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Jan rode into work with me this morning, planning on hanging out at the Houston Library until I got off about 1:30. But it was not to be.
Turns out the library was closed for renovation, so she came with me to work. She read and napped in the Jeep for a while and then came inside for a while.
We got to Cleburne Cafeteria a little after 2 pm, with Jim and Peri showing up a few minutes later.
We had a fun 2 hour lunch before we said our goodbyes, and made plans for next time.
And we all had leftovers to bring home.
We first met Jim & Peri when we were both in Las Vegas. They were already blog readers, and when they saw we were also at the Thousand Trails park, they got in touch, and we’ve been friends ever since, getting together all around the country.
Always good to see them again.
* * * * * * *
Tomorrow is Hot Dog Tuesday once again, so we’ll be heading over to Bacliff for lunch at Doggone Crazy once again.
Already hungry.
Thought for the Day:
“Flammable, inflammable & nonflammable… Why are there three?
Don’t you think that two ought to serve the purpose? I mean, either the thing flams or it doesn’t it, right!” – George Carlin
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2009 – All Planes, all the time
2016 – Just No Pleasing Us
2017– Jan’s A Real Cutie
2018– New House Batteries
2022– Brushfires And An Otterbox
2023– A New A/C Fan Motor?
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.â„¢
September 22, 2009
Road Trip…
Today we made a 400 mile round trip in our toad down to South Hadley, MA, to visit our friend Joannie, pick up our guns that we had left in her care while we were in Canada, and also mail we had sent to her while we were on the road.
We headed out about 10 am and stopped at a breakfast place in Sylvan Beach before we left the area.
About 10 miles down the road, we got on the I-90 toll road and headed toward MA. After a stop at a rest area along the way for coffee, we arrived at Joannie’s house a little after 2 pm.
We had a great time visiting with Joannie, and she served us a GREAT meal.
We hit the road a little after 6 pm and got back to the rig about 9:30 pm.
A long day, but a good visit.
Tomorrow we’ve got a 160 mile trip to move over toward Niagara Falls.
September 22, 2010
A Jumperoo and more Spicy Chicken. . .
Still fighting off this cold, but I think it’s on its last legs.
Hopefully.
After another lupper of Extra, Extra, Extra, Extra Spicy Chicken at King Food, trying to burn my cold out, we drove over to Brandi’s for a little Landon time.
At leastJan got some Landon time, I stayed on the other side of the room. It probably wouldn’t have been a problem, since both Brandi and Lowell have had this crud, and I think I caught it from Lowell, anyway.
But why take chances?
Here’s a shot of Landon in his Rainforest Jumperoo. It beeps, roars, blinks, lights up, twirls, whirls, and rotates.
And he just wanted to fall asleep, poor thing.
While we were at Brandi’s, we picked up a box of books from Amazon that had come in for Jan.
And, of course, after we got home, Mister commandeered the box for his own. He loves boxes. He doesn’t always quite fit in them, but he does love them.
We got back to the rig about 5:30 and just took it easy for the rest of the evening.
September 22, 2011
The Things I Do . . .
This morning, Jan came with me, so we decided to have breakfast at the next one, which was The Fountain, a nice little family diner on the downtown Celina square, just to the south. The food was very good, inexpensive, and plentiful.
About 1:30, Jan and I headed back out. But our first stop was at La Carreta again for a quick lunch of their great Chicken Tortilla Soup. Some of the best we’ve eaten.
Finally getting home about 5 pm, we headed back out for dinner. We ended up going to Big Bamboo’s Dockside Grill.
This place is right down the road from Bella’s Italian Grill, where we ate last night, and like Bella’s it’s right on the lake with a great view.
And the food is great too. Mostly sandwiches, and dinners like Jerk Chicken, Shrimp Scampi, and Fried Catfish. All really good, and not really expensive either. Dick, the owner, and our waitress, Stephanie, were really fun, and we had a great time.
And even better, partway through our meal, the Geeks on Tour, Jim and Chris Guld, along with John and Jean Watson, showed up and pulled up a table right next to ours, and the hilarity ensued.
Jan is attending a Computer Boot Camp given by the Geeks for 6 hours each of the next two days, and she’s really looking forward to it.
September 22, 2012
All Planes, all the time . . .
We headed out on our Dayton day trip about 9:30, but our first stop was at the McDonald’s in Harrison, right inside the Ohio line. And after a quick breakfast, we were back on the road for the rest of our 85-mile trip.
Our first stop was the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, located in and around buildings that housed the Wright Brothers and their businesses.
Most people know about their bicycle shop, but less well-known is the fact that they were also in the printing business, printing newspapers, flyers, pamphlets, and other items. And in addition to running two companies, they were also designing the first airplane at the same time.
As their businesses expanded, they moved to bigger buildings, but always in this same small area of Dayton.
One of the first things you see inside the Museum is a replica of the Wright’s 1902 Flyer, the first successful powered heavier-than-air craft.
While we were there, we also saw this replica of the Wright’s Bicycle Shop, where they repaired bicycles and built new ones.
Although Jan and I enjoyed it here, we both agreed that we liked the Wright Brothers’ museum at Kitty Hawk, NC, better.
Next, we headed about 10 miles away to visit The National Museum of the United States Air Force.
Like visiting the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, it’s hard to know where to start. They had pretty much one of everything, including some that I’ve never seen in person before.
There are planes everywhere you look, in front, behind, overhead, etc..
From the Red Baron’s Fokker Triplane,
to the Kettering ‘Bug’, essentially a 1917 version of the cruise missile.
And this Kellett K3 Autogyro.
This is the last remaining Seversky P-35, the forerunner to the P-47. It was the Army Air Corps’ first production, single-seat, all-metal pursuit plane with retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit.
It also has the unique property of being the only plane flown by both the U.S. and the Japanese during World War II. The Japanese government bought 20 of these from the US in 1938 and used them throughout the war.
I can only figure that the pilot of this B-24 Liberator either married a redhead or got a ‘Dear John’ letter from one.
This is the ME 163B Komet, a WWII German rocket-powered interceptor designed to climb rapidly and bring down the Allied bomber formations. It was hampered by its short range and vulnerability to being shot down while landing.
This is the ME 262A, the first jet aircraft used in combat.
This is the P-61C Black Widow night fighter, the first US plane designed specially for that purpose. The radar in its nose allowed it to track and shoot down enemy aircraft in total darkness.
This is one that I’ve never seen in person before. It’s the F-82G Twin Mustang, similar to the P-38 Lightning, in that it has two fuselages joined by a common wing. It was the last propeller-driven fighter aircraft acquired by the US.
And this is the B-29 ‘Bockscar, only the second plane to drop an atomic bomb in wartime, in this case, on Nagasaki, Japan.
And this is a replica of the ‘Fat Man’ bomb that was dropped. It derives its explosive power from the plutonium, unlike the ‘Little Boy’ bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier, which was powered by Uranium 235.
We’ve now seen both WWII atomic bombers, this one, along with the ‘Enola Gay’ at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.
This wraps up today’s blog. I’ll continue our tour in tomorrow’s post.
September 22, 2014
Are We, or Are We Not . . .
Fracking.
Well, we may be fracking. Or we may not be fracking.
We certainly got a good bit busier, with 96 vehicles in today, up from yesterday’s 70, and Saturday’s 60. But nothing like the 300+ we had for two days in a row at last year’s frac gate when they started up.
We’ve been told that there are three wells in the back that are ready to frac, but no one seems to know when they’re supposed to start, just RSN (Real Soon Now). But then this afternoon, one of the vacuum trucks that had been running in and out all afternoon came in and then back out about 5 minutes later.
When I asked why, they said that they were fracking on the back pad, and they couldn’t get in.
So we don’t know. If this is how fracking is done up here, we’ll take it. No 300 vehicle days would be nice.
Don’t know what’s going on with the rig in front of us. They’re supposed to skid the rig to the new hole on Wednesday, but they’re not finished drilling yet. There’s a full rack of drill pipe on the derrick, so they obviously planned to drill more, but the rig’s been quiet all day with no drilling going on. Looks like they broke something again.
After all, remember, It’s A Yugo.
I’m still getting login attempts on the blog, but fewer of them since I upped the lockout requirements. Now, after two failed retries, they’re locked out for 4 hours, and after two lockouts, they’re locked out for 48 hours.
They’re trying a lot of different login names, still with no luck, of course. I mentioned the other day that I use a VERY strong password, made up of just random garbage, so they’re not going to guess it, and throwing a dictionary attack at it simply won’t work either.
But as you can see, they keep trying.
The food fairy showed up again. The same one that brought the Red Beans and Rice with Sausage yesterday, dropped off Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas today. Again, homemade, and really, really good. We could get used to this.
I forgot to mention yesterday’s and today’s dessert that Jan made to go with our gifts. It was a delicious Peach Dump Cake. She made a big pan of it the other day, so we’ll be able to eat on it for several days. Really good with whipped cream on top.
September 22, 2015
It’s On . . .
Jan and I have a couple to gate sit for us this Sunday from 1 pm to 7 pm, so Jan’s all giddy again. They live right up the road in Marshall, TX, about 30 miles away, so it won’t be a long trip for them. And this way, we’ll get to celebrate our 48th Wedding Anniversary only a day early.
One nice thing about having the window A/C outside here with us is that we don’t have to use our mister anymore. No, not Mister the cat, but this.
It’s a home version of the overhead misting systems you see at amusement parks and restaurants with outdoor waiting areas. We mounted a couple of the spray nozzles in front of a 20″ box fan, and it would drop the 100° air coming into the fan down to about 80° coming out. So it did the job.
The only problem, besides the occasional nozzle clog, was that after a while you were just . . . damp. And anything around you got damp, too. In fact, Jan started reading her paperback books and her Kindle inside a zip-lock bag just to keep things somewhat dry. So this is a big, and drier improvement.
Unfortunately for our possible long-term stay here, our frack is running wide open tonight, and very loud. Loud enough that it’s pretty much impossible to talk over it. And this is what it looks like from here, about 500 yards away.
Of course, if they keep true to form, they’ll break something before the shift is over, and things will come to a grinding halt. We hope.
Looks like tonight is going to be another chilly one, with the temperature already down to 62° at midnight, so I’m wearing one of my long-sleeve FRC shirts, and may end up with a windbreaker on too before the night is over.
September 22, 2016
Just No Pleasing Us . . .
It went down to 67 degrees here last night, cool enough that with the slight wind, I went inside and grabbed my windbreaker. But it sure was nice.
According to The Weather Channel, we’ve got one more day of low 90’s, Friday, and then Saturday the front moves through with temps in the 80’s and thunderstorms. With pretty much the same Sunday, on Monday, it’s more rain, with 78 and 60.
Then it settles down to Sunny with mid-80’s and mid-60’s as far as the eye can see. Of course, The Weather Channel said this once before and then changed its mind, and we got summer and high 90’s back.
Of course, in a couple of months, we’ll be wearing two pairs of sweats and a pair of jeans, two long-sleeved shirts, a hoodie, and a windbreaker, while we’re huddled around 3 heaters and wondering where summer went.
There’s just no pleasing us.
As is usual for a Thursday, I headed into B/CS for Wal-Mart and lunch. I first went to the pharmacy to pick up Jan’s three prescriptions that I had called in yesterday, but found one of them not ready because it had come in this morning . . . the product, not my order.
They said it would be about 30 minutes, so I headed out to get the groceries. At some point here I had planned to get a haircut, but I guess since it wasn’t on the list, I forgot about it. When I got home, I told her to put it on next week’s list.
I can’t wait too much longer because I’m starting to get into ponytail territory here, or at least one of those little short ones that turns up at the end about a couple of inches past the rubber band.
Finishing up with the groceries, I picked up the now-ready prescriptions, and headed across the parking lot to get our Chick-fil-a lunch.
They have a new app that lets you submit your order and pay online, and then pick it up at the designated store. But I’m not sure it’s needed, at least for me.
I walked in the door, right up to the counter, where there were 5 cashiers working(you never see this at McD’s), placed my order, and swiped my card. A minute or so later, I had my two large lemonades in a nice cardboard carrier and turned to get straws and napkins. By the time I turned back around, I heard my name called and was handed my bag of stuff. And my Spicy Chicken Deluxe Sandwich was a special order to add bacon. BTW, you’ve gotta try their bacon on anything. It’s thick cut, fried very crisp, and really flavorful.
Hmm! I wonder if you can just order bacon?
Anyway, I was back out the door in less than seven minutes. Take that, McD’s.
One thing interesting about their new app is all the changes and additions to your food that it allows you that aren’t shown on the menu board at the store. But one thing annoying about the app is that it won’t let you peruse the menu if the store is closed. What’s up with that?
It should let you at least look at the menu, but just not order. Or even pre-do your order and then submit it when you’re ready.
As I mentioned yesterday, before I went into CFA, I did try the Open Signal program to see what I got in B/CS. And it showed me the tower I was connected to, just a few blocks away on the other side of the Hwy 6 main drag.
I then ran a speed test and found I had 12 Mbps down and 5 up, with a 49 ms ping. My signal strength was – 92 dBm and 90%. A good, strong signal. I also wrote down the actual lat/long coordinates to double-check that it wasn’t showing the tower was in Missouri, like it does from here.
So this just reinforces my thought that there is something screwy about the tower I’m connected to here. And reinforcing that reinforcement is the fact that later this afternoon, while I was outside on the gate, I picked up my phone to make a call and noticed that it was again showing 3G data.
Now, normally here I show 2 bars of 4G data, but as I noticed the other day when I was in Open Signal and this happened, my 3G signal was much stronger than my 4G one. In fact, I was showing 5 bars of 3G!
But before I could run SpeedTest.net, or the one in OS, my phone jumped back to 2 bars of 4G again.
And FWIW I have another app, Network Signal Info, that is also supposed to show me the lat/long and distance of a tower. But when I try it here, it will not give me any values, but instead says, ‘Cell has wrong values’. Like I said, just screwy.
At least my new desktop Wi-Fi card to supposed to be here tomorrow. So maybe that will fix my Internet problems. But somehow I kinda doubt it.
I was reading through the manual for our new TV last night and discovered a couple of things. One is that there is an Amplify command on the Sound Settings menu. And it certainly seems to work.
The manual says that it “. . . increases the overall intensity of high-frequency sounds for a better listening experience. It is designed for hearing-impaired listeners.”
Well, except for the part where it calls me ‘deaf’, I like it.
And I’m not deaf. I just have a loud A/C right over my head.
I also found out that we have PIP (Picture in Picture), but I don’t think it will do anything for us, since it only has selections for Air or Cable inputs. So there is no way to do PIP from the DirecTV DVR. Bummer!
Another thing I found that I haven’t tried yet is a setting under the Sound Effects Menu called ‘DTS TruDialog’. It says, it “Increases voice intensity to make dialog clearer”, so it will be interesting to see what difference this one makes.
But whatever it does, it looks like, based on ‘Amplify’ alone, that I won’t have to buy a sound bar.
September 22, 2017
Never mind . . .
Today was really nice, the first time I’ve been able to sleep in for about a week. What with Clear Lake trips, moving to a new park, and other stuff, it’s just been go, go, go.
In fact, we never left the rig at all today, and maybe not tomorrow either.
I mentioned yesterday how nice this park, Hillcrest RV Park, is. But I do have a small gripe. The Verizon signal is pretty weak. I was hoping for better since there’s a cell tower right down the road, but apparently it’s not a Verizon tower. Oh Well.
They do have park WiFi here, but since I haven’t been able to find anyone to pay, I haven’t been able to get the code.
I really like my new printer, a HP 4650 Wireless Printer.
It’s well worth the $70 cost, with edge-to-edge printing, an auto document feeder, and automatic two-sided printing. It’s also much faster, but for a different reason than you might think. It is marginally faster, 9.5ppm vs. 8.5ppm, compared to my old printer, but that’s not the real difference.
The way most people judge a printer’s speed is how soon the page comes out when they hit the PRINT button, because they usually only print 1 or 2 pages at a time. So the fact that their printer can crank out 9.5 ppm really means nothing.
No, the real speed issue for most people is what’s known as TTFP, or Time To First Page. In other words, how soon that first page comes out. And in this case, the TTFP for the 4650 is over twice as fast as my old printer. So that’s the real difference.
A while back, we came across this old photo of Jan. She thinks it was in the 1st or 2nd grade. It’s about the size of a postage stamp and was rolled up in a tight scroll. So flattening it out and scanning it, I had this.
But after about an hour or so with Paint Shop Pro (a Photoshop clone) I had this.
Not bad. She was a cutie even back then.
If you were worried about tomorrow’s prediction of the end of the world, David Meade, the Biblical Numerologist who announced that The End Is Nigh, says,
Apparently, the End Is Still Nigh, not just as Nigh as was predicted. But it’s still coming, he said.
You can count on it.
September 22, 2018
Rainy Days And Saturdays . . .
always get me down. And keep me from getting much done outside, too.
In between rain bands this afternoon, I started prepping to install my new house batteries.
It rained pretty much all night and most of the morning, before slacking off in the early afternoon. So I first started with the new ones, getting them set up by installing the bolt-type connectors.
This was necessary since the rig uses the bolt-on connections rather than conventional automotive posts. Next up, I ‘staked’ the posts and the terminals together using a screwdriver and a tap from a hammer.
I learned this trick when I was 10 years old, and watching/helping/learning from the mechanic working on the Jimmy (GMC) 6-71 diesel engines in my father’s shrimp boats in Gulf Shores, AL
It locks the two together and helps give them a better connection.
Next, I disconnected the outside two Interstate 6-volt batteries and removed them, leaving the other two still connected, making it quicker and easier to swap out the old and new ones when the time comes.
But that time didn’t come this afternoon because the heavy rain showed up again and brought things to a halt. So maybe tomorrow.
About 4:30 Jan and I headed out for a late lunch at Denny’s, and then a stopover at Wal-Mart for a few things before heading back home.
I did make a stop by the PO and found our new (renewed) passports had come in. And in only about 3 weeks. Not bad.
So now we’re all set for next April and another 10 years.
Right now, the rain is supposed to slack off tomorrow afternoon, so maybe I can finish up with the batteries, and a few other chores as well.
Or maybe not. We’ll see.
September 22, 2019
Our Future Robot Overlords . . .
Last night we watched the last of the four episodes of Maigret on Ovation, and it was just as good as the first three. It’s really sad to see a quality series like this not continue.
Rowan Atkinson is great in the part, especially if you’ve only seen him as Black Adder or Mr. Bean, both of which are hilarious.
One thing I didn’t mention the other day is that Budapest, Hungary, was the stand-in for 1950’s Paris, with another location in Hungary for shots of the French countryside.
And since we were just in Budapest back in May, we were always on the lookout for locations we might recognize. And we did think we saw the steps at the Fisherman’s Bastion a couple of times.
I’m pretty sure that Ovation will be showing the four episodes a number of times, so you’ve still got a chance to catch them.
Don’t miss out.
I’m constantly amazed at how much more interactive that Alexa is becoming. When I ask her to do something, she’ll say ‘OK’ and then I’ll always say, “Thank you.”
I mean, I’m always careful to be polite to our future robot overlords.
Then, a couple of months ago, she started answering me back with, “You’re Welcome”, “Sure”, “Any Time”, or “No Problem”.
Neat!
But a couple of weeks ago, she started adding little things like, “Have a nice Friday”, or “Hope you have a nice weekend.” Then last week, during the heavy rains we had, she said, “Try to stay dry out there.”
Then yesterday morning, she upped her game when she said, “Enjoy the nice weather today, now that all the rain has gone.”
Spooky!
This afternoon I booked Jan and me tickets for the Tuesday afternoon 2 pm showing of Jan’s long-time favorite, “Downton Abbey”. It’s been a while since we’ve been to this theater in Webster, and it turns out that they’ve made a lot of upgrades. Like all of the 18 screens are now Reserved Seating, and have these very nice electric recliners, complete with cup holders and footrests.
I think the biggest problem might be for us to stay awake.
September 22, 2020
Is It Actually Already Over ?
We stayed in today, mainly due to the many reports of flooding around the Houston area due to the passing through of Tropical Storm Beta. Though in our case, we saw none of the forecasted 50 mph winds, and not a lot of the heavy rains.
But a lot of other areas around here did get a lot of rain, with streets so flooded you could only see the tops of the cars.
I finished putting together our absentee ballot request letter to send off to South Dakota tomorrow. Hopefully, they’ll get back to us pretty soon. I do like that SD has a website that lets you track your request so you can be sure they received it and that it’s being processed.
Nice.
September 22, 2022
Brushfire and Otterbox . . .
Since Jan wanted to get her toesies done this afternoon, we decided it would be a good excuse (like we really need one) to eat at Torchy’s Tacos once again.
Like most places we go to, we have our standard favorites, with Jan getting the Brushfire,
with Jamaican Jerked Chicken. While I got my favorite Jalapeno Cheese Sausage Dogs.
Then since we still had time before Jan’s nail appointment, we drove over to the Verizon store at Baybrook Mall to get some help with Jan’s new Galaxy S8+.
In May 2021, when I upgraded to my Galaxy S21 Ultra, Jan inherited my S8+ that I had had since I got it in Las Vegas in April 2017. But when the S8+ died, or well, the screen died, she went back to my old Galaxy S5.
But recently she said it was running slower and slower, and she really wanted a larger screen. So I found a brand-new S8+, still in the box, on eBay for $200. A great buy.
So when it came in the other day, my plan was to use the Samsung Smart Switch app to transfer all the data from the old S5 to the new S8+, and change out the SIM card to the new phone. But when I tried the SIM card changeout last night, I found that while the S5 used a microSIM card, the S8+ now uses a smaller nanoSIM card. So I wanted to stop by the Verizon store to get a nanoSIM card, and since it would be a new one, they would also have to switch over the phone number.
And unlike most visits to a Verizon store, I was waited on immediately, and was done and out in less than 15 minutes. Nice.
Then, while Jan was in the nail salon, I worked on finishing the phone setup. I was pretty much done by the time she came out, and she really liked the wallpaper I loaded for her.
I’ve still got a few more things to finish over the next couple of days.
Then, when I got home, I installed the phone into the new Otterbox case that I ordered last week.
I’ve used these Otterbox cases for years, and they’re the best around. They really protect your phone.
Getting home, we checked out the result of all the cement trucks coming and going in the park this morning. When they finished erecting the garage a couple of weeks ago, it looked like this.
But after a week of putting up forms, and this morning’s cement trucks, it now looks like this.
The whole new addition is really coming along.
September 22, 2023
AfterThinking It Over. . .
I’ve decided to just replace the fan motor in our Coleman Mach 15 A/C unit. It’s only 8 years old, and a new one would cost over $1000. But the fan motor is only about $125,
and while I’m in there, I’m also going to replace the motor capacitor, and that’s another $10.
The only ‘complication’ is getting up on the roof, which Jan is not happy about for me. But if I plan ahead, I should only have to do it once. The actual replacement should take less than an hour.
Here’s just one of many YouTube how-to videos.
The motor won’t be here until Sunday, and Jan’s got a doctor’s appointment on Monday. Plus Tuesday, we’re getting together with a long-time friend up in Houston.
So Wednesday it is.
And I told my client I would be out on Wednesday, and then possibly Friday too, just to recover from Wednesday.
I’ll keep you updated.
On the Texas Driver’s License front, I got a couple of really good suggestions from our faithful readers.
Thanks a lot.
September 22, 2024
Doing Better Every Day . . .
Just Got Busy, Goofed Off, and didn’t end up doing a full blog today.
Come Back Tomorrow.
