No, not Jan.
Me.
Again.
Back in Sept-Nov 2021, after about a month of tests, I had a Cervical Spinal Fusion on my C4, C5, C6, & C7 vertebrae area.
You can read more about it here.
https://ourrvadventures.com/2021/11/under-the-knife/
(Right-Click on Link and Select ‘Open in New Tab’)
I was told at that time I also had problems in my lumbar area, specifically L4, L5, and S1, and would have to have something done there eventually.
Well, that time has come.
For the last couple of months, I’ve been having more and more problems with leg pain, stiffness, numbness, and sciatica in my right side, causing me problems with walking steadily.
So today Jan and I had another get-together with my neurosurgeon, Dr. Jeremy Wang. After going over the MRI/X-Rays that I had done this past Thursday, we discussed the possibility of trying shots/rehab before surgery. But he said that would only delay the problem, not fix it.
So surgery, it is.
This time, rather than having my vertebrae fused together with a titanium plate like with my cervical fusion, my lumbar vertebrae will be held together with screws and brackets.
He said it will take about 3 weeks to get Medicare approval and everything scheduled.
Can’t happen too soon for me.
Coming home, we decided to check out a new nearby restaurant we’ve been hearing about, El Jefe.
Mexican, of course.
The inside is very well-done, in the current favorite post-industrial look.
Nice.
Looking over the menu, some things in Mexican, some things in English, Jan decided to get the Roasted Chicken,
while I got something a little different, the Costillas de Res.
Both really good.
And also very, very good was their Tomatillo Green Sauce. Maybe the most tasty we’ve ever had.
Even though we have Los Ramirez, we’ll have to try here again.
The only downside is that they don’t serve Iced Tea.
This is Texas. What’s up with that?
* * * * *
Back in 2017, the then-CEO of Boeing Dennis Muilenburg said his company will beat Elon Musk to Mars.
7 years later, it has been forced to abandon NASA astronauts at the ISS, who will now be rescued by SpaceX.
Ouch! That’s gotta smart.
Thought For The Day:
Google Knows Everything!
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2013 – We’re Still Gateworthy
2015 – It Ain’t Pretty
2017 – Post Harvey
2018 – Decisions, Decisions
2023 – She’s Back
And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™
August 26, 2009
All in all, A very nice day!
I spent this morning going through the plastic bins in the basement compartments looking for some missing stuff and doing a little organizing. Didn’t find everything I was missing, but I did find some stuff that I didn’t realize was missing.
About 2pm Jan and I headed out to lunch and shopping.
Once again we ended at the truck stop restaurant here in Houlton, ME.
This is a really good place to eat and their desserts are fabulous. We were told they have their own baker who does nothing but make their desserts. We noticed several diners taking home whole pies. Turns out this ‘truck stop’ is the most popular restaurant in town.
After our meal, we went by the Verizon store so I could get another stylus for my phone, but they were temporarily closed due to a ‘building problem’, whatever that was. We’ll try again tomorrow.
Next we headed downtown to the CarQuest store to pick up a serpentine belt for our coach engine and then to the local Visitor’s Information Center to see if they had anything on Nova Scotia/Newfoundland.
They didn’t, but we bumped into a guy from Canada who gave us a lot of tips and places to see, so it all worked out.
Then it was on to Walmart and then home about 4 pm. We then sat outside for a while, enjoying the beautiful weather, and letting Mister roam around for a while.
All in all, a very nice day.
August 26, 2010
…drove my Chevy to the levee…
While I was out working, this photo came in from Brandi, of Landon sleeping, still wearing his bilirubin light vest. I can hardly wait to see him in a couple of weeks.
While I was at Cracker Barrel for lunch, I took this photo of what I was told is a 1955 Chevy Bel Air. (I thought it was a 58. What do I know?) It’s a really nice-looking car. A little Googling told me that new, this car cost a little under $2,000, and today, depending on condition, now goes for $40,000 – $60,000. WOW!
About 5 pm I drove over to Ryan’s for some of their great fried chicken. Just as I was leaving, Jan called from Houston, and said that Landon went back to the pediatrician today and found that his bilirubin count is now down to 9, so Landon won’t have to wear the light vest anymore.
Yay!
Sure will be glad when Jan gets back.
August 26, 2011
Work, Work, Work . . .
Jan woke up really under the weather this morning feeling queasy and nauseous. Don’t know if she’s got some sort of bug or what.
I guess we’ll see.
In the meantime, I got back on my chore list.
My first project was to finish my exterior satellite TV hookup. Before we got the Direct TV DVR we fed our satellite dish’s signal in through the park CATV input back in the electrical bay. But when we got the DVR it required two input lines, so for a while, I was running the 2nd line in through the driver’s window.
So after checking with American Coach to be sure I wasn’t drilling through anything vital, I drilled two holes in the floor between my driver’s chair and the window. The holes come out through the top of the storage bay right below me and the satellite antenna cables now connect into the bay.
The cables here connect with the satellite receiver overhead. And when we travel I will just unscrew the cables and store them away.
I haven’t screwed the plate down yet since the new laminate flooring will eventually go there.
Next I started working on getting the last of the carpet out from under the steering wheel. Man, this stuff is thick and tough to cut. Makes me wish they’d put cheaper carpet in our coach.
When my knees couldn’t take it anymore, I moved to my next project: redoing the caulking around the base of the shower where it connects with the walls. But first I wanted to be sure I had the joints completely free of any mildew. So I spent some time spraying it with a diluted bleach solution and then brushing and rinsing it. I’ll probably be able to caulk it tomorrow.
Then it was on to the arms on Jan’s chair. The foam rubber padding has come unglued and twisted around inside the cover. So I removed the arm from the chair, removed the cover, and spent some time regluing the foam to the wood frame. When it’s all dry, I’ll put it back together and do the other one.
Tomorrow I’m going to install a new dash radio/CD player. I’ve never really liked the one that was in the rig when we bought it, which apparently was a replacement anyway.
Jan was still feeling pretty crappy when she went to bed. Hopefully she’ll be better tomorrow.
August 26, 2012
Three States and Two Time Zones . . .
We pulled out of Timber Trails Campground this morning heading for Celina, OH. But we took a detour about 8 miles down the road to stop off at Denny’s to have a last breakfast with Jan’s sister Debbie and her husband Jim.
After a good breakfast and goodbye hugs, we pulled out on I-70E for the 325 mile run to Celina. Except for a long of rough road around Indianapolis, the trip was pretty smooth. One thing is that for the last two mornings, the rig engine has been much quicker to start than the previous mornings, and neither morning did it quit running. But it still isn’t starting quite as quickly.
But on a positive note, the generator worked fine for the 2nd day in a row. So that was good.
We got into Celina a little before 4 pm and after getting hugs all around, we got parked and set up. Then it was time to decide the most important item of the day – where we’re going to eat supper.
Finally decided to try the China Wok Buffet.
Good Decision.
Oh yeah. Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Central, and Eastern.
August 26, 2013
We’re Still Gateworthy . . .
After being told we probably wouldn’t be sent out until tomorrow, the call came about 3:15 to head ‘em up and move ‘em out today. And at about 3:45, we did.
We were sent to what I call the 2nd gate. Right off US-281A and only about 6 miles from the GGS office.
And as it turns out, the previous gate guards who work for another company did not know they were being replaced until this afternoon. They weren’t real happy to see us pull in.
We were able to park on the other side from where these guards were parked. This puts our windshield pointing east rather than west into the afternoon sun. It will really help with keeping things cool.
This was what we refer to as a ‘Hot Gate’. We hit the ground working, Jan logging vehicles in and out while I was getting the rig parked and everything set up. We had the usual great support from the Gate Guard Services guys, who had our power, water, and sewer trailers all set up and ready to go.
About 5:30 I drove back over to the Interstate and got us BBQ sandwiches for supper at Choke Canyon BBQ. Turned out to be pretty good.
I went in after supper and tried to sleep for a while before my 11p – 7a shift started but didn’t have much luck with that. But I bet I’ll sleep good next time.
More from the Whitsett Gate tomorrow.
August 26, 2014
A Cold Snap . . .
Well, maybe a ‘cool’ snap. It was 93° today, not exactly ‘cool’, but compared to yesterday’s 101, you could call it ‘coolish’, I guess.
Tomorrow Jan and I will make one last trip down to Webster to take care of some errands, and have lunch at King Food, our longtime favorite Chinese place. After a quick client visit, and a stop off at our storeroom, we’ll head back to the rig, with a stop at Brandi’s if it’s time for them to be home.
For dinner tonight I fixed up one of Jan’s delicious standards, Pasta Chili. Made with spaghetti or elbow macaroni, I added a can of Steak & Shake Chili, a can of Habanero Rotel Tomatoes, and a can of Bush’s Chili Beans. Topped with Shredded Cheese, and served with a couple of slices of garlic bread, it’s a great meal.
One thing that makes this a quick and easy meal is the Microwave Pasta Boat.
Just dump in your pasta, add water and a little salt, and pop it in the Microwave for about 20 minutes. Works great.
And it’s also a great vegetable steamer. Check it out.
Saw an article today about a new 3.5 inch HD being introduced by Hitachi.
It’s 8 TB. That’s Terabytes. As in 8000 Gigabytes, or 8,000,000 Megabytes. In something smaller than a paperback book.
I remember my first HD. It was a 10 Megabyte SCSI drive, the size of a shoebox, and it cost $800.00. Now I can buy a 1TB HD, 100,000 times larger than my 10MB, for less than $60.00.
Now that’s Change.
August 26, 2015
It Ain’t Pretty . . .
But it works.
Today was our first full day on this gate and it’s turning out to be a really nice one. We had a whole 38 trucks come through during the 24 hours, making for easy shifts for both of us.
Unlike a lot of gate-guarding couples, Jan and I split up our shifts, rather than working two 12 hour shifts. Jan works from 7am to 1pm, I work 1pm to 6pm, then Jan works 6pm to 11pm. And I finish up the time by working 11pm to 7am,
When Jan comes on at 7am, she brings out breakfast, usually a breakfast sandwich or English muffin, and we eat together before I go in to sleep. Then I bring out coffee around 11:30am to have together. Around 1:30 or so, Jan hands me out a snack for lunch, normally bread and cheese, or maybe fruit.
Then when she comes out at 6pm to relieve me, she brings out supper and we eat together before I go in to sleep. Last night it was our leftovers from Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro last Saturday night, and it was Nachos tonight. But always something simple and easy.
As you can see from this schedule, I sleep about 4 hours, twice a day, which works fine for me. But your mileage may differ. I have no problem doing this for the entire time we gate guard. We know many couples that do the 12 and 12 thing, but this works great for us.
Last night I finished putting up the canopy frame and tied the tarp down on top. Blog readers who were with us last year might remember when a downburst during a thunderstorm shredded the fabric top of our 13’ x 13’ Coleman canopy. So for the rest of our time I put a tarp over the frame.
One problem with using the regular canopy top is that there is no way to quickly remove it in case high winds are on the way. But with the tarp I can easily pull it off after releasing the tie-downs. Much better than buying a new $80 canopy top from Coleman a couple of times a year.
Of course, it ain’t pretty, but it gets the job done.
August 26, 2016
Almost, But Not Quite . . .
We kind of started logging this evening since it looked like they were going to start drilling.
But they’re still having problems, at least partially because this is a brand-spanking new rig. As one guy said, parts of it still had the bubble wrap on it. But then tonight a CANRIG guy said, maybe Saturday, maybe Sunday. So I guess we’ll see.
We’re pretty much all set up with the canopy, chairs, table, and clock all in place. And I’ll gradually get the electrical stuff, I.e. chargers, lights, etc., in position and working.
We did have something unexpected happen today, though.
We got fed.
A young lady came through the gate and asked if we liked BBQ, When we said YES!, she said she was catering today and would save a couple of plates for us.
Really good BBQ. Don’t know who she was with, or if this will be a regular occurrence, but it was nice. And Banana Pudding for dessert.
Jamie’s coming back by Monday or Tuesday to bring us more water. We only had about 350 gallons to start with, rather than the 500 gallons the tank holds.
Don’t know where he’s getting his water now, but it’s really soft. I know in some cases he buys it from city water works or the fire department.
He’s also bringing me a hard hat so that I’ll have one to wear when I go on the pad. It’s a requirement here, even for civilians.
That’s about it for today, with not much noteworthy happening.
Hopefully more tomorrow.
August 26, 2017
Post Harvey . . .
Maybe.
For Jan and I Harvey was kind of a bust, at least as far as hurricanes go.
But unfortunately that wasn’t the case for 100,000’s of Texas residents down in the Corpus Christi/Rockport area, with widespread destruction over the entire area.
According to Facebook, this is the remains of the Pioneer RV Park in Port Aransas. I’ve heard various stories as to why so many rigs were there, from that many of them were left there permanently and the owners couldn’t get back in time to get them out, to they couldn’t leave because of the gas shortages. Like most things, it’s probably a little of both.
Our prayers go out to everyone.
Just to be safe I went out and let in our awnings about 1am before I went to bed, figuring it would get really windy overnight as the storm bands passed over. But we had next to no wind whatsoever and never lost power.
Although we had some rain during the night, none of it was very heavy. In fact several times in the past we’ve had much heavier wind and rain here just from normal thunderstorms. And when we used to winter over at the Galveston Bay RV Park down in Dickinson, we regularly had squalls coming in off Galveston Bay with 50-60mph wind gusts and really heavy downpours.
Jan and I were both up about 8am, about 3 hours early for me, and a little late for her, but we wanted to check in with our kids, Chris down in the Clear Lake area, and Brandi over in Katy.
Turned out that although they both seemed to have more rain and wind than we did, they didn’t really have any problems from the storm.
Of course, depending on who’s hurricane track you want to believe, the Houston area might be in for more bad weather if the now-tropical depression Harvey turns northeast and heads back this way.
But based on this plot of possible Harvey tracks, it could go in pretty much any direction, so I guess we’ll see.
But whatever happens we probably won’t leave the rig tomorrow just like we didn’t leave today. Especially since the Weather Channel says that we’re in for High Winds/Heavy Rain here in the Conroe area tomorrow.
August 26, 2018
Decisions, Decisions . . .
For once we didn’t have much on the schedule today, except for gassing up the truck and eating lunch out somewhere.
And now we’ve got a problem. But it’s a good one to have.
We’ve eaten at San Lorenzo’s, a nearby Mexican restaurant, twice now and it’s really good. But for some reason we couldn’t be satisfied with just one good nearby Mexican restaurant, so we had to go and find another one.
There is a Los Ramirez Mexican restaurant near my client’s office and it’s always busy, to the extent that my client’s parking lot apparently gets used as the restaurant’s overflow parking at night after the office is closed.
We had noticed that they have another location near us on the way down FM-517 to our storage unit. So today we decided to give it a try. But we didn’t have really high hopes since we checked out the menu and thought the prices were really cheap. I mean, REALLY cheap.
And in comparison to San Lorenzo’s it didn’t get off to a good start. Neither of us thought the chips and salsa were as good here at Los Ramirez. The salsa at San Lorenzo was thicker, and warm, as are the chips. Not that it was bad, it was just . . .
Jan got the Pechuga Rellena, a chicken breast stuffed with Grilled Shrimp and Broccoli, and served with Charro Beans, Lettuce, Tomato, and Sliced Avocado.
I got my go-to usual Beef Fajita Taco Salad, but wasn’t expecting a lot since it only cost $6.99. So I was very happily surprised to get this.
The meat was delicious, and wasn’t just spread on top. It was piled up all the way to the bottom. There must have been at least a pound of fajita meat in there.
And Jan was crazy about hers. It was absolutely stuffed with grilled shrimp, and the broccoli had been grilled as well.
And remember the ‘cheap’ part. Well, it was. But cheap AND delicious go well together. Jan’s Pechuga Rellena was only $7.99, $3 or $4 cheaper than the equivalent at other places.
And my Beef Fajita Taco Salad was only $6.99. But it gets better. That salad is also on their lunch menu, which is every day from 11am to 5pm. So it was only $5.59!
I’ve paid $11.99 for something as good as this elsewhere. And this is the first time in a good while we’ve both had full meals with iced tea for only $18.14 plus tip.
So now we have a problem. Two nearby Mexican restaurants, both really, really good.
Decision, Decisions!
Jan and I started talking about our upcoming trip to Florida, sometime in October. But because we going a slightly different way than we have before, we’re looking for a nice, cheap, (there’s that word again), RV Park for a one-night stop in the Tallahassee, FL area.
So, any recommendations?
August 26, 2020
Three Gates and A Hurricane . . .
Well, as of about 2am Thursday there’s been no rain, no wind, no nothing really, here.
Yet.
And looking at the weather radar, it’s a pretty tight storm and doesn’t show any rain bands reaching out anywhere close to us, even as it rotates.
Yet.
In fact right now it looks like the storm is going into the Cameron/Lake Charles area At least that’s what all the weather guys seem to be saying as they’re standing out in the storm while they tell all of us to stay inside.
They have one female reporter out in the storm who needs to be tied down or something. She has literally been blown out of the camera frame several times.
It does look like the winds are not as bad as had been forecast, seeming staying in the low 100’s, rather than the 140-150 mph that they were touting.
Small favors, and all that.
Going into work this morning about 10am, I did see a number of houses with plywood on the windows and others that had their storm shutters closed. Plus the traffic was much, much lighter on the roads.
Just in case, I did go out about 9 this evening to let in the window awnings and stow away the DirecTV satellite dome and table. It can’t hurt.
But as of right now, for us at least, it’s so far, so good.
August 26, 2021
Snoozin’ . . .
Lunch today was at the Snooze up in Webster, a nice change since we haven’t been in a while.
Jan got her usual Bravocado Toast, but instead of the hard scrambled eggs she ordered, they gave her kind of an omelet mixture, which she was not really happy about since some of the yolk wasn’t done as well as she liked.
I usually just get the Classic 3 Egg Breakfast with Bacon and Fruit, but I wanted something different, and then this caught my eye, the Habanero Pork Belly Benny, with this description.
Seared, cider-braised, habanero pork belly on top of a grilled English muffin with bacon espresso jam and poached eggs. topped with cream cheese hollandaise and cranberry relish.
And it was really, really good. Spicy, creamy, and sweet.
Certainly Have-Again good.
Then it was on over to Costco to stock up on some things, finishing up at HEB, and then Cowboy Coffee on the way home.
A very nice day.
August 26, 2022
A Long-Time Friend . . .
Not much happened today at work, just a lot of rain, to go along with the lot of other rain we’ve had the last few days. According to our La Crosse rain gauge, we’ve had almost 8 inches of rain in August, and almost 4 inches of that in the last 3 days.
Tomorrow we’re meeting up with long-time friend Tricia at the Texas Huddle up in Webster for lunch. Then it’s Costco, HEB, and the Post Office to check our mail.
August 26, 2023
She’s Back . . .
We were on our way up to Webster by about 11:30 to have lunch at Texas Huddle for the first time since they closed back in early June. We left this early since we had to be back down in our area to get our haircuts by 1:30
And when we asked if Juana had come back, we were happy to hear that she had, but . . . she wasn’t working this morning. But that she would be in tonight.
Disappointed, but glad she was back, and we’ll catch her next time.
Then about 10 minutes into our meal, look who showed up.
Turns out she’s been working at Mia’s while Texas Huddle was closed, and right now she’s still working at both. But she’s coming back to Huddle full-time next week
Getting our goodbye hugs in from Juana, we were on our way back down to the CostCutter’s in our area for our haircuts. And it was on over to Wal-Mart, and then home for the day.
Tomorrow we’re again heading out about 11:30, this time to meet long-time friends Bob & Maria Sutton for lunch at King Food. Then we’re going over to their house so I can get her LG TV, her Bose Soundbar, and her Amazon Fire TV Stick all talking with each other.
I mentioned the other day about the new Gel Seat Cushion that I ordered from Amazon.
And as I said, if I really liked it, I was going to order one for work.
And I did, so I did.
And I really liked that I was able to order it at 4:56 this afternoon, and it showed up at 7:46 this evening.
I mentioned in yesterday’s blog about the Wind Turbine Blade ‘Graveyard’ up in Sweetwater, TX, where they’re being stored for possible recycling, though it’s looking like the whole ‘recycling’ thing was a government subsidy scam.
At least in Sweetwater.
But up in Casper, WY there is an actual graveyard where the blades and motor/generators are being buried for real.
Google says that the Wind Turbines have 20-25 year lifetime, and that the blades and motor/generators are replaced after 10-12 years. So that’s 6 blades during the lifetime of every Wind Turbine. So based on the number of Wind Turbines I’ve seen out in west Texas, it’s not going to be long before we’re up to a$$e$ in blades.
Oh, and there are Solar Panel graveyards too.
They also don’t recycle very well.
