Monthly Archives: October 2026
PhotoBombed . . .
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PhotoBombed . . .
After Scooter’s Coffee once again this morning, we were out and about to drive around Athens, checking out where we used to live.
But first up, of course, Jan had to make a local gift shop stop for a few Alabama-themed things.
Then it was on over to the house my parents bought new when we moved back from Colombia, S.A. in 1963. Looks really good for a 60+ year old house.
Then we went by the duplex where Jan and I lived in 1968-69, before we moved to Beaufort, S.C., where I went to work as a DOD contractor at the Marine Corps Air Station there, part of Parris Island.
Funny thing, as I parked across the street to get this shot, the wife saw me and sent her husband out to find out why we were taking photos of the place.
Told him that we were just checking the place out since we had lived there almost 60 years ago, and that calmed him down. He said he didn’t realize the place was that old.
* * * * * * *
Heading back into Athens proper, we came across a black and gold firetruck, something we hadn’t seen before. Red, Yellow, but never black.
Turns out it’s honoring the Golden Eagles, the Athens High School football team, whose colors are Black and Gold.
Finally, after Jan made a Publix stop for a few things, it was back to the hotel for a while.
* * * * * * *
Then, a little before 6 pm, we drove over to the nearby Cracker Barrel to meet up with the last of my relatives here in town.
Helen is my first cousin-in-law, since she’s married to my first cousin, Wes Calvin.
Here, from right to left: Darby, who’s a paralegal, Stahlie, who’s an archaeologist, Luke, who’s in construction, and Hannah, Luke’s girlfriend to be named later from yesterday’s blog.
Harland, the other son, was feeling a little under the weather, so we missed him.
We spent almost 3 hours catching up on everyone’s goings-on.
Stahlie is presently living in Nashville and excavating areas around the Hermitage, Andrew Jackson’s home.
And as it turns out, she lives right near the Famous Dave’s BBQ where we had lunch this past Tuesday as we came through Nashville from Illinois.
Wish we’d known. Last we heard, she was down in Florida digging up Seminole relics. And a while back, she was visiting Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy.
The girl gets around.
Actually, they both get around.
Here they are visiting the Great Wall of China.
And how many people can say they’ve been photobombed by a Chinese Communist soldier on the Great Wall of China?
Stahlie can.
Really good seeing everyone, and we had a great time laughing, talking, and telling stories.
Already looking forward to next year.
* * * * * * *
Tomorrow, after Scooter’s coffee, of course, we’ll make the 90-minute drive down to Birmingham, where we’ll spend one night catching up with an old co-worker and completing the 4th, and maybe 5th legs of our Southern BBQ Tour.
Thought For The Day:
Lord, please give me patience. Because if you just give me strength, I’m probably gonna need bail money too.
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
October 24, 2010
Happy Birthday and Wings Over Houston . . . Part 1
First off, I want to wish my wonderful Sweetie a Happy Birthday today. It’s today, the 25th, even though this is posted late on the 24th. I couldn’t have made it without you.
Yesterday we spent the day at the Wings Over Houston Airshow. We used to go just about every year when we lived here full-time, but the last time we did the show, it was 2007, right before we hit the road full-time. The problem was that the show is always at the end of October, and we don’t normally get back to the Houston area until right before Thanksgiving.
But thanks to the arrival of Master Landon, we’re back early this year, so we couldn’t pass up a chance to go again.
Luckily, my Sweetie is an Air Force brat and likes air shows as much as I do. The last show we actually attended was at Eielson AFB, Alaska in June of 2008. We saw the AF Thunderbirds then, too, just like we saw yesterday.
The first thing we saw walking through the gate was NASA’s Super Guppy. This is the last one of four that is still flying. We saw one of the others this past February at the Pima Air & Space Museum in Tucson, AZ. The later ones were kind of Frankenstein’s monsters, patched together from several different aircraft types, including C-97J’s, Boeing 707’s, and others.
NASA used these to transport large rocket, Shuttle, and Space Station parts around the country.
The next thing we came across was NASA’s 747 Shuttle Transporter. I guess this will end up in a museum pretty soon.
Right next door was one of NASA’s T-38’s. The astronauts use these to keep their flying hours current and to fly back and forth to the Cape. I spent some time working on these back in the 80’s. They were also used by NASA to fly alongside during the Shuttle’s approach and televise the landings right down to the runway, and the NASA contractor I worked for maintained the cameras.
The show started out with the landing of the Flag by the REMAX Jump Team.
Here is a C-17 backing out to the flight line. It’s neat to see these newer jets backing up on their own, without a tug to push them out.
An AH-64 Apache attack helicopter
A P-40 Warhawk. This was the plane used by the AVG (American Volunteer Group) Flying Tigers flying in China against the Japanese before America entered the war. Later, after America entered the war, this group, known as the ‘Black Sheep” Squadron, of Baa Baa Black Sheep fame, was absorbed into the US Marines.
A Grumman F8F Bearcat. One of my favorite WWII planes, the Bearcat was designed to out-fly any German or Japanese plane in the war. Unfortunately, it did not enter active service until right after the war ended. It was the last new prop plane ordered by the military. Flown by the Blue Angels from 1946 to 1950, in 1946 it set a world time-to-climb record of 94 seconds to 10,000 feet. This record was not broken until well up into the century series of jets.
An AD-1 Skyraider. Another plane delivered too late for WWII, the Skyraider, (nicknamed the ‘SPAD’), was used as a ground attack plane as late as the Vietnam War.
One of several B-17’s at the show.
Close-up of the engine on another B-17.
A C-130 landing. Up until a few years ago, one of the demo flights here at the airshow was a JATO short-field takeoff which was very impressive. JATO stands for “Jet Assisted Take Off”, but they’re really RATO “Rocket Assisted Take Off”, units, and are used to basically just ‘jump’ the plane into the air with little or no take-off roll.
Here’s a shot of the Blue Angels C-130 transport doing a RATO take-off at another airshow. Supposedly they don’t do the demos anymore because they don’t make the RATO bottles anymore and the supply is starting to run low.
Bummer! Watching a big C-130 just leap into the air and start flying is really something.
A B-25 Mitchell bomber, like the ones used in Jimmy Doolittle’s famous Raid on Tokyo in April 1942, was the first US raid to strike the Japanese homeland.
An F4U Corsair. Called “The Whistling Death” by Japanese pilots due to the sound it made in a steep dive, the Corsair more than out-matched the Zero in all regimes except slow speed. And being very well armored, it was also hard to shoot down. “Pappy” Boyinton, leader of the Black Sheep Squadron, is credited with 22 kills in one.
An SB2C Helldiver. This is the last one still flying in the world.
As usual, the crowd was very large, especially since the weather was so good.
A C-17 C-47 Heritage Flight, showing 70 years of cargo plane history.
Tora, Tora, Tora. Every airshow, they do an Attack on Pearl Harbor reenactment with a lot of planes in the air,
and a lot of big explosions on the ground, along with very large balls of fire coming up. They also do reenactments of the Battle of Midway and a Vietnam War firefight.
And, up until a few years ago, they always finished up with the A-Bomb drop on Hiroshima, but, apparently, that was deemed offensive by some, and it was discontinued.
So it seems OK to show the Japanese attacking us, but it’s not politically correct to show us attacking the Japanese. Who knew?
This AT-6, SNJ, Harvard, Zero Heritage Flight shows the various models of the venerable AT-6 advanced trainer, including the one in front made up as a Zero for the movie “Tora, Tora, Tora”.
A P-51C painted in the colors of the famed “Red Tail” Squadron flown by the Tuskegee Airmen.
A couple of shots of two of the B-17 Flying Fortresses at the show.
A B-24 Liberator. The B-24 holds the record as the most-produced American military aircraft, at over 18,000 units. At its peak, Ford’s Willow Run plant was building one an hour.
As compared with the more famous B-17, the B-24 was faster, had better range, and carried a larger bomb. But it was harder to fly, and due to its design, more prone to battle damage. Also, its high-wing design was much less safe during an ocean ditching, or a crash landing.
B-52
This A-10 Warthog was the jet-age replacement for the AD-1 Skyraider, and excels as a ground attack and tank killer.
The UH-1 Iroquois is known as a ‘Huey’. The Huey got its nickname from the fact that the original designation for the helo was the HU-1, and although it was changed to UH-1 in 1962, the name Huey stuck. Back in the day, I had an unfortunate time when the one I was in decided it didn’t want to fly anymore
One of several aerobatic displays, this one flown in a T-34 Mentor trainer is amazing due to the fact that the T-34 is not really considered an aerobatic plane. The pilot, a retired airline captain named Deborah Rihn-Harvey with over 30,000 hours with Southwest Airlines, does some outstanding maneuvers with the T-34 since its oil and fuel systems are not certified for inverted flight.
I’ll finish up the rest of the show tomorrow since this has been a long post.
October 24, 2011
Happy Birthday to my Sweetie . . .
First off, I want to say ‘Happy Birthday’ to my beautiful wife, Jan. I’ve loved you almost since the day I met you, and you’ve made my life complete.
I got up about 9:30 this morning to find a call from the RV/MH Hall of Fame. The accountant was there to do the payroll and was having problems with the program.
Getting down there, I found the problem was with the setup of the new copy of the program I had installed. Apparently some settings are kept in the program directory, and not with the data, so we had to go back in and configure the correct check formats to get everything working OK. I ended up staying until about 4:15 fixing up loose ends and double-checking everything.
On my way home, I stopped off at Lowe’s to pick up a 2″ wood chisel to help me get the rest of the carpet up. When we leave here Wednesday we’ll have 12 days at the Indian Lakes Thousand Trails Preserve in Ohio, and I hope to make some more headway on the floor. We’ll see.
About 5:15 pm Jan and I headed over to King Wha, our great local Chinese restaurant, where we met Al Hesselbart and Dave and Jean Damon for dinner. Another night of great food and good conversation.
I’m more and more impressed by the 4G speeds on my new Droid Charge . . . when it’s working.
Not my phone; it’s working great. But the 4G has only been turned on in this area since last Thursday, and apparently they’re still working out the kinks. Within a 15-minute period, I’ve had 4G, 3G, 1X, 4G, 3G, 4G, all sitting in the same chair.
But when it’s working, it screams. This evening at dinner, I checked with Speedtest.net and was showing 20 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up. Then Jan took my phone away and said it was impolite to play with it at the table.
Awwwwh! No fair. Al was playing with his.
Four years ago, the last time we had broadband in a Sticks & Bricks, I had 5 Mbps and thought that was fast. But 20, WOW!
Wanted to give you a sneak peek at one of Landon’s Christmas presents. Hopefully he doesn’t read the blog and won’t see it.
We saw this rocking horse yesterday at Sam’s Club and just had to get it. Besides rocking, if you squeeze his ears, he whinnies, and his head and tail move back and forth.
Tomorrow is our last full day here in Elkhart, and we plan on spending it driving around through the Amish countryside around Shipshewana, and then end up back at El Maguey for Jan’s birthday dinner.
October 24, 2012
Quito and Quesadillas . . .
One of my website client’s called yesterday afternoon asking permission to give my phone number and email address to a friend of his who wanted some website work done. I told him to tell his friend to give me a call.
So a little after noon today the guy gave me a call.
From Quito, Ecuador!
He’s an American who owns a Bed and Breakfast down there, and also does some immigration work, and he wants some updates done to his websites, and also some help getting higher in the Google listings. So it looks like I’ve got a new client, albeit a longer distance one than normal.
On the strange side, a little before 3pm Jan and I heard a sizzling pop in the rig, and then a few seconds later smelled something getting hot. She thought the sound came from my side of the rig and I thought it came from hers.
I started checking everything electrical in the rig with no luck. Nothing that was on quit working, or smelled burnt. And in a little while the smell was gone and never reoccurred.
So I guess I’ll just have to keep a close eye on things and see if it comes back.
About 5pm Jan and I headed into Savannah to have dinner. Since we were both wanting Mexican we ending up at Jalapeno’s Mexican Restaurant. Jalapeno’s is pretty much at the top of everyone’s list of best Mexican in Savannah, and after eating there this evening we both agree.
Jan said it was the best Shrimp Quesadilla she had ever eaten, and the Combo Platter that I had was just fantastic.
And we weren’t the only ones who liked the place. The parking lot was overflowing, with cars parked on the grass, on the road shoulder, and in front of No Parking signs.
We both agreed we wanted to come back here before we leave.
So many restaurants, so little time.
October 24, 2014
Happy Birthday to My Sweetie . . .
Although this blog post is dated Friday, the 24th of October, most of you, including Jan will be reading this on Saturday, the 25th. Which just happens to be my Sweetie’s birthday.
We plan to have dinner tomorrow night at Outback Steakhouse, one of Jan’s favorite places, while we’re over in B/CS.
FedEx came through and found the GGS yard out here in the middle of the country, delivering our new Galaxy Tab 4 about 11:30 this morning, so I’ve been having a lot of fun getting it set up, duplicating many of the apps I have on my phone.
Samsung Galaxy Tab 4 10.1-Inch, White
So far, I really like it. I’ll keep you updated as I get to spend some more time with it.
While we were parked here at the yard, I thought I’d take a go at replacing our lavatory faucet. I hadn’t tried it while we were on the gate because I knew I’d have to turn the water off, and these things always take a lot longer than they should.
And today was no different. I got the water hoses disconnected with not a lot of problems, but the fasteners that hold the faucet to the counter proved to be a lot more trouble. In fact, after fooling with them for about 3 hours, they proved impossible… for today.
There is a special wrench available for just this purpose, and I’ll pick one up at Home Depot tomorrow when we’re over in Bryan for Jan’s Birthday.
I’m not sure where the name comes from, but I came across an interesting website called CamelCamelCamel. You enter an Amazon product and CamelCamelCamel tracks the price for you, letting know when the price drops.
Turns out Amazon, and apparently many other online sellers, regularly raise and lower prices based on some weird algorithms that they’ve come up with. So CamelCamelCamel will let you know when the price drops.
October 24, 2015
Not Even For Special Occasions?
or It’s Alive!
Well, it started raining yesterday, and it’s still raining today. And it’s supposed to rain tomorrow and the next day. But if we had to have a lot of rain, this is probably the best way to have it. Just a steady, light to medium downpour, with no wind.
And even better, we stayed inside pretty much all day since we had almost no traffic. Jan did stay outside for part of the morning, just knowing that the long-fabled Flowback crew was going to start coming in today. But she gave up after a while and came in where it was dry.
While we were having a lunch of Jan’s delicious homemade Pimento Cheese and fresh sliced tomato sandwiches, I suddenly had a thought about how to fix my problem with the new charger port on my ASUS laptop.
As I mentioned a few days ago, after I got my laptop disassembled and the old charger port unsoldered, I discovered that the new, supposedly OEM, replacement did not fit. The leads themselves were too big to fit in the circuit board holes, and, in addition, did not match up with the holes either. So I did what usually works for me. I just put it all aside and didn’t think about it. And today the solution popped into my mind.
I didn’t need to solder all five leads to the board. I only needed two, power and ground. I checked the new port with my ohmmeter, and as I had hoped, the power from the center pin came out the lead at the back of the charger port.
The other four leads and the case were all grounds. So I snipped off the four ground leads flush with the bottom of the port, fastened the port to the circuit board with a drop of Super Glue, and then soldered the single rear lead into place. The rear lead was always the correct size so this wasn’t a problem.
Then I soldered a small piece of wire from the case to one of the ground pinholes, and it was done.
To recap, here’s how I took the laptop apart.
Above on the left is the hard drive, in the center is the Wi-Fi chip, and the green boards are the system memory.
I use cupcake papers to hold the screws for each step, and label them as I go.
I also have this set of tools for the small or weird screws. It also has the plastic ‘spudger’ that is very useful for prying things apart without scratching or breaking them. A great deal for less than $7.
Kaisi 16-Piece Precision Screwdriver Set
The keyboard now just pops out.
There are a number of these small ribbon cables that must be unlocked and carefully removed from the socket.
One more screw lets you remove the DVD drive.
At this point, the top of the computer can just be popped off,
and seven screws later, the motherboard comes out.
And finally the culprit is revealed.
Here I’m using the solder wick to ‘wick’ the solder from the joints to remove the old port.
And this is pretty much where I left things until today, when I figured out how to make it work.
About 45 minutes after I soldered in the new charger port, I had it all back together.
And now for the moment of truth, i.e. the ‘magic smoke test’. Because everyone knows if you let the ‘magic smoke’ out of a piece of electronic gear, it won’t work anymore.
So holding my breath, I pushed the power button . . . and no magic smoke. Instead, it started booting up. And a minute or so later I was looking at my desktop.
And note in this photo, I have the obligatory one screw left over. As they say, if you don’t have parts left over, you didn’t do it right.
At least that’s what I say.
After checking things over, like the keyboard, sound, Wi-Fi, and the touchpad, it was time for the final test.
And after plugging in the charger cord, I now had a charge light.
It’s Alive!
That done, I took the rest of the afternoon off. It’s not like I was really planning to do anything else, but I took it off anyway.
Later I came across this product on Facebook and asked Jan what she would think about me doing this for Christmas.
“NO”
“Not even for special occasions?”
‘NO”
Party Pooper!
October 24, 2016
Jan Did Good . . .
Jan’s definitely not a night person, so she was worried about staying awake all night last night, but she did fine
Of course, I helped out by calling her about every hour, just to be sure.
It wasn’t a very busy night, with most of the traffic after midnight. And even with that, the iPad locked up on me. Well, not as much locked up, as locked me out.
I last used it around 6:30, and then no one came or left until after midnight. But when I went to log someone in, I found the program had dumped me out and was now asking for a username and password. Which was nowhere to be found. So it was back to paper logs. Not a problem for me. I later found out there was supposed to be a sticker on the back, but nothing was there. I looked.
I think I mentioned that we have TV in the shacks. Nominally, I think it’s so we can monitor the six cameras around our site, but it is set up for over-the-air TV. And I was very surprised by how many stations we get. Probably about 30.
But probably the most entertaining ones are MeTV and Cozi TV, both of which show oldies. As in VERY oldies, like Car 54, Where Are You?, Sgt. Bilko, Maverick, Love Boat, Kojak, Our Miss Brooks, Donna Reed, Hogan’s Heroes, Perry Mason, etc.
So yes, VERY OLDIES.
After our shift was over, we got back to the rig about 6:30 am. Jan went right to bed and was already asleep when I came in about 10 minutes later. I had to email our invoices in to the office. Yesterday was the last day of the two-week pay period, and the invoices had to be in by 9 am this morning. Of course we only had one day on this one, but hey, money is money.
Jan actually got up about 10:30, grabbed a bite to eat, and then went back to sleep on the sofa, while I didn’t get up until about noon. I made coffee, fixed us some muffins, and got a load of laundry going. Later, we heated up our leftover La Fonda from last Friday. Still good.
Then it was another nap until about 4:30 when we started getting ready, and were out the door a little before 5 pm. It’s only about a 15-minute drive, so we were there in plenty of time.
Since I’m normally a night owl anyway, I’m not having a lot of trouble adjusting to the long nights, but it’s a little more difficult for Jan. But a couple of more days of this shift should help.
Of course that presupposes we’ll stay on this night shift. You never can tell.
October 24, 2017
I Know It Doesn’t LOOK Good, But . . .
About 2:30, Jan and I headed into Conroe to first have lunch, well, breakfast anyway, and then do some shopping.
Jan has been seeing the Denny’s ads on TV showing their Holiday pancakes, Pumpkin Cream and Cranberry Orange. So she decided we were having breakfast for lunch.
She got the Pumpkin Pancakes with the Cinnamon Cream topping, as well as eggs, bacon, and hash browns.
I went with the Cranberry Orange Pancakes with the Orange Glaze Cream sauce, also with eggs, bacon, and hash browns.
I know in the photo that it doesn’t look that good, but the Orange Glaze Cream Cheese topping has bits of orange in it and was delicious.
Next up was a stop at Sam’s for a couple of prescriptions, and then Wal-Mart for some groceries before heading home. While I got all the groceries in, Jan walked next door to spend some time with the Evanses, et. al., while I tried to fix some client stuff that just broke.
One of our blog readers, Snowbird, commented, reminding me of some info about Sears that I forgot to pass on yesterday. People talk about how Sears could have been Amazon by moving their catalog online if they hadn’t dropped the ball. But Sears actually had already dropped the catalog in 1993, just as the Internet was getting started.
Amazon got its start the next year, 1994, selling books out of Jeff Bezo’s garage. And it actually might have been very difficult for Sears to put their catalog online. The necessary net infrastructure just didn’t exist.
But anyway, corporate infighting had already doomed the Sear’s catalog sales model. The problem was that the stores and the catalog operation were two separate corporate entities competing with each other under the Sears umbrella, and they hated each other with a passion.
The store side of things saw every catalog sale as one the store was losing, and the catalog group accused the stores of sabotaging the in-store catalog sales pickup. This was because although the stores got nothing from a catalog sale in-store pickup, they still had to supply the manpower to staff the in-store catalog operation.
Finally, in 1993, the store side of things managed to kill off the catalog, even though it was still profitable, by saying that the money would be better spent using it to expand and upgrade the stores.
Now Sears seems to only exist as a real estate and product liquidation company. They’ve been selling off stores and real estate in a frenzy and sold off their fabled Craftsman tool brand to Stanley Black & Decker this past March, so can Kenmore be far behind? And today it was announced they’ve severed their 100-year-old relationship with Whirlpool.
So it looks like eventually it will all go down the tubes. Sad to see.
October 24, 2018
They Say It Always Come In Threes . . .
At Least I Hope It’s Only Three!
Well, I guess I saved my client $5,000.00 today by getting the Census Bureau’s 2017 Economic Census finished up and submitted online. The review process said there were no errors, so hopefully, there won’t be any problems. But if government agents show up at the front door, “I Know Nu…ting.”
Now to recap our recent Florida trip:
First up, our rig’s oil leak is back. Or maybe never left. Although after the oil filter was replaced, thinking it was the problem, and an hour-long high idle and a 45-minute test drive showed no sign of a leak, when I did a walk-around at our first rest stop about 90 minutes down the road, our toad was again oil-speckled.
And then toward the end of the day’s travels to Beaux Bridge, I started to notice the slight drop in oil pressure that indicates a drop in oil level. And it continued for the rest of the trip out and back. So every 300-400 miles I had to add a couple of gallons of Shell Rotella 15w-40.
Coming home from Breaux Bridge, I tried placing my Endoscope from the top of the engine to monitor the area where the leak seems to be coming from (somewhere above the oil filter), but there was just too much vibration to be able to see anything useful.
When the RV Mobile Lube guy was out here replacing the oil filter, he said there was something funny about a tube of some sort above the oil filter, so I’m going to put one of my Wyze Cams on the end of a pole and look down in there to see what I find. Then I might try the high-idle thing again.
Second up, while we were staying in the Gulf Shores area on our way out, our 2004 Dodge Dakota toad decided our transmission no longer needed 3rd, 4th, or 5th gear. Starting off, it shifts through 1st and 2nd just fine, but when it upshifts to where 3rd should be, it just races like it’s in Neutral.
But if we drop it down to 2nd on the gearshift, it stays in 2nd and let us drive around at 40-45 with no problems. Just slow.
So now it’s a two-prong attack. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be taking the truck into Snider Transmission to let them take a look at it. A little Googling shows that this is not an unknown problem and maybe something as simple as a broken bolt or a blown seal. But since the Dakota has 282,000 miles on the odometer and another 88,000 miles being towed that doesn’t register on the odometer, my plan B has me looking at new (to us) possible replacements.
Now I’m checking out www.cargurus.com and www.truecar.com, and cross referencing possibilities with the Dinghy Towing Guides found at Motorhome Magazine’s website.
And thirdly, when we got home on Monday and got set up, our desktop computer was working fine. However, when we got up Tuesday morning, our Acer Monitor had died. I mean, it’s only 9 years old. So what’s up with that?
So I put in an Amazon overnight delivery order for a new Acer S241HL 24-inch monitor, a step up from the 21-inch we did have. And about $90 cheaper than the 2009 model.
Besides being bigger, it’s also much sharper and brighter. Things have improved a lot since 2009.
So that’s about it for our trip. Hopefully nothing else is on the horizon for a while.
October 24, 2019
A Phone, Resurrected . . .
Jan’s phone, my old Galaxy S5, started acting up a few days ago, constantly rebooting, even after pulling the battery out for a while. And that’s when I noticed how swollen the battery was.
Seeing this, I was pretty sure that the battery was the problem, even with the phone plugged in. This is because the phone is actually powered from the battery, so even with the phone plugged in, if you pull the battery, it won’t work.
So I put in an Amazon order for a new battery, but as usual I had a backup plan. I’ve had this S5 since June 2014 when we were up in Elkhart, IN, so refurbished ones are available on Amazon for about $75. And since Jan pretty much only uses it for calls at home while I’m gone, a 5-year-old phone is just fine.
But I lucked out because the new battery fixed the problem.
I had originally planned to get under the rig today to reinstall the oil filter adapter and the oil filter, so I had left the adapter soaking in a pan of Purple Power degreaser/cleaner overnight to get all the ‘gunk’ off.
But this morning I found that parts of the old gasket were so encrusted on the base of the adapter that even scrubbing it first with a brass brush and then a steel brush wouldn’t remove it, so today I’ll get emery fine-grit sandpaper to burnish it down.
So we’ll see how it goes on Saturday.
Not So Fast:
I mentioned yesterday that after we possibly do a Mexico/Ruins cruise in 2021, we’ll be ‘cruised out’. But regular blog reader Lois piqued our interest in maybe doing a Mississippi Riverboat cruise.
So I guess we’ve got something else to keep simmering on the back burner now.
October 24, 2020
Brinner. . .
The cold front that came through yesterday afternoon resulted in high 50’s last night and a bright and sunny low 70’s day. Really nice.
After retightening the oil head adapter bolts yesterday, about 1 pm I was outside today while Jan cranked up the rig. And after about 10 minutes, I was seeing a little leakage, less than on Thursday, and dripping down from a slightly different area. But leakage still.
And, of course, there should be none.
I still have a couple of more things to try before I throw in the towel (and the checkbook). One of the 4 bolts still doesn’t feel right, so I’m going to try to replace the Heli-coil through the bolt hole without removing the head itself.
Hey, it’s worth a try. What could possibly go wrong?
A little after 4 pm Jan and I headed over to the Victory Lakes area to have Brinner (breakfast for dinner) at Denny’s, and like usual, we both got their really good Ultimate Omelet. With 3 eggs, sausage, ham, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, green peppers, onions, and cheese, and fruit instead of the hash browns, it is really delicious!
Tomorrow, A Celebration!
October 24, 2021
Happy Birthday, Sweetie!!!
Tomorrow, which is Jan’s Birthday, is also when we’re attending our first Immersive Van Gogh exhibit. Really looking forward to it.
It’s certainly possible, based on some felines I’ve known.
The ‘mouse delivery’ part of this reminds me of Karma back before she went blind. She had a collection of about 8 or so small multicolored fuzzy mice. There were red ones, blue ones, orange ones, etc. All bright colors. She would bat them around the rig, and then would often gather them into a pile until she wanted to play with them again.
One morning I found her staring down at the pile and then looking up at me. Wondering what she was so interested in, I looked closer at the pile. And saw a color I didn’t recognize
It was gray, kind of mouse-colored.
And then it moved.
At this point, Karma reared up and struck. And it didn’t move anymore.
After she stared at the pile for a while longer, and nothing moved, she wandered off to nap on the dashboard.
What’s amazing is that somehow Karma associated the real mouse with her multi-colored playtoys, and put them all together. And when she came back later and found I had disposed of her new toy, she pawed through the pile looking for it.
Check out this video.
Bohemian Catsody
October 24, 2023
Sweetie . . .
You make it all worthwhile. You know how much I love you, and that I probably wouldn’t be here without you.
Tomorrow, with Jan’s Birthday, our yearly Sweet Spot comes to an end. Then Jan goes back to being my Sexy Cougar/Cradle-Robber, and I’m her Boy Toy once again.
I’ll be leaving work a little early so we can make our Saltgrass Steakhouse reservation and Jan’s favorite Pumpkin Cheesecake.
October 24, 2024
Officially Checked In . . .
Love you, Always!
* * * * * * *
Well, as of about 10:50 this morning, we are officially checked in with Royal Caribbean for our upcoming 9-Day Western Caribbean cruise.
Overall, it was pretty simple. Using the app, you start by scanning the barcode on your passport. Then, again using the app, you are supposed to take a selfie of yourself, apparently to use as facial recognition data.
After trying a couple of times to get a decent selfie (no comments, please), I brought up photos of both me and Jan on the computer and photo’d those. Looks like they should work fine.
Along the way here, I also signed us up for the earliest check-in time at the ship, 11:30 to 12:00.
Then, finishing up, I entered our address and a credit card for ‘shipboard incidentals’.
Remember, it’s the ‘incidentals’ that will get you.
The only thing left is for us to answer a Health Questionnaire on Dec. 6th, the day before our cruise
So, now we wait.
Then sometime in the next couple of weeks, I’ll book our limo drop-off/pickup with Action Limo, the same company we used for both our European and New York trips back in 2019. That way we won’t have to fool with parking at the Cruise Terminal, and will just get dropped off at the ship.
Counting down.
* * * * * * *
As I said yesterday, lunch today was Chuy’s Tex-Mex, for the first time in a couple of years. Don’t know how it kind of fell off our lists, but it’s always been a favorite of ours.
Every room has a different theme, with a fish mobile in one,
and a plethora of hubcaps in another.
And of course, we got our favorite Mex-Cobb Salad, drowned in their Creamy Jalapeno Dressing.
Delicious!
I asked Kyle, our server if anything had changed since I recently read that Darden International had bought the Chuy’s chain. He said nothing so far, just that the headquarters was moving to Florida, where Darden is located. Hope they don’t screw it up.
I knew that Darden owned Olive Garden, but I was surprised to learn that they also own Longhorn Steakhouse, Cheddar’s Scratch Kitchen, and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, among others.
Coming home, we made a quick stop for gas, since we’re making a trip down to Galveston tomorrow.
* * * * * * *
We’ve used Uber all around the world, like Amsterdam, Paris, and London, as well as NYC.
But whenever we used the app to call for a ride, a car has always shown up. But it seems that’s not always a given.
Woman lost in the middle of Dubai desert decided to call an Uber – a camel arrived instead
. . . two women recently got lost in the middle of a desert in Dubai before they were finally rescued by a special humpbacked ride. A local travel agency, Jetset Dubai–who goes by @jetset.dubai on Instagram–posted a video showing two women, supposedly tourists, booking an Uber camel to find their way out of nowhere.
And a Camel even shows up as a ride selection in the Uber app.
Neat, but my question is: how did they get cell service out in the desert?
Tomorrow being Jan’s Birthday, and the end of our yearly 20-Day Sweet Spot where we’re the same age, we go back to Jan being my Sexy Cougar/Cradle-Robber and I go back to being her Boy-Toy. So in celebration of this, we’re having lunch at the Saltgrass Steakhouse down in Galveston tomorrow afternoon, ending with a drive up and down the Seawall looking for Pelicans.
Mmmm! Pumpkin Cheesecake!
Okeechobee Bound . . .
More Tomorrow From Okeechobee!
Big Bob’s . . .
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Right-Click on The Link and Select ‘Open in New Tab’
Big Bob’s . . .
After sleeping in a little this morning, our first time in a while, we were on our way about 10:45, with our first stop at the Scooter’s Coffee for our morning wake-up juice.
Then it was on down US31 about 20 miles to Decatur to have lunch at Big Bob Gibson’s BBQ, the 4th leg on our Southern BBQ, with only 3 more legs to go.
We got there at 11:30, just 30 minutes after they opened, and they were already jammed. But since we were only two, and not a big group, we got seated immediately.
Jan and I split the Big Bob Gibson Combo, with 3 meats: Ribs for us both, Smoked Turkey for Jan, and Pulled Pork for me.
Then we each got one of the two included sides: Cole Slaw for Jan, and Kettle Baked Beans for me.
And having been burnt in the past, we went ahead and ordered our pies to go, with Jan getting their Chocolate Pie,
while I got my favorite Peanut Butter Pie.
Gibson’s is known for their pies, almost as much as their BBQ, with people coming in just to buy whole pies, all of course, made in-house.
Because it was so busy, it was interesting to see how quickly they would turn a table around.
Just as soon as the guest stepped away, there was someone there to clean the table, and a hostess right behind them who was seating someone else within 10 or 15 seconds.
* * * * * * *
Leaving Big Bob’s, we drove over to a long-time friend’s place ot drop off a Trader Joe’s goodie bag for her. Anne is suffering a bad sinus infection and was afraid she might be contagious, so we just left the bag on her porch and talked to her by text.
Jan said that even though we had never been here before, she could pick out her place even before we got there.
* * * * * * *
After getting gas at a Wavaho station for 3.56/gallon, our best price in a good while, we headed back up to Athens for first a Wal-Mart stop and then back to the motel.
And somehow, when I wasn’t looking, this guy jumped into my cart and refused to leave. So it looks like he’s going home with us back to Texas.
He looks like he’s going to be an inside flamingo. Doesn’t look like he’s suited for the outdoors.
* * * * * * *
We’re going to spend tomorrow afternoon driving around Athens, checking out our old haunts, and doing some shopping.
Then about 6 pm, we’re meeting up with what family I have left here. Helen, Stahlie, Darby, Harland, Luke, and Luke’s girlfriend, to be named later, at the local Cracker Barrel.
Thought For The Day:
When Some ‘Friends’ Say “I Have Your Back”, It Means You Should Check For “Kick Me” Signs.
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
October 23, 2009
Bad Weather and Cold Water…
Today started out cold and rainy, and although it cleared up later in the day, tomorrow is supposed to be worse, with a high of only 44 degrees.
Around 1 pm, Jan and I headed out for lunch and errands. Since we were going to the Sam’s Club in Mishawaka, we decided to eat at Hooters, one of our favorite wing places.
Leaving Hooters, we stopped off at Sam’s Club. We did notice a long line of people getting flu shots while we were there.
About 6 pm, we headed out for dinner at a place called Lakeshore Grill. This was a great place to eat, and we enjoyed it.
We’ll go back.
October 23, 2011
Charge !!!! . . .
Today was going to be a play day, so at noon, we piled into the truck and headed over to Mishawaka for a day of shopping and eating.
Our first stop was the Verizon store, where I wanted to get a Droid Charge.
It took about an hour to get my new Droid activated and all my contacts transferred over from my Blackberry Storm II. Since all Verizon phones now use the online Backup Assistant to store contacts, it’s much easier to move them to a new phone than it used to be.
While Jan checked out the Bargain Books bookstore across the street from the Verizon store, I sat in the car and played with my new toy. I started downloading a bunch of apps to replace the ones on my Blackberry and was really amazed at the 4G speeds. 4 MB apps downloaded in just a few seconds. And it looks like I may have 4G coverage where we’ll be for a couple of months, south of Houston this winter.
Then it was on to the Barnes and Noble bookstore at the mall, where Jan shopped, and I, of course, sat in the Starbucks and played with my new toy some more.
By the time we left the mall, it was after 4 pm and time for dinner at Red Robin. They have great burgers and salads and bottomless steak fries, and we always enjoy it.
After dinner, it was time for more shopping, this time at Sam’s Club and then Wal-Mart. Then, after sending a lot of money to Bentonville, AR, we headed back toward home, with a quick detour by Dick’s Sporting Goods.
Getting back to the Elkhart area, we decided to finish off the day with a cold Dairy Queen treat.
It was really nice to just spend a day doing nothing but having fun.
And now for another installment of . . .
Things Every RV’er should have:
The Silverleaf VMSpc is one of my favorite gadgets. Unfortunately, it’s only for you diesel owners, but if you’ve got one, take a look.
The VMSpc consists of a cable that plugs into the diagnostic port under your dashboard, an interface box with a cable that plugs into your computer, and a PC computer program.
The whole system costs about $400, but you can download the software program for free and play with it.
The VMSpc ties into your engine computer and gives you much more accurate information than your coach gauges do, and also gives you some info that you don’t even have gauges for, like horsepower, torque, GPH, turbo boost, and a number of others.
As I said, the Silverleaf VMSpc plugs into the diagnostic port underneath the dashboard and connects to my laptop that sits on the center console when we travel.
In my case, I run two programs on the laptop: In the bottom section, I’m running Delorme Street Atlas w/GPS. The top section is the Silverleaf display.
The really nice thing about the Silverleaf is that you get to design your own panel. You can choose the instruments you want to display, where you want them on the screen, what color they are, and what they say. You can also set alarms so that if, for example, your battery voltage drops below 12 volts, an audible/visible alarm goes off on the screen.
Across the top, left to right, I first have the transmission gear indicator. The left ‘6’ shows what gear is selected on the console. The right one shows what gear the transmission is actually in.
Next, in order, are the tachometer, the turbocharger boost pressure, the instantaneous MPG, and the clock. Down the left side, the first four gauges are alarms for voltage, transmission temperature, water temperature, and oil pressure. Next are numerical gauges for the oil pressure, transmission temp, engine temp, and the total hours on the engine.
Starting from the top of the second column, CSPD shows the Cruise Control Set Speed, next is the total miles on the coach (it had 62511 miles when we bought it), the miles we’ve put on the coach, and the fuel minder. It shows the miles left on this tank, the remaining fuel in the tank, and the recent MPG.
The next column starts with a speedometer. The neat thing about this is that the Silverleaf program allows me to set a modifier on the speedometer.
The tires (295’s) presently on my coach are bigger than the original 285’s. This means my dashboard speedometer is not correct. It reads 51 mph when I’m doing 55, for instance. But by adding a modifier to the gauge, it displays the correct speed.
Next are the generator hours. This lets me track the generator fuel usage at about 1 gallon of diesel per hour.
Underneath that, the green ball means the Cruise Control is set and engaged. If the ball is yellow, it means it’s not engaged, and a red ball means it’s turned off. Just to the right are the miles since my last oil change/filter, etc., service.
Next is a vertical bar graph that gives me an instant picture of my engine performance, and below are the miles we’ve traveled so far this year. We’ll probably do another 2-3000 before we get back to Houston right before Thanksgiving.
The right-hand column below the clock shows the battery voltage, the fuel rate, the engine torque, the Max Intake Manifold Temp, and the distance to the next rest area.
Lastly, across the bottom are the miles we’ve traveled so far today, and the miles we’ve traveled so far on this tank of diesel.
This last reading, coupled with the fuel used from the Fuel Minder gauge, gives me a very accurate reading on the MPG on this tank. In this case, we’ve gone 488.2 miles and used 52.5 gallons (150 – 97.5) of diesel. This gives me an average of 9.3 mph.
Driving 55 does save gas. From testing, I know that if I drive 65, my mpg drops to between 7.5 and 8 mpg. This difference in miles per gallon saves me about $1000 a year.
Just a note: the fuel usage is very accurate on the Silverleaf because the program actually counts the pulses in the fuel injectors. You can’t get any better than that.
Another neat feature of the Silverleaf is that if you ever get a Check Engine light, just use the Diagnostic drop-down menu at the top of the screen, and it tells you the code AND what the code means.
It may seem like a lot of information, some of it not too useful, but it gives me an ongoing picture of my engine’s performance and lets me quickly see any changes.
I hope this all makes sense. If you have any questions or comments, be sure to let me know.
For you gas engine RV’ers, there is a product called Scangauge that will work for you, but it does not use a computer display. Instead, it has its own display unit.
October 23, 2012
Cheesecake and Burgers . . .
Since yesterday was a travel day, today was a goof-off and do-nothing day. So we goofed off and did nothing today.
For lunch, Jan fixed cheese toast, and then following in the ‘cheese’ motif, we had the pumpkin cheesecake that we brought home from our meal at The Peddler Steakhouse Sunday night at South of the Border. And like our whole meal, it was delicious. Jan said it was the best cheesecake she’d ever eaten.
About 1:30 pm, Jan and I headed out on some errands. She wanted to get her toes done, and I wanted to get a haircut. And, although it took some driving around, we managed to find a nail place and a hair place side by side. In getting there, though, we ended up going partway over to Beaufort, SC
Beaufort is the home of the US Marine Corps Parris Island and the Beaufort Marine Corps Air Station. In 1969-1970, I was working as a DOD contractor at the MCAS, working on F-4C, D, and E’s, plus one F-4J Blue Angel’s jet. So coming back to this area is kind of like coming back home.
We got home about 3:30, and it seemed like a good time for a nap. We like naps.
Then, a little after 5 pm, we headed out to have dinner at a Five Guys Burgers and Fries over in Savannah. Five Guys has pretty much become our favorite burger place, although Fuddrucker’s is a close second.
On our way home, our daughter Brandi called to catch us up on Landon and life down in Texas in general. We’re really looking forward to seeing everyone in less than a month.
Tomorrow is kind of up in the air, so we’ll have to see how it goes.
October 23, 2013
It must have been the Nopales . . .
It’s been a busy three days, but not gate-wise. For the last week or so, we’ve been doing about 30-35 vehicles a day, with today (Wednesday) doing about 45. A nice change from the 300 a day we had at the peak. But I sure hope it doesn’t get much slower, so they don’t get the idea that they don’t need us. We’d really like to stay here until we leave for Houston on the 24th of November. We’ll see.
For the last week or so, I’ve been fighting problems with my eyeglasses. The earpieces are those spring-loaded type, and they both just came apart within a week of each other. I tried a number of ways to glue them back together, Gorilla Glue, SuperGlue, contact cement, and even ShoeGoo. But nothing would hold for more than a day or two.
Then I got a bright idea. My new frames were identical to my old ones, and I still had them, so I would just take the earpieces off the old ones and install them on the new ones. Piece of cake, right? Well, no. The taking apart thing went just fine. The getting them reinstalled part, not so much.
Holding the glasses frame in one hand, the earpiece in the other, the tweezers holding the screw in the other hand, and of course the little tiny screwdriver in the other…well, I think you see the problem.
I could never get everything lined up, and the screw started. So after about 30 minutes of wasted effort, I gave up and went with the Nerd method. Holding them together with tape. I figured I would drive into Pleasanton on Monday and let the Wal-Mart Vision Center take a crack at them.
So after handing them off, I did some shopping, picking up some cold stuff so we wouldn’t have to worry about it tomorrow in San Antonio. Getting back to the Vision Center about 20 minutes later, they had me all ready to go. Turns out they have a special little screw-starter to make things easier. They didn’t have any for sale, but I found one on Amazon I’m going to order.
Coming back home, I saw this sign again and finally had a chance to take a picture of it.
What does it say about your town when the ‘Premier Gated Community’ is an RV Park? Actually, it’s probably our kind of place.
Tuesday afternoon about 1 pm we headed to San Antonio for our combined birthday celebration. Both of ours are in October, mine on the 5th and Jan’s this Friday on the 25th. It does make it more convenient when we have to renew our driver’s licenses in South Dakota.
Anyway, our first stop was at the Palladium IMAX theater out on I-10 West. This place is huge. Besides the 16 screens and the usual movie food, it has a gelato stand, a Starbucks, two restaurants, and two bars. Jan had to try the Pumpkin Gelato and pronounced it fantastic. If they started renting out rooms, you could live here.
The reason we passed so many closer theaters is that we heard if you were going to see “Gravity”, the new Sandra Bullock-George Clooney movie, see it in IMAX and 3D. And this was the only place in town that had both.
We’ve seen IMAX movies before, and we’ve seen 3D movies before, but this was our first IMAX 3D one. And it was worth the trip. And the movie itself was great. The action started very quickly and just never let up until the end. Jan compared it to an Indiana Jones movie that just never stops.
The story is about a Space Shuttle Hubble Telescope repair mission with Sandra Bullock, the Mission Specialist, doing the repair in space, and George Clooney as the Shuttle Pilot. And then everything goes terribly wrong.
Although the movie has a lot of special effects, they take a backseat to the story and the characters. And we did like the fact that they didn’t overdo the 3D part, just so you wouldn’t forget the movie was in 3D.
Having worked on the Shuttle Program for 10 years at Johnson Space Center, there were a few things I noticed that wouldn’t have happened that way in space, but nothing so glaring that it interfered with my enjoyment of the movie.
This one is a must-see.
Getting out of the movie about 4:15, our next stop was a nearby SuperCuts so Jan could get her hair trimmed. I always kind of dread taking Jan to get her hair done, because if they don’t do it like she wants, she comes out very unhappy, and then, for some reason, I end up very unhappy.
Strange how that works out.
Then it was on to La Fonda on Main for dinner.
Jan had this Beef Chile Relleno with a Verde Chicken Enchilada.
And I had the Pork Carnitas with an Avocado Bowl. The pork is resting on a grilled nopales (cactus) leaf
For dessert, we split a piece of their delicious Tres Leches.
And here’s the beautiful Birthday Girl herself.
Our meal was as delicious as usual, and we always enjoy going back.
Now it was shopping time with Sam’s Club, Wal-Mart, and Barnes and Noble on the list. Finishing up about 9:30, our last stop was the Pilot/Flying J on the way home. They had Jan’s Pumpkin Spice coffee, but had apparently run out and stopped selling the Pumpkin Spice Cappuccino that they had last time. When I mentioned to a young lady cleaning up nearby that it wasn’t even Halloween yet, much less Thanksgiving, and they’d already stopped selling it, she said, “Yes, it’s very popular and everyone waits for us to start selling it every year.”
When I said that, maybe that meant that they should, you know, order more, maybe, she just looked at me like I had two heads, or something. It’s amazing that some places can even stay in business.
Wrapping up today, I’ve had some sort of stomach bug all day. Don’t know if it’s just something going around or if it’s something I ate. Personally, I blame the nopales on my pork carnitas dish last night. Yeah, that’s it.
I mentioned the other day that one of the truck drivers had seen a bobcat near our gate, so here’s Mister doing his best ‘Bobcat Bait’ impression.
After all, the guy did say the bobcat was smaller than Mister, but we’ll keep a close eye on him anyway.
October 23, 2014
Black or White . . .
Well, our 2nd full day of freedom was just as good as our first one yesterday, but a lot more relaxed, since we didn’t go anywhere or do anything. Jan did give the rig a good cleaning, and I assisted by doing what I was told and otherwise staying out of the way.
It’s safer that way.
While I’m deciding what I want to do with Jan’s Paperwhite, I went ahead and ordered a 10.5″ Galaxy Tab 4 from Amazon yesterday that should be here tomorrow.
Maybe.
We’ll see how good FedEx is at delivering to an address along an Interstate feeder out in the country, two miles from town. There is a sign on the fence that says “Gate Guard Services”, and the address on the package says, “Big RV in Back”. So we’ll see how it goes.
The Galaxy Tab will combine the features of our Kindle Fire and Jan’s Paperwhite, so we’ll see how it works as a Paperwhite replacement. In the meantime, I’ve got a couple more things to try to revive Jan’s dead Paperwhite.
One thing I found kind of funny is the pricing of the Tab. If you want it in black, it’s $299. But if you want a white one, it’s only $259. Exactly the same specs, just a different color.
Guess which one I bought?
About 5:30 this afternoon, we got a neighbor here at the yard. They’re just coming off a gate down near Madisonville and are taking off for a week or two, leaving their 5th wheel here in the meantime. At this point, the lot is full.
Rather than have our leftover steak from last night, we decided to start working our way through some more of our Frack Food from the gate. No telling when we’ll get any more. So our dinner tonight was crispy catfish fillets, corn on the cob, potato salad, and BBQ Beans. And pumpkin pie with whipped cream for dessert.
We’re going to miss the gate.
October 23, 2015
Surprise!
When I got up about 10:15 this morning, I found the rains had finally arrived. I also found that our canopy had some leaks.
In anticipation of the forecast for the next five days of rain that was coming in, yesterday I had used Gorilla Tape and Rust-Oleum Clear Leak Seal Spray to patch the few weak places I could see. But unfortunately, what I couldn’t see were the ones up under the small cupola cover at the top of the canopy.
Since I was just leaving for my Wal-Mart run, Jan suggested I just get another tarp to throw over the top of this tarp. Sounded like a good idea.
And right before I left for Carthage, Jan, having read my blog this morning and not taking any chances, surprised me by saying she wanted Whataburger for lunch.
Darn, that just takes all the fun out of it.
Finally, on my way and getting out to the main highway, I first headed about 3 miles in the wrong direction to check out the Citgo station back toward Henderson. A number of the rig guys had said they had good food at the diner there, and I wanted to check it out.
One thing kind of strange is that though it was overcast and raining at the gate, three miles west here, it was sunny with blue skies. Huh.
At past gates, we’ve found the food pretty good at these places, so we’ll probably give this place a try too. To make it easy for Jan to know what they have, I always just take a picture of their menu board.
Looks like the usual fare, with burgers, chicken, other sandwiches, and various other accouterments. One of our favorite things at these places is the chicken strips and steak fries, and it looks like they’ve even got that covered.
And breakfast as well.
Though I don’t know if they serve it all day or not. McDonald’s does now, so they should too.
We’ll have to check them out soon.
A little later, after Wal-Mart, but before Whataburger, I dropped off my Amazon return package at a local UPS shipping ‘place’, which turned out to be a little computer repair store. This was the return of my defective Mighty Mule Alarm system. Earlier in the morning, I had received an email saying that Amazon had issued my $63 credit for this.
The replacement has been working fine so far, except when the water guys knocked it over while removing the frack water line the other day.
* * * * * * *
For some reason, it seems to get more and more difficult to put in my order at Whataburger every time I go.
To be sure I have it right, I read it off my phone. I tell them what burger I want and exactly what I want on it. But today she kept trying to get me to tell her what I don’t want on it, i.e., no lettuce. But the problem with that is that I don’t know what comes on their burgers normally, and nowhere on the menu board does it say.
And besides, if I do that, then I’m telling her what I don’t want on it, i.e., lettuce, and then what I do want on it extra, i.e., tomatoes, bacon, etc. I kept trying to tell her, start with a plain #6 Double Meat Cheese Whataburger Jr., just meats, cheese, and bread, and then I’ll tell you exactly what I DO want on it.
There is one guy who works there that I’m always happy to see at the counter. He takes the order perfectly, and we’re done in just a minute or so.
Later in the afternoon, we did get another visit from the donkeys as they passed by. The brown one always just stops and stares at us while he waits for the 40-year-old one to catch up.
Based on the radar, it looks like we dodged most of the heavy rains today. Most of it stayed to the north, running from southwest to northeast of us.
But there’s always tomorrow . . . and the next day . . . and the next day . . .
I guess we’ll see how the new tarp works.
October 23, 2016
Gateworthy . . .
Things, they keep a changing.
Jan and I spent some time playing with the iPad Gate Program last night until I think we both have it down. It’s pretty much identical in function to the one I wrote 3 years ago, except mine is text-based and runs on Windows 7, and this one is touchscreen-based and runs on an iPad.
The only other difference is that SiteWatch’s iPad version is online and configured to upload data to the company server.
But mine is just as fast and easy to use. It’s just not tablet-size.
I have thought about converting it over, and I still may. I already have a program to write it in, so it wouldn’t be a real problem. We’ll see.
If I did it, it would just be for fun.
Todd came back and picked up the iPad from Jan this morning about 8 am, before I got up at my usual 10:30. Then, just as we were leaving the rig about 11, I got another text from Todd letting us know that our work schedule had changed again.
Rather than us both working the outside gate from 5:30p to 5:30p tonight, Jan will be working the outside gate, and I will be working the inside gate from 6p to 6a. This kind of concerned Jan because she was counting on me being there to keep her awake. But I guess it means that Todd thinks we’re gateworthy.
The reason we were heading out right then is that, as I said last night, we wanted to have the Sunday Turkey and Dressing/Fried Chicken buffet at Barth’s. And like yesterday’s meal, it was really good.
Turkey and real (cornbread) dressing, not that cubed bread stuff, along with really delicious Fried Chicken, creamed red potatoes, fresh vegetable medley, as well as white turkey gravy, and cranberry sauce. Oh, and along with the salad bar, the homemade soup was Broccoli Cheese, just as good as yesterday’s homemade Beef Vegetable.
Even nicer is the price. The regular price is $10.99, but with $3 Senior Discount, ours was $7.99. Very nice. Just like yesterday’s $9.50 one, it was $6.50 for me.
And you know you’re in the oil fields when your large iced tea glasses don’t say Coke or Pepsi, but instead have the name and advertisements for an oil field service company called Rockwater.
Getting back to the rig a little after 1 pm, we both went down for naps to prepare us for tonight’s work.
We had both packed bags with snacks, drinks, Kindles, laptops, power supplies, chargers, and flashlights. So we’re ready for just about anything.
We got to Jan’s gate a little after 5 pm, and I helped Jan get set up after Tam left. She does look pretty comfortable.
Then,a little after 5:30, I drove the 1/2 mile or so down to my gate next to the pad.
Not much is going on right now, so it should be a quiet night for both of us.
We hope.
October 23, 2017
Last Trip South . . .
I headed out on my last trip south about 10 am. I say ‘last trip’, since I’m not going down on Wednesday, and then we move down to Santa Fe on Thursday.
So when I go back to work on Friday, I’ll be making a 30-mile round-trip and not a 140-mile one. Yay!
I really wish Facebook would just stop fooling around and changing things. When I first started posting our blog to FB every night, I could pick what photo I wanted to show on the front page. I couldn’t pick from all the blog’s photos, but most of them, anyway.
Then months later, I could no longer pick from the photos, but had to take the one they picked for me. And the one they picked was never consistent. Sometimes it was the first one, sometimes it was the last one, or maybe one in the middle somewhere. But at least I could delete it if I didn’t want to use that one.
But then, a couple of weeks ago, they changed it again. Now I can’t delete it at all, but I’m just stuck with whichever one they pick. Bummer!
Then, a couple of weeks ago, the crying emoji disappeared from the display shown when you clicked on the Like button. In its place was just a hole. Then, a few days later, it was back.
Now the entire emoji display is gone completely. Now we can only select ‘Like’ and nothing else.
STOP MESSING WITH STUFF. JUST LEAVE IT ALONE.
Recently, I came across this article about Amazon selling houses online.
http://nypost.com/2017/10/20/now-you-can-buy-a-small-house-on-amazon/
They’re actually tricked-out shipping containers, selling for about $36,000
Not bad. And no, it doesn’t ship under Amazon Prime.
But this got me thinking about another big company that used to sell homes online . . . well, the online of the time, the Sears Catalog. And they not only sold homes, but also ‘mansions’.
‘The Magnolia’ seems to be the largest model sold by Sears. At ten rooms, two stories plus a basement, it was a real ‘kit’ with every piece cut and fitted. And included everything down to the nails and paint. Here’s a full-size copy of the Sears ad.
https://ourrvadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Sears_Magnolia_Catalog_Image.png
There are still a number of ‘Magnolias’ around the country. Here’s one in North Carolina.
Still looking good. Apparently, it’s now a Dolce & Gabbana store.
Well, the vote is in. And it’s 26 to 0 in favor of blue awnings on the rig.
It’s gonna look great.
October 23, 2018
They’re From The Government, and They’re Here To Help Us!
Although today was Tuesday, and I don’t normally work at my client’s, I went in today to kind of make up for being gone for 3 weeks.
I had been monitoring things remotely, so I knew that nothing had really cratered, but you never know. However, I ended up spending most of the day working for the US government, specifically the US Census Bureau.
My client had received a letter from them requiring that he fill out an online 2017 Economic Census form. ‘Requiring’ as in a $5,000 fine for not doing it, and a $10,000 fine for ‘deliberately’ submitting false or incorrect information.
Ouch!
Apparently, a tiny subset of US small businesses are selected at random to participate in the survey.
Lucky us!
And some of the detailed questions are for things we don’t really track. Like how much we charge customers for shipping on the items they order. Since we only pass on the amount that USPS, UPS, or FedEx charges us, we have no idea what the total amount is. So now I’m having to try and pull all this info out of the USPS and UPS apps.
And this is just one of 100’s of questions. So I’ve got my work cut out for me for the next few weeks.
After I got home, we turned right around and headed back out to first have dinner at Los Ramirez Mexican Restaurant, the first Tex-Mex we’ve had since before we left for Florida, so we’ve been going into withdrawal.
Then it was on over to the storage room to break out our electric heaters for the winter. It was down in the low 50’s last night, with more of the same tonight. And the high tomorrow is forecast for the low 60’s.
Nice!
Then, coming home, we stopped off so I could buy the winning Mega-Millions ticket. At $1.6 Billion+, it’s certainly worth risking a few bucks. And as usual, I got the 30 Annual Payments option, rather than the Cash Payout. As far as I know, Texas is the only state that requires you to make that decision upfront when you buy the ticket. Or at least the only one we’ve encountered in our travels around the country.
The Annual Payment value is $1.6 Billion, with the Cash Payout just a little over $900 Million. So you’re giving up about $700 Million to get the money upfront.
If you take the Annual Payments, you’ll get about $32 Million a year after taxes for 30 years. If you take the Cash Value and then spread it out over the same 30 years, you would have about $18 Million a year.
And realistically, what could you do with $900 Million up front that you couldn’t do with $32 Million per year?
October 23, 2019
Now, On To 2021 . . .
We’ve now got our deposit in on our Alaskan Cruise, and we’ve got our hotel reservations made for our pre-cruise week in Fairbanks. All that’s left now is our flights and our car rental in Fairbanks.
I had mentioned that we were getting an inside room, and found that for an extra $65 we can get a larger inside room, bigger from 155 sqft to 233 sqft. But our great travel agent, Chantelle Nugent, found out that for an additional $25, for a total of $90, we get a slightly larger, large room up on a higher deck, Deck 8, or the Navigation Deck.
Much better than our original inside room, which is down on Deck 1, the very bottom deck. Kind of like being in Steerage on the Titanic.
Very nice room. Chantelle always takes great care of us.
One thing Jan and I were happy to see is that PMJ (Postmodern Jukebox), one of our favorite groups, will be performing on HAL Alaskan Cruises during 2020. But I haven’t yet been able to find out what ship they will be on, or if they will be moving from ship to ship. But hopefully, we’ll be able to see them.
Check’em out here.
Also, this morning I booked our NYC Holiday Dinner Cruise for Sunday, December 8th, while we’re in NYC.
We paid extra for a window table, though that doesn’t seem to mean we’ll actually be right next to the window, just at a table BY the window, with four other diners.
But close enough, I guess.
One thing that always ticks me off, especially when it involves my money. We paid extra for the window table, and also a photo on the ship. But when I went to pay online with my card, I found, in addition to the $28.64 in NYC taxes, there was a $63.33 ADMINSTRATION FEE, and an $8.99 MARINE FEE, I guess because it’s a boat.
WTH
Finally, looking forward to 2021, we’re looking at maybe doing a cruise out of Galveston, taking in the Mayan ruins of Tulum from Cozumel and Chichen Itza from Progresso. And any more we can cram in.
After that, we’ll probably be cruised-out.
But you never know.
October 23, 2020
And Now We Wait . . .
Since we’ve got a cold front coming through tonight, down to the 50’s, it was preceded by rain, which means that the rear of the coach is a puddle, so I’ll wait until tomorrow to do a test idle on the rig.
As usual, when I’m working on a problem, I’m also working on backup plans for the problem. So today I put a call into Cummins to confirm what I had been told previously about the engine oil cooler.
The latest version is a 1-piece unit, not a 2-piece model as I have now.
So there’s no pesky gasket to leak like I have now. I guess I’m not the only person to have a problem with this.
So why haven’t I gone ahead and just installed this new cooler?
Well, I’m cheap. But you already knew that, didn’t you?
Honestly, I don’t think I can install this myself. At least not lying on my back like I have to do. It looks like the rig would have to be up on a lift or over a pit to be able to reach up in there to get the bolts. And you can’t do it from up top because the cooler is located right under the firewall between the bedroom and the engine compartment.
But the cost is why replacing it is my last-gasp effort. I can buy it online for about $800, but by the time I have a shop replace it, with their markup and labor, we’re probably looking at $2000 or so.
So I want to exhaust all the other avenues first before I go that route. And I still have a few more arrows in my quiver to try first.
I did get our South Dakota Absentee Ballots back in the mail today. Hopefully, since they made it down here in 4 days, they can make it back by the middle of next week or so.
I originally planned to send them back via Priority Mail, but the ballots are too large to fit in a Flat Rate envelope, so they went out by First Class Mail.
I will be able to check online to see when they’re received in Sioux Falls. So now we wait.
October 23, 2021
Is There Anything It Can’t Do?
Lunch today was at Los Ramirez once again. I say ‘once again’ because we’re at that point where we just sit down and they already know what we’re going to order.
Jan gets her usual Pechuga Rellena, no rice,
while I got the Beef Fajita Taco Salad, guacamole on the side for Jan.
Next up was a stop at Wal-Mart for supplies, before getting home about 3:30.
A nice Saturday.
October 23, 2022
And A Fun Time Was Had By All . . .
At Least Everyone Was Smiling When We Left.
Jan and I were out the door about 10 am for the start of our whirlwind weekend, with our first stop down FM1764 at the Three Acres Food Truck Park for their Pumpkin Spice Market.
We’ve been here for several events, but this is the biggest crowd we’ve seen so far, so big that we were afraid we’d have a problem finding a parking space, but we lucked up and got one right in front.
With over 30 vendors and 3 food trucks, the place had something for everyone.
After Jan found a few things she just had to have, and we grabbed a bite to eat, we were off to Runge Park over in Santa Fe for a surprise 85th birthday party for our friend Harry Dudley.
With all his kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids, in addition to a lot of friends, they had a real turnout.
They served a meal from a local Italian place, as well as a lot of treats.
After dropping off our gift and saying our goodbye’s, we were on our way up to the Trinity area to meet up with our long-time friends Debi & Ed Hurlburt and Janice & Dave Evans for a weekend get-together. Later, after we got settled into our motel, we met everyone right down the road at El Rancho Viejo, Debi and Ed’s favorite local Mexican place.
Jan got the combo Beef, Chicken, and Shrimp Fajitas, while I got a really delicious Steak and Shrimp, with a 10 oz. Ribeye and 3 Jumbo Shrimp.
After a great meal, we ended up back at Debi and Ed’s for several more hours of non-stop talking, finally heading back to our motel about 10 pm.
Then this morning, about 10, we met Debi and Ed at the Trinity Café right in beautiful downtown Trinity. A local favorite, it was already busy when we got there.
Jan and I both got omelets, hers with onions, mushrooms, and cheese, and mine the Spanish version. Both delicious.
By the time we needed to get back on the road home, the place had filled up, so we gave up our table to another hungry group.
And after an HEB stop at our local location near home, we were back in the rig a little after 3 pm, finding a very mouthy Karma complaining about how long we’d been gone.
We all had so much fun that we’re going to have to do this again.
Soon!
October 23, 2023
Blue Suckers . . .
Today I was finally able to get the last piece of software installed on my new computer at work. The only thing left is to get it fully connected to the office network. Not sure why it’s not seeing the other computers, but I’ll figure it out on Wednesday.
I did finally get my HP printer/scanner connected to the scanner software. Not sure why it didn’t want to connect to start with. But I finally just out-stubborned it, I guess.
Landon made this octopus for his Nana’s Birthday, using his new 3D printer. Printed in 3 colors, pink body, yellow eyes, and blue suckers, the tentacles are fully articulated.
She loves it, and it sits in a place of honor on the kitchen counter.
Tomorrow is scheduled to be just another stay-around-the-rig day. Always nice.
October 23, 2024
It’s Really Creamy . . .
Today was my 2nd day back at work since my operation, and also my 2nd Physical Therapy session.
I was able to catch up on repairing a couple of machines that had stacked up since last Wednesday, and then take care of a bunch of price changes for the website and the catalog.
Work, work, work.
* * * * * * *
For my PT, we ran through my previous exercises, and then they added some more to the mix to help strengthen my legs, which is what I really need. I’ll probably keep up the PT sessions until right before our cruise.
* * * * * * *
I’ve been rethinking our excursion choices, which is why I left them sitting in my Shopping Cart.
I’m thinking about switching out my Cozumel Chichen Itza excursion for one leaving out of Progresso. The travel time is a lot less, and it’s cheaper, too.
I’m also going to sign up for their Zoom Internet service at $19/day, so about $170 for the 9 days. Between keeping up with the blog and also keeping an eye on things at work, it’s a necessary evil, I guess.
* * * * * * *
Since we seem to be on a tour of trying out new places/places we haven’t been to in a while, tomorrow looks to be lunch at Chuy’s Tex-Mex, a place we haven’t been to for several years.
And like most places we go to, we have our favorites. And in Chuy’s case, it’s the same for both of us.
Their Mex-Cobb Salad.
With Fajita Chicken, Green Chiles, Cheese, Avocados, and Tomatoes, and slathered in their Creamy Jalapeno Ranch dressing, it’s a delicious meal.
Looking forward to it.
Old School Chums . . .
Today was Jan’s chance to catch up with an old high school friend. Though she was a couple of years ahead of Jan, Carol and Jan were both in high school up in Chicopee, MA, as well as going to the same Mormon Church.
After meeting us at our Hampton Inn hotel, we were back at Dixie Crossroads once again, also a favorite of Carol’s. This time, Jan got an Oyster Po’boy, and I got a Shrimp Po’boy, then we swapped each other some oysters and shrimp. And of course, we both had to start with a cup of the delicious Clam Chowder.
As usual with these get-togethers, we spent a couple of hours catching up on our mutual lives since we last got together in 2018.
Coming back toward the hotel, we made a quick Wal-Mart stop for both Jan and Carol, before finally saying our good-byes at the hotel.
Until next time.
* * * * * * *
Later, about 6:45, Jan and I headed up to Mims to get ice cream at Frisbee’s.
In the daytime, it looks like this.
But at night it looks like this.
Jan got a Pumpkin Cheesecake Shake, while I got a Carrot Cake Freeze.
As I watched the young lady make my Freeze, I was surprised to see her open a cooler and take out a big slice of Carrot Cake and dump half of it into the metal shake cup before adding ice cream, and putting it under the mixer.
And I’ve got to assume that Jan’s Pumpkin Cheesecake Shake actually had Pumpkin Cheesecake in it too.
* * * * * * *
To reassure Jan, Jennifer sent over this ‘proof of life’ photo of Miss Karma. She doesn’t look happy.
Of course, that’s pretty much the way she always looks.
* * * * * * *
Tomorrow, after a going-away lunch at Sonny’s BBQ and a last visit to Jan’s parents’ gravesite, we’re making the 2+ hour trip down to Okeechobee to visit Charlee, a former co-worker of Jan’s, and her husband Bill for a couple of days.
