Monthly Archives: November 2025

Like Sacks Of Wet Cement . . .

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I’ve mentioned this famous WKRP In Cincinnati episode from Season #1

On October 30, 1978, CBS aired the greatest Thanksgiving-themed episode in the history of Thanksgiving-themed episodes on TV.

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It was the 7th episode of WKRP’s 1st season, and it’s been played repeatedly every Thanksgiving since then.

WKRP was located in the Osgood R. Flimm building, though the exact floor varied during the 4 seasons. However, the building shown in the intro is actually the Cincinnati Enquirer Building.

I was working as a broadcast engineer at the CBS station in Montgomery, AL, when that episode aired, and we were all laughing so hard we almost missed coming out of the break at the end of the program. Plus, having worked at a lot of radio and TV stations over the years, I knew all of these people, the sales guy who wore white shoes and a white belt, the station manager who had no idea what was going on, etc.

It’s even shown up in cartoons.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

* * * * * * *

Looks like we’re getting an IKEA and a Sprouts up in the Webster area. The IKEA is supposed to open next summer, with the Sprouts sometime in early 2027.

The more, the merrier.

* * * * * * *

Tomorrow we’ll pick up our Thanksgiving victuals at Gator’s when they open up at 9 am. Then it’s on up to Brandi’s for a Thanksgiving full of family, food, fun, and frolic.

Well, more likely just family, food, and fun. I don’t frolic as well as I once did.


Thought For The Day:

“There is a study showing that going through a doorway will cause the mind to reset for the next series of events. That is why people will show up in a room and forget what they are there for. The mind clears the immediate past to get ready for new experiences.”

Glad to learn this. I thought it was just my mind going.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


November 27, 2009

Gray Friday…

For us, it was Gray Friday because I only planned to get a couple of things at Radio Shack for our part of the sales day.

We headed out about 11 to first eat lunch at Monterey’s Little Mexico in Dickinson, one of our favorite Mexican places. I love their Chicken Tortilla Soup, so much so, that’s usually all I have, along with the chips and salsa.

After lunch, we headed over to Radio Shack to pick up a couple of things on sale. Then, after checking out the Walmart next door, we decided to give it a try.

Actually, it wasn’t bad. We weren’t shopping for the sales, we just had to pick up a few things.

Getting back to the rig, we let Mister out to roam while I set up the bird feeder Jan got at Walmart.

All in all, a very nice day.


November 27, 2010

The Kids. . .

Jan and I headed out about 11:00 to meet “the kids” at Stomp’s Burger Joint for lunch, at least, everyone except Piper. She was off applying for a new job, which she got, as she called to tell us later.

BTW, when Piper was younger, she asked us one time why we called her grown parents “the kids”. Jan told Piper she’d understand when she had kids of her own, that your kids are always your kids, no matter how old they are.

After a great lunch with everyone, Jan and I stopped off at a nearby Wal-Mart to pick up a few things, and then it was back home to the rig.

After putting things away, Jan and I took a walk. Since it had been a few days since we’d walked due to weather and early morning commitments, we only walked a mile, instead of a mile and a half. We’ll bump it back up in the next couple of days.

Getting back, Jan filled the bird feeders while I let the awnings and Mister out.

Later in the afternoon, I made a pot of coffee, and we sat around and watched some things we had saved on the DVR.

That was about it for today.


November 27, 2011

A Big Winner . . .

We decided to have breakfast out this morning, so about 10, we headed up to Seabrook to the IHOP. As usual for a Sunday morning, we had a 20-minute wait before we got seated.

After breakfast, we went next door to the Home Depot to look at their Christmas ornaments. Jan was looking for something that might be Landon-proof for him to hang on the tree.

Next, we stopped by Michael’s Crafts in Webster to get a large wicker ball to wrap with LED lights to make a large ornament for the rig.

Wicker Ball

After Michael’s, we headed over to Brandi’s for the afternoon. They just got back last night from their Thanksgiving in Oklahoma with Lowell’s parents.

And apparently, Christmas came early this year for Lowell.

Slot Winnings

After winning over $700 at the slots, a little later, he won an additional $3230.

A very nice Christmas indeed! And this is not the first time he’s won like this.

Jan, Brandi, Landon, and Lowell’s sister Sherry were going shopping while Lowell and I held down the fort (i.e., watched football).

Landon at Home

They came back several hours later with a lot of new clothes for Master Landon

A little later, we headed home with a stop by Kroger’s for some lottery tickets. Maybe Lowell’s luck will rub off on me. Jan says she wants to take him with her the next time she plays Bingo.

Getting back to the park about sundown, the tide was out, and with the offshore wind, the bayou was pretty empty with a lot of mudflats showing.

Galveston Bay Mudflat Sunset 1

Galveston Bay Mudflat Sunset 2

Still a pretty view.


November 27, 2012

Liquipel . . .

or Second Verse same as the First.

So yes, today was pretty much like yesterday. Goofing off in the morning, and then clients and errands in the afternoon.

My first visit was to another long-term client who needs a couple of new computers and a laptop, and wants them installed, billed, and paid for, before the end of the year. Tax Stuff.

Then it was on to another client to take a look at some network problems he’s having. Since he didn’t tell me what his problem was to start with, I’ll have to come back later with my test equipment. Looks like he’s getting some noise or interference on his lines that I’ll have to track down.

My next stop was at Home Depot to get prices on some 1×6 boards for my replacement trim project on our house. Looks like I’ll need about twelve 12-foot planks.

Then it was off to Brandi and Lowell’s to pick up the Thanksgiving leftovers that I forgot yesterday. Took some more time to look over the trim job on the house. Now all I need is to get the paint that I’ll need

Before heading home, my last stop was at Kroger’s to pick up my winning Powerball ticket. It’s now up over $500 million and may be higher by the time of the drawing tonight.

Getting home, Jan and I headed out for supper at Monterey’s Little Mexico, another of our favorite local places. And yes, that does make two nights in a row I’ve had Chicken Tortilla Soup for dinner. So what?

Lastly, on the tech front, I’ve come across something for those of you who keep dropping your cellphones in the toilet.

And you know who you are.

It’s called Liquipel, and for about $60, they will completely waterproof your phone. Your phone is placed in a vacuum chamber, and a nano-coating is deposited in vapor form on your phone. They do iPads, too.

The only problem I see is that you’re without your phone for a week or so.

Check it out.


November 27, 2013

Gobble Gobble, Almost . . .

It was horrible. I had to get up at 7:15 this morning.

First up, I had to put a call into Coach-Net to activate my towing appointment to get my truck towed up to Brock’s Car Care to have them take a look at my front-end noise problem. Then I also had to call the EZ Tag Toll Pass people to transfer my pass to the rental car.

By the time I did all that and then got dressed, the tow truck was here. Once he got the front end hooked up and lifted, I put the truck in Neutral Tow Mode and off he went with us following in the rent car. Getting to Brock’s, I went inside while the tow guy unhitched the truck, and by the time he was finished outside, I was finished inside. And after tipping him $5, we went our separate ways.

Our way consisted of the Jack in the Box next door, so Jan could get a Supreme Croissant breakfast sandwich and a Christmas Toasty Jack antenna ball for our truck(when we get it back). Then it was across the street to the Starbuck’s for Cinnamon Dolce Lattes for two.

Finally, about 9:30, we were on our way up to Brandi’s for a day of cooking. They were trying to get pretty much everything done before tomorrow.

And to make a long story short, and because I’m tired and we have to get up early again tomorrow, they got everything done, and it looked delicious.

The End.


November 27, 2014

Hmmmmm! Gumbo!

About 10:30 this morning, Jan and I headed down south to have Thanksgiving dinner with Chris, Linda, and Piper at their home in Friendswood. We were really looking forward to having Chris’ gumbo, but Jan wanted her gumbo, and turkey too.

So before we got onto I-45S, we stopped off at the Conroe Cracker Barrel for a take-out order of Turkey and Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Carrots, and Pumpkin Streusel for dessert. So she’s all ready for her Black Friday Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow while she’s house/dog-sitting.

But it’s only dog sitting, not puppy sitting. Nigel, the ‘Shorkie’, is going with Piper. So it’s just PJ, the Black Lab, and a guest dog to beamed later. BTW, a Shorkie is a cross between a Shih Tzu and a Yorkie.

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A real cutie, too.

After a smooth trip with little traffic, we got to Chris’ about 12:30 and ate about an hour later.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Chris’ gumbo is a combination of shrimp, oysters, crab claws, and crab meat, as well as Andouille sausage for a little bite. Of course, he puts okra in there, and there’s a shaker of filé on the table, too. You can’t get more authentic.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

With rice and French bread, it was a real meal. And while Chris’ did the gumbo, Linda topped it all off with a batch of her Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce.

Really delicious!

Later, after fighting to stay awake after that great meal, I headed back up to Conroe for the night. I plan to do some work around the rig tomorrow before returning to Friendswood Saturday afternoon. We plan to have dinner with our friends Bob and Maria Saturday night, and then come back to the rig Sunday afternoon.

A very nice Thanksgiving weekend.


November 27, 2015

Gray Friday . . .

Overcast, and it rained too. In fact, this seems to be the start of rain every day for the next seven days or so. Not very conducive to the outside stuff I want to work on. But I did get a couple of things done inside that were on my list.

One of the things I’d been wanting to do was to install a fan speed switch on our front A/C thermostat. I had installed one on the rear thermostat years ago, but we never needed one on the front unit, since in the larger area, it needed to run wide open most of the time.

But our new Coleman Mach XV unit that I installed last August is over 10% higher in BTU’s (15,000 vs. 13,500) than our old Mach V, and in addition, the fan in the new unit is more powerful. So what this means is that the new unit tends to short-cycle in milder weather.

This means that the unit doesn’t really run long enough to remove the maximum amount of moisture from the air. This is why the A/C unit in your sticks & bricks needs to be correctly sized for your house.

If it’s too small, of course, it won’t cool the house down enough. But if it’s too large, it cools the house down too quickly, without lowering the humidity, leaving you feeling cold and clammy.

In the case of the unit in the rig, the best thing to do is to slow the fan speed, so that’s what I wanted to take care of today.

On the thermostat in the bedroom, I was able to mount the switch on the side of the case,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

but because of the little shelf that mounts around the front thermostat, this switch would have to be on the bottom.

I started out by cutting a small notch in the bottom lip of the case, and then I SuperGlue’d the SPDT switch in place.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Next, I cut and stripped a small length of wire and soldered it to the center lug of the switch

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I then connected the red wire to the thermostat terminal strip and soldered the HI speed and LO speed wires to the switch.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

All I had to do now was reassemble everything, put the batteries back in and it was ready to go.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I’ll leave it set on LO except in the summer when it’s the hottest. In addition, keeping it on LO cuts down on some of the noise from the fan, so it’s a two-fer.

Next up was to finish up the kitchen LED light upgrade I started last month after the two fluorescent tubes died in the kitchen fixture. I was short one strip, so I just fixed it up temporarily until I could order more. Then we got busy on the gate, so it got put off until now.

So this is what I started with.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I had just taped the LED strips to the plastic sheet and wired them up like this.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

So today I was going to add the last strip and tape all of them to the top of the fixture. The strips come with a peel-off adhesive backing that makes it easy to mount them in the fixture. So after I wired in the new strip and got them all mounted, it looks like this.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

These six strips put out about 15% more light than the fluorescent tubes they replaced, and they’ll last a lot longer, too. And I’ve now got enough strips to convert all the other fluorescent lights in the rig.

Here are the ones I used, these Super Bright LED Light Strips, and it looks like they’ve actually come down a couple of dollars, since they’re now $5.99 a set.

Wrapping up, Amazon has a couple of really good deals going on through Saturday. The amazing Kindle Fire tablet, normally $49, is on sale for only $35.

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You can check it here: Fire, 7″ Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB – Includes Special Offers, Black

And even better, they’ve got the Amazon Echo, normally $179, on sale through Saturday for only $149.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Jan and I both love our Echo, and it gets daily use here in the rig, and we even used it outside on the gate. I’ll have a review of ours in the next few weeks.


November 27, 2016

Turkey and Pizza . . .

I’m actually doing this blog in the afternoon rather than the evening since I’m working starting tomorrow, getting up at 4:30 am to be on the gate by 5:30.

Jan and I headed out about 12:15 for more Turkey and Dressing at Barth’s on their Sunday Lunch Buffet.

It doesn’t have to be Thanksgiving or Christmas for Jan to want Turkey and Dressing. That’s why her favorite day at Cracker Barrel is Thursdays, their day for Turkey and Dressing. But alas, it was not to be.

Barth’s was closed. In fact, almost every place in Kenedy was closed. Talk about a long Thanksgiving weekend. The only two places that we found open were Polack’s Sausage (BBQ) and Bella Sera, our ‘goto’ Italian place here in Kenedy.

And both places were packed. I guess that’s like our trip back from Katy on Thanksgiving when the only places we saw open were two Whataburgers and they both had lines out into the street.

Deciding on Bella Sera, we once again went with the large Meat Lover’s Pizza with added mushrooms, large enough to have half to take home for leftovers.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

In fact, I’m taking a slice for lunch on the gate tomorrow. Yumm!

One thing we always check going into Katy is the sign showing the US Rig Count, which as of Thursday was 593, up 5 from last week. When we last checked in about a month ago, it was at 490, a nice jump that bodes well for our future gate guard employment.

A previous tenant here at the RV park left this HD DirecTV dish right behind our site. It’s fastened down to the ground, and it looks in good shape, so I’ve been thinking about calling DirecTV to see about turning on HD for the period of time we’re here.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Although our DirecTV DVR and our Samsung TV are both HD capable, our Winegard Traveler Dome is not. The reason we have this DVR is that it gives us more storage capacity than the standard one.

So I’ll see what DirecTV says about the cost, and if I can turn it off when we leave here.


November 27, 2017

Mirror, Mirror . . .

Our friends Janice and Dave Evens headed out this morning, on the way to Florida for a couple of months.

I got up early, about 8:30, to walk down with Jan to see them off, but she beat me to it by herself.

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered Jan an extendable makeup mirror for the bathroom.

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5X/1X Extension Mirror

It pulls out 30″ and has both 1X and 5X magnifications.

But with all the holiday stuff going on, I didn’t get around to installing it until yesterday, in between Instant Pot stuff.

Or at least I tried.

After marking the holes and drilling them out, I inserted the plastic anchors that came with the mirror.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I did notice that these anchors had no lips to keep them from pushing on through the wall.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And as I thought, as soon as I tried to screw in the bracket, the anchor pushed through and fell inside the wall. So, since I didn’t have any other anchors, I was done for then.

Today, on my way home from work, I stopped off at Lowe’s and got some of my favorite anchors, like these.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I’ve used these for years and never had one fail or pull out on me. So it was quick work to push through the remaining old anchor and then screw in the new ones, using the original holes.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Then it was quick work to mount the mirror bracket.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Next, I screwed the mirror in place, and it was ready to go.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Then when we travel it rides flush against the wall.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Looks pretty good.

Tomorrow we’ll be going up to Pasadena to have lunch, and then run some errands. I know Jan’s looking forward to getting out.


November 27, 2018

If The Tongue Is Blue . . .

Jan and I headed out for her pet-sitting job up in Katy about 2 pm, with a short stop-over at the Tuesday Morning in Webster for Christmas cards. Jan’s always found that they have high-end cards at discount prices, so that’s her go-to place.

She’s planning on using her time at Brandi’s to get them all done.

We did make a quick stop at the nearby Mason Rd El Pollo Loco so Jan could pick up a couple of meals for her dinners while she’s there.

I dropped Jan off at Brandi’s a little after 4 pm and got right back on the road down to Santa Fe, hoping to stay ahead of all the going-home traffic, and it worked. Getting back to this area, I did make a Denny’s dinner stop for breakfast. Good as always.

The car service will pick up Brandi, Lowell, and Landon about 7:15 am tomorrow, after already getting Chantelle, Eric, and Maddox, and they’ve already got their evening planned at Disney World when they get there.

They’ll be back sometime Monday, and I’ll get Jan back Monday afternoon. Already can’t wait.

Once I used the 10/07/2018 System Image Backup I made for our Asus laptop, rather than the more recent 11/23/18 version, the copying of the image back to the new hard drive went through with no further problems. Guess it must have had a glitch somewhere because I tried it 3 times. And when I got up this morning, the laptop had booted up into Win7 on the new drive, with all the files seemingly intact.

Doing a System Image on either Win7 or Win10 is really pretty easy. You do have to have somewhere to copy the image to, like one of these 2TB WD External Drives.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

About the size of a deck of cards, you can also get them in a 4TB size. Or even 8TB in a slightly larger format.

Then just plug the drive into a USB port, preferably a USB 3.0 one, which is 10X faster, select Backup and Restore from the Control Panel, and then click on ‘Create A System Image. Follow the prompts to select your external drive, and you’re off and running.

You can tell which port on your computer is USB 3.0 by looking inside the receptacle. If the little ‘tongue’ is blue, it’s 3.0.

When you are done with that, and this is your first System Image, insert a blank DVD into the DVD drive and click on ‘Create A System Repair Disk’. You will need this if you have to reinstall the System Image. You only need to do this one, and then just store it away.

I mentioned the other day, when I first tried to do the reinstall, that I couldn’t find my Recovery DVD and had to bring one home from work. Well, I found mine, right in the laptop DVD drive where I left it. And forgot about it.

Changing out the HD was pretty simple. Two screws and the cover plate comes off the bottom of the laptop, revealing the HD, the WiFi module, and the system RAM chips.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

4 more screws and the HD rack is out,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

and then 4 more screws, and the HD is out of the rack.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Then it’s just a matter of reversing the process with the new HD, and you’re done with this part.

Then boot to the Recovery DVD, and you’re ready to go.

Let me know if you have any questions.

The Mars Insight Lander is working fine so far and sent back this ‘selfie’ as the first photo after the landing.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

One commenter on a tech blog I read said it looked a lot like West Texas. I posted that it’s definitely not West Texas, otherwise it would look like this.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I had heard that they were expanding outside Texas, but I didn’t realize they were taking it this far.


November 27, 2019

Not A Good Day . . .

First off, my oil leak, after a $1000 repair, is still leaking. Of course, to be fair, about $200 of that was the air compressor system repair with a new air filter/dryer.

So it’s my $800 oil leak repair, I guess.

Not exactly sure where I go from here, but I’ve got a couple of Ideas I’m mulling over.

Then, when I got back to our site here in Santa Fe, I found that one side of our 50-amp breaker had died, and I’m getting no power into the coach. Just perfect!

After texting the park owner and not getting a reply, I pulled the breaker and headed over to the Home Depot to get a new one. And they had the exact GE replacement. A least something’s going right.

Turns out the park owner is out of town for Thanksgiving.

But by the time I got back, (decided to have Denny’s for dinner first,) it was dark, so I had the joy of working with 240 volts in the dark, holding the flashlight in my mouth.

But finally, about 7:30, I had power again.

Tomorrow morning, I’m driving up to Katy so Jan and I can have Thanksgiving Dinner at the Cracker Barrel there. Looking forward to seeing my Sweetie again.

More tomorrow when I won’t feel like cussing so much.


November 27, 2020

Thanksgiving Is Officially Over . . .

All the leftovers are gone now.

And it’s Day 2 without Internet.

As I mentioned yesterday, our park Internet WiFi went down about 10 am and never came back up. I can connect and get an IP address, but there was no there there.

I was hoping that the problem had resolved itself this morning, but no such luck. We can still get online with our Verizon MiFi, and also by hotspotting our Samsung phones, but TV streaming really eats up the data. So we’ve been playing back old TV shows still stored on our DirecTV DVR.

Then, about 10, I got on the phone trying to get a hold of someone in Xfinity/Comcast Tech Support so they could take a look at things from their end. And, unbelievably, after about 45 minutes of bouncing back and forth between phone numbers until finally I found Michelle, a very nice Tech Support person who knew what she was doing, and quickly figured out that I knew what I was talking about.

She was quickly able to connect to the park’s modem and run diagnostics, and then do a full reboot on the system. But all to no avail. But once I knew that the Internet was making it into the park’s system, my next thought was that maybe it was just our local repeaters.

The 17 spaces that make up the park are all in one long line, with a repeater like this about every 3-4 sites.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

So, taking my Samsung tablet, I drove down to the front of the park and tried to connect.

With no luck. So I headed down toward the other end of the park when I came across a lady coming out of the laundry. She turned out to be the owner’s daughter who said that the WiFi was out park-wide and the local repair guy would be out tomorrow to fix it.

So now we wait.

For some reason, over the last few years, it seems like I’ve been doing a lot of repairs on this date. So you get a lot of that in today’s blog.


November 27, 2021

A Week From Today . . .

After I did my 30-minute Bone Graft treatment this morning, I got on the computer to get reservations for the rest of the shows we want to see when we are up in Branson the week after next.

In fact, two weeks from tonight we’ll be overnighting in Texarkana, the halfway point on the way to Branson. We’ll have Monday through Friday there, and then head home on Saturday with another overnight in Texarkana before getting home on Sunday.

Really looking forward to it.

About 12:30, we headed out for lunch at Gator’s once again. While Jan went with her Strawberry Walnut Salad with Grilled Chicken,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I tried something new, the Egg In The Hole Bagel, pretty much a BLT on a bagel, with an Over Easy Egg in the bagel hole.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Really good. In fact, have again good.

And then we each had one of their fantastic Keto Blueberry Muffins, heated, with some butter.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Again, delicious.

Then it was on up the Interstate a bit to the Costcutters by HEB so Jan could get her hair done. And while she was doing that, I filled up at the HEB pumps.

All I can say is it’s been a long time since I’ve paid $50+ for a tank of gas, $57 to be exact. Now it was the Dakota, and it does have a 25-gallon tank, and I did put 20 gallons in it, but still.

On the subject of the Dakota, we’re driving it this week because our Jeep’s in the shop getting a couple of things checked out before our Branson trip. So it was interesting to see that yesterday the odometer rolled over to 308,000 miles.

Now, as I’ve mentioned, it’s been a V7 for about the last 15,000 miles when the #7 cylinder died, dropping to about 25# compression, rather than the usual 125#. But it cranks up every time, and will still do 70-75 on the Interstate.

Of course, it does smoke, blue smoke out the exhaust. But I’ve been thinking about getting one of those magnetic signs made for the door that says, “Harris County Mosquito Abatement Program.”

That ought to cover it.

Looks like tomorrow will be a stay-at-home Sunday, finishing off our Cracker Barrel Turkey Day leftovers.


November 27, 2022

Leftovers . . .

But not Turkey.

Today was a little different Sunday for us.

Usually, we go out somewhere for lunch and do our Wal-Mart/HEB shopping. Or sometimes it’s HEB/Wal-Mart. But today we decided to finish off our leftover Grimaldi’s Pizza from yesterday.

Then we went out shopping.

And over the next few days, we still have leftover Turkey Day stuff, sans Dressing, of course. After making a number of unanswered calls on Thursday, including several where it was obvious that someone picked up the phone and then immediately hung it up, I gave up for right then. What I had been hoping was that maybe the manager of our Cracker Barrel might be able to call the manager of the Katy location, so we could maybe pick up a pan of dressing from them. But no luck with that.

So I called our local CB Friday morning about 10:30 and actually got to talk to a manager, who told me to call back after 2 pm after I told her what had happened. When I called her, I was told she was busy and would call me back.

And she was busy for the next 9 calls I made.

So now it’s a nasty email to corporate.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

I realized that I forgot to post photos of Brandi’s Christmas trees that she put up before they left for Colorado.

This is her main big tree in the living room.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And it’s interesting to see how well decorated it is close up.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And this is the smaller, illuminated one in the dining room.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Both are really beautiful.

Apparently, a lady in Florida takes everything a little too literally.

She’s suing Kraft Foods, saying that Velveeta Shells and Cheese takes longer than the 3-1/2 minutes it says on the box. Of course, it also says on the box that that’s the cooking time.

So she’s probably going to have a real problem with Instant Oatmeal and Minute Rice.

And one guy online said he’s suing Kellogg’s because his Rice Krispies only have Snap and Crackle, but no Pop.

You just gotta’ wonder about some people.


November 27, 2023

Christmas In Cuero. . .

I got several questions concerning yesterday’s about our upcoming Christmas in Cuero trip on December 9th and 10th.

Jan came across an article about it in one of the Texas magazines and thought it would make a nice road trip for us.

As it turns out, Cuero was the site of our very last gate-guard adventure, finishing up with our last gate day on February 13, 2017. At the time, we thought we’d be back on a gate later in August, but life moved on, things changed, and Cuero turned out to be our very last one.

But we really enjoyed our stay there and look forward to going back.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Looks like fun.

And of course, we have our favorite restaurants we want to revisit.

As I mentioned before, our previous shipment of machines came in with the wrong faceplates, looking like this.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

So in our latest shipment, they sent us two replacement faceplates so I could change them out myself.

So, taking the unit apart, I found the circuit board mounted to the back of the faceplate.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Though it looked complicated, it turned out that I only had to remove the 3 mounts and unsolder the two blue wires from the connectors.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Then I just had to reverse the process, giving me this finished product.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Only took me about 20 minutes.

Quick and easy.


November 27, 2024

As God Is My Witness . . .

Coming home from work today, I stopped off at the League City Cracker Barrel to pick up our order of Cornbread Dressing for tomorrow’s feast up at Brandi’s in Katy.

Just followed the signs, drove around back, gave them my name, and they gave me my order.

Easy Peazy!

* * * * * * *

I’ve mentioned this famous WKRP In Cincinnati episode from Season #1

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

It’s even shown up in cartoons.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

But a lady pilot in Alaska says it works great if the turkeys are already frozen.

Pilot drops turkeys from plane for neighbors in rural Alaska

With Thanksgiving approaching, Esther Sanderlin from Skwentna, Alaska, is air-dropping turkeys to her neighbors and others living in isolated areas.

This year marks the third time Sanderlin has undertaken this mission, ensuring that those off the grid can enjoy a festive meal.

The idea came to her after a visit with a new neighbor who mentioned splitting a squirrel between three people for dinner. **

“I just had a thought at that moment, you know what, I’m gonna I’m gonna drop them a turkey for Thanksgiving, ’cause I recently rebuilt my first airplane with my dad, and so I can do that really easily,” Sanderlin said.

“My vision with this is to reach farther parts of Alaska, ’cause there are so many families that are rural, that live off the grid,” she

This year, she plans to drop about 30 to 40 turkeys.

When asked if the frozen turkeys get bruised during the drop, Sanderlin reassured, “They’re all frozen. They literally just bounce off the ground. Or if it’s on the ice, they bounce off the ice, or if we’re low, they’ll just roll like a bowling ball.”

** FWIW, when I’m planning squirrel for dinner, I always figure 1 squirrel per person.

* * * * * * *

SpaceX has set a date of January 11, 2025, for the next StarShip launch, which will be #7 in the series. And Musk says that on the still-to-schedule #8 launch, they plan to try and catch the Starship itself back at the launch site. But I still don’t know how this is going to be handled.

Will they just try to catch the StarShip and let the 1st stage booster land back in the ocean, or will they try to catch both, and if so, how?

They only have one launch tower equipped with the Mechzilla Chopsticks, so are they going to try and catch the booster and then move it off the tower in time to catch the StarShip? Depending on the orbit, they would have anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half to be ready to do the 2nd catch.

And I mentioned after the last mission, when they landed the booster offshore, that it didn’t sink.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And it was still floating the next day.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I was wondering if SpaceX would tow it back to shore, but it turns out that the FAA doesn’t allow that for some reason, but requires SpaceX to actually sink it. Turns out not to be as easy as they thought, but they finally got it done.

Stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

 

Only Murders . . .

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Today was another errand day, starting with returning our rent car to the Enterprise office in Dickinson, moving on to lunch at Gator’s right next door, for Taco Tuesday.

But while Jan got Tacos, Fajita Beef and Chicken,

I went rogue and got the Fajita Beef Nachos.

Both very, very good.

Next up, I dropped off Jan at TJ Maxx for some shopping, while I went across the street to my Chase Bank to ask a question about Zelle sending limits. Then it was back over to pick up Jan, before we ended up at the HEB across the Interstate for a few things.

Afterward, as we were finishing up getting gas, I put in an order for a Ghost Pepper Chicken Sandwich to pick up at Popeye’s on the way home, which will be my dinner meal tomorrow night.

* * * * * * *

Jan noted that I left out one of the shows that we watch.

Only Murders In The Building

* * * * * * *

Tomorrow is going to be a nice stay-at-home day, probably consumed mostly by ordering stuff for Christmas.

It’s only money, right?


Thought For The Day:

“Nothing needs reforming nearly as much as other people’s habits.” – Mark Twain

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


November 25, 2009

Thanksgiving Eve…

Today was a ‘get ready for Thanksgiving’ day.

We headed out about 8:15. I was dropping Jan off at Brandi’s to fix her Thanksgiving dishes, and I was going to beat the crowd at the HoneyBaked Ham place.

NOT!

When I got there at 9, the time they opened, there was already a line out the door and down the block. About 150 feet. So much for early.

About 90 minutes later, I had my ham and headed back to Brandi’s. Then after Jan was finished, we drove over to King Food for lunch. And it’s still great as always.

Getting back to the rig, I left Jan and headed back out.

I first went by the park office to settle up and then headed over to pay a visit to one of my clients who had called with a problem.

Finally got back to the rig about 5 pm, and we settled in for the night.


November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving . . .

Today began early for Jan, but lucky me, I got to sleep in until 9 am.

She had to get up and put her Squash Casserole in the oven. She had prepared it yesterday, but it needed to be cooked for about an hour. Everything else was done.

Then, a little after 10, we headed out toward Shawna’s, a trip of about 70 miles out to the Katy area. We did a quick detour by Brandi’s to pick up the HoneyBaked Ham and the two pumpkin pies we had stored in her fridge there.

We got to Shawna’s beautiful new house a little before noon, and the first words we heard were “Where’s the Sausage Balls?”. Just like I said yesterday.

Jan, of course, immediately went for Landon.

Jan with Landon

And here’s Mr. Landon getting the giggles, bouncing on Lowell’s knee.

Landon Laughing with Lowell 1

Landon Laughing with Lowell 2

And here he is surrounded by his many female admirers.

Landon and Friends

As always, the meal was fantastic, with ham, turkey, cornbread dressing, corn casserole, squash casserole, green bean casserole, salad, rolls, and a number of great desserts.

After lunch, some people wandered off to watch the games, some of the kids went upstairs to watch movies in Shawna’s beautiful new theater room with a really big screen, and some people, like me, wandered off to take a nap after that great meal.

A little after 4, we headed back home to the rig, getting back about 5:30 pm.

I mentioned yesterday about the changes in DirecTV’s Distant Network Service that lets you get the East Coast and West Coast Network Stations.

Well, after reading about the changes online last night, I checked my DirecTV service and found that I had lost the West Coast feed. I figured I would call them on Friday.

But getting back this evening, I found we had not only lost the West Coast, but now we had lost the East Coast feed, and the Houston local channel spotlight, as well.

It took almost 30 minutes on the phone to get things turned back on, but I still need to call them tomorrow to try to get our West Coast feed turned back on. The guy on the phone had no idea why I had lost the feeds, as there was nothing in my records about them being turned off.


November 25, 2011

Almost Home . . .

Once again, I was up about 9 am since we were supposed to move this morning . . . maybe. So about 10, I headed over to the office, with a detour by the site where we were supposed to move today.

But as you can see, it was still occupied

Galveston Bay 77

So I checked in with the office, and they had no news except that the 5’er was supposed to leave today.

We’ll see.

Since we couldn’t move yet, about 11, I headed off to see a client. I’m still working my way through all their computers, cleaning and tidying them up, doing updates on the OS and programs, and cleaning out the gunk.

About 3:30, the RV park called and said we could move anytime as the site was now empty. I told them we’d move tomorrow since I wasn’t at the park, and they said no problem.

I headed back to the rig about 4, stopping by the newly vacated site to check out our view-to-be.

Looks pretty good.

Galveston Bay 76

The only downside is that since the site is set up for a 5th wheel, if we want to have our windshield looking out over the bay, (and isn’t that the whole point of parking on the water?) I’ll have to cross-connect the utilities under the rig.

No problem, but I’ll probably have to buy another length of sewer hose.

Jan and I then headed back up to Seabrook to have dinner at Chili’s, with Jan having the Baby Back Ribs, and I had my usual Grilled Chicken Caribbean Salad.

I’ve been eating this salad for years, but in 2008, they discontinued it. And we stopped eating at Chili’s for two years. When we finally went back, it was back on the menu. The waitress said they’d had a lot of complaints and requests for it, so I guess our boycott worked.

We’ll probably try to move about 11 tomorrow, but it depends on the weather since we’re supposed to have heavy thunderstorms tomorrow. Just what you want on a moving day.


November 25, 2012

Back home again . . .

We left our Lake House Thanksgiving retreat about 8:30, but before we left Marble Falls, we wanted to have breakfast at the Blue Bonnet Café.

First opened in 1929, it’s served the likes of President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush, Ethan Hawke, James Lovell, Lyle Lovett, Texas Governor Rick Perry and First Lady Anita Perry, Willie Nelson, Darrell Royal, Roger Staubach, and Chuck Woolery.

August company indeed.

We really lucked out getting there when we did, since we got seated immediately. By the time we left, the line was out the door.

Besides their delicious food, especially breakfast, they’re also well-known for their pies.

Blue Bonnet Cafe Pie

So yes, there’s about 9 inches of meringue on that pie.

After saying our goodbyes with Lowell and Brandi, and getting our Nana and Papa hugs from Landon, we all headed back home.

Our first stop was at our favorite Buc-ee’s on I-10 at Luling. Landon had enjoyed playing with some marbles in a game left at the lake house, so Jan got him a set while we were there.

After a second stop at the Flying J in Brookshire, we got back to the rig about 3 pm and found that Laura Lee had done a great job taking care of Mister and Emma.

Tomorrow it’s back to the grind with clients and chores.


November 25, 2013

I Hear Bells . . .

or at least I think I do. Every time I start to fall asleep, I keep thinking I’m hearing the ding, ding of the driveway bell on the gate. Same thing happened last year, too. And also, just like last year, we both find ourselves looking at car tags to see if we recognize them. It’ll pass.

Well, if we thought the weather was bad last night, all we had to do was wait for today. It got colder and wetter. And of course, I had to wait until this morning to hook up water and sewer. Doing it this morning meant I had to get down on my hands and knees in the cold water so I could run the hoses under the rig to the pedestal on the wrong side.

Fun.

But the first thing I did after getting up was to start checking on rental cars, since I’m going to have to have the truck towed into the shop. And I quickly ran into a problem.

There are pretty much no cars to be had, especially from Enterprise, the ‘we’ll pick you up’ people, which is what I need. Apparently, everyone rents cars to travel for Thanksgiving. Although this year it was worse because of the bad weather. They’re supposed to be bringing in more vehicles tomorrow, so hopefully I’ll luck up.

I also talked to Brock’s Automotive, the car repair shop I’ve used for years. Turns out my Dodge Dakota doesn’t have conventional front wheel bearings. Instead, it has an integrated hub-bearing assembly like this.

Dodge Dakota Hub Bearing Assembly

If I had a 2WD, it would be a quick and simple repair. Just remove the tire/wheel and then remove the 3 bolts, and then remove the old hub and reinstall the new one.

Unfortunately, the 4WD repair is a little more involved.

About noon, I walked up to the office to pay for the month and also get the park WiFi code. They have a very good system here with good coverage and excellent speed. Here’s the SpeedTest results from earlier this evening.

SpeedTest - GBRV

During the day, when the load is lighter, I’ve seen 20Mbps download speed. Very nice

Although it was overcast and rainy all day, we still got to enjoy the view out of our windshield.

Galveston Bay View Site 77 2013

Galveston Bay View Site 77 2013a

Galveston Bay View Site 77 2013b

One of many reasons why we like this park so much.


November 25, 2014

How Do I Clean Off Drilling Mud?

Chris and Charles Yust pulled out of their site here at the Livingston Escapees Park about 8 am. But I only know that 2nd hand from Jan, since they did it so quietly that I never woke up. Which is surprising since their engine was only about 10 feet from my bed.

We’ll head back to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails tomorrow morning, but in the meantime, I wanted to use Charles’ pressure washer to try and remove the drilling mud residue from the roof of our rig.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I made up a bucket of water, Dawn, and Awesome, and started in on the front cap and the edges of the windshield that I hadn’t done originally when it looked like this.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I used my long-handle scrub brush to spread the cleaning solution around and then let it soak for a few minutes. Then I used Charles’ Karcher Pressure Washer to hose it off.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that all the mud came off the front cap and windshield and left things sparkly clean. I was much less pleased to see that the mud at the top edge of the roof wasn’t touched. So it was up on the roof, after all.

Once up there, I had Jan connect a line to lift the brush, the bucket of cleaning solution, and the pressure washer up there with me. And it was even worse than I thought when seen from the ground.

The front 10′ of the roof was pretty much solid black with the mud, as well as the front A/C cover and the vent fan cover. I found the A/C and vent covers cleaned up very easily, and there was a 2-foot-wide strip of smooth plastic that did as well. But the regular roof surface, a pebbly vinyl-looking area, just refused to clean up.

My next attempt was a can of Gunk Engine Degreaser to see how that worked. I sprayed it on a small area, let it sit for a few minutes, and then tried again. And again with no luck. By now, I was running out of time, so I wrapped up and put things away to try another day. I guess I could always just spray paint the roof white again.

I had told Dennis Hill yesterday at his party that I would come down and take a look at his computer problems, so Jan and I headed down there a little before 3 pm. Although we spent more time talking to Dennis and Carol than working, I was able to get most of Dennis’ problems worked out.

Later, we all headed out to eat dinner at Texas Pepper, a Mexican place they like. And for good reason, as all our food was really delicious.

Getting back to their rig, we talked a while longer, before it was after 7:30 and past Jan’s bedtime. Or at least when she started to fall asleep, so we headed home.

Luckily, we won’t have to be up too early for our trip back to Conroe tomorrow.


November 25, 2015

Just Puttering . . .

Today ended up being a nice ‘just putter around the rig’ day.

After coffee in our repaired Mr. Coffee (it’s still working fine) and a couple of slices of pumpkin bread, I started going through some bins looking for a couple of things I need for projects.

Once we move over to Colorado River TT in a couple of weeks, I’ve got an extended plumbing project planned. And since I’ll have the water shut off for a while, I’ll send Jan off to stay with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon for a day or so.

First, I want to replace the flush ball mechanism in our Sealand Traveler toilet. While we were on the gate, we’ve actually been flushing it with a pair of locking pliers. The plastic shaft finally rounded off, and the spring cartridge and the foot pedal would no longer flush it.

And while I’ve got it apart, I want to replace the seal kit, and that’s one of the things I’m looking for in the bins. I bought a seal kit a while back as a spare, but so far it isn’t where I thought it should be, so today I’ll be looking in places it’s not supposed to be.

My second project is to replace the lavatory faucet. I’ve got all the parts, so it’s just a matter of taking care of it when the water is off.

But the last one is probably going to be the tricky one. For a while now, we’ve had a small leak in our shower, apparently at the back of the shower faucet itself. I’m assuming it’s on the input side of the faucet since it seems to leak whether we actually use the shower or not.

The real complication is the fact that there’s no access panel to the rear of the faucet from the bedroom. There’s supposed to be one. American Coach said so.

When I called them, they said the access panel was right behind the mirror on that wall. I said there wasn’t a mirror on that wall, and there wasn’t any access panel, either.

Their answer to this is, “Well, there should be.”

Thanks for your help.

So this means I’m going to have to cut my own access panel, and then come up with some sort of cover for the hole. Presently, we have a large picture hung there, but right now it’s hung too high to cover the area where the hole will have to be, and it wouldn’t look right if we hung it lower.

But the important thing is to first fix the leak.

The next chore was to install my new vehicle tags. My present ones run out at the end of November, so I wanted to get them on before I forget about them. Normally, I just get the stickers, but my tags are 8 years old and are getting pretty beat up, especially the one on the front of the rig, which is mounted fairly low. So this year I paid the extra $10 each and got new tags, and of course new numbers.

Another thing on my list was to install some cable clamps in my electrical bay. Unlike newer rigs that control the engine block heater with a switch, mine has to be plugged in. And it seems like the cord is always hidden away behind the coils of my shore power cord.

So I installed some cable clamps to hold the block heater cord up out of the way.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Sometimes the easy chores are good too.

About 4 Jan and I went into Conroe to have dinner at the local Culver’s. While Jan had a burger and fries, I guess I finally burned out on all the Whataburgers we had on the gate, so I went the soup and salad route, with their Cranberry Bacon Bleu Cheese Salad and a cup of Cheesy Tortilla Soup.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I don’t normally care for Bleu Cheese, but the crumbles in this salad add a nice touch of tartness against the sweetness of the cranberries. Very good.

Tomorrow we’ll head down to Chris and Linda’s in Friendswood to have Thanksgiving dinner. With Brandi, Lowell, and Landon in Oklahoma for the week, we debated what to do for Thanksgiving.

No one really wanted to cook, and no one really wanted to fight the crowds at a restaurant, so we compromised and did a little of both. On our way down to Chris’, we’ll stop off at the Conroe Cracker Barrel to pick up their Thanksgiving To-Go meal for six.

It comes with Turkey and Dressing, Ham, Three Quarts of Sides (for us, it was Mashed Potatoes and Gravy, Green Beans, and Mac & Cheese), Cranberry Relish, Biscuits, and Corn Muffins.

Linda has fixed some of her delicious Cranberry Salad and a Pumpkin Pie, and we’re also bringing a homemade Coconut Cream Pie from yesterday’s visit to the Fish Pond Restaurant.

So no crowds and easy cleanup.


November 25, 2016

Black Friday . . . NOT!

Thanksgiving morning, our ‘Up at 6 and on the road by 7’ turned out to be more like ‘Up at 6:30 and on the road by 7:40’. But finally, we were headed for the Cuero McDonald’s for breakfast, about 40 miles away.

Then our next stop was the Valero in Schulenburg, another 45 miles for a potty break right before we got on I-10E for the 90-mile run to Brandi’s. One thing that makes these trips a lot nicer . . . and faster, is that Texas doesn’t fool around with wimpy speed limits.

With 75 mph on regular Interstates and up to 85 mph on others, they don’t mess around on other roads either. Most rural two-lane roads are 70 or 65 mph at the slowest, which made the trip a lot more fun.

And though you would think these higher speed limits, pretty much the fastest in the nation, would lead to more high-speed deaths, that’s not true. Texas is pretty much in the middle, 23rd from the top, in per capita deaths.

So in this case, Speed Doesn’t Kill.

Right before we got to Brandi’s, we stopped for a few last-minute items at the nearby Kroger’s, including several bags of our favorite coffees. Since there’s no Kroger’s anywhere near us here, we stock up when we can.

When we got to Brandi’s about 11:15, she had things well in hand. She already had the house decorated for Christmas, and it really looked great.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Later, Brand’s friends, Eric, Chantelle, and Max, showed up. Eric brought his turkey fryer and got it set up on the patio.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Over the next several hours, he did two large chickens and then a turkey. One of the chickens had been injected with Jalapeno Butter, and the other one with Garlic Butter. The turkey however, was more traditional and just injected with butter.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

All three were delicious, moist and juicy inside, especially the Jalapeno Butter one.

As the afternoon progressed, more and more friends showed up, and the food started being laid out. Unfortunately, our son and his family all had to work. Chris with his Haz-Mat job for GE, Linda, who manages a CVS, and our granddaughter Piper, who pulled a double in the hospital ER in Galveston.

Then, friends Doug and Christi showed up, along with Christi’s brother and parents.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

The girls took over the kitchen as dinner got closer.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

As is usual at these things, everyone ate until they were stuffed and then some, ending up with a lot of sleepy people sitting around.

Jan and I finally headed home about 20 to 7 and arrived back at the rig at 20 to 10, good time for the 160 miles with a couple of potty stops.

Today was just a stay-at-home day, eating leftovers and staying as far away from Black Friday shopping as possible, although I did buy something on Amazon.

That was close enough.


November 25, 2017

Great Friends and Good Food . . .

Janice and Dave Evans invited us over for lunch today, so we walked over about 11:45 for a great meal of Red Beans and Rice, and Jalapeno Cornbread with brownies for dessert.

We also got to meet their son John, as well as Dave’s brother John, and his wife Lisa, then later their friends Joe and Joanna, so a big, fun group.

We stayed for several hours before coming home, after setting up a rendezvous for later this afternoon.

We met Janice and Dave down at Pho 20 about 4:30 and were greeted by our favorite waitress, Mariah. (Named for the singer, not the wind. We asked.)

Everyone got something new, except me. Of course, since Janice and Dave hadn’t been here before, it was all new to them.

Dave got the General Tso’s Chicken,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

while Janice got the Chicken Pho.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Both Janice and Dave said it was really good.

This time my Jan went with the Orange Chicken,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

while I stayed put with my Jalapeno Chicken.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

As with our other visits, Jan and I started off splitting the House Crunch Salad with Miso Dressing. Really good. Going to have to get some of this dressing.

Tomorrow looks to be another quiet day around the rig, with not a lot going on.

So nice.


November 25, 2018

A Typical Fall Day In Texas . . .

Today is going to be one of those typical Fall days in Texas, what with running the A/C’s this morning and the heaters tonight.

It was sunny and 75° today, but it’s going down to 41° tonight. And only up to 57° tomorrow and 38 tomorrow night. Of course, it could be a lot worse, like up north of her,e where the roads are closed due to high winds and heavy snow.

Today was just a nice stay-at-home day for us, computing, napping, TV’ing, reading, etc. Couldn’t be much nicer.

My project for today was to replace the HD in our ASUS X53E laptop, circa 2012. I’m starting to get errors from the S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) firmware system built into the HD itself. Every time I boot up it gives me a DOS warning message that the HD needs to be replaced ASAP. But since I’m not seeing any ‘actual’ errors during operation, I’m thinking that the drive is probably sensing more and more intermittent read/write errors.

This happens when the HD tries to read some data from the drive and gets an error the first few times before finally reading the data correctly. Or the same thing when it tries to write some data to the drive.

So in preparation for this changeout, a couple of days ago, I made a complete System Image of the laptop’s HD onto my 2TB WD external drive. Then all I had to do today was to find the replacement 500GB drive I had ordered for another project a while back, but never used.

But when I found that, I realized I had another problem. I didn’t have a copy of the System Repair DVD here at home that I needed to reinstall the System Image. So I’ll bring one home from my client’s tomorrow.

The neat thing about a System Image is that it’s a snapshot of the drive, so when I install the image to a new drive, it starts up exactly like it was before. There’s no reinstalling the OS, programs, data, etc. Just copy and go.

Or at least I will tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, NASA has another Mars Lander touching down around 2 pm CT tomorrow. After it lands (a toss-up since only about 50% of past Mars landers have been successful), it will deploy a seismometer and a probe that will drill about 3 meters into the interior of the planet and then spend the next two years checking temps and monitoring for Marsquakes.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

You can check out the landing on either NASA TV or streaming at Space.com.


November 25, 2019

Almost, But Not Quite Yet . . .

I checked in with Dix Diesel Center about 10 this morning and was told that the gaskets would be in about 1 pm, and that it shouldn’t take too long to get them installed.

FWIW I still don’t yet know where these gaskets go, but I definitely want to find out before I leave.

But when I checked back in about 4 pm, I was told the gaskets had come in, but the mechanic was working on another job and hadn’t gotten to our rig yet. The dispatcher said he might be able to get to the job later in the afternoon.

When I was pretty adamant that I did not want to spend Thanksgiving waiting for our rig to get repaired, he said he would do his best to push it up in the queue and to check with him about 8:30 tomorrow morning and see how things are going.

I plan on going ahead and checking out of the hotel and just waiting around at Dix, hoping I can be annoying enough to encourage them to get it fixed and get me on the road out of their hair.

We’ve enjoyed our stay here at the Luling LaQuinta, nice rooms, friendly staff, 24-hour coffee in the lobby, and a good free breakfast. However, I do have to question their Free Ultra Fast Internet.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Well, I guess the ‘Free’ part is correct, but I have big questions about the ‘Ultra Fast’ part. But after repeated tests using Speedtest.net, the fastest connection I’ve seen was 1.07 Mbps, with some as low as 0.96 Mbps.

But when I brought my Verizon MiFi back to our room from the rig, I’m getting between 17 and 20 Mbps.

So does that mean my MiFi is ‘Ultra Ultra Ultra Fast’?


November 25, 2021

Happy Gobble Gobble To All . . .

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

The incoming cold front (low of 70 last night, 46 tonight) brought rain with it, not heavy, but just a steady on-and-off drizzle. But it may be part of the reason that when we got to Cracker Barrel about 11, it was busy, but not overwhelmed.

So I dropped off Jan out front while I found a place to park. And since a lot of the clientele today was us old people, there were no handicapped spaces available, but I did find a space not too far from the door, and hobbled in.

And found Jan already seated, and we had our plates in about 15 minutes.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And it was just as delicious as always. And since it came with cornbread/biscuits, pumpkin pie, and a drink, all for $12.99, it was a great deal, too.

However, our plan to buy a couple of dinners to take home for leftovers was thwarted by the fact that we were now supposed to have ordered them ahead of time. But it still worked out because we had leftovers anyway.

And as we were leaving about an hour later, they were much, much busier.

We chose wisely.

Since we knew we were going to be eating kind of early, I didn’t fix coffee this morning. So we were very happy to see Cowboy Coffee open for business when we went by about 10:45, thinking we could get coffee on the way home. But our hopes were dashed when we came back by about 12:15 and found them closed. Guess they were just open for people heading out to Grandma’s house for Thanksgiving.

Bummer!

Getting home, we make calls to both kiddos, Brandi up in OK, and Chris over in Kingsland. Good to hear from both.

After that, it was time for a post-turkey nap.

A really nice day.

Hopefully yours was as nice as ours.


November 25, 2022

Who Knew?

With all the bad weather running around, our friends Ron and Anne decided to head out today, a day earlier than planned, on their way to Yuma. And along the way, they did have their first Buc-ee’s experience at the one in Luling. They’ll probably never be the same.

Jan and I really enjoyed getting to know them and spending time with them.

Hope we can see them again soon.

Since Brandi and her family will be home late tonight/early tomorrow, I’m heading up to Katy to pick up Jan from her dog-sitting gig about 1 pm. Then we’re having lunch at our favorite Grimaldi’s Pizza before Jan does some Christmas shopping at the Trader Joe’s right next door.

It’s a two’fer.

Yesterday, a man who apparently fell off the Carnival Cruise Ship Valor on Wednesday, was rescued Thanksgiving Day after spending 12-15 hours treading water in the Gulf of America.

He was last seen leaving the bar about 11 pm, saying he was going to use the restroom. And he wasn’t seen again aboard the ship.

After the cruise ship reversed course, and with the Coast Guard helping, they found the guy and pulled him aboard a helicopter. When rescued, he said he had no idea how he ended up in the water.

Personally, I figure he was drunk enough that he decided to pee over the railing and fell in.


Then, while reading this article, I came across this about another man-overboard incident.

I used to work for Royal Caribbean / Celebrity. I had to go on cruises about twice a year to manage IT deployments. Honestly, it was so automatic I didn’t do much other than lay in the sun during the day and play blackjack at night.

Anyway about 12 years ago I was on a Celebrity ship, Solstice I think. Casino closed early because the clientele was older. I’m getting a snack around midnight and there was an announcement “all crew alpha alpha alpha port side. Ship starts a turn at the same time. (Seas were 8-10 feet.)

It took a solid 45 minutes for the ship to make a full circle back. In the meantime, you could see a flashing beacon out there.

And this is crazy: the spotlights were so bright that even from a few miles away there was a red dot. That red dot was actually the reflection from the overboard passenger’s bald head.

Alright so we sort of stop a mile away. A skiff (probably 25 ft. long) pops out the side with three guys. It runs to the pink dot. Sits next to it for a minute and starts drifting away. 10-15 minutes later another skiff pops out. It runs out to the pink dot…. And makes its way back.

A buck-naked 50-60 year old man is passed out. They put the skiff back in the boat and all the passengers and crew watching disperse.

The next day my team got the full story from the bridge. The guy was there to get married. He got rip-roaring drunk and got in a fight. So he strips naked, stands on a rail near the bridge. When someone notices him, he jumps.

The crew deployed a beacon. That is how they knew where to find him. That was the blinking light.

When the first skiff got out there, he refused to get in. A guy reached for him and he punched the crew member breaking his nose.

The second skiff went out with the ship doctor. This is where I thought it sounded odd, but the bridge swore it was true. The ship doctor has a tranquilizer gun at his disposal. They shot the passenger and pulled him into the second skiff.

He got expelled from the ship the next day in Honduras. He was alone. His new wife, and all the family that came for the wedding stayed on the ship.

So who knew that cruise ship doctors carry tranquilizer guns?


November 25, 2023

Black Saturday?

Having survived Black Friday, by never leaving the rig, we thought we’d risk Black Saturday. So we left the rig about 12:30 with our first stop for lunch at our local Los Rameriz Mexican Restaurant.

Los Rameriz is a small, family-owned place in a nearby strip center, and like most places we eat at regularly, we’ve got our favorites.

For Jan, it’s the Pechuga Rellena, a large grilled Chicken Breast, layered over Grilled Shrimp and Broccoli, along with a side of Avocado. And all covered in Cheese.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

It’s so good I’ve even had it a couple of times. But this time I stayed with my usual, the Beef Fajita Taco Salad.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Just as delicious as always.

Then it was back over to the NTB Tire Center to retrieve my folding knife that had apparently fallen out of my belt sheath while I was there picking up the truck on Wednesday. Luckily for me, someone found it and turned it in.

Next up was the Chase Bank to get a new debit card for Jan. Somehow hers expired a while back, and she didn’t realize it. And for some reason, she never received a new one.

We were actually able to do this by going through the Business drive-thru line. And when the young lady teller asked if she needed to Fast Process the new card, I said, “No, today or tomorrow will be fine.”

For some reason, she looked confused.

Jan slugged me and said, “Don’t do that!”

So I told her any time would be fine.

Spoiled my fun.

Next, we were back over to the Wal-Mart for our weekly stuff.

I did see this sign the other day that still has me confused.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

So what kind of trucks are they talking about?

Finishing up at Wal-Mart, we made a quick stop at the Kroger’s right down the feeder for a few more things.

Then it was home for the night. And we survived Black Saturday.

Looks like we weren’t the only ones who had Thanksgiving Dinner problems this past Thursday. In fact, compared to them, we came off pretty well.

Houston-area families furious after they say caterer failed to fill Thanksgiving orders

Some people got nothing.

Some Houston families say a local business left them empty-handed on Thanksgiving after they paid for catered meals but got empty promises and empty plates instead.

Customers said they paid Maddhouse Catering hundreds of dollars in advance, and now they’re mad that the Deer Park business failed to deliver.

“It was ruined. We had each other, but we had no fried turkey,” Susan Bramblett told us.

“We were supposed to get two turkeys, a ham, four sides, and two pies,” Jeff said. “When we showed up, he said we could have nothing but a turkey, and it wasn’t even cooked.”

On Maddhouse Catering’s Facebook page, a post on Wednesday night said, “Everyone please let me have a chance to respond.” Then, on Sunday, they posted again, saying, “This is lance I’m in the process of trying to get everyone a refund. I’m sorry for everything and ultimately I failed and take 100 percent of the blame for not staying on top of everything. I have not skipped town nor do I intend to.”

So our Country Fried Turkey doesn’t seem so bad now.


November 25, 2024

Uber It Is . . .

I had mentioned before that I planned to use a limo service to drop us off down in Galveston for our upcoming RCL cruise, the same one that we used back in 2019 for our European and NYC trips.

Our daughter Brandi used them and said they were reliable.

And she was right.

But when I asked her recently if she still used them, she said yes, but they’d gotten really expensive.

And she was right.

Boy, was she right!

Looking back to 2019, we paid $180 round-trip to be dropped off and picked up at Houston Intercontinental, about a 55-mile one-way trip.

And then a few months later, we paid $120 round-trip to be dropped off and picked up at Houston Hobby, about a 25-mile one-way trip.

But when I called them a couple of weeks ago, they said it would be $270! for the 20-mile one-way trip down to the RCL Cruise Terminal

Each Way!

So $540 for drop-off/pick-up.

Yikes!

And this for a 20-mile trip, and just a plain SUV, not a limo of any type.

So I decided to check out Uber once again. And it was a real eye-opener.

I can get an Uber for anywhere between $35 and $90, depending on how fancy the ride is.

And the Uber app allows me to schedule our pickup ahead of time.

So Uber it is.

* * * * * * *

I’ve mentioned before about the customized electrolysis machines we import from Poland. And up until recently, we used FedEx for our shipping company. But the company recently the company suggested we might want to start shipping via UPS. And it was a real surprise.

Not for the rates, which were pretty much the same, but the speed of shipping.

With FedEx, the package would leave Poland and then sit in Cologne, Germany, for a week, before finally ending up here in Houston after a couple of weeks.

But with UPS, a shipment that went out on November 20th showed up here at the rig today, the 25th.

Now that’s fast.

* * * * * * *

I mentioned the other day about our dueling weather fronts, with warm and cold fronts duking it out.

Yesterday’s temps were 84 and 75, with an 86° for today. But then tonight, we’re going down to 52°.

But then tomorrow’s high is looking to be 69, with a low of 53. Then Wednesday, we’re back up to 83°.

Of course, Thursday’s high is supposed to be 67°, and at this point the cold front takes control with highs in the 60’s as far as the days are listed.

Tomorrow we plan on having lunch at Vida Mariscos again, and then do a make-up Wal-Mart stop that we missed out on this past weekend.