Thought For The Day:
Sometimes I like to make the same mistake twice, just to be sure I got it right the first time.
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
October 25, 2009
Happy Birthday…
First off, I want to wish my beautiful bride a very, very Happy Birthday!
We left the rig about 10 am to go to breakfast at Cracker Barrel. Jan really likes their blueberry pancakes.
After breakfast, we drove over to M & M Fabricators to check out the route. We’re taking the rig over there tomorrow morning to have the new shocks put on the rig, and I wanted to be sure I knew where it was before taking the coach over there.
After that, we stopped off at Walmart for a few things and then headed for another drive out in the country. We were trying to get pictures of some swans we had seen the other day, but no luck.
But we did see a lot more great fall foliage. I didn’t take this picture, but it’s a good example of what we’re seeing.
For Jan’s Birthday dinner, we headed out about 5 pm to the Outback in Mishawaka. As usual, we spent as much time talking as eating.
We finally got home about 7:45 pm. Another great night.
October 25, 2010
Wind and Wings . . .
Brandi sent over a photo of Master Landon enjoying this weekend’s Oklahoma game. He’s certainly dressed for it. He looks like they just scored.
Although today, the 25th, is Jan’s birthday, the whole family got together Sunday night at King Food, our favorite local Chinese restaurant. We’ve been eating there for over 30 years, and we’re on our fourth owner. King Food has always been a place for our family get-togethers, in fact, we normally all have dinner there on Christmas Eve. Of course, as usual, Jan hogs all the Landon time. But it is her birthday, after all.
As far as today goes, it’s been really windy here the last couple of days, with wind gusts in the 30’s. But today it got even worse, with gusts between 45 – 50 mph. Luckily, the wind was coming right off the water head-on onto the rig, so it was not rocking the coach too much, but the small window awnings were making so much noise I finally went out and let them in.
Today was a nice, laid-back day. We headed out about 3 pm for Jan’s 2nd birthday meal, this time just the two of us, at Chuy’s, a really good, new Mexican place up in Webster. I had a cup of their Tortilla Soup, and then we split the Mex-Cobb Salad. A great meal.
Next, it was on to Sam’s and then Wal-Mart for some supplies, and then home to the rig. Like I said, an easy day.
Now back to the rest of Saturday’s Wings over Houston Airshow.
One of the highlights was the demo flight of an F-16 Falcon, also known as a Viper.
With almost 30,000 pounds of thrust, the F-16’s positive thrust-to-weight ratio means it’s one of the few planes that can stand on its tail and accelerate straight up.
This photo shows the F-16 in a “High Alpha” pass. “High Alpha” stands for high angle of attack. In this mode, the plane is moving horizontally at only about 100 mph. The engine thrust is the only thing keeping it in the air. If the engine were to quit, the plane would just fall.
It’s really amazing to see this plane come putt-putting by, and then lower the nose a little bit, pop the afterburners, and then accelerate straight up out of sight. I couldn’t even get my camera to change focus fast enough to track it as it climbed.
Next was a demo flight of the F/A-18 Hornet, the Navy’s do-it-all fighter/attack plane. It was designed to replace the aging F-14 Tomcat fighter, the A-6 Intruder, and A-7 Corsair II attack planes.
The F/A-18 was actually derived from the loser for the F-16 contract. But the Navy doesn’t like single-engine planes flying over water, so they took the YF-17L and, from it, developed the F/A-18.
Here’s the F/A-18 Hornet doing a carrier landing configuration pass. Note that the tail hook is down.
And here it is doing its version of the “High Alpha” pass.
Of course, the Navy demonstration team, the Blue Angels, flies the F/A-18.
Finally, we had an F8F Bearcat / F/A-18 Heritage Flight illustrating the last of the Navy’s prop planes, and their latest jet.
The most amazing aerobatic demo of the day was from Sean Tucker and the Team Oracle biplane. Specially designed for aerobatics, the plane is built from Kevlar and carbon fiber and weighs only 1200 pounds. Coupled with an engine of over 400 horsepower, the plane can do things that no other aerobatic plane can do.
This one is the “Corkscrew”
I told Jan that when I was flying, we called some of these maneuvers ‘crashing’
This one is called the ‘Helicopter’. Although you can’t tell from this photo, the plane is just hanging on its prop, hovering in mid-air. The only thing that limits this is that the engine will eventually start to overheat due to a lack of airflow.
Not much new can be said about the Thunderbirds, the Air Force’s demonstration team. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.
One of the interesting displays at Ellington Field, not related to the airshow, is one of NASA’s two retired ‘Vomit Comets’. Built from KC-135 (Boeing 707’s) tankers, they were just two of the latest in a long line of “Weightless Wonders”, as NASA tried to call them. Of course, everyone else called them ‘Vomit Comets”. The one here at Ellington was flown until 2000, and was also used in the filming of the movie “Apollo 13”.
The planes produce about 30 seconds of zero gravity by flying a precise elliptical flight path that looks like this.
What you end up with is a series of arcs across the sky generating short bursts of zero-gee. It is estimated that the planes have flown over 58,000 parabolas.
The other KC-135 was retired in 2004 and now resides at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, AZ, where we saw it this past February.
That’s about it for today.
October 25, 2011
Last Day In Elkhart. . .
Today is our last full day here in Elkhart, so we decided to make it a play day.
But first, Jan wanted to get her hair done, so I dropped her off at Great Clips, then I headed over to RV Surplus to get a couple of Dometic Cooler Bags.
They’re really neat. Plug it into a 12V outlet and it quickly cools down to 29 degrees below ambient temperature and keeps everything nice and cool. Great for that picnic or shopping trip.
After picking up Jan, we headed out.
Leaving there, we headed out through the countryside toward Shipshewana. The fall foliage is really something up here, and the roads are just lined with reds, yellows, and golds.
Our first stop was Eash Sales to look over some of their specialty items. After that, we walked next door to E & S Sales, the Amish bulk foods store that we visited back in September. It’s always interesting what the Amish have in their carts. In many cases, it’s the same junk food we buy.
Our next stop was the Shipshewana Flea Market. Tomorrow is the last day it’s open, so only a few stores were open today, but Jan enjoyed the produce stands and bought some Honey Crisp apples.
After leaving the flea market, we spent the next hour just driving out through the countryside, admiring the neat Amish farms and beautiful surroundings
About 5:30, we ended up at El Maguey for an evening of great Mexican food with our friends, Eldy Tompkins and Jeanne Sparks, Dave and Jean Damon, and Al Hesselbart.
This will be our last chance for all of us to get together probably until this time next fall, so it was good to see everyone one last time.
Getting back to the rig, I packed away the outside chairs and some other things since it’s supposed to rain more tonight.
We plan on heading out tomorrow about 10 am for a 230-mile trip down to the Indian Lakes Thousand Trails for 12 days until they close the park down on the 7th and run us out.
October 25, 2012
Cakes and Crabs . . .
Jan’s birthday morning started out with Dunkin’ Donuts Pumpkin Spice coffee, along with the last two of their Pumpkin Munchkins (holes) that we bought last week in Williamsburg, VA.
I had planned to get Jan the new Kindle Paperwhite, but when I went to order it from Amazon last weekend, I found they were on a 4 to 6 week wait.
Bummer!
So she got a rain check. Maybe she’ll get it by Christmas.
Speaking of Amazon, yesterday I ordered a couple of things from them to be delivered Friday under their Amazon Prime Two-Day Free Shipping. However, the confirmation email said it would be delivered today, after only one day. It turns out that both items were shipped from their Columbia, SC warehouse, about 150 miles up the road.
And the UPS guy brought the package right to our site. Neat!
I’ve still been thinking about our Snap, Crackle, Pop electrical problem yesterday. One thing that occurred to me was that it might be something with the slide since it’s right there under Jan. So, I’d rather find out we had a problem with the slide today, rather than next week right before we’re supposed to pull out.
But as it turns out, and luckily for us, the slide seems to work fine. So it’s on to something else.
During the day, Jan got birthday calls from our daughter Brandi, our son Chris, and Jan’s sister Debbie, so she was a happy camper.
About 4 pm Jan and I headed down to Tybee Island, GA, for Jan’s birthday dinner at The Crab Shack, a well-known local seafood place on the banks of Tybee Creek.
We ate outside on the deck,
looking out over the waters of the creek.
The food was fantastic, even though we had to share with several feline visitors. Strangely, they’re very well-behaved. They don’t try to jump up; they don’t fight over the food you drop. They just sit there patiently and stare up at you. A real guilt trip.
Accompanying us to dinner tonight were Peggy and Dave, who are parked a couple of sites down from us. They’ve been full-timing since 2009 and have run into us several times in the past.
If you’re in the Savannah area, The Crab Shack is another must-eat place to visit.
Remember we do the hard work finding these places so you don’t have to.
October 25, 2014
What Goes Around, Comes Around . . .
First off, Jan wants to thank everyone for their warm birthday wishes. She really appreciates it.
And Jamie, our Gate Guard Services supervisor, called a little before 9am this morning with a birthday present for Jan too. And it was just what she’s always wanted.
A New Gate.
But it’s kind of an old gate. Or at least close by. So, by 9:45 we were on our way down to the Cavender’s in Huntsville, TX, about 65 miles south, to pick up F.R.C. shirts and pants.
So why were we buying F.R.C.’s to wear when we just left a gate because we didn’t want to wear F.R.C’s? Well, the F.R.C’s we didn’t want to wear were the heavy coverall jumpsuit things, and as it turned out, there was a miscommunication somewhere along the line between the oil company and GGS, and we didn’t have to wear the coveralls, just F.R.C. shirts and pants. Which makes a lot more sense since we would have been the only people wearing the coveralls other than the guys who actually work on the rig.
And even better, GGS is reimbursing us for them.
And in another strange turn of events, we’re almost back at our old gate.
Our road has always had two gate guards. The first gate covered the first two pads and then all of our traffic too. Then we handled our part of the traffic again. It never made sense since we all worked for the same oil company.
The guards at the first gate left on Wednesday, the day after we did, since they didn’t want to wear the coveralls either. But as it turned out, the couple who replaced them didn’t work out, so here we are, a little over half a mile from where we started back at the beginning of September.
The real downside to all this was that Jan missed out on her birthday day over in Bryan/College Station today and dinner at Outback. But we tried to make up for it by having lunch at one of her other favorite places, Chili’s in Huntsville, while we were there.
We’re also trying to set a relief guard for Wednesday or Thursday of next week for a make-up day for Jan’s,
Coming back up to Buffalo, we stopped off at the Buc-ee’s in Madisonville to get some coffee and to stock up on Cranberry Nut muffins.
We pulled out of the Buffalo GGS yard about 3 pm and were at our new gate by 4:15. Scotty, our GGS support tech, showed up about 30 minutes later to move the trailers around to better fit our rig.
Now we just have to get everything set back up. But at least the view is better here.
Brandi sent over Landon’s T-Ball Team photo.
Note, he’s the cool one in the shades.
October 25, 2015
I’m How Old?!
First off, Jan wants to thank everyone for the multitude of Birthday Wishes. It did much to relieve the shock when she figured out how old she is today.
Today actually ends the 20-day Sweet Spot where every year we’re the same age from my birthday on the 5th of October, to her birthday on the 25th. Then tomorrow she goes back to being my sexy cougar/cradle-robber once again.
Think she’d be offended if I got her a T-shirt like this?
I guess I’ll find out tomorrow morning when she reads this blog. If there’s no blog tomorrow night, then you’ll know what happened.
She was offended.
We’re finishing up our 3rd full day of rain, and everything is just soggy and wet. We don’t have any roof leaks in the rig, so that’s not a problem, but with the high humidity, it’s all just damp.
As you can see by this radar screenshot, we’ve pretty much stayed at the outer edge of the storm front all this time. We’re that little blue dot right in the center.
So we’re getting the slow, steady rain without a lot of wind, although it did kick up a bit this afternoon, but not in any canopy-threatening amount.
Luckily, we’re still staying inside since we still don’t have anyone coming to our site, just the frack water guys running the pumps for the pad up the hill. And that totaled 3 trucks today. I don’t know if the Flowback crew just gave up or washed away.
The Weather Channel has tomorrow’s forecast as ‘AM Showers’, but they’ve pretty much turned out to be congenital liars through all this. So we’ll just have to wait and see. Of course, they show more rain next weekend as the remnants of the Mexican hurricane come north, so it starts all over again.
Since it was her birthday, and we’ve had nobody come in today, I decided that Jan needed a Birthday Dinner out, so we headed into Carthage about 4:45 for another visit to The Jalapeno Tree. This was our third time here, so we knew what we wanted from the start.
But being Jan’s birthday, we started off with a drink, and not the wimpy White Sangria we had last time, which was really just Moscato wine diluted with several fruit juices. No, this time we tried a Tijuana Tea, made with Tequila, Rum, Vodka, Gin, Fruit Juices, and Coke.
And based on the punch it had, I think it was only 3 or 4 drops of Coke.
But it was really, really good.
Since what we had last time was so good, we did a repeat with Jan’s Beef Chile Rellenos,
and my El Diablo Jack Beef and Chicken Fajitas.
Topped with Bacon, Sautéed Mushrooms, and Monterey Jack Cheese, it doesn’t get any better than this. And Jan said her Rellenos were some of the best she’s had.
Since we’re still in Wait and See mode, we don’t know what we’ll have tomorrow. But the longer it takes for Flowback, and then the Workover Rig to come in, the more likely we are to make it to our preferred leave-by date of November 22nd.
But you never know.
October 25, 2016
Extra Fluffy . . .
First off, another Happy Birthday to my Sweetie Jan. She said to thank everyone for all the kind greetings and wishes. She really appreciates it.
On our way to and from the gate every day, we pass a large Valero/Stripes convenience store/truck stop/gas station. In fact, it’s the one that we stopped at to top off the diesel in the rig on our way into town last Wednesday.
So Jan thought we might stop off on our way home this morning and pick up a couple of tacos for breakfast and lunch today. But getting there was a problem. In fact, getting anywhere was a problem this morning.
You’ve heard of Pea Soup fog? Well, this was more like Mashed Potatoes fog, and it was hard to see more than about 20 feet in front of you. I had a lot of trouble just finding the turn-ins to the place.
But getting inside, we were amazed at how busy the place was, with a 24-hour taco bar called Laredo Taco Company. They have 12 different Breakfast Tacos, and about 30 different lunch selections, including tacos, burritos, and plates.
Everything is made fresh every day, and your tacos, etc., are made to order. This 5 to 6 am timeframe is when all the oil workers are either going to work, or getting off from work. And apparently they all stop here.
We each got a breakfast taco to eat there, and then a Beef Fajita Taco for lunch later this afternoon. Both were really good, and we’ll go back for sure.
After creeping through the fog, we were back at the rig a little after 7, and in bed a few minutes after that.
Later in the afternoon, I talked with Nancy, the lady who owns the RV Park, to double-check her business address. She had said we could have packages and mail sent there with no problem, and we could either pick it up there or she would bring it with her when she comes by. Very nice of her.
I mentioned last night that I had been watching old TV shows on MeTV and Cozi TV, both over-the-air channels in this area. And one specific show was a Perry Mason from 1959.
In B&W, the episode, “The Case of the Bartered Bikini”, concerned the fashion industry and problems with competitors stealing designs, specifically, swimsuit designs.
And of course, this necessitated several scenes with models walking around showing off the suits. And one thing quickly became very obvious.
Based on today’s standards, these fashion models were fat, overweight, chunky, or extra fluffy, as Jan and I like to say. They would probably be laughed off the catwalk today. And this wasn’t just bad casting.
Terry Huntington, the falsely accused model/heroine of the story, was Miss California USA 1959 before going on to win Miss USA 1959 the same year as the show. So she was probably everyone’s vision of beauty at the time.
And I noticed this same thing a few years ago when I ran across a showing of Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello’s 1963 ‘Beach Party’ movie on satellite. The first of seven films, it was filled with hot surfer chicks parading around in skimpy (for the time) bathing suits.
And once again, they were all . . . fluffy. Let’s go with fluffy.
They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But apparently the beholder’s standards can change.
Finishing up, I don’t know what it is about gateguarding and sunsets, but we’ve seen some really spectacular ones over the years. And this evening was no exception.
Jan called to alert me to this one since, the way my shack is positioned, I can’t normally see it.
I told her I had ordered it special to cap off her birthday.
I don’t think she bought it.
October 25, 2017
Happy Birthday To My Sweetie . . .
Today is my Sweetie’s Birthday, and she wants to thank everyone for all the many Birthday Wishes.
One of her presents she won’t get until we’re down in Clear Lake tomorrow and we pick it up at my client’s.
But this was today’s gift.
We’ve been wanting to see TSO for a good while, but we’re usually gate-guarding that time of the year, so this year’s our chance.
About 1:30, I went outside to take care of a few travel chores, with the first being to check the rig tire pressures. One thing I really like about these Hercules Ironman tires is that they just don’t leak down. Seems like I only have to adjust the pressure twice a year or so, just for the change in temps.
When I replaced our Sumitomo’s a couple of years ago, I chose the Ironman’s due to the fact that I saw so many sets on the trucks coming into our gates. And so far they’ve been great for us.
Next up was to rewire the taillight cable on the rig, I had done the truck end about a month ago, and since we’re going to be towing tomorrow, I couldn’t put it off any longer. For some reason, I couldn’t convince Jan to make the 80-mile drive down through downtown Houston following the rig.
This time I did remember to stagger the crimp splices so the flex conduit doesn’t look like an anaconda after a big meal.
Finishing up, I added water to the rig batteries to top them off.
Done.
About 4:15 Jan and I drove into Conroe to meet up with a bunch of other couples. We were eating at Joe’s Italian Restaurant, a place where Debi and Ed Hurlburt have been eating for years. And it turned out to be really good.
We both had salads with Ranch.
Jan had the Chicken Alfredo,
while I had the Spaghetti Carbonara.
Both delicious and enough to take home.
Then they brought out a piece of cheesecake birthday cake for Jan,
and we all sang Happy Birthday to my Sweetie. Thanks for setting that up, Debi.
We had a large group which ended up spreading out to an adjacent booth.
Finally, we headed home with a quick stop at the Wal-Mart for a prescription, getting home about 7:30.
Tomorrow we’ll head down to the Petticoat Junction RV Park in Santa Fe, where we’ll stay for the next couple of months at least.
October 25, 2018
The Birthday Girl . . .
First off, I want to wish my beautiful wife Jan a very happy birthday.
You’ve made the years just fly by. It seems like only yesterday I was trying to get you to go out with me.
I Love You More Every Day!
We left the rig about 12:30, heading over to Dickinson to pick up our rental car from Enterprise. I got one for a week to drive while our truck is at the transmission doctor.
The last time we rented a car was back in 2013, and we got a Hyundai Elantra. I was hoping this time, though, that I would get something else since I blogged at the time that it was the most uncomfortable car I had ever driven. The seat backs were kind of curved in a semicircle, so if you had wide shoulders you couldn’t fit into it without sitting to one side or the other.
So when I pulled up to the location, I was happy to see a Chevy Malibu waiting for me.
Turned out to be very comfortable, and a lot of fun to drive.
Now that we had a replacement ride, our next stop was Snider Transmission back over in Santa Fe to drop off the truck for them to look at.
Kenny (Snider. It’s a family business) remembered my call and said they’d check it out and let me know.
Then after a quick stop at the local Dollar General, we headed up to Webster for Jan’s Birthday dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse.
We only have an alcoholic drink once or twice a year, so today seemed like a good time. Jan got an Amaretto Splash,
while I got a Ginger Peach Lemonade, made with Vodka, Peach Schnapps, and a Fiery Ginger Liqueur.
A very hot and spicy drink. Just my style.
We started off with our favorite Wedge Salads,
then Jan got the Center-Cut Filet (she started eating it before I could get a photo),
while I got my favorite Ribeye.
But the piece de resistance was this made-in-house Pumpkin Cheesecake.
Really delicious. Very thick and flavorful. And in season, you can buy whole pies to take home. Something to think about.
Waddling out after that fantastic meal, we headed across the Interstate to check out the new Costco. We bought our membership before we left for Florida, but it didn’t open until while we were gone.
It’ll take us a while to find our way around, though it is laid out similarly to the Sam’s Club up the road a piece.
One thing I did notice, and it just may be an opening special, is that they have regular gas for $2.29, about 20 cents cheaper than any other place around.
Then on our way home we made a quick stop by the PO to check the mail, but only had some sales flyers.
Tomorrow, back to work.
October 25, 2019
Happy Birthday to My Sweetie!
The yearly sweet spot is over, and I’ve got my cradle-robbing cougar back.
Spent most of the day at work going round and round with UPS WorldShip Tech Support trying to install the Remote Station version on a new computer. The installation does just fine up until I connect it to the Master Workstation and the install immediately stops and says, “The installation cannot continue due to version incompatibility issues.”
But no one can figure out what’s not compatible. It’s exactly the same versions of Win10 right down to the latest update, and the same versions of WorldShip. So what the heck is ‘incompatible’?
Even worse, Tech Support has never heard of this error. At least I think that’s what he said. His accented English was probably worse than my accented Indian.
So I’ll have to pick this up again on Monday.
As soon as I got home this afternoon, we headed back out for Jan’s Birthday Dinner. Originally she had said she wanted to go to Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, but sometime during the day she changed her mind and decided on Saltgrass and steak. Fine by me.
And it was as delicious as usual, especially the Wedge Salads. And the steaks, of course.
Later, after we got home, I started working with my 800 and 2000-grit Emery paper on the base of my oil filter adapter. And I think I may need to start with a lower grit, maybe 200 or 400. Some of the residue of the old gasket is really baked on, and in places it looks like the surface is actually pitted. And it’s not coming off very easily. So I’ll get some more emery paper this weekend.
But as usual, I have a backup plan. If I’m not satisfied with how it polishes up, I can just order a new one for about $75.
So we’ll see.
October 25, 2020
The Sweet Spot Ends . . .
First off, Jan wants to thank everyone for the many Birthday wishes from family and friends, via Facebook, Email, Blog comments, and Text.
For her birthday meal today, Jan decided she wanted a repeat of our Anniversary meal down at the Saltgrass Steak House in Galveston.
But when we ordered, she broke one of my cardinal rules. You don’t order steak at Red Lobster, you don’t order spaghetti at Cracker Barrel, and most importantly, you don’t order fish at Saltgrass.
But it’s her birthday, so what can I say?
But, as usual, we started off with our favorite Wedge Salads, always delicious.
And actually, I think these should more accurately be called ‘Half Salad’ since it’s more like a half head of lettuce than just a ‘wedge.’ But I’m not complaining.
Then Jan went off the rails by ordering the Redfish with Grilled Shrimp and Lump Crabmeat, all covered with a Lemon Butter Sauce.
That’s the Redfish in the back, with the last of her salad in the front of the photo.
And it looks like Jan made a great choice, since she said it was delicious and may be her new go-to dish there.
Of course, I went with my usual 16oz Ribeye with the Grilled Green Beans.
Medium Rare, and as tender and juicy as always.
And to finish up, though we don’t usually get a dessert, the siren call of their made-in-house Pumpkin Cheesecake was just too strong to ignore, so we succumbed and split a piece. And it was just as good as it looks.
Or maybe better.
And after that delicious, and BIG meal, we decided to walk along the seawall for about a mile before finally heading home.
As Jan said, “An incredible, delightful day!”
October 25, 2021
My Cougar is Back . . .
Jan and I got to the Immersive Van Gogh exhibit on Brittmore Rd off I-10 about 1:30 and were ushered right in.
After we were wanded by a security guard.
Really?
And of course, what says Van Gogh than a yellow Ford truck full of Sunflowers.
The videos start out sedately with just a few images from Van Gogh’s paintings,
Then suddenly the music comes up, and the walls explode in color.
And the motion never stops. Paintings paint and unpaint themselves, dissolving into other landscapes.
Check out these videos I made.
I’ll have more for you tomorrow.
October 25, 2022
Schrodinger’s PowerBall
About 2:30, I dropped Jan off to get her hair done while I drove down to the La Marque Buc-ee’s to pick up a new lid for my Yukon Outfitter’s 40 oz. mug. Couldn’t find one online, even from Yukon, but since I bought the mug there, I was hoping they would have one, and they did.
Later, about 5 pm we drove down to Galveston for Jan’s Birthday dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse. We were just here 20 days ago for my birthday, but this time was better because they finally had Jan’s favorite Pumpkin Cheesecake.
I won’t post any pictures of our food since you’ve seen it all before. But it was good, believe me.
The weather for this weekend’s airshow looks pretty decent, with little chance of rain, temps around 70°. And partly cloudy skies.
Here’s hoping.
For her birthday, I got Jan a new hooded blanket . . . in Flamingo, of course.
I figured she would either love it or hate it.
Luckily for me, it was the former.
When you buy a Powerball Lottery Ticket and haven’t checked it yet to see if you won, the ticket exists in a state of both having Won and Lost the jackpot at the same time.
Call It Schrodinger’s Powerball.
October 25, 2023
The Birthday Girl. . .
First off, Jan wants to thank everyone for the many Birthday wishes from family and friends, via Facebook, Email, Blog comments, and Text.
However, there were some questions about my posts on the Blog and Facebook mentioning my sexy Cougar and her Boy Toy, and the Sweet Spot.
Jan is 345 days older than me. I was born on October 5th, and she was born on October 25th, but a year earlier. So we’re now ending that sweet spot where every year for 20 days we’re the same age.
When we were dating, I had thought that she might be older than me, because I was ahead in school because I skipped the 1st grade and started directly in the 2nd. And I knew Jan was behind a grade due to a bad car accident when she was 7. Bad enough that she lost a grade and even had to learn to walk again.
But I learned at a young age that you never ask a woman how old she is.
And actually, she didn’t know she was older until we went to get our marriage license at the courthouse. I think she stood there for a few seconds with her mouth open, rethinking the whole deal. But then, apparently, she just said, “What The Heck!” Or words to that effect.
But it worked out for the best. So for 345 days a year, I get a sexy Cougar, and she gets her own personal Boy-Toy.
Am I a lucky guy, or what?
We’ve had an original Amazon Echo like this since 2015.
And it’s always worked great, until recently. Of course, we also have about 6 Echo Dots, but the Echo has always been our main living room unit.
But now it keeps losing its connection to our WiFi signal. It will work for a while after you reboot it and then drop out. But at the same time, none of our Echo Dots are having any problems.
So after I unplugged it and left it off for a couple of days, and that didn’t fix it, I ordered a new one this morning.
And the new ones look like this.
And even better, I ordered it about 9 this morning, and it showed up around noon.
Nice!
And it comes pre-set for our account. So all I had to do was plug it in and wait. And a minute or so later it was ready to go.
So far, it seems to be more sensitive to our voices and better at masking out ambient noise like the TV or A/C.
Jan’s Birthday dinner was at our usual Saltgrass Steakhouse once again.
Since we just had our usual steaks and steak accessories, I won’t post those again.
Just Jan’s Birthday Pumpkin Cheesecake,
and of course the Birthday Girl herself.
Love you, Sweetie!
October 25, 2024
Not Quite As Sweet Now . . .
First off, Jan wants to thank everyone for the many Birthday wishes from family and friends, via Facebook, Email, Blog comments, and Text.
* * * * * * *
Jan’s Official Birthday lunch was at the Saltgrass Steakhouse down in Galveston once again, pretty much our go-to place to celebrate, well, pretty much anything.
We were just down here a couple of weeks ago meeting up with long-time friends, Chris and Perry LaClaire. And we’ll be at the Saltgrass up in Webster next Friday for our Alvin Opry Group Get-together once again.
Like I said, our go-to place.
Lunch was just as delicious as always, and since the Retro-Blogs™ below have numerous photos of our past Saltgrass visits, I won’t bore you with more photos of our Wedge Salads, Jan’s Filet, my Ribeye, and, of course, the Pumpkin Cheesecake.
Well, maybe just a Pumpkin Cheesecake pic.
Tomorrow looks to be Yummy Yummy Chinese, followed by our weekly Wal-Mart visit.
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It seems we always have new blog readers joining us, and several have asked about our yearly ‘Sweet Spot’.
To simplify, here is a repost of some info down in the Retro-Blogs.
There were some questions about my posts on the Blog and Facebook mentioning my sexy Cougar and her Boy Toy, and the Sweet Spot.
Jan is 345 days older than me. I was born on October 5th and she was born on October 25th, but a year earlier. So we’re now ending that sweet spot where every year for 20 days we’re the same age.
When we were dating, I had thought that she might be older than me, because I was ahead in school because I skipped the 1st grade and started directly in the 2nd. And I knew Jan was behind a grade due to a bad car accident when she was 7. Bad enough that she lost a grade and even had to learn to walk again.
But I learned at a young age that you never ask a woman how old she is.
And actually, she didn’t know she was older until we went to get our marriage license at the courthouse. I think she stood there for a few seconds with her mouth open, rethinking the whole deal. But then, apparently, she just said, “What The Heck!” Or words to that effect.
But it worked out for the best. So for 345 days a year I get a sexy Cougar, and she gets her own personal Boy-Toy.
Am I a lucky guy, or what?
And, yes, I am a REALLY lucky guy!
Happy, Happy Birthday to My Sweetie . . .
No more Sweet Spot until next year.
* * * * * * *
It seems we always have new blog readers joining us, and several have asked about our yearly ‘Sweet Spot’.
To simplify, here is a repost of some info down in the Retro-Blogs.
There were some questions about my posts on the Blog and Facebook, mentioning my sexy Cougar and her Boy Toy, and the Sweet Spot.
Jan is 345 days older than me. I was born on October 5th, and she was born on October 25th, but a year earlier. So we’re now ending that sweet spot where every year for 20 days we’re the same age.
When we were dating, I had thought that she might be older than me, because I was ahead in school because I skipped the 1st grade and started directly in the 2nd. And I knew Jan was behind a grade due to a bad car accident when she was 7. Bad enough that she lost a grade and even had to learn to walk again.
But I learned at a young age that you never ask a woman how old she is.
And actually, she didn’t know she was older until we went to get our marriage license at the courthouse. I think she stood there for a few seconds with her mouth open, rethinking the whole deal. But then, apparently, she just said, “What The Heck!” Or words to that effect.
But it worked out for the best. So for 345 days a year, I get a sexy Cougar, and she gets her own personal Boy-Toy.
Am I a lucky guy, or what?
And, yes, I am a REALLY lucky guy!
* * * * * * *
Catching up with yesterday:
After an easy morning, just getting coffee at the hotel, we headed out about 11:45 for a last lunch at, where else, Sonny’s BBQ once again,
This time we both just had sandwiches, mine a really good chopped Beef Brisket,
and Jan’s was a Cuban Sandwich that I forgot to get a photo of.
Then heading south, we made one last stop at Jan’s family gravesite to add some more flowers and clean off the gravestones.
These are her parents, Robert and Trudy,
her brother, Wayne,
and Jan’s sister Beverly’s stillborn baby Jamie.
Beverly’s ashes are scattered over the gravesite area.
Now heading further south toward Okeechobee, we found this Sandhill Crane waiting to greet us.
Jan, of course, had to feed him.
Who knew Sandhill Cranes liked Roasted, Salted Nuts, but he (she?) did.
Getting to Bill and Charlee’s, down in Okeechobee, we rested up for a few hours, reminiscing and catching up before heading out to dinner at a really good Italian place.
Jan, of course, got her go-to Chicken Parm,
while I got my favorite Spaghetti with Meatballs and Italian Sausage.
Really, really good.
Jan and Charlee were coworkers at M.D. Anderson Cancer Hospital back in the 80’s and have stayed friends and in touch ever since, even after they moved out here to Florida.
Tomorrow we start heading back north, with a stop at the La Quinta in Lake City.
