the company’s website to take orders was partitioned off so that it only was able to use about 15% of the bandwidth, with the rest allocated for gaming.
I also found that he’s been using the Point of Sale computer as a bootleg music server, holding thousands of albums, unfortunately mostly hip-hop and rap.
The one thing I haven’t found yet, but still expect to, is his almost certainly extensive porn collection. But I’m still looking.
Still no news about the rig. Hopefully we’ll hear something today or tomorrow.
Tonight for dinner, Brandi and Lowell took us to a new place right down the road called Yen Hibachi Steakhouse. They said it was really good, and boy, were they right. Also with us were Brandi and Lowell’s friends Eric and Chantelle Nugent, and their son.
The look is kind of Asian Modern Fusion, very nicely decorated.
And of course the Hibachi area with the grills.
The chef starts things off with a big fireball which really grabs the kid’s attention.
Then while the waiter brings out our soup and salad,
the chef whips up the Fried Rice, in the shape of Mickey Mouse. Again a kid pleaser.
Now with the steaks, seafood, and veggies on the grill,
the kids get the onion stack volcano.
Finally, the entire meal is on our plates and ready to eat.
I had the rare Rib-Eye Steak,
and Jan had the Chicken
Very, very good. We certainly want to go back.
Tomorrow and Monday I’ll be traveling back down to Clear Lake again for more client stuff.
August 12, 2018
Lists of Lists . . .
With days running out on when we need to have the house cleared out, Jan and I were out the door a little after 11 this morning.
Our first stop was for lunch at our new favorite nearby Mexican place, San Lorenzo’s. We first ate here a couple of weeks ago and really liked it. And today so did a lot of other people. The place was packed.
We had about a 15-minute wait, but it was worth it. Jan once again had the Pollo Margarita with a Grilled Chicken Breast and Shrimp, Grilled Veggies, and Charro Beans.
The Sliced Avocado on the left actually came with my Beef Fajita Taco Salad.
Since I don’t care for Avocado, Jan always gets my cast-offs. And I think we’ve already established that I like a lot of pepper on my salad. And of course it’s also liberally sprinkled with my Volcanic Pepper Flakes for added heat.
Since I had never had the Taco Salad here before, I was a little concerned that there was no sign of any meat. But not to worry, the bottom 2” of the taco shell was solid with fajita meat. And it was really good.
When we finally left a little before 1pm, the place was still on a wait. That’s how good it was.
Our next stop was at the storage unit to drop off yesterday’s house stuff that we still had in the truck since our access to the unit was blocked by a moving van. But today was no problem. Then it was on up to the house.
Since we don’t yet know if we’re closing this coming Thursday or next Monday, we have to assume it’s Thursday to be sure we’re out in time. So today we got everything out in the living room and divided it up for staging. Leaving the house about 3pm, we made a WalMart stop before dropping off a load at the storage unit on the way home.
As it stands right now, tomorrow after work I’ll stop by the house and load up with about six bags of trash for the dumpster. Then Tuesday, Jan and I will take a load of stuff by Salvation Army, drop off some leftover packing materials at work, and take a last load to the storeroom.
Then on Wednesday after work, I’ll again go by the house and reload all the stuff back in the truck that normally resides there. We emptied the truck when we took a bunch of furniture to Illinois on our recent trip, and since then it’s all been sitting in the garage.
And that should wrap things up. Of course, this may all change if we don’t close until next Monday. Then we won’t be in quite the same hurry. But we’ll see.
Jan has always been a list maker. She has a WalMart list, a Sam’s list, an office supply store list, and even a list for cleaning out the house we’re selling.
But now she’s gone into overdrive. She’s started so many new lists of things to take, not take, do, not do, see, or not see on our upcoming European River Cruise, that she’s now resorted to making lists . . . of her other lists. It’s gotten that bad.
She’s got a list for what to do 8 months out (Now), 4 months out, 4 weeks out, 4 days out, and probably one for 4 minutes out. I on the other hand will pack a couple of days before and be ready to go.
I think it’s a guy thing.
August 12, 2021
Razzoo’s
We were outside for a while this morning with our coffee, admiring the 9, count’em 9, hibiscus blooms.
Yes, there are 9, you just can’t see them from this side.
And this is our ‘frog pond’.
We have a whole family of frogs living around our patio, ranging from little ones about the size of a dime, up to the big guys the size of a silver dollar, or larger. It’s positioned so that the A/C drains off the roof into the ‘pond’, so it’s always filled. Remember a damp frog is a happy frog.
Jan and I headed up to the Spring area about 9:45, to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt for our monthly get-together, this month at the Razzoo’s Cajun Café right across I-45 from the Splashtown Water Park.
We got there about 15 minutes before our 11am time, only to have Debi and Ed show up a couple of minutes later. We talked outside for a few minutes until the doors opened and we got seated immediately.
The décor was kind of interesting in a funky kind of way, with one divider wall made out of bottles,
and a miscellany of random objects hanging from the ceiling.
Since we’d never been there, Jan and I had looked over the menu online last night, so we already had an idea of what we wanted. But we all started with an order of their Rat-Toes,
which are their Crab and Shrimp Stuffed Jalapenos. Really good, and really Hot.
Jan got a Blackened Chicken Breast with sides, while I just got a bowl of their Seafood Gumbo.
After the great start with the Rat-Toes, I had high hopes for the Gumbo. But unfortunately, it was ‘Yankee’ Gumbo, or at least northern Louisiana Gumbo, or at least that’s what I’ve always been told.
Southern LA gumbo seems to be done with a thin roux, just slightly thicker than water. But this ‘northern’-style gumbo was thick, almost like gravy. And, sorry to say, this tasted about like gravy. Or at least gravy with seafood in it.
But Razoo’s redeemed themselves with the reason I only had the gumbo as my entrée, their Peach and Pecan Bread Pudding.
Really, really good, and I have half left to bring home.
And the other thing that was really, really good was the company. And as usual, we spent almost 3 hours talking over our many RV adventures over the years, as well as our time oil field gate guarding.
And of course, planning our get-together for next month.
Good Friends and Great Times.
Saying our goodbyes until next month, Jan and I drove over to the other side of I-45 so she could pick up a few things to take with her down to Brandi’s.
I mentioned yesterday that Jan was going to be dog-sitting this weekend while Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and BFF Sophie are staying with some friends at their lake house. I said that it was on Lake Livingston, but I heard wrong.
It’s actually on Lake Jacksonville, south of Jacksonville, TX. This mis-identification wasn’t helped by the fact that I didn’t realize there was a Jacksonville, TX, which looks to be about 50 miles or so south of Tyler.
Getting down to the Katy area we made a quick stop at El Pollo Loco for a call-ahead order of a chicken meal for Jan, finally getting to Brandi’s about 3:30.
Then after helping Jan get all of her electronics set up, I was back on the road for home.
Just me and Karma until Sunday.
August 12, 2023
Just Passing Through . . .
Going back to yesterday, we headed out for Alvin about 4:30pm, but we only got out to Hwy 6 before we found our way blocked by this going by.
Very slowly.
In case you’re counting, that’s 24 axles.
They had a whole crew out in front of the transport raising the power lines and holding them up until it passed.
Not sure where it was going, but it looks like a big honkin’ transformer to me.
But finally it was on over to Alvin to have our usual pre-Opry dinner at Monterey’s Mexican Restaurant. Then it was on over to the American Legion Hall where the Opry is held once a month.
The doors open at 6 with the show beginning at 7, so we don’t usually get there until about 6:45. But tonight we were there right at 6, because as I said the other night, Jan’s other Heartthrob, John Mark Davis, was performing the pre-show from 6:15 to 6:50.
After Jan got her hug from John Mark, I asked her if she had almost knocked his wife over while getting her hug like last time. She said, “No”.
Then she said, “His wife wasn’t with him.”
Well, that explains it.
When the main show started, we were happy to see an old friend, Robyn Mundy. We used to see her at the old Alvin Opry when she was a young girl. Now she’s all grown up.
A really good singer and a heck of a yodeler, too.
Next up was a young lady we’ve seen a couple of times before, Allie Rae.
She’s got a great stage presence and a voice that belies her size.
Next up was another favorite of ours, Glenda Lynn. We’ve seen her several times and she’s got a great voice and a wide range.
I told Jan that the way she belts out a song, she doesn’t really need a mic.
And besides being a great singer, she’s also the mayor of the small Houston suburb town where she lives.
Next up was the featured singer, Elle Tompkins, another outstanding performer.
This was our first time to see Elle and she did several ‘old-school’ songs from the likes of Reba McEntire and others
Really good and we hope to see her again.
Jan and I both agreed this was one of the best Opry shows in a good while.
And already looking forward to next month.
Back to today, it was lunch at Los Rameriz once again,
All delicious.
before making our weekly pilgrimage to Wal-Mart for groceries, etc.
While we were out and about this afternoon, I put in a call to Dr. Woo, the optometrist who did our recent eye exams and gave us prescriptions for new glasses. Jan is very unhappy with the correction in her right eye.
Her left eye is sharp and clear, and the bottom bifocal sections on both lenses also are fine. But her right eye is out of focus, and no better than her old ones
So on our way up to Brandi’s on Tuesday for her latest Landon gig, we’ve got an appointment to check in with Dr. Woo to see if her new lenses were done correctly.
Tomorrow looks to be Denny’s and HEB.
