As prophesized in yesterday’s blog, lunch today was Ultimate Omelets at Denny’s, HEB stuff and gas at HEB, and then home.
Nice and Easy.
* * * * *
Suicide By Cruise?
66-year-old woman falls overboard from Royal Caribbean cruise ship off The Bahamas
66-year-old woman fell overboard from a Taylor Swift-themed Royal Caribbean cruise ship off The Bahamas on Tuesday night, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard said Wednesday afternoon it was suspending its search.
And it seems like it’s a thing on RCL ships.
Last year, a passenger on Royal Caribbean’s Spectrum of the Seas went overboard while the cruise ship was heading to Singapore, officials said at the time. In another incident earlier last year, a Royal Caribbean cruise ship passenger went overboard on a trip from to Hawaii from Australia, a company spokesperson told CBS News.
But actually it’s not just RCL. According to another article, there are 20-30 overboard deaths each year on American-ported cruise ships. And due to the fact that with the 5’+ railings, it’s almost impossible to accidentally ‘fall’ overboard.
In fact, because of all the cameras around the ship, there are videos of people deliberately climbing over the railing and jumping. And only 15-20% of jumpers survive.
What usually happens is that the jumper gets pulled under due to the ship’s wake and then Cuisinarted by the props.
Ouch!
Someone said that maybe the 66-year-old jumped off when she found herself on a Taylor Swift-themed cruise.
Could be, I guess.
Thought for the Day:
”True Love Is Being Stupid Together.”
Words That Jan and I Have Taken To Heart.
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
October 27, 2009
Better than yesterday…
Bob Evans was so good last night we decided to have breakfast there this morning. Of course, sleeping in meant it was lunchtime by the time we got there, but we had breakfast anyway.
After breakfast, we stopped off at Menard’s to pick up some stuff and then headed back to the park.
Later we went out for pizza at a great place called Mancino’s. Really good pizza and bread!
Then after dinner, we drove over to a nearby Staples for a few things.
Getting back to the rig, we turned in for the night.
October 27, 2010
Mister’s Big Adventure, Landon, RED, and RunPee.com . . .
Our Prodigal Cat Mister was waiting for us when Jan opened the door this morning. She looked out and called his name and he immediately came out from under the rig and bounded up the stairs.
I had left the outside door open all evening, along with leaving the light on. Before I went to bed about 12:30 am, I went outside and called him with no luck, so I’m pretty sure he wasn’t under the rig then.
He didn’t seem especially hungry and had not eaten the canned cat food I left out for him.
We’re thinking maybe he was inside with somebody last night, and they didn’t see the phone number on his tag.
We don’t know, and we don’t care.
He’s home safe!
Brandi sent over these latest Landon pics.
In this one, Landon was playing on the floor and then apparently suffered a severe nap attack.
And here, he’s just bored, bored, bored.
This afternoon Jan and I went to the Star Cinema Grill up in Webster to see the movie ‘RED’. Bruce Willis has been a favorite of ours since we first saw him in a Miami Vice episode in 1984. and then a year later, co-starring in ‘Moonlighting’ with Cybil Shepherd. And, of course after that, the ‘Die Hard’ series, and much, much, more.
‘RED’ was hilarious. It was so good that we’re probably going to see it again next week, and that’s not something we do very often.
I think my favorite line was from Morgan Freeman’s character. . . “We’re getting the band back together”
As far as the Star Cinema Grill, it’s one of our favorite places to see a movie. About 5 years ago someone took a six-screen movie theater that had closed because an 18-screen theater had opened about a mile away, and a 30-screen one had opened about 8 miles away, and turned it into a movie/restaurant. Not just a bigger snack bar, but a full-scale restaurant on the order of an Applebee’s, or a Chili’s.
And even better, the restaurant is in the theaters themselves. They took out every other row of seats and installed small tables, complete with call buttons and menus. The waiters are dressed in black so as not to distract during the movie.
We always try to there about 30 minutes before the movie starts to get our orders in. That way we get our meal before the movie starts.
Jan had their 1/4 pound all beef hotdog with Texas Toothpicks. Texas Toothpicks are slivers of jalapenos and onions battered and fried. They’re really good. And I had the Southwest Salad with chicken fajita meat. Also really good.
Also, if you’re so inclined, they have a full bar available. And, if later in the movie, you decide you want some popcorn, just press your call button and a waiter/waitress shows up to take your order.
Then about 15 minutes before the movie’s end, your waiter/waitress drops off your check.
This place is really great. The food is good, and there’s no rushing at the restaurant so you can make the movie start.
And as usual, before we left home, I checked with RunPee.com to find out the best times during the movie to . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . . run pee. This is a great website. Just click on the movie you’re going to see and it will give you several places during the movie, the time you have, and what’s actually happening while you’re gone. Jan loves it.
Tomorrow, I’ve got some clients to look in on, and after that, we’ll see.
October 27, 2011
Not Much Happened Today . . .
and it was really nice!
All in all, a nice quiet day. Quiet, cold, and rainy. A perfect day for just staying in the rig, and enjoying hot coffee and each other’s company.
As it is, we probably won’t leave the park until Saturday when we make the drive into Cincinnati for shopping and dinner.
Leaving Elkhart yesterday started our three week journey back to Houston for the holidays. But leaving Elkhart is like leaving home just to go to another home. We were introduced to Elkhart two years ago, and Bobby and Gita at the Elkhart Campground have always made us feel right at home. Well worth a stay over if you’re in the area.
Jan and I spent a large part of the day just reading and catching up on some of the programs we’d DVR’d.
As it stands right now we’ll leave here on the 7th, then it’s on to Vandalia, IL to visit Jan’s sister. Then after stopping off to visit relatives in north Alabama, we hope to spend about a week in Gulf Shores, AL where I grew up. We plan on being back in the Houston area the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and stay for a couple of months before we head back out for the year.
But who knows, our schedule can always change.
October 27, 2012
Forts, Chapels, and Churches . . .
After Hazelnut coffee and the last slices of some delicious Pumpkin Cinnamon Bread, we headed out about noon to visit Beaufort, SC, home of the Marine Corps Parris Island, and also their Marine Corps Air Station.
Jan and I lived here in Beaufort from late 1969 to late 1970 when I was working as a DOD contractor at MCAS on F-4’s, A-4’s and A-7’s.
We were able to find the two different houses we lived in while we were here. This duplex was the first one,
and this single-family home was the last one.
After checking out our ex-homes, we spent some time driving around Beaufort, checking out the large, beautiful trees,
along with the many old homes.
Next we took the bridge over the Beaufort River that leads out of downtown Beaufort and headed over to Ladies Island.
Then after a short snack stop at McDonald’s, we drove on down St. Helena Island. Our main destination was Fort Fremont, the remains of a Spanish-American War-era fort.
The original fort covered over 170 acres, but these concrete gun emplacements and the attached hospital building are all that remain.
The other buildings, made of wood, have been destroyed or torn down since the fort was deactivated in 1921.
Driving back toward Beaufort we stopped off at these church ruins that we had passed on the way to the fort.
We discovered it was called the Chapel of Ease. It was built around 1740 as part of St. Helena’s Church for planters who had problems traveling to the main church parish in Beaufort.
It became a separate church after the Revolutionary War, and was burned out in a forest fire in 1886.
There is also a partially-destroyed mausoleum on the grounds which may have led to the stories of strange lights and ghosts in the area.
Next we headed back through Beaufort and up the road about 25 mile to the Yemassee, SC area to visit the remains of another church.
Built between 1745-55, the Church of Prince William’s Parish, also known as Sheldon, apparently was a magnet for destructive military attention.
It was first burned by the British Army in 1779. Then after being rebuilt in 1826, it was burned again by the Union Army in 1865. Sometimes you just can’t catch a break.
We didn’t want to get any closer to the building because there was a wedding ceremony going on at the time.
Leaving the church, we drove on into Yemassee to check out a nearby Mid-Atlantic/Encore/PassPort America park called The Oaks at South Point. Turned out to be a nice park, but with all the tall trees, it would be sheer luck if you could get a satellite signal.
Finally, it was time to head back to the park and dinner. We had decided to check out The Pink Pig.
Serving BBQ and seafood, they’ve been mentioned on the Food Network and written up in Southern Living magazine. And we really enjoyed it.
For their BBQ they have both tomato-based sauces, and the mustard-based sauces, typical to Georgia and South Carolina, including a hot Gullah sauce.
I had a shrimp and rib combo platter, and the ribs were really good. meaty and moist.
We’ll go back.
Since The Pink Pig was only about a mile from the park, it was a short trip. Which was a good thing, since we were all so full.
Tomorrow it’s on to Fort Pulaski.
October 27, 2014
Never Bite a Bee . . .
He might bite back.
After a fairly quiet weekend, things picked up today, with a little over 200 vehicles coming in. They’re bringing in the equipment to start fracking at the next pad about 200 yards down the road, which should bump up the vehicle even more. But hopefully, less than the 325+ we had during our double-frack period last month at the other gate.
About noon I headed into North Zulch to drop a letter in the mail and also to pick up some chicken from the gas station there for lunch. Strange as it may seem, gas stations in oil rig country have some of the best food.
And they do a booming business. The one here is open from 5am to 10pm, seven days a week, and have a menu bigger than most restaurants.
Unfortunately, the one thing they don’t have that we enjoyed last year, was the seasoned potato wedges. So along with our chicken strips, I got Jan an order of tater tots, and I got a red beans and rice. All good. And I got enough chicken so we have leftovers.
After being at this new gate for a couple of days, it seems the prevailing wind is mostly from the south, or behind us, so last night/this morning I reconfigured the canopy so we have a windbreak behind us, and it also cuts down on the afternoon sun.
I got some idea of how much it helped when later I went back in the rig to get something to drink, and found out how cold it really was out in the wind. Makes a big difference.
We have a light tower here for our use, and it really helps.
In fact, Jan is now a fully certified light tower operator, i.e. she started it up and shut it down twice while I watched.
If you forget to turn the lights off before you shut the generator off, you can burn it out. Who knew? Now she starts it up at night and shuts it down in the morning after she relieves me at 7am.
Forgot to mention yesterday that Scotty, our GGS support tech, brought us a couple of pieces of Pecan Cheesecake for Jan’s birthday. Really nice of him.
As far as biting into the bee, it was the bee’s fault. He shouldn’t have been in my bottle of Lipton Diet Citrus Green Tea. I got busy after lunch, and when I finally got to sit down again, I took a big swig and bit down on something crunchy that suddenly burned like HELL, and I quickly spit it out.
I don’t think he stung me. I think I just bit into his poison sac. I ended up with a big lump on the inside of my bottom lip that hurt for a few minutes before fading away. But 12 hours later the bump is still there.
That’ll teach him.
October 27, 2015
Fried is Fried . . .
Well, the rain finally let up overnight, but the heavy cloud cover stayed around until later in the afternoon, before the blue sky and sun finally began to show through.
The frack up the hill finished up this afternoon, and the water guys left for the night, saying they’d be back tomorrow morning. Don’t know what comes next for them. It seems like every frack is different, at least in how they wrap things up.
We’re still waiting for our Flowback crew, and every day Jan’s certain they’ll be here tomorrow. But it just seems to always be ‘tomorrow’. Which is fine with me.
I mean we’re spending our days, reading, watching TV, and playing on the computer. We’ve got full hookups and we eat out pretty regularly. In fact we’re probably going to eat out tomorrow again.
So how is this different from being parked in an RV park somewhere?
Oh, yeah. There is one difference. We’re making $150 a day. And that’s a really nice difference.
I got an email this morning from the Escapade Seminar Coordinator asking if Jan and I want to do our Gate Guarding for Fun? & Profit seminar at the 56th Escapade being held in Essex Junction, VT next July. We had a lot of positive responses from the one we did in Tucson this past March, so we’ll probably do it again.
We’re really looking forward to doing the East Coast again next year since we haven’t been back there since 2009 when we went all the way out to Newfoundland. Probably won’t do that again, but there’s still a lot we didn’t see last time.
A little after 11am I headed into Carthage to pick up lunch at Chicken Express. And of course, what did I get at CE, why, the Fried Catfish Fillets, of course. And the Fried Okra. You can’t forget the Fried Okra.
A few weeks ago I made a comment about someone liking the Chicken Fajita Tacos at Whataburger. I said that you should always go to a restaurant’s strength.
You don’t order steak at a Red Lobster, you don’t order seafood at Texas Roadhouse (though I might give you a pass for Steak & Lobster. I said ‘might’), and you don’t order Chicken Fajita Tacos at Whataburger.
Then one of our blog readers pointed out my ‘hypocrisy’ in going to ‘Chicken’ Express and ordering ‘Fish’. But I pointed out that ‘chicken’ wasn’t the operative food here. It was ‘Fried’. As in ‘Fried’ chicken, ‘Fried’ catfish, and ‘Fried’ Okra.
Their strength is ‘Fried’ stuff. I wouldn’t order the Chicken Fajita Tacos from there either.
It’s Grilled, not Fried.
October 27, 2016
Closed Down . . .
Todd, our SiteWatch supervisor, and JM, the SiteWatch maintenance guy, showed up about 5:15 this morning to close down our gate and tow the shack and the generator trailer away.
I still wonder about all the equipment left on the pad. There is no physical gate to close along the way, so I guess they’re hoping the pad’s isolation will protect all their stuff.
But it meant that I was back home at the rig about 5:45am, 30 minutes or so earlier than normal. Nice.
Jan was already up, but I went right to bed, trying to stay on our night sleep schedule. I don’t know what our next gate will be, but I think Jan’s even coming around to liking night shift. Day shift sounds nice until you consider that a 5:30a to 5:30p shift means getting up around 4 in the morning. Even she’s not crazy about that.
I forgot to mention in last night’s blog that about 6:30 last night, Cole, of the father/son duo that owns SiteWatch, showed up at the gate. He wanted to drop by to introduce himself since we’d only talked by phone. He said we should have another gate ASAP.
While he was there he also went in to talk to the Marathon Company Man, I guess hoping to drum up some more business.
I was up about noon, and soon after we were off for lunch and shopping. Our lunch stop was another visit to RJ’s Burgers, a local place with great burgers. Unfortunately it’s only open for weekday lunch. So we get it while we can.
And as is usual with us, we find something we like and stick with it. So Jan got her Cheddar Mushroom Burger, this time adding Grilled Onions, as well as an order of their great homemade onion rings.
I stuck with the Grilled Ribeye Sandwich with an order of their hand-cut fries. Love their grilled buns.
While we were finishing our burgers, I looked up and there was Cole again. He’d been having lunch with a Marathon guy, and came over to say Hello, so now Jan got to meet him as well as me. He again said they hoped to get us on another gate very quickly. I gather that SiteWatch was surprised that the gate closed so abruptly.
Like us, they had been led to believe that the guards would stay until the next crew moved in.
Our next stop, of course, was the local Wal-Mart for some supplies. Jan also wanted to see if they carried the steel-toed sneakers like the Wal-Mart in Huntsville, TX that we saw a couple of years ago. But they didn’t stock them, and neither did the Tractor Supply that we also checked on the way home.
There’s a big place here in Kenedy called Cadillac Jack Boot City that looks like they might be a possibility so we’ll check them out soon. Of course, we’ve still got the Sketchers we can get from Amazon, but Jan would like to try them on first.
So we’ll keep looking, Of course it all depends whether she actually ends up needing any to start with.
We kept waiting to see if we’d get a text from Todd about another gate, but nothing so far.
But soon.
October 27, 2017
Renaissance Man . . .
and Woman.
This morning’s ~30 minute drive into work was really nice, almost over before I knew it.
And because I cut two hours off my round-trip I was able to spend a little extra time wrapping up some projects.
While I was at work, my new LaCrosse Remote Weather Station came in. Several readers already received theirs, and so far the reviews are very favorable.
I’ll let you know.
Getting home about 4:45, we turned right back around and headed over to Victory Lakes to have dinner at Whataburger. Delicious as usual.
Then it was a stop by the next door Chase Bank for some cash before hitting the across the street Wal-Mart to get rid of some of it.
Under the heading of “I Warned You.”
Check out this Denver TV Anchor take the Carolina Reaper One Chip Challenge and then proceed to throw up on-air.
A Person Gotta Know Their Limitations.
Blog reader Brenda Brown passed this on about Sears.
Sears just went into bankruptcy in Canada last week. They are having their liquidation sales for the next 12 to 14 weeks and then they are gone. Over 15,000 employees out of work and many of them that have worked there for over 30 years have lost their pensions.
Drip, Drip, Drip.
Coming next year the GPS in your new smartphone will be much more accurate, from over 16 feet down to 1 foot. Plus it will work better in the city canyons and use only have the power. Super Accurate GPS
Earlier in the month when we didn’t know we were going to be moving south, I went online to get us tickets to the Texas Renaissance Festival near here in Magnolia. Of course now that we’re down here, it’s time to go.
So tomorrow we’re going to be at Brandi’s by 9am, and then we’re all going up there. Really looking forward to it.
October 27, 2018
It’s Push and Release . . .
First off, Jan wants to thank everyone for all the many Happy Birthday wishes. It meant a lot to her.
We were out the door a little before 10:30 heading up to Webster to meet Miss Piper at one of our favorite breakfast places, The Egg and I.
Jan tried the Avocado Toast with a side of Greens,
while I got my usual Two Egg Breakfast.
But what I want to know is how someone this slender,
can eat like this.
Piper’s working at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, where her Nana worked back in the early 80’s right after we moved out here from Alabama and I went to work for NASA.
She’s close to finishing up her B.A. in Psychology and then she’s going right into an MBA in Medical Administration, all while working full time. Pretty much like her Nana and PaPa did about 45 years ago.
While Jan and Piper went out to do the Mani-Pedi thing, I went by her apartment to pick up her bike and take it down to the Bike Barn to have a rear flat tire repaired. While I was there I told them to go ahead and do a Basic Tune-up while they’ve got it.
We all met up back at her apartment and got introduced to her new dog. Violet. Then Jan and I headed off to Sam’s for a prescription pickup and then WalMart for stuff. A lot of stuff, since we hadn’t really shopped since before we left for Florida on the 3rd of this month.
Finally heading home, we made a stop at the new Costco to fill up our Malibu. At $2.29/gal it’s the cheapest place around. But I ran into a problem. I couldn’t get the gas door open.
I first tried to push on one of the edges to ‘rock’ it open. No luck. Then I search all over inside for a remote release, checking in all the usual places, like beside the driver’s seat, inside the glove box, etc. Then I checked all the dash panels and hidden locations. Still no luck.
Then I double-checked the key fob. Also no.
Finally, and reluctantly, it was RTFM time. And . . . there was not one in the vehicle. So finally giving up, we headed on down to Dickinson for a storage room stop, before heading home for the night.
Tomorrow we’re going up to Brandi’s in Katy for an afternoon pool party/cookout. Miss Piper is coming up too, but separately since she’ll probably have to come home earlier.
Really looking forward to some pool time, especially since Lowell is heating it up just for the occasion.
Brandi sent over a photo of Landon’s prize-winning Halloween costume.
And it lights up, too.
Later a little Googling told me the secret of the Malibu’s gas door. You have to push in on the left edge in just the right place and then immediately release it. And then that edge pops open.
If you don’t push in the right spot, or don’t release it quick enough, it won’t open. Live and Learn.
October 27, 2019
Sunday Mish-Mash . . .
I mentioned the other day that, based on a blog reader’s suggestion, we might consider doing a Mississippi River Cruise after our Alaskan Cruise next year, and our possible Yucatan Mayan Ruins tour the year after.
But when I checked them out I was surprised how expensive they were, especially compared to our Viking River Cruise and Holland America Alaska Cruises.
A 22-day Complete Mississippi River Cruise, 7 days longer than our Grand European Viking cruise, is $13,600 PER PERSON, over $17,000 more than our Viking cruise. That’s almost $2500 per day extra.
YIKES!
As I mentioned the other day, we’ve booked a Larger Inside Room on our Alaska cruise, but the size is relative, I guess. Because at 233 sqft, it’s 28 sqft LARGER than the largest room on our Viking cruise ship.
NICE!
As usual Brandi’s family goes all out on Halloween decorating in their yard. It looks really good in the daylight,
and even scarier at night.
BOO!
Jan and I will be puppy-sitting at Brandi’s while they’re out of town for Thanksgiving with friends up in Cleburne, TX. So when we were up at Brandi’s last weekend Jan started getting in some practice.
Looks like Jack and Baxter are already breaking her in.
October 27, 2020
It’s About That Time Of The Year . . .
About 2pm Jan and I headed up to the Webster area, first for lunch at Cheddar’s, and then on to the office to pick up an Amazon order that came in earlier this morning, and then finishing up at the HEB down in League City, before getting home a little before 5pm.
Jan got her new favorite, the Grilled Catfish with Veggies,
while I got the Veggie Plate.
along with a House Salad.
Delicious as always.
I’ve been checking the Voter Information Portal on the South Dakota website, looking to see if our Absentee Ballots have shown up, but no luck so far.
As far as our rig’s oil leak problems, I’m taking a break right now while I think about how to approach things again.
As I mentioned a couple of days ago, talking about us moving down to the Petticoat Junction RV Park in Santa Fe, TX, and saying we’d probably be here for a couple of months at least.
Today we’re starting our 4th year here.
Who knew!
It looks like the time has come for me to stop off at our storage room and pick up our two electric heaters. This past weekend when I checked the upcoming temps for the next week or so I was seeing lows in the low 70’s and highs in the high 70’s to mid 80’s.
But then when I checked today, there was a radical change coming. Tomorrow night’s low is supposed to be 43 and then Thursday night it’s 48. And then lows in the 50’s out for the next week.
October 27, 2022
Missed It By One Day . . .
Today was another Twin Peaks day for lunch.
Jan got her usual Chipotle Chicken with double broccoli,
while I tried a little old and a little new, with the old, my favorite Brisket Chili,
and the new, an order of the Crispy Mini Tacos.
Both really good.
What I missed by one day was that tomorrow through Oct 31st, the Twin Peaks’ ladies will be dressed in Halloween costumes. In the case of Sylvia, our favorite server, she’ll be dressed like Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft, Tomb Raider.
Then after a great lunch we looped around on the Interstate to make a Costco stop for a couple of things Jan wanted. Next up was a quick WalMart stop for a few more things.
Finishing up it was Sugar-Free Pumpkin Spice Lattes from Cowboy Coffee before getting home about 3:30.
Nice Day.
October 27, 2023
Printer Swirls . . .
Looks like Winter is coming back over the weekend. Though Saturday’s temps are 84 and 73, Sunday’s looks to be 84 and 54. And then it’s 60’s and 40’s as far out as The Weather Channel can prognosticate.
Looks to be nice!
Spent most of today doing paperwork. We have to have a number of State and Federal Medical Device Licenses and they all require pages and pages of forms to be filled out. And they all ask pretty much the same questions over and over again, just in a different order. Sure would be nice if they would standardize a form for this.
But then it is the Government we’re talking about, isn’t it.
When I was blogging the other day about Landon’s new 3D printer, I forgot to post this photo.
As I mentioned, his printer is capable of printing in 4 different colors, and when switching between colors, the printer has to clean out the previous color out of the print head before it can start printing with the new one. And these ‘swirls’ are the result of changing colors.
Next week looks to be a quiet one. For the first time in a while, we have absolutely nothing scheduled.
Nice for a change.
Tomorrow evening we’re going to have a late dinner and then drive around checking out some areas that are supposed to have good Halloween-decorated houses/streets.
