Monthly Archives: October 2025
Old School Chums . . .
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Today was Jan’s chance to catch up with an old high school friend. Though she was a couple of years ahead of Jan, Carol and Jan were both in high school up in Chicopee, MA, as well as going to the same Mormon Church.
After meeting us at our Hampton Inn hotel, we were back at Dixie Crossroads once again, also a favorite of Carol’s. This time, Jan got an Oyster Po’boy and I got a Shrimp Po’boy, then we swapped each other some oysters and shrimp. And of course, we both had to start with a cup of the delicious Clam Chowder.
As usual with these get-togethers, we spent a couple of hours catching up on our mutual lives since we last got together in 2018.
Coming back toward the hotel, we made a quick Wal-Mart stop for both Jan and Carol, before finally saying our good-byes at the hotel.
Until next time.
* * * * * * *
Later, about 6:45, Jan and I headed up to Mims to get ice cream at Frisbee’s.
In the daytime, it looks like this.
But at night it looks like this.
Jan got a Pumpkin Cheesecake Shake, while I got a Carrot Cake Freeze.
As I watched the young lady make my Freeze, I was surprised to see her open a cooler and take out a big slice of Carrot Cake and dump half of it into the metal shake cup before adding ice cream, and putting it under the mixer.
And I’ve got to assume that Jan’s Pumpkin Cheesecake Shake actually had Pumpkin Cheesecake in it too.
* * * * * * *
To reassure Jan, Jennifer sent over this ‘proof of life’ photo of Miss Karma. She doesn’t look happy.
Of course, that’s pretty much the way she always looks.
* * * * * * *
Tomorrow, after a going-away lunch at Sonny’s, and a last visit to Jan’s parent’s gravesite, we’re making the 2+ hour trip down to Okeechobee to visit Charlee, a former co-worker of Jan’s, and her husband Bill for a couple of days.
Thought For The Day:
When Some ‘Friends’ Say “I Have Your Back”, It Means You Should Check For “Kick Me” Signs.
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
October 23, 2009
Bad Weather and Cold Water…
Today started out cold and rainy, and although it cleared up later in the day, tomorrow is supposed to be worse, with a high of only 44 degrees.
Around 1 pm, Jan and I headed out for lunch and errands. Since we were going to the Sam’s Club in Mishawaka, we decided to eat at Hooters, one of our favorite wing places.
Leaving Hooters, we stopped off at Sam’s Club. We did notice a long line of people getting flu shots while we were there.
About 6 pm, we headed out for dinner at a place called Lakeshore Grill. This was a great place to eat, and we enjoyed it.
We’ll go back.
October 23, 2011
Charge !!!! . . .
Today was going to be a play day, so at noon, we piled into the truck and headed over to Mishawaka for a day of shopping and eating.
Our first stop was the Verizon store, where I wanted to get a Droid Charge.
It took about an hour to get my new Droid activated and all my contacts transferred over from my Blackberry Storm II. Since all Verizon phones now use the online Backup Assistant to store contacts, it’s much easier to move them to a new phone than it used to be.
While Jan checked out the Bargain Books bookstore across the street from the Verizon store, I sat in the car and played with my new toy. I started downloading a bunch of apps to replace the ones on my Blackberry and was really amazed at the 4G speeds. 4 MB apps downloaded in just a few seconds. And it looks like I may have 4G coverage where we’ll be for a couple of months, south of Houston this winter.
Then it was on to the Barnes and Noble bookstore at the mall, where Jan shopped, and I, of course, sat in the Starbucks and played with my new toy some more.
By the time we left the mall, it was after 4 pm and time for dinner at Red Robin. They have great burgers and salads and bottomless steak fries, and we always enjoy it.
After dinner, it was time for more shopping, this time at Sam’s Club and then Wal-Mart. Then, after sending a lot of money to Bentonville, AR, we headed back toward home, with a quick detour by Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Getting back to the Elkhart area, we decided to finish off the day with a cold Dairy Queen treat.
It was really nice to just spend a day doing nothing but having fun.
And now for another installment of . . .
Things Every RV’er should have:
The Silverleaf VMSpc is one of my favorite gadgets. Unfortunately, it’s only for you diesel owners, but if you’ve got one, take a look.
The VMSpc consists of a cable that plugs into the diagnostic port under your dashboard, an interface box with a cable that plugs into your computer, and a PC computer program.
The whole system costs about $400, but you can download the software program for free and play with it.
The VMSpc ties into your engine computer and gives you much more accurate information than your coach gauges do, and also gives you some info that you don’t even have gauges for, like horsepower, torque, GPH, turbo boost, and a number of others.
As I said, the Silverleaf VMSpc plugs into the diagnostic port underneath the dashboard and connects to my laptop that sits on the center console when we travel.
In my case, I run two programs on the laptop: In the bottom section, I’m running Delorme Street Atlas w/GPS. The top section is the Silverleaf display.
The really nice thing about the Silverleaf is, you get to design your own panel. You can choose the instruments you want to display, where you want them on the screen, what color they are, and what they say. You can also set alarms so that if, for example, your battery voltage drops below 12 volts, an audible/visible alarm goes off on the screen.
Across the top, left to right, I first have the transmission gear indicator. The left ‘6’ shows what gear is selected on the console. The right one shows what gear the transmission is actually in.
Next, in order, are the tachometer, the turbocharger boost pressure, the instantaneous MPG, and the clock. Down the left side, the first four gauges are alarms for voltage, transmission temperature, water temperature, and oil pressure. Next are numerical gauges for the oil pressure, transmission temp, engine temp, and the total hours on the engine.
Starting from the top of the second column, CSPD shows the Cruise Control Set Speed, next is the total miles on the coach (it had 62511 miles when we bought it), the miles we’ve put on the coach, and the fuel minder. It shows the miles left on this tank, the remaining fuel in the tank, and the recent MPG.
The next column starts with a speedometer. The neat thing about this is that the Silverleaf program allows me to set a modifier on the speedometer.
The tires (295’s) presently on my coach are bigger than the original 285’s. This means my dashboard speedometer is not correct. It reads 51 mph when I’m doing 55, for instance. But by adding a modifier to the gauge, it displays the correct speed.
Next are the generator hours. This lets me track the generator fuel usage at about 1 gallon of diesel per hour.
Underneath that, the green ball means the Cruise Control is set and engaged. If the ball is yellow, it means it’s not engaged, and a red ball means it’s turned off. Just to the right are the miles since my last oil change/filter, etc., service.
Next is a vertical bar graph that gives me an instant picture of my engine performance, and below are the miles we’ve traveled so far this year. We’ll probably do another 2-3000 before we get back to Houston right before Thanksgiving.
The right-hand column below the clock shows the battery voltage, the fuel rate, the engine torque, the Max Intake Manifold Temp, and the distance to the next rest area.
Lastly, across the bottom are the miles we’ve traveled so far today, and the miles we’ve traveled so far on this tank of diesel.
This last reading, coupled with the fuel used from the Fuel Minder gauge, gives me a very accurate reading on the MPG on this tank. In this case, we’ve gone 488.2 miles and used 52.5 gallons (150 – 97.5) of diesel. This gives me an average of 9.3 mph.
Driving 55 does save gas. From testing, I know that if I drive 65, my mpg drops to between 7.5 and 8 mpg. This difference in miles per gallon saves me about $1000 a year.
Just a note, the fuel usage is very accurate on the Silverleaf because the program actually counts the pulses in the fuel injectors. You can’t get any better than that.
Another neat feature of the Silverleaf is that if you ever get a Check Engine light, just use the Diagnostic drop-down menu at the top of the screen, and it tells you the code AND what the code means.
It may seem like a lot of information, some of it not too useful, but it gives me an ongoing picture of my engine’s performance and lets me quickly see any changes.
I hope this all makes sense. If you have any questions or comments, be sure and let me know.
For you gas engine RV’ers, there is a product called Scangauge that will work for you, but it does not use a computer display. Instead, it has its own display unit.
October 23, 2012
Cheesecake and Burgers . . .
Since yesterday was a travel day, today was a goof-off and do-nothing day. So we goofed off and did nothing today.
For lunch, Jan fixed cheese toast, and then following in the ‘cheese’ motif, we had the pumpkin cheesecake that we brought home from our meal at The Peddler Steakhouse Sunday night at South of the Border. And like our whole meal, it was delicious. Jan said it was the best cheesecake she’d ever eaten.
About 1:30 pm, Jan and I headed out on some errands. She wanted to get her toes done, and I wanted to get a haircut. And, although it took some driving around, we managed to find a nail place and a hair place side by side. In getting there, though, we ended up going partway over to Beaufort, SC
Beaufort is the home of the US Marine Parris Island and the Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station. In 1969-1970, I was working as a DOD contractor at the MCAS, working on F-4C, D, and E’s, plus one F-4J Blue Angel’s jet. So coming back to this area is kind of like coming back home.
We got home about 3:30, and it seemed like a good time for a nap. We like naps.
Then, a little after 5 pm, we headed out to have dinner at a Five Guys Burgers and Fries over in Savannah. Five Guys has pretty much become our favorite burger place, although Fuddrucker’s is a close second.
On our way home, our daughter Brandi called to catch us up on Landon and life down in Texas in general. We’re really looking forward to seeing everyone in less than a month.
Tomorrow is kind of up in the air so we’ll have to see how it goes.
October 23, 2013
It must have been the Nopales . . .
It’s been a busy three days, but not gate-wise. For the last week or so, we’ve been doing about 30-35 vehicles a day, with today (Wednesday) doing about 45. A nice change from the 300 a day we had at the peak. But I sure hope it doesn’t get much slower, so they don’t get the idea, they don’t need us. We’d really like to stay here until we leave for Houston on the 24th of November. We’ll see.
For the last week or so, I’ve been fighting problems with my eyeglasses. The earpieces are those spring-loaded type, and they both just came apart within a week of each other. I tried a number of ways to glue them back together, Gorilla Glue, SuperGlue, contact cement, and even ShoeGoo. But nothing would hold for more than a day or two.
Then I got a bright idea. My new frames were identical to my old ones, and I still had them, so I would just take the earpieces off the old ones and install them on the new ones. Piece of cake, right? Well, no. The taking apart thing went just fine. The getting them reinstalled part, not so much.
Holding the glasses frame in one hand, the earpiece in the other, the tweezers holding the screw in the other hand, and of course the little tiny screwdriver in the other…well, I think you see the problem.
I could never get everything lined up, and the screw started. So after about 30 minutes of wasted effort, I gave up and went with the Nerd method. Holding them together with tape. I figured I would drive into Pleasanton on Monday and let the Wal-Mart Vision Center take a crack at them.
So after handing them off, I did some shopping, picking up some cold stuff so we wouldn’t have to worry about it tomorrow in San Antonio. Getting back to the Vision Center about 20 minutes later, they had me all ready to go. Turns out they have a special little screw-starter to make things easier. They didn’t have any for sale, but I found one on Amazon, I’m going to order.
Coming back home I saw this sign again and finally had a chance to take a picture of it.
What does it say about your town when the ‘Premier Gated Community’ is an RV Park? Actually, it’s probably our kind of place.
Tuesday afternoon about 1pm we headed to San Antonio for our combined birthday celebration. Both of ours are in October, mine on the 5th and Jan’s this Friday on the 25th. It does make it more convenient when we have to renew our driver’s licenses in South Dakota.
Anyway, our first stop was at the Palladium IMAX theater out on I-10 West. This place is huge. Besides the 16 screens and the usual movie food, it has a gelato stand, a Starbucks, two restaurants, and two bars. Jan had to try the Pumpkin Gelato and pronounced it fantastic. If they started renting out rooms, you could live here.
The reason we passed so many closer theaters is that we heard if you were going to see “Gravity”, the new Sandra Bullock-George Clooney movie, see it in IMAX and 3D. And this was the only place in town that had both.
We’ve seen IMAX movies before, and we’ve seen 3D movies before, but this was our first IMAX 3D one. And it was worth the trip. And the movie itself was great. The action started very quickly and just never let up until the end. Jan compared it to an Indiana Jones movie that just never stops.
The story is about a Space Shuttle Hubble Telescope repair mission with Sandra Bullock, the Mission Specialist, doing the repair in space, and George Clooney as the Shuttle Pilot. And then everything goes terribly wrong.
Although the movie has a lot of special effects, they take a backseat to the story and the characters. And we did like the fact that they didn’t overdo the 3D part, just so you wouldn’t forget the movie was in 3D.
Having worked on the Shuttle Program for 10 years at Johnson Space Center, there were a few things I noticed that wouldn’t have happened that way in space, but nothing so glaring that it interfered with my enjoyment of the movie.
This one is a must-see.
Getting out of the movie about 4:15, our next stop was a nearby SuperCuts so Jan could get her hair trimmed. I always kind of dread taking Jan to get her hair done, because if they don’t do it like she wants, she comes out very unhappy, and then, for some reason, I end up very unhappy.
Strange how that works out.
Then it was on to La Fonda on Main for dinner.
Jan had this Beef Chile Relleno with a Verde Chicken Enchilada.
And I had the Pork Carnitas with an Avocado Bowl. The pork is resting on a grilled nopales (cactus) leaf
For dessert, we split a piece of their delicious Tres Leches.
And here’s the beautiful Birthday Girl herself.
Our meal was as delicious as usual, and we always enjoy going back.
Now it was shopping time with Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, and Barnes and Noble on the list. Finishing up about 9:30, our last stop was the Pilot/Flying J on the way home. They had Jan’s Pumpkin Spice coffee, but had apparently run out and stopped selling the Pumpkin Spice Cappuccino that they had last time. When I mentioned to a young lady cleaning up nearby that it wasn’t even Halloween yet, much less Thanksgiving, and they’d already stopped selling it, she said, “Yes, it’s very popular and everyone waits for us to start selling it every year.”
When I said that, maybe that meant that they should, you know, order more, maybe, she just looked at me like I had two heads, or something. It’s amazing that some places can even stay in business.
Wrapping up today, I’ve had some sort of stomach bug all day. Don’t know if it’s just something going around or if it’s something I ate. Personally, I blame the nopales on my pork carnitas dish last night. Yeah, that’s it.
I mentioned the other day that one of the truck drivers had seen a bobcat near our gate so here’s Mister doing his best ‘Bobcat Bait’ impression.
After all, the guy did say the bobcat was smaller than Mister, but we’ll keep a close eye on him anyway.
October 23, 2014
Black or White . . .
Well, our 2nd full day of freedom was just as good as our first one yesterday, but a lot more relaxed, since we didn’t go anywhere or do anything. Jan did give the rig a good cleaning, and I assisted by doing what I was told and otherwise staying out of the way.
It’s safer that way.
While I’m deciding what I want to do with Jan’s Paperwhite, I went ahead and ordered a 10.5″ Galaxy Tab 4 from Amazon yesterday that should be here tomorrow.
Maybe.
We’ll see how good FedEx is at delivering to an address along an Interstate feeder out in the country, two miles from town. There is a sign on the fence that says “Gate Guard Services”, and the address on the package says, “Big RV in Back”. So we’ll see how it goes.
The Galaxy Tab will combine the features of our Kindle Fire and Jan’s Paperwhite, so we’ll see how it works as a Paperwhite replacement. In the meantime, I’ve got a couple more things to try and revive Jan’s dead Paperwhite.
One thing I found kind of funny is the pricing of the Tab. If you want it in black, it’s $299. But if you want a white one, it’s only $259. Exactly the same specs, just a different color.
Guess which one I bought?
About 5:30 this afternoon, we got a neighbor here at the yard. They’re just coming off a gate down near Madisonville and are taking off a week or two, leaving their 5th wheel here in the meantime. At this point, the lot is full.
Rather than have our leftover steak from last night, we decided to start working our way through some more of our Frack Food from the gate. No telling when we’ll get any more. So our dinner tonight was crispy catfish fillets, corn on the cob, potato salad, and BBQ Beans. And pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert.
We’re going to miss the gate.
October 23, 2015
Surprise!
When I got up about 10:15 this morning, I found the rains had finally arrived. I also found that our canopy had some leaks.
In anticipation of the forecast next five days of rain that was coming in, yesterday I had used Gorilla Tape and Rust-Oleum Clear Leak Seal Spray to patch the few weak places I could see. But unfortunately, what I couldn’t see were the ones up under the small cupola cover at the top of the canopy.
Since I was just leaving for my Wal-Mart run, Jan suggested I just get another tarp to throw over the top of this tarp. Sounded like a good idea.
And right before I left for Carthage, Jan, having read my blog this morning and not taking any chances, surprised me by saying she wanted Whataburger for lunch.
Darn, that just takes all the fun out of it.
Finally, on my way and getting out to the main highway, I first headed about 3 miles in the wrong direction to check out the Citgo station back toward Henderson. A number of the rig guys had said they had good food at the diner there, and I wanted to check it out.
One thing kind of strange is that though it was overcast and raining at the gate, three miles west here, it was sunny with blue skies. Huh.
At past gates, we’ve found the food pretty good at these places, so we’ll probably give this place a try too. To make it easy for Jan to know what they have, I always just take a picture of their menu board.
Looks like the usual fare, with burgers, chicken, other sandwiches, and various other accouterments. One of our favorite things at these places is the chicken strips and steak fries, and it looks like they’ve even got that covered.
And breakfast as well.
Though I don’t know if they serve it all day or not. McDonald’s does now, so they should too.
We’ll have to check them out soon.
A little later, after Wal-Mart, but before Whataburger, I dropped off my Amazon return package at a local UPS shipping ‘place’, which turned out to be a little computer repair store. This was the return of my defective Mighty Mule Alarm system. Earlier in the morning, I had received an email saying that Amazon had issued my $63 credit on this.
The replacement has been working fine so far, except when the water guys knocked it over, removing the frack water line the other day.
* * * * * * *
For some reason, it seems to get more and more difficult to put in my order at Whataburger every time I go.
To be sure I have it right, I read it off my phone. I tell them what burger I want and exactly what I want on it. But today she kept trying to get me to tell her what I don’t want on it, i.e., no lettuce. But the problem with that is that I don’t know what comes on their burgers normally, and nowhere on the menu board does it say.
And besides, if I do that, then I’m telling her what I don’t want on it, i.e., lettuce, and then what I do want on it extra, i.e., tomatoes, bacon, etc. I kept trying to tell her, start with a plain #6 Double Meat Cheese Whataburger Jr., just meats, cheese, and bread, and then I’ll tell you exactly what I DO want on it.
There is one guy who works there that I’m always happy to see at the counter. He takes the order perfectly, and we’re done in just a minute or so.
Later in the afternoon, we did get another visit from the donkeys as they passed by. The brown one always just stops and stares at us while he waits for the 40-year-old one to catch up.
Based on the radar, it looks like we dodged most of the heavy rains today. Most of it stayed to the north, running from southwest to northeast of us.
But there’s always tomorrow . . . and the next day . . . and the next day . . .
I guess we’ll see how the new tarp works.
October 23, 2016
Gateworthy . . .
Things, they keep a changing.
Jan and I spent some time playing with the iPad Gate Program last night until I think we both have it down. It’s pretty much identical in function to the one I wrote 3 years ago, except mine is text-based and runs on Windows 7, and this one is touchscreen graphics and runs on an iPad.
The only other difference is that SiteWatch’s iPad version is online and configured to upload data to the company server.
But mine is just as fast and easy to use. It’s just not tablet-size.
I have thought about converting it over, and I still may. I already have a program to write it in, so it wouldn’t be a real problem. We’ll see.
If I did it, it would just be for fun.
Todd came back and picked up the iPad from Jan this morning about 8 am, before I got up at my usual 10:30. Then, just as we were leaving the rig about 11, I got another text from Todd letting us know that our work schedule had changed again.
Rather than us both working the outside gate from 5:30p to 5:30p tonight, Jan will be working the outside gate, and I will be working the inside gate from 6p to 6a. This kind of concerned Jan because she was counting on me being there to keep her awake. But I guess it means that Todd thinks we’re gateworthy.
The reason we were heading out right then is that, as I said last night, we wanted to have the Sunday Turkey and Dressing/Fried Chicken buffet at Barth’s. And like yesterday’s meal, it was really good.
Turkey and real (cornbread) dressing, not that cubed bread stuff, along with really delicious Fried Chicken, creamed red potatoes, fresh vegetable medley, as well as white turkey gravy, and cranberry sauce. Oh, and along with the salad bar, the homemade soup was Broccoli Cheese, just as good as yesterday’s homemade Beef Vegetable.
Even nicer is the price. The regular price is $10.99, but with $3 Senior Discount, ours was $7.99. Very nice. Just like yesterday’s $9.50 one was $6.50 for me.
And you know you’re in the oil fields when your large iced tea glasses don’t say Coke or Pepsi, but instead have the name and advertisements for an oil field service company called Rockwater.
Getting back to the rig a little after 1 pm, we both went down for naps to prepare us for tonight’s work.
We had both packed bags with snacks, drinks, Kindles, laptops, power supplies, chargers, and flashlights. So we’re ready for just about anything.
We got to Jan’s gate a little after 5 pm, and I helped Jan get set up after Tam left. She does look pretty comfortable.
Then,a little after 5:30, I drove the 1/2 mile or so down to my gate next to the pad.
Not much is going on right now, so it should be a quiet night for both of us.
We hope.
October 23, 2017
Last Trip South . . .
I headed out on my last trip south about 10 am. I say ‘last trip’, since I’m not going down on Wednesday, and then we move down to Santa Fe on Thursday.
So when I go back to work on Friday, I’ll be making a 30-mile round-trip and not a 140-mile one. Yay!
I really wish Facebook would just stop fooling around and changing things. When I first started posting our blog to FB every night, I could pick what photo I wanted to show on the front page. I couldn’t pick from all the blog’s photos, but most of them, anyway.
Then months later, I could no longer pick from the photos, but had to take the one they picked for me. And the one they picked was never consistent. Sometimes it was the first one, sometimes it was the last one, or maybe one in the middle somewhere. But at least I could delete it if I didn’t want that one use.
But then, a couple of weeks ago, they changed it again. Now I can’t delete it at all, but I’m just stuck with whichever one they pick. Bummer!
Then, a couple of weeks ago, the crying emoji disappeared from the display shown when you clicked on the Like button. In its place was just a hole. Then, a few days later, it was back.
Now the entire emoji display is gone completely. Now we can only select ‘Like’ and nothing else.
STOP MESSING WITH STUFF. JUST LEAVE IT ALONE.
Recently, I came across this article about Amazon selling houses online.
http://nypost.com/2017/10/20/now-you-can-buy-a-small-house-on-amazon/
They’re actually tricked-out shipping containers, selling for about $36,000
Not bad. And no, it doesn’t ship under Amazon Prime.
But this got me thinking about another big company that used to sell homes online . . . well, the online of the time, the Sears Catalog. And they not only sold homes, but also ‘mansions’.
‘The Magnolia’ seems to be the largest model sold by Sears. At ten rooms, two stories plus a basement, it was a real ‘kit’ with every piece cut and fitted. And included everything down to the nails and paint. Here’s a full-size copy of the Sears ad.
https://ourrvadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Sears_Magnolia_Catalog_Image.png
There are still a number of ‘Magnolias’ around the country. Here’s one in North Carolina.
Still looking good. Apparently, it’s now a Dolce & Gabbana store.
Well, the vote is in. And it’s 26 to 0 in favor of blue awnings on the rig.
It’s gonna look great.
October 23, 2018
They’re From The Government, and They’re Here To Help Us!
Although today was Tuesday, and I don’t normally work at my client’s, I went in today to kind of make up for being gone for 3 weeks.
I had been monitoring things remotely, so I knew that nothing had really cratered, but you never know. However, I ended up spending most of the day working for the US government, specifically the US Census Bureau.
My client had received a letter from them requiring that he fill out an online 2017 Economic Census form. ‘Requiring’ as in a $5,000 fine for not doing it, and a $10,000 fine for ‘deliberately’ submitting false or incorrect information.
Ouch!
Apparently, a tiny subset of US small businesses are selected at random to participate in the survey.
Lucky us!
And some of the detailed questions are for things we don’t really track. Like how much we charge customers for shipping on the items they order. Since we only pass on the amount that USPS, UPS, or FedEx charges us, we have no idea what the total amount is. So now I’m having to try and pull all this info out of the USPS and UPS apps.
And this is just one of 100’s of questions. So I’ve got my work cut out for me for the next few weeks.
After I got home, we turned right around and headed back out to first have dinner at Los Ramirez Mexican Restaurant, the first Tex-Mex we’ve had since before we left for Florida, so we’ve been going into withdrawal.
Then it was on over to the storage room to break out our electric heaters for the winter. It was down in the low 50’s last night, with more of the same tonight. And the high tomorrow is forecast for the low 60’s.
Nice!
Then coming home, we stopped off so I could buy the winning Mega-Millions ticket. At $1.6 Billion+, it’s certainly worth risking a few bucks. And as usual, I got the 30 Annual Payments option, rather than the Cash Payout. As far as I know, Texas is the only state that requires you to make that decision upfront when you buy the ticket. Or at least the only one we’ve encountered in our travels around the country.
The Annual Payment value is $1.6 Billion, with the Cash Payout just a little over $900 Million. So you’re giving up about $700 Million to get the money upfront.
If you take the Annual Payments, you’ll get about $32 Million a year after taxes for 30 years. If you take the Cash Value and then spread it out over the same 30 years, you would have about $18 Million a year.
And realistically, what could you do with $900 Million up front that you couldn’t do with $32 Million per year?
October 23, 2019
Now, On To 2021 . . .
We’ve now got our deposit in on our Alaskan Cruise, and we’ve got our hotel reservations made for our pre-cruise week in Fairbanks. All that’s left now is our flights and our car rental in Fairbanks.
I had mentioned that we were getting an inside room, and found that for an extra $65 we can get a larger inside room, bigger from 155 sqft to 233 sqft. But our great travel agent, Chantelle Nugent, found out that for an additional $25, for a total of $90, gets us a slightly larger, large room up on a higher deck, Deck 8, or the Navigation Deck.
Much better than our original inside room, which is down on Deck 1, the very bottom deck. Kind of like being in Steerage on the Titanic.
Very nice room. Chantelle always takes great care of us.
One thing Jan and I were happy to see is that PMJ (Postmodern Jukebox), one of our favorite groups, will be performing on HAL Alaskan Cruises during 2020. But I haven’t yet been able to find out what ship they will be on, or if they will be moving from ship to ship. But hopefully, we’ll be able to see them.
Check’em out here.
Also, this morning I booked our NYC Holiday Dinner Cruise for Sunday, December 8th, while we’re in NYC.
We paid extra for a window table, though that doesn’t seem to mean we’ll actually be right next to the window, just at a table BY the window, with four other diners.
But close enough, I guess.
One thing that always ticks me off, especially when it involves my money. We paid extra for the window table, and also a photo on the ship. But when I went to pay online with my card, I found, in addition to the $28.64 in NYC taxes, there was a $63.33 ADMINSTRATION FEE, and an $8.99 MARINE FEE, I guess because it’s a boat.
WTH
Finally, looking forward to 2021, we’re looking at maybe doing a cruise out of Galveston, taking in the Mayan ruins of Tulum from Cozumel and Chichen Itza from Progresso. And any more we can cram in.
After that, we’ll probably be cruised-out.
But you never know.
October 23, 2020
And Now We Wait . . .
Since we’ve got a cold front coming through tonight, down to the 50’s, it was preceded by rain, which means that the rear of the coach is a puddle, so I’ll wait until tomorrow to do a test idle on the rig.
As usual, when I’m working on a problem, I’m also working on backup plans for the problem. So today I put a call into Cummins to confirm what I had been told previously about the engine oil cooler.
The latest version is a 1-piece unit, not a 2-piece model like I have now.
So there’s no pesky gasket to leak like I have now. I guess I’m not the only person to have a problem with this.
So why haven’t I gone ahead and just installed this new cooler?
Well, I’m cheap. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
Honestly, I don’t think I can install this myself. At least not lying on my back like I have to do. It looks like the rig would have to be up on a lift or over a pit to be able to reach up in there to get the bolts. And you can’t do it from up top because the cooler is located right under the firewall between the bedroom and the engine compartment.
But the cost is why replacing it is my last-gasp effort. I can buy it online for about $800, but by the time I have a shop replace it, with their markup and labor, we’re probably looking at $2000 or so.
So I want to exhaust all the other avenues first before I go that route. And I still have a few more arrows in my quiver to try first.
I did get our South Dakota Absentee Ballots back in the mail today. Hopefully, since they made it down here in 4 days, they can make it back by the middle of next week or so.
I originally planned to send them back via Priority Mail, but the ballots are too large to fit in a Flat Rate envelope, so they went out by First Class Mail.
I will be able to check online to see when they’re received in Sioux Falls. So now we wait.
October 23, 2021
Is There Anything It Can’t Do?
Lunch today was at Los Ramirez once again. I say ‘once again’ because we’re at that point where we just sit down and they already know what we’re going to order.
Jan gets her usual Pechuga Rellena, no rice,
while I got the Beef Fajita Taco Salad, guacamole on the side for Jan.
Next up was a stop at Wal-Mart for supplies, before getting home about 3:30.
A nice Saturday.
October 23, 2022
And A Fun Time Was Had By All . . .
At Least Everyone Was Smiling When We Left.
Jan and I were out the door about 10 am for the start of our whirlwind weekend, with our first stop down FM1764 at the Three Acres Food Truck Park for their Pumpkin Spice Market.
We’ve been here for several events, but this is the biggest crowd we’ve seen so far, so big that we were afraid we’d have a problem finding a parking space, but we lucked up and got one right in front.
With over 30 vendors and 3 food trucks, the place had something for everyone.
After Jan found a few things she just had to have, and we grabbed a bite to eat, we were off to Runge Park over in Santa Fe for a surprise 85th birthday party for our friend Harry Dudley.
With all his kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids, in addition to a lot of friends, they had a real turnout.
They served a meal from a local Italian place, as well as a lot of treats.
After dropping off our gift and saying our goodbye’s we were on our way up to the Trinity area to meet up with our long-time friends Debi & Ed Hurlburt and Janice & Dave Evans for a weekend get-together. Later, after we got settled into our motel, we met everyone right down the road at El Rancho Viejo, Debi and Ed’s favorite local Mexican place.
Jan got the combo Beef, Chicken, and Shrimp Fajitas, while I got a really delicious Steak and Shrimp, with a 10 oz. Ribeye and 3 Jumbo Shrimp.
After a great meal, we ended up back at Debi and Ed’s for several more hours of non-stop talking, finally heading back to our motel about 10 pm.
Then this morning, about 10, we met Debi and Ed at the Trinity Café right in beautiful downtown Trinity. A local favorite, it was already busy when we got there.
Jan and I both got omelets, hers with onions, mushrooms, and cheese, and mine the Spanish version. Both delicious.
By the time we needed to get back on the road home, the place had filled up, so we gave up our table to another hungry group.
And after an HEB stop at our local location near home, we were back in the rig a little after 3 pm, finding a very mouthy Karma complaining about how long we’d been gone.
We all had so much fun that we’re going to have to do this again.
Soon!
October 23, 2023
Blue Suckers . . .
Today I was finally able to get the last piece of software installed on my new computer at work. The only thing left is to get it fully connected to the office network. Not sure why it’s not seeing the other computers, but I’ll figure it out on Wednesday.
I did finally get my HP printer/scanner connected to the scanner software. Not sure why it didn’t want to connect to start with. But I finally just out-stubborned it, I guess.
Landon made this octopus for his Nana’s Birthday, using his new 3D printer. Printed in 3 colors, pink body, yellow eyes, and blue suckers, the tentacles are fully articulated.
She loves it and it sits in a place of honor on the kitchen counter.
Tomorrow is scheduled to be just another stay-around-the-rig day. Always nice.
October 23, 2024
It’s Really Creamy . . .
Today was my 2nd day back at work since my operation, and also my 2nd Physical Therapy session.
I was able to catch up on repairing a couple of machines that had stacked up since last Wednesday, and then take care of a bunch of price changes for the website and the catalog.
Work, work, work.
* * * * * * *
For my PT, we ran through my previous exercises, and then they added some more to the mix to help strengthen my legs, which is what I really need. I’ll probably keep up the PT sessions until right before our cruise.
* * * * * * *
I’ve been rethinking our excursion choices, which is why I left them sitting in my Shopping Cart.
I’m thinking about switching out my Cozumel Chichen Itza excursion for one leaving out of Progresso. The travel time is a lot less, and it’s cheaper, too.
I’m also going to sign up for their Zoom Internet service at $19/day, so about $170 for the 9 days. Between keeping up with the blog and also keeping an eye on things at work, it’s a necessary evil, I guess.
* * * * * * *
Since we seem to be on a tour of trying out new places/places we haven’t been to in a while, tomorrow looks to be lunch at Chuy’s Tex-Mex, a place we haven’t been to for several years.
And like most places we go to, we have our favorites. And in ‘Chuy’s case, it’s the same for both of us.
Their Mex-Cobb Salad.
With Fajita Chicken, Green Chiles, Cheese, Avocados, and Tomatoes, and slathered in their Creamy Jalapeno Ranch dressing, it’s a delicious meal.
Looking forward to it.
