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I went out about 11:30 to connect up our water bay’s heating elements, only to discover that one of my two heating elements was DOA. So I set up the one working one, and then as soon as I got back inside, I ordered another pair from Amazon.
By paying the $2.99 fee, they were delivered here at 7:30 pm.
Gotta love Amazon. I’ll install it tomorrow morning.
* * * * * * *
Back in 2017, I posted this.
Maybe people would be more likely to evacuate from hurricanes if we didn’t give them wussy, non-scary names, like Harvey or Irma. I’ll bet if you called a hurricane Megatron Death 2000, they’d get the hell out of town as fast as they could.
And now they’re doing it again.
While the networks are talking about the upcoming SnowApocalypse or a SnowMageddon, the National Weather Service has labeled this as –
Winter Storm Fern.
Really?
Of course, for some reason, people are panicking and wiping out the shelves for bread and toilet paper.
How much do you need for a two-day freeze?
Now, if you’re in the liquor zone, it makes sense.
Still not sure what the big deal is. Last year it went down to 15° here and we had 3.5 inches of snow. This year it’s 23° and no snow.
What’s up with that?
* * * * * * *
Tomorrow, after picking up Barbara Parker in League City, we’ll head down to Galveston to meet up with Linda Furlong at Sunflower Cafe. Both of these ladies are former coworkers of Jan’s, and they try to get together regularly.
Thought For The Day:
Contrary to the old saying, crime often does pay, and it pays very well.
Especially if the Government is involved.
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
January 23, 2011
Laser Printers and Joint Juice . . .
This morning started about 10 am when our son Chris came over to modify a cabinet he built for our rig. By the time he was finished, it was time for all of us to head up to Webster to meet the rest of the family at Cheddar’s, a local favorite family restaurant of ours.
And of course, this produced the obligatory Landon photos.
Landon was fascinated by Piper’s earrings.
As usual, when the whole family is together, we spent a lot of time sitting around just talking about family stuff.
After lunch, we all split up, with Jan and me following Chris home so I could install the printer driver for Piper’s Christmas present, a laser printer.
Next, it was on to Sam’s Club to pick up the Joint Juice they were out of when we were there on Friday. After that, we stopped by Brandi’s to pick up some mail, and of course, Jan got in some more Landon time.
Then it was back over to Kohl’s, where with their sale and the 15% off coupon Brandi had printed out for her, Jan got about $125 worth of stuff, including a new purse, for about $50.
Finally, we stopped off at Kroger’s for some groceries and Cinnamon Dolce Lattes from Starbucks. We had thought we were going to stop by our storeroom, but decided to go on home after a busy day.
That about wraps it up for today. More tomorrow.
January 23, 2012
Outrigger’s. . .
and so is the bad weather.
It was bright and sunny all morning, and then a little after 1 pm, the clouds rolled in.
But we ignored the weather, and headed out for lunch at Outrigger’s, one of our favorite local seafood places. It’s located underneath the Kemah Bridge on the Clear Lake Channel just off Galveston Bay, and part of the fun is watching the many birds around the area.
This pelican and the egret seemed to be trying to stare each other down. They just stood like that for a good while.
Later, about 6:45, we all headed up to La Brisa, to meet our son Chris, his wife Linda, and our granddaughter Piper for dinner.
After two hours of great food and conversation, we called it a night, and everyone headed home.
Tomorrow we’re heading into Houston for some shopping and eating, two of our favorite things.
January 23, 2013
Eaten By Locusts . . .
After our walk and morning coffee, I finished up with the computer I was delivering this afternoon, and then headed out a little after 12 to deliver my latest computer to the client.
I spent some time with her showing her the differences between her old Vista and her new Win7 OS, setting up her email account, and making the recovery DVD’s for the system.
My next stop was at another client’s to fix a problem with their order system, then it was on to the PO to drop off some letters, and then home.
About 15 minutes later, Jan and I headed back out to meet our friends Bob and Maria for dinner at King Food,
On the way, I made a quick stop at Rudy’s BBQ along I-45 in Webster to pick up a bottle of their very coarse ground Black Pepper. I get a new bottle every year before we hit the road, so we can use it as we travel. It’s hard to find pepper ground this coarse just anywhere.
We had so much fun at dinner that we were there for over 3 hours. We have known Bob and Maria since the mid-80’s, and we always have a great time when we get together.
Good food and great company can’t be beat.
It seems that today just got eaten by locusts, as I never got a chance to hang my restrung shade, and probably won’t be able to tomorrow, either.
January 23, 2014
Rain, Sleet, and Snow?
and 1/4″ of ice on roads and bridges for tomorrow. And I’m supposed to see two clients. We’ll see how that goes.
One of the things I wanted to do today was to get my Duck Dynasty Chia Pet started. My son Chris gave it to me for Christmas, but in all the chaos, it got put aside until now.
But today’s the day.
Chia Willie Duck Dynasty Handmade Decorative Chia Pet Planter
Chia Willie starts out looking like this.
First up, you soak him in a bowl of water for about an hour. At the same time, you soak some of the chia seeds in some water.
Then you set Willie in a little plastic tray, fill him full of water, and then smear the seed mush all over him.
Then put him near a light source and keep him filled with water. And hopefully Willie will soon bloom in all his verdant glory. I’ll keep you updated.
One thing I didn’t know is that after Willie blooms, you can eat him. Apparently, Chia Seeds are high in Omega-3, fiber, and protein. YUMMM!
About 4 PM, Jan and I headed up to Webster to have dinner at one of our favorite places, Rudy’s BBQ.
I always get a little of everything, moist brisket, pork ribs, and jalapeno sausage links,
and some of their great Cream Corn. And a lot of leftovers to bring home.
Later, after we got back home, I ground up some of my Trinidad Scorpion Chili Pepper Pods.
Dried Trinidad Scorpion Chili Pepper Pods
Until very recently, at 1,400,000 Scoville Units, this was the hottest pepper in the world. But just a month or so ago, it was surpassed by the Carolina Reaper. The King is dead. Long live the new King.
As a comparison, a jalapeno is about 5,000, and a habanero is about 20,000 SC’s.
I use my Mr. Coffee coffee bean grinder to make a powder from the pods to put in my shaker. And just the little bit of dust that escapes into the air makes your eyes burn, your lips numb, and then you start coughing and sneezing.
This ought to be a GOOD batch.
January 23, 2015
The Roughneck Life . . .
I mentioned the other day about my rig muffler/tailpipe repair, where I reattached my pipe to the muffler, where it had broken off.
So out of curiosity, I called Spartan this afternoon to see how much a new muffler would have cost me. Turns out I saved $272.12 plus $45 shipping. Pretty good return on $10 worth of clamps, brackets, and screws.
I’ve run into a small problem with my recent power converter that I installed around the middle of December.
https://ourrvadventures.com/2014/12/original-mexican-and-old-friends/
Well, I’ve run into a small problem with it. The Float Charge level is about 0.1 volt too low.
Like most power converters, mine has 3 output voltage levels.
The first one, the Bulk Charge Mode, will run at 14.4 for a maximum of 4 hours. This mode is used if you’ve been draining your batteries pretty hard, so the system needs to catch up.
Next is the Absorption Mode, which at 13.6 volts, is considered the ‘normal’ mode when you’re using a lot of 12-volt power.
Lastly, is the Float mode. At 13.2 volts, this mode is where the converter mostly stays, due to the fact that most of our lights are LED, and we just don’t use much other 12-volt power, except when we run the vent fans.
The problem is that 13.2 volts is not enough to cause my rig’s battery controller to switch over and charge the engine batteries. It needs to see 13.3 volts before it will switch.
I talked with American Coach to see if this level is adjustable, and found it wasn’t.
I can make the converter charge the engine batteries by turning it off and back on, which starts it back up in Bulk Mode for a little while, but then it cycles down to Absorption Mode and then back to Float Mode. But this is a PITA.
I talked to the PowerMax power converter people and found that there is an adjustment inside that will raise output voltage slightly, but to do so, I would have to drill out the rivets in the case to get inside, and this would void my warranty, and the two-year additional warranty I bought for $9.95
Right now, I have a 3-amp float charger on the engine batteries, keeping them right at 13.3 volts, while my house batteries sit at 13.2 volts. And that’s how it will stay until and if I come up with something else.
Update: What I finally ended up doing is to put the Power Converter on a timer. Three times a day, every 8 hours, the timer shuts off the Power Converter for 30 minutes, so that when it comes back on, it goes into Bulk Charge Mode at 14.4 volts, which will charge the engine batteries, taking care of the problem.
* * * * * * *
Although the bottom has temporarily dropped out of the gate guard business (one service guy says they’ve gone from 40 gates to 16 in just a few weeks), it’ll come back. It always does.
Anyway, I came across a really good article describing the life of a rig worker.
7 On, 7 Off – The Roughneck Life
It’s a good read even if you aren’t interested in gate guarding. The comments are interesting too.
* * * * * * *
About 4 pm, the rain had started to slack off, so we headed out for dinner at Golden Corral and a second try at Wal-Mart
I mentioned a few days ago about how good Golden Corral’s 5-oz. Sirloins are.
And that they were better than the $24 steaks we had the other night at Nancy’s Steakhouse in Columbus.
And tonight was no different. Still delicious and still all you can eat.
Did I mention it’s all you can eat?
Tomorrow’s supposed to be nice, sunny, dry, and about 60 degrees. So I should be able to get back on a couple of projects.
January 23, 2016
You Can Hold It . . .
We didn’t walk this morning because about 11:45, we headed down to the Clear Lake area for the day. Tonight at 6:30 is Jan’s yearly get-together with her former hospital co-workers. They’ve been doing this every year since we started RV’ing in 2008, and always have a great time. In the past, they’ve had the party at a local Clear Lake restaurant, but this year it was at someone’s home. And as it turns out, they liked it that way so much they’re going to do it again next year.
One of the reasons we were going down so early was to have lunch at another of our long-time favorite places, Monterey’s Little Mexico, down in Dickinson. Another place we’ve been eating at for 25 years or so, they still recognize us when we return every fall. In fact, Monterey’s is the last place that we stop in the RV on the way out of town each year. They have a big lot where we can park the rig and then hitch up the truck after we’re done, so it works out perfectly.
After lunch, we made a quick run down to the next exit to the Texas City Buc-ee’s. If you haven’t heard of Buc-ee’s before, it’s a Texas-based chain of convenience stores. But of course, being from Texas, they are also the world’s LARGEST convenience stores,
Some of the Buc-ee’s have 120 fuel pumps, and the store in New Braunfels, the largest, has over 68,000 square feet under one roof, selling everything from BBQ to fresh fruits and vegetables, and from fresh baked goods to Go-Pro cameras. And pretty much everything else I can think of.
So if you’re driving along a Texas road, and you see a billboard like this,
just hold it. You won’t be disappointed.
And if you do ‘hold it’, you won’t have to wait in line when you get there. There are as many as 30 stalls for the ladies, and 33 urinals for the guys. As I said in another blog, “It’s urinals as far as the eye can see.”
And don’t forget to pick up a big bag of Beaver Nuggets.
Our next stop was at the dry cleaners to pick up our ‘summer’ bedspread. We have two bedspreads for our bed, both with a moose pattern, strangely enough, HA!, and we swapped them out when we get back to the Houston area every fall, and then again before we leave for the year.
When we get back to this area, we drop the summer one off at the cleaners, and pick up the winter one that’s been stored at our son Chris’, still in its plastic wrapper. Then, a week or so before we head out each year, we drop the winter one off and pick up the summer one.
That done, we drove over to our son Chris’ to drop off the spread, and also to drop off his repaired Galaxy S5 smartphone.
Yes, I did get it fixed, and I’ll tell you more about that in tomorrow’s blog. But you can check out the start of this below.
https://ourrvadventures.com/2016/01/but-the-patient-died/
I picked up Jan about 9:30, and we headed back up to Conroe, finally getting home a little after 11 pm.
Another long, but very fun day.
January 23, 2017
A New Bella . . .
Well, this pre-frack pad is still rocking along, getting everything pre-positioned for the frack sometime this coming weekend.
At some point in the next week, Jan and I have to turn around to the night shift, where we’ll be for the frack, with her on the front gate and me on the pad. Much better than the original idea, which was for us to be on opposite shifts on the front gate.
The Company Man took care of my mud problem yesterday by having them bring in several front loaders of gravel and then spreading it out.
So I went from this,
to this.
Much, much better for when it rains next.
We have a new Bella here in Cuero.
First there was Bella Sera, ‘A Beautiful Evening’, in Kenedy, and now we have La Bella Tavola, ‘The Beautiful Table’, and both are delicious. So it’s nice to have a replacement here in Cuero.
On the recommendation of our landlady, we gave it a try last night, and were not disappointed at all.
Jan had the Chicken Alfredo
while I had the Spaghetti Sampler with Meat Sauce, Meatballs, and Italian Sausage.
Both delicious. We’ve found our new Bella.
One thing really nice about our RV park, Spacious Country RV Park, is the Wi-Fi, which runs between 12 and 15 Mbps, probably the consistently fastest we’ve ever encountered. Even for ones we’ve paid for.
Todd showed up this morning with a microwave for the shack, as the one that was supposed to be in here was apparently stolen sometime in the past. So now I can have a hot lunch (or dinner) again.
Last-minute update –
As of 4:21 pm this afternoon, our Fri – Mon Day Shift only Pre-Frack gate has now become a Day Shift/Night Shift Till Further Notice gate.
Which really complicates things when Jan and I will be able to turn around to the night shift for the frack itself.
January 23, 2018
Why Do I Remember The Name of Tonto’s Horse . . .
But I Can’t Remember What I Walked To Back of The Rig For?
I goofed off most of the morning, checking out some new website software that I’m looking at. But, figuring I had to at least do something productive for the day, about 2:30, I went outside and installed the second new awning on my bedroom window. It only took about 20 minutes, with part of that moving the ladder back and forth.
Two down, two to go.
The next one, the big one on the passenger side, will be more trouble since it’s more than twice as long as the rear window one, 51″ vs. 130″. So the big torque tube will be harder to handle. We’ll see.
Last night, we lost one of our favorite TV shows to the recent Hollywood sexual harassment scandal. Wisdom of the Crowd died at 13 episodes due to the accusations against the star, Jeremy Piven
Although the ratings weren’t great, they were probably good enough to be picked up for the second 13 episodes. At least shows without controversy, but lower ratings were picked up.
Jan and I both thought that they should have replaced Piven with a new actor. They do it on soap operas all the time. Of course, the only time we could remember it being done in primetime with a main character was Darren on Bewitched. A long time ago, but it’s the only one we can think of.
Maybe our readers can come up with others.
About 5 pm, we met our RV friends Jan and Dale Thompson at the Cheddar’s up in Webster. They had never been to one, so they were looking forward to it after reading our blog.
The other Jan got the Chicken Fried Chicken, while Dale got the Cornmeal Catfish. My Jan got her usual Key West Chicken and Shrimp, and I again got the Veggie Plate.
All really delicious.
After a great time, my Jan and I headed home with a quick stop at HEB for a few things before getting home about 8 pm.
Tonto’s horse was named ‘Scout’. And before that, his horse was named ‘White Fella’. Though it sounds like it might have been Tonto’s behind-his-back nickname for the Lone Ranger.
January 23, 2019
It Was Educational, I Swear . . .
Today was another busy day at work, with a lot more price changes and updates that came in this week.
The aquarium pump came in, but I never even got a chance to take a look at it. Maybe Friday. Another thing that came in was a new UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) for the office webserver. It died last week, so I put in an order for a new one, but it got backordered and didn’t get here until yesterday.
But I wanted to be sure it was going to hold up, so I plugged it into my computer, and not the webserver, to let it cook for a couple of days before I put it online. I’d rather it shut down my computer than the website
APC UPS 1000VA Battery Backup & Surge Protector
This one should keep the webserver up for about 45 minutes.
Jan’s got her one-week checkup tomorrow afternoon for last Thursday’s right eye cataract surgery. And so far she’s really happy about it. In fact, she’s really happy with both eyes now and thinks she might be able to get by with just reader glasses.
But if she does need distance correction, it won’t be very much.
But first off tomorrow, we’re heading up to The Woodlands to meet up with some RV friends at the Longhorn Steakhouse there. But we’ve got a detour on the way by Miss Piper’s to give her Mazda Miata a jumpstart.
I sometimes watch the Mexican Weather Channel to catch up on my Spanish.
In case you’re wondering, the caption at the top says “5 Day Forecast”.
It was educational, I swear.
January 23, 2020
Thanks For Your Kind Words . . .
First off, I want to thank everyone for their kind words about my Uncle Tom. I’ve really enjoyed reading the many accolades in the local Alabama newspapers and discovering a lot of family history that I hadn’t heard before.
In talking about the period while he was playing for the University of Alabama, I found this.
While playing at Alabama, he also developed a close relationship with Lenette Ellis, the captain of the cheerleaders for the Crimson Tide, whom he married in 1949.
Lenette was quite an athlete in her own right. She won the 1948 Southern Olympic Diving Championship and qualified for the Olympic trials.
And this –
In 1956, Calvin took the coaching job at Sylacauga for football. Calvin coached the Aggies for 21 seasons. In 1957, Calvin and the Aggies were named state champions by The Birmingham News. The 1960 and 1961 teams won back-to-back state titles. Sylacauga had 15 straight winning seasons, including the 1969 state championship.
Calvin retired from coaching in 1988, boasting an overall record of 201-130-11. Calvin was a three-time Coach of the Year and was inducted into the Alabama High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 1991.
He and Lenette are the only husband and wife team in the Hall of Fame.
All the test drive prep work I had scheduled went completely unprepped, and I don’t really know why. I guess life intervened.
So I guess it’s going to all get put off until Saturday.
About 2 pm, Jan and I headed up to Webster to have lunch at our long-time favorite, Floyd’s Cajun Seafood. We’ve been eating here since the late 90’s when it first opened.
Originally, it was called Thibodeaux’s when Floyd was a silent partner in the restaurant. The reason he was a silent partner was that Floyd is Floyd Landry, who, along with his family, started Landry’s Seafood, first in Lafayette, LA.
He had to wait until his non-compete expired with Tilman Fertitta, who bought up the Landry’s chain, before he could open a restaurant in his name.
Like most restaurants we frequent, we both have our favorites, dishes that we keep going back to.
Jan got her Grilled Catfish Dinner with Grilled Veggies, and a Side Salad,
while I started off with a Dinner Salad, with their homemade Ranch Dressing,
and a Bowl of Shrimp Gumbo.
There were so many shrimp in here that there was one in every spoonful.
After that, we made an office stop for some Amazon stuff that came in, and a HEB stop on the way home.
A nice day.
January 23, 2021
Pipelines and Chia Pets . . .
Today was another damp, dreary day, so nothing got done outside. But about 12:30, Jan and I headed out for lunch and errands, with our first stop at our storeroom on FM517. Then it was on up the Interstate to have lunch at Denny’s.
What was kind of different this time was that we didn’t know anybody, and no one knew us either. We eat here about once a week, but usually around 4 pm. But at 1 pm there was a whole different crew of servers.
I got my usual Ultimate Omelet with fruit instead of Hash Browns,
while Jan got the slightly smaller, 55+ Senior version. Which is fitting since she is my senior, after all. (I’m going to pay for that)
Then it was back across the Interstate to get our hair cut at the TGF there. And in my case, of course, I do mean ‘hair’ is singular. We both use Christina, who’s really fast, and really good. We were both in and out in 30 minutes total. Of course, 25 of those were for Jan, and 5 for me.
The Wal-Mart in Webster was our next stop for a prescription and some other stuff. We never seem to have enough ‘stuff’. Sam’s Club, across the street, was our next stop, but just for gas.
Less than a month ago, gas here was $1.45. Today it was $1.75.
What’s up with that?
Heading home, we stopped by the Cowboy Coffee place and got Sugar-Free Pumpkin Praline coffees, and also made a tentative dinner date with Theresa, the owner, and her husband.
Day to be determined.
Suddenly, it seems that a lot of Union workers are upset that the Keystone XL pipeline has been cancelled … again. There goes 70,000 direct and ancillary jobs. No wonder they’re mad. But the new Transportation Secretary nominee says they should just get ‘different’ jobs.
So it’s all OK, I guess.
Of course, the reason given is that it is environmentally dangerous. But then see the photo below.
That represents over 2.5 million miles of pipeline.
What seems to get lost in the shuffle is the fact that the oil that would come from Canada into the U.S., and on down to Texas via the pipeline, is already coming in now, by tanker trucks and train cars. Which means it will continue to be transported that way, instead of flowing through a much safer, underground pipe.
Even more ironically, the majority of the pipeline, over 2,900 miles, has already been completed and is in use. The final part, the only part left, the part that was just canceled, and a much shorter distance, runs from Canada down into the U.S., as far as Nebraska, mostly paralleling already existing and in-use pipelines. It’s mainly to just increase capacity.
And there are already several other pipelines passing through the same areas.
And as far as pollution, canceling the pipeline may cause even more of it. That’s because, as I said, the oil will still be coming in by trucks and trains. Lots and lots of trucks and trains.
The latest figure I’ve found is that they had planned to ship about 800,000 barrels Per Day! through the pipeline. And that’s contracted for the next 20 years.
Now, a standard railroad tank car holds 700 barrels. So that means over 1100 tank cars will be needed. Per Day!
And since a standard semi tanker holds about 190 barrels, that means over 4200 truck tankers will be needed. Per Day! Or some combination of the two.
So, how much pollution do you think 4200 trucks are going to produce?
And again, despite what a lot of people seem to think online, stopping the Keystone XL is not stopping the oil from coming into the U.S. But just changing how it’s transported.
(And yes, I realize that ‘think’ and ‘online’ in the same sentence is an oxymoron.)
Stay tuned.
January 23, 2022
Before Its Time . . . An Update
These are two related blogs I posted back around the first part of 2020, ending with a revelation about a hammer, a brutal murder, a psychotic doctor, and 25 years in prison.
Then yesterday, I got a comment from someone directly connected to this case.
But first, catch up on the whole story and the big reveal at the end.
February 5, 2020
This was a Peloton before there was a Peloton.
In January 1987, I left the NASA contractor where I working on the Space Shuttle and moved over to Krug Life Sciences, where I was working on the first iteration of the Space Station, then called Space Station Freedom.
I was the computer/video interface guy in a small group headed by Dr. Pat Doyle, tasked with designing exercise equipment for the astronauts to use in space. We brainstormed for a few weeks, tossing around ideas for things that would work in Zero-G.
I mean, weight-lifting was out, as well as pushups. Even running on a treadmill wouldn’t be a worthwhile effort. Finally, we settled on the idea of an exercise bike of some sort. The effort needed wouldn’t change under Zero-G conditions, and the astronaut wouldn’t float away if he were strapped to the seat.
In addition, we were also told to find a way to make the exercise ‘entertaining’. Getting started, our first job was to get an exercise bike to work with.
At the time, Bally was the manufacturer of one of the top-of-the-line computer-controlled exercise bike, the Bally Lifecycle. So we called and appealed to their patriotic inclinations. Well, that and the promise of being able to advertise it ‘As Used On The Space Station’. And with some subtle threats, ‘possible IRS audits, etc.’ I was able to get a complete set of schematics and manuals on the bike.
As far as the ‘entertainment’ part of this, we decided to try to interface a video disc player to the unit that would play back biking videos, touring places like Hawaii, Yellowstone, and Yosemite. After a lot of work, we came up with a way that the astronauts could take different routes, and the video disc would sync up with their turns, so they could take a different route every time they exercised. And they could also speed up, slow down, or stop. All of this is viewed on a monitor mounted over the bike’s handlebars. Remember, this was long before DVDs, etc. There were just VHS tapes and video discs.
And it was all controlled by a Commodore 64 that I had removed from the case, disconnected the keyboard, and mounted the circuit board inside the bike. The program was stored on a game cartridge so that when you turned the C64 on, it booted up directly into the program.
The only unknown at that point was to fly the video disc player on the Vomit Comet to be sure it would work in Zero-G. But while we were waiting for our slot to come up on an upcoming flight, Krug lost their contract on this project, and I moved on to another contract.
The bike and our mods went back to Bally and disappeared. But then, about 10 years later, our concept was resurrected by Bally and others, utilizing the new DVD players that had just come out. We were just ahead of our time, and the technology.
Maybe later I’ll tell you the rest of this story. About a hammer, a brutal murder, a psychotic doctor, and 25 years in prison.
March 2, 2020
At the end of that blog, I mentioned the rest of that story, involving a hammer, a brutal murder, a psychotic doctor, and 25 years in prison.
I started working with Dr. Patrick Doyle in the late 80’s, working on a number of computer-related projects out of his psychology office. At the time, I was doing a lot of computer consulting utilizing Commodore computers, both the Commodore 64 and the newer, much more powerful Commodore Amiga.
I had started out writing software to allow the Amiga to control and record data from his Biofeedback machines. But my big project for his office was to build a machine to grade his Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) tests that he gave to patients. At the time, the testing service was selling a grading machine for about $6000, and this was in 1987 dollars.
These tests ran between 400 to almost 600 questions and were a real pain to grade by hand, you know, those tests where you use a #2 pencil to fill in the little bubbles. But after thinking it over for a while, I came up with an idea.
I tore apart an old Epson dot-matrix printer, removing the printhead and replacing it with a photocell. Then I wrote a program in Assembler to move the photocell back and forth. stopping at each bubble to record light or dark at each position. Then it moves down one line and does it again.
By placing the test in the sheet feeder, it could grade a test in just a few minutes. I charged him $1000 plus the cost of the printer, which I believe was $200 or so, which he was happy with.
But during all my work with Dr. Doyle, I always thought it was strange that a person who specialized in Anger/Stress Management, among other things, would get so mad about some little thing that he would have to go off into a corner and mumble to himself for 10 minutes or so until he calmed down. And I saw this over and over, even when we were working at NASA a couple of years later.
10 years or so later, I was WebMaster for the School of Business at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, where Dr. Doyle had been an Associate Professor for about 15 years or so. So it was not surprising that I would occasionally run into him in the hallways.
And in a way, I was not really surprised in 2001 when another professor, who knew I knew Dr. Doyle, asked me if I had heard the news about him. When I said, “No”, he told me that Dr. Doyle had been arrested for a brutal murder up in Kentucky.
He had been visiting his mother in Bowling Green, got into an argument with his new stepfather, and beat him to death with a hammer.
UHCL Professor Held in Kentucky for Slaying
It wasn’t until 2 years later that he pled guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Doyle enters plea in murder trial
He had been diagnosed as ‘vastly psychotic and suffering from several brain diseases”, and was considered a suicide risk.
And according to this, it looks like he could be getting out in a couple of years.
Guess I should be relieved that I never made him really mad.
Then yesterday, I got this email from the granddaughter of the murder victim.
Have you heard if he (Dr. Doyle) passed away? I am the granddaughter of the man Dr. Doyle murdered, and I received a victim notification that he was moved recently and to not be concerned. When I search the inmate listing, he no longer appears. My suspicions are that he passed away in January 2022.
He would be 79 now, so it’s not out of the question, I question.
I’ll keep you updated if I hear any more.
January 23, 2024
More Cray . . .
With our lunch today relocated to the Saltgrass Steakhouse up in Webster, we headed out about 1:20 pm for our monthly Alvin Opry group get-together.
Usual great meal, and great friends.
Afterward, we followed Bob and Maria over to their house so I could help her copy all her data from her old computer to her new one.
Another really nice day.
I got a number of complimentary emails concerning my story about the Cray-1 Supercomputer vs the iPhone 13.
So here’s another bit of Cray lore-
It took a while to hand-build the Cray supercomputer of the time, and a buyer backed out. Apple learned of this and immediately swooped in to buy the nearly-complete machine. When finished, it was shipped out.
Seymour Cray was curious, so he called Apple and talked to Steve Jobs. He asked, how is Apple using the Cray?
Jobs said, we’re using it to design the next Mac.
There was a pause. Cray then said, that’s interesting, because I’m using a Mac to design the next Cray.
What goes around, comes around, I guess.
Or Ouroboros, maybe?
Finishing up, came across this photo from the Banff area of Canada. We saw them when we were on our way back from Alaska in 2008.
They’re animal overpasses, so the wildlife can cross the highways safely. Turns out they cut down on animal deaths by between 80 and 90%.
My thought was, how do they know that they’re supposed to cross here? But I guess they figure it out.
January 23, 2025
Climate Change, Anyone?
Jan and I were on our way up to Conroe by about 9:45 this morning, to meet up with long-time friends Ed and Debi Hurlburt for our monthly get-together, this time at China Delight. And it’s always amazing how fast our 2-1/2 hours go.
I try to get us back on the road to Santa Fe by around 2 pm to try and avoid some of the traffic getting around Houston.
Getting back down into our area, we made a Tractor Supply stop so Jan could pick up a couple of long-sleeve shirts to wear around the rig.
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A little before 5 pm, our Office Manager, Jennifer, called to see if I could come over and take a look at her water heater, since it wasn’t working after the freeze.
When I got there, I discovered that her unit was a gas-fired tankless model located outside on the side of her house. She said it stopped working. So following the instructions, she turned some of the valves, and then forgot which ones she had moved.
She thought she had gotten them all back where they started, but the heater still didn’t work.
In tracing it out a couple of times, I realized that the valve indicated by the white arrow was turned off. And since it was the cold water input, that explained why it wasn’t working,
No Cold water in.
No Hot Water out.
So I unplugged the unit, turned the valve to the On position (straight up and down), waited a minute or so, and then plugged it back in. And with a quick WHOOSH!, it fired up and was working.
Fixed!
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This is Dunnottar Castle, Scotland, drawn by John Slezer in 1693, compared to today, 331 years later.
The 13th-century fortress, perched on a rocky headland overlooking the North Sea and built to protect Scotland’s coast, once had a chapel, barracks, lodgings, a storehouse, and a keep (fortified tower).
Notice the water level.
Climate Change, anyone?
