Our RV Adventures

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I spent the morning trying to get a valid SSH/SFTP connection so I could do a restore of my Blog’s March 4th post. But every time I thought I’d made some progress, I’d end up back at square one.

So about 12:30 Jan and I headed out for lunch with Juana at BoomerJack’s once again.

Jan went with her usual Grilled Catfish with Grilled Veggies,

while I got the 10 Wings with Mango Habanero Sauce, Grilled Veggies, and Chipotle Ranch Dipping Sauce.

The only thing I don’t like about the wings here, is that unlike most place, Boomer’s doesn’t allow you to order all drums.

I always get 10 wings so I get eat 5 and then have 5 to bring home.

Delicious, and we had a great time catching up with Juana for a while. Hopefully we can catch up with Sylvia, our other favorite server, who also works there, but wasn’t there today.

Leaving BoomerJack’s, we had planned to do our weekly Wal-Mart visit, but since our list wasn’t very long we decided to skip it for today, so I could get back to working on the blog problem.

And getting back home I put in another call to Godaddy, and finally was able to get bumped up to someone who could actually help me.

I explained to Henry the problem I had having with making an SSH/SFTP connection, and his ‘chuckle’ told me I wasn’t the only one. I then asked him if he couldn’t just do the Restore from his end.

And he said, “Sure, no problem.” And after double-checking the date I wanted to restore, it was done in about 5 minutes. And that was it.

I then re-uploaded March 4th’s Blog Post, Woolly Mice. I will go back in the next couple of days and upload the Retro-Blogs.™ for March 5th. So that should catch us back up.

* * * * *

Tomorrow we’re heading back to the Alvin Opry once again, our first time since last August, due to our surgeries, the holidays, and other things. Dinner will, of course, be at the Alvin Monterey’s, as usual.

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Thought For The Day:

Do you know what makes old men like me cynical?
Experience. Experience makes me cynical.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

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March 6, 2009

For old time’s sake…

As I mentioned earlier my parents and I moved down here to Gulf Shores in January 1951 to build a motel on the beach.

My father was a police detective with the Birmingham Police Department and my mother was a Public Health nurse with Jefferson County.  They had discovered Gulf Shores after flying their plane down here for a weekend.

They sold their house in Birmingham and borrowed from my father’s mother.  They had 6 cottages ready to go in time for the 1951 summer season which then lasted only 3 months, June, July, and August.

Me and My Dad – January 1951

This is my father and me right after we moved here.

They called the motel “White’s-by-the-Sea”.  Original, huh?  Note the cowboy suit.  It was my favorite.

This is a shot of my best friend David Duddy and me with some of the cottages in the background. Probably the summer of 1954.  The cottages were very nice for the time with 2 bedrooms, 1 bath, a kitchen, dining area, and living room.  There was also a porch on the side facing the Gulf.  A couple of years later they put window air conditioners in the units, the first place on the beach to have them.  Note I’m still wearing the cowboy suit.  I probably slept and bathed in it, too.

Based on the car tag,  this picture was taken in the summer of 1952. Don’t you just love my shorts? Since my hair was all slicked down and I was dressed nicely, I would think this was before or after we had been to church.

If you look carefully you can see chicken wire around the pilings on the left side of the picture.  This was my ‘playpen’.  I considered it my prison. I was very bad about wandering off when my parents were busy with the motel and it was hard to keep an eye on me.  One time I ended up almost a mile away, so my father enclosed a large area under our house to keep me corralled.  I don’t think it ever worked as well as he had hoped.

I, however, viewed it as a challenge to my escape artist skills.

I very quickly learned to undo the door latch he had installed. So my father put a padlock on the door.

I promptly climbed up the chicken wire and squeezed over the top edge  (I was a lot smaller then).

My father extended the chicken wire all the way to the top,  so I proceeded to tunnel out through the sand underneath the wire.

Another time my father found me with a saw trying to cut my way through one of the pilings.  I think I got a spanking for that one.

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March 6, 2010

More of More of the Same…

Today was another day of soliciting door prizes for the Rally.

Jan was still under the weather, so she stayed home while I trod the bricks begging and pleading.

I’ve had pretty good luck so far. I’ve got about 48 prizes so far with a few more to pick up Sunday and Monday.

About 4 pm we all met to discuss how we’re going to start parking the rigs as they start coming in tomorrow.

Then about 5:45 Jan and I, and 3 other couples headed over to Golden Corral for supper. We had a great time talking over the RV lifestyle.

It’s going to be an early morning tomorrow, so this is it for today.

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March 6, 2011

Early Birds and War Birds . . .

I’m stiff and sore in places I didn’t remember I had places.

Starting at 1pm, we spent the afternoon parking RV’s. Lots and lots of RV’s. And all I did was ride around in a golf cart all day. And of course, jump out, then back in, then out, then . . . you get the picture.

Today was Early Bird Day for the Rally here in Yuma. Early Bird Day normally is for a few rigs to come in a day or so early to get settled in.

But this is just ridiculous. We had 145 rigs show up today, out of the 175 to 200 that are supposed to attend the rally.

Apparently some people just haven’t figured out that if everyone shows up on Early Bird Day, it’s no longer Early Bird Day, it’s just the first day of the rally. If everyone’s an Early Bird, there is just not going to be enough worms to go around.

Somewhere during the day, lunchtime came and went, and I never even noticed it was gone. Suddenly, a little before 6pm there were no rigs in the front lot, and we were done. I parked the golf cart, stepped out . . . and almost fell on my face, I was so stiff.

Finally about 6:30pm, Jan and I, and some others, headed out for supper. We had originally been going to Famous Dave’s BBQ, but they had a line out front, so we went next door to Logan’s Roadhouse and got seated in about 5 minutes.

Jan and I were so thirsty we just told our waiter to bring water and iced tea, and keep it coming. Unlike Houston’s 95%, the humidity here in Yuma is around 30% and it really sucks the moisture right out of you without you realizing it, and suddenly your throat is so dry you can’t talk and you’re feeling lightheaded from dehydration.

I think I had a steak, and I think it was really good, but I’m so tired, I’m not sure.

I think this blog is coherent, but I’m not really sure, but hopefully this is enough, so I’m going to bed.

So more tomorrow . . . if I survive.

But first, here’s a new Landon pic for your viewing pleasure.

Landon finds out he has toes. Now if he can only figure out what to do with them.

But he’s working on it.

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March 6, 2013

Mushrooms and Wild Seeds . . .

Today was a busy travel day, just not in the rig, but in our truck. We left the park about 9:30am, heading for Fredericksburg 60 miles away.

The reason was to eat lunch at Der Lindenbaum, probably the best German restaurant we’ve ever eaten at.

It’s pretty much a given that if we’re in the area, we’ll eat here at least once. Or more.

Jan had her favorite Jager Schnitzel, which is a pork cutlet, breaded and pan-fried, and then covered in a fresh mushroom gravy, along with hot German potato salad and red cabbage.

I had the Burgermeister Platter, which consists of bratwurst, knockwurst, and wienerwurst sausages, along with warm sauerkraut, spicy German mustard, and of course, red cabbage. It’s not really German food if you don’t have red cabbage.

Before we left we got an order of the Jager Schnitzel to take with us to Gina’s since it’s her favorite too.

After lunch we headed out for our friend Gina’s about 50 miles away. But about 8 miles out of town we made a quick stop at Wildseed Farms

Wildseed Farms is another place Jan always wants to stop when we’re passing through this area.

It’s a combo gift shop, plant nursery, seed farm, landscape supply, and cat store.

Not cat house, cat store.

There are always 3 or 4 cats sleeping on the long checkout counter, just waiting for a passing customer to lavish some attention on them.

Then it was off again to Gina’s, getting to the ranch a little before 2pm, and I was glad to see my Amazon packages waiting for me. Would hate to have them sent after us if they didn’t come in on time.

After getting Jan settled in and getting my hugs in with Gina, I headed off to a nearby Subway to stock them up on sandwiches.

Jan will be staying with Gina until Saturday, while I come back to the rig and take care of things on this end.

So after checking out a problem with Gina’s color laser printer, I headed back to the rig about 4pm. Right outside of Boerne, I stopped at a Valero to get a coffee, and then another stop at Home Depot to pick up a couple of things.

Getting back to the park about 5:30, I tried to track down a UPS package I was expecting, but all the offices were closed, so I’ll try again tomorrow.

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March 6, 2014

Idiots and Frostbite . . .

With the nice weather and the sun, I got a lot of bin work done outside. Even got a start going through some of the basement bins, not sorting stuff yet, but making a first pass at throwing stuff away.

Looks like I’ll have a couple or three bins ready to go to the storeroom on Saturday. Don’t know how much, if any, I’ll get done on Sunday because there’s a 60% chance of rain. And then on Monday, we’re moving to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails for two weeks, so I’ll start back up when we get there.

I got a couple of requests so I’ve posted Jan’s Heavenly Hash recipe over in her Jan’s Favorite Recipes area, so you can check it out there.

This is about all I’ve got for today, with not much else going on.

But I did add a story to my What Were They Thinking? file. Check out what happens when a 14-year-old girl is made to stand outside in 5 below weather in a wet bathing suit.

Idiots!

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March 6, 2016

Slobbering . . .

We had our coffee and breakfast inside this morning, so we wouldn’t have to worry about being blown away. The wind picked up during the night, prefacing the front coming through tomorrow, bringing 3 or 4 days of forecasted rain. But, as usual, we’ll see.

I spent the morning working on some internet stuff before heading outside to look for my slobber tube. But first I crawled back under the passenger side of the engine again to check for any more leakage around the oil pan drain plug.

I had wiped it off the other day to see if it was leaking around the plug, but found no new wetness. So I was out and back under on the other side to check out there. And after a quick look, it was obvious where it was.

Based on what I’d heard about the location I was expecting to find it hanging down a little further, but it’s actually above the oil pan gasket area.

And it was obvious from the surrounding wetness that it had been leaking.

So now, again based on what I’ve read about it, my next step is to come up with a way to hang a bottle or can under the slobber tube to catch the outflow. One, to contain the oil so it doesn’t end up on the toad, and two, to check that that is actually where the oil is coming from.

So hopefully, I’ll be able to come up with something before we leave here next Sunday.

While I was under there, I also noticed another oil leak, coming from the hydraulic line that feeds the engine cooling fan. So I’ll keep an eye on that too.

And also I was able to see the oil filter that had been changed out last February by RV Mobile Lube.

It’s nice to see that they sign and date them to keep track of them.

Finishing up, and coming back in to find Jan napping on the sofa, I decided that was a good idea too, so I headed back to the bedroom for my share of nap time.

When I got up I got back on my pantry organization project using Alexa on the Amazon Echo to record and print out the list as I sorted through the items and consolidated them on the various shelves.

By the time I got finished later tonight, it looked like this.

And here’s what my list ended up looking like.

sixth shelf     left side     splenda raw sugar
sixth shelf     right side     medicine and cough drops
sixth shelf     right side     calcium chews

fifth shelf     left side     hazelnut coffee
fifth shelf     left side     jim & nicks cheese biscuit mix
fifth shelf     left side     mini moo half and half creamers
fifth shelf     right side     captain’s wafers
fifth shelf     right side     drinking straws
fifth shelf     right side     hot tea packets

fourth shelf     left side     bacon horseradish dip mix
fourth shelf     left side     corn starch
fourth shelf     left side     onion soup dip mix
fourth shelf     left side     splenda brown sugar
fourth shelf     left side     stevia sweetener
fourth shelf     right side     campbell’s slow kettle tomato & sweet basil bisque
fourth shelf     right side     cheesy bacon potato soup mix
fourth shelf     right side     chicken enchilada soup mix
fourth shelf     right side     creamy broccoli soup mix
fourth shelf     right side     jif peanut butter
fourth shelf     right side     mango habanero sauce
fourth shelf     right side     minestrone soup mix
fourth shelf     right side     pam olive oil cooking spray
fourth shelf     right side     pasta fagioli soup mix
fourth shelf     right side     penne pasta
fourth shelf     right side     pure vanilla extract
fourth shelf     right side     roasted raspberry chipotle sauce
fourth shelf     right side     spicy brown mustard
fourth shelf     right side     starkist chunk light tuna 5 packets
fourth shelf     right side     strozzapreti pasta
fourth shelf     right side     tortilla soup mix
third shelf     left side     chicken rice a roni
third shelf     left side     lemon bar mix
third shelf     left side     slow cooker seasoning hearty beef
third shelf     left side     slow cooker seasoning homestyle chicken herb
third shelf     left side     spanish rice a roni
third shelf     left side     uncle ben’s brown wild rice medley
third shelf     right side     fideo noodles
third shelf     right side     large elbow macaroni
third shelf     right side     multi color twirl pasta
third shelf     right side     spaghetti
third shelf     right side     whole wheat elbow macaroni

second shelf     left side     baking soda
second shelf     left side     bisquick buttermilk biscuit mix 2 packages
second shelf     left side     bisquick cheese garlic biscuit mix 1 pkg
second shelf     left side     carnation dry milk powder
second shelf     left side     jiffy blueberry muffin mix 2 boxes
second shelf     left side     jiffy corn muffin mix
second shelf     left side     lemon poppyseed scone mix
second shelf     left side     martha white blueberry muffin mix
second shelf     left side     sweet potato biscuit mix
second shelf     left side     sweet potato muffin mix
second shelf     left side     table salt
second shelf     right side     bacardi rum
second shelf     right side     balsamic vinegar
second shelf     right side     bisquick mix
second shelf     right side     confederate marmalade
second shelf     right side     extra virgin olive oil
second shelf     right side     huckleberry jam
second shelf     right side     jalapeno orange jelly
second shelf     right side     marion blackberry preserves
second shelf     right side     new orleans scorpion hot sauce
second shelf     right side     nutcracker spaghetti sauce
second shelf     right side     prego italian meat sauce
second shelf     right side     protein bars 5 each
second shelf     right side     rachel ray extra virgin olive oil
second shelf     right side     soy sauce
second shelf     right side     tabasco sauce
second shelf     right side     wild maine blueberry syrup
second shelf     right side     worcestershire sauce

bottom shelf     left side     cheese wiz
bottom shelf     left side     cream of mushroom soup
bottom shelf     left side     hunt’s tomato paste
bottom shelf     left side     ro-tel hot tomatoes
bottom shelf     left side     skyline chili 9 cans
bottom shelf     right side     black beans
bottom shelf     right side     bush’s country style baked beans
bottom shelf     right side     bush’s grilling beans bourbon & brown sugar 2 ea
bottom shelf     right side     canned beef cooked
bottom shelf     right side     cut green beans
bottom shelf     right side     extra hot alaskan umami sauce
bottom shelf     right side     ginger wasabi sauce
bottom shelf     right side     reeses magic shell chocolate peanut butter
bottom shelf     right side     sliced peaches
bottom shelf     right side     smuckers magic shell chocolate fudge
bottom shelf     right side     steel cut oatmeal

For dinner tonight we had the Chicken Tortilla Soup that I put together yesterday, and let simmer all day. Really good, if  I  do say so.

And Jan does too.

I’ve now done the magic six loads in my repaired washer, so hopefully, it’ll keep on working.

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March 6, 2017

Old Friends . . .

This morning was my 8:30 appointment with Junior’s Upholstery in Conroe to have the headliner of our Dodge Dakota replaced. It had started coming loose and fraying around the edges, and even disintegrating in some places.

So about 8:15 my friend and next-door neighbor, Ed Hurlburt, followed me down to the shop so he could bring me home. They said they’d try to have it done by 2-3pm so we could head down to Clear Lake on time for our dinner with old friends.

Getting back home I got on the phone to try and solve another credit/debit card problem. Whenever I tried to use the card for our Karnes City / SiteWatch account as a credit card where it asked me for my Zip Code, i.e., gas pumps, it would reject the card for an incorrect Zip Code. But when I called the bank they couldn’t find any problem. The Zip Code on my bank account was correct.

Then yesterday, I was trying to set up the Uber app on my phone and had the same problem. When I entered the card number, exp. date, CVV, and Zip Code as requested, it said there was a problem. And since I double and triple-checked the card stuff,  it had to be the Zip Code.

So I again put in a call to the Karnes County National Bank once again, and after going through three people, finally found a nice young lady who figured out the problem.

The bank account there uses our Friendswood, TX Zip Code of 77546, which is the one I had been entering. But, because I had requested that the cards be sent to the bank for us to pick up there, instead of sending them to our Friendswood bank account address, the bank’s Zip Code is what got entered into the computer with the card info.

She said she would correct the problem and then a little later, I tried setting up the Uber app again, and this time with no problems. So this problem is solved.

Still working on the iDrive credit card problem.

BTW the Uber app is pretty neat. It shows you where you are on the map, and also shows several free vehicles in your vicinity. Look forward to giving it a try.

Later in the afternoon, our friend Debi Hurlburt took Jan and me down to the upholstery shop to pick up the truck so that we could leave from there on our way to Clear Lake. They were running a little late finishing up due to the rain, so we didn’t get on our way until about 4pm.

Turns out that because of the glue fumes they try to do as much work as possible outside, and the intermittent rain caused a problem.

But the job was worth the wait. It was perfect, even down to the color match of the original to the side trim strips on the truck.

Great Job!  And Junior’s Upholstery is very well recommended.

Though we got a later start than I had hoped, wanting to avoid the Houston going-home traffic, today turned out to be one of those rare Houston traffic days with no accidents or major construction slowdowns, so we were able to make the 70-mile trip down to Dickinson in only 90 minutes, a new record I think.

Having known them since the mid-80’s, Bob and Maria are our oldest Houston friends, so we try to get together whenever we can.

Maria even got a good picture of Jan and I. Well, Jan anyway.

And as is usual for these things, we once again spent about 3 hours catching up with each other’s lives. And we look forward to doing it again as soon as we can.

After a potty stop at the Flying J, we got back to the rig a little before 10. Finally remembering to do it, I brought our Garmin GPS in from the truck to check it for map updates.

Turns out there were several small ones, an FM traffic info provider update and a Time Zone data update, and one big one, a 2.66 GB map update. The small ones only took a couple of minutes, and even the big one only took about 45 minutes. Pretty good for 2.66 GB on 3G.

So that’s done for another year.

Tomorrow?

More last-minute chores before we hit the road for Colorado River on Wednesday, and Tucson on Friday.

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March 6, 2018

No Goofing Off . . .

Being an off day from work today, you’d think I could have goofed off some, but noooo.

As soon as I got into work yesterday, the office manager told me she was getting calls from customers saying that the website’s credit card checkout was no longer safe to use. Turns out our SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificate had expired this past Saturday. News to me.

But it was news I should have gotten about a month ago, but my boss didn’t forward the renewal notice from GoDaddy to me. But I was able to catch up by tracking down the replacement certificate and downloading it from Godaddy.

But then things came to a screeching halt as I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out where the previous (dead) IT guy had installed it. As I’ve mentioned before, our website is hosted on an in-house Linux server, in this case running CentOS. But the certificate is not installed where it normally would be. And not any of the other places that it could possibly be either.

So I spent today here doing a lot more research and making a couple of phone calls, trying to figure out what he had done. But no luck so far, but I’m back on it tomorrow.

Right now there is a notice on the website inviting customers to call in their orders. Hope this will hold things for a short while until I can get this fixed.

I did take a few minutes this afternoon to go outside to fix a broken spade connector on the driver-side turn signal on the rear of the truck. Recently I noticed that often the left turn signal would fast-flash and then work the next time. Checking it out while we were up at Brandi’s, I found that there was a cracked connector on one wire, but I didn’t have a replacement with me.

So it was just a couple of minutes today to crimp on a new one.

For you Camp Verde/Cottonwood/Verde Valley devotees, there’s a new, large RV park coming to the area later this year. The 425 site, high-end park will be located just a mile or so north of the I-17/SR260 interchange at Camp Verde, between there and the Verde Valley Thousand Trails Park.

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March 6, 2019

It Was Venerable . . .

My venerable HP 2520 color inkjet printer died on Monday. It is no more, it has ceased to be, it is bereft of life, it rests in peace. It is an ex-printer.

But I originally bought it in 2013 while we were on a gate down in south Texas, so I’ve certainly gotten my money’s worth, I guess. I replaced it last year with a new HP 4650 because it was bigger, better, and faster, and since it was still working OK, I took it into work for my desk, just so I’d have a printer.

But then I started printing out a lot of color labels, and mail-out postcards, heavier stock stuff. And Monday when I was printing out some cards, the printer went ‘snap, crackle, pop’ and stopped pulling in paper. Any type of paper.

So this morning I stopped off at our WalMart to pick up a new one, an HP 5252 this time, which is the newer model of my 4650.

I also picked up an XL B&W and XL Color cartridge since the starter cartridges in these new machines are always small, even smaller than the standard ones, much less the XL ones.

Getting to the office, I set the printer up and started to print out a dozen page-sized postcards, and I was amazed to see how much faster than my old 2520. The 12 cards that would have taken me 15 minutes on my old one, took only about 4 minutes on the 5252.

Nice.

Once I got the printer set up, the size difference between the old and new printers meant it didn’t really fit in the old spot so I ordered this printer stand.

https://amzn.to/2SN74zh

And then since I was on an Amazon ordering roll, I ordered the office manager a new chair.

https://amzn.to/2SN74zh

Her old one broke a wheel off this morning, so she’ll have a new one on Friday, along with my new printer stand.

It’s supposed to be almost 70 tomorrow, but with a 50% chance of rain, I’ll have to see how conducive it is to crawling under the rig and doing a trial loosening of the oil filter.

I’ll let you know.

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March 6, 2020

Do Only Old People Buy Sausage?

I’m sure you’ve all heard the Jimmy Dean Sausage commercials recently on TV using his voice. So my question is, does anybody but people our age know who Jimmy Dean is?

Though he sold the company to Sara Lee in 1984 for $80 million and didn’t die until 2010, he was essentially fired from his spokesman job in 2002.

Why? They told him he was too old! But now he’s back from the grave.

So it’s been at least 18 years since anyone has heard his voice, and now they’ve brought him back (or his voice, anyway), and they’re advertising to who?

Who under the age of 30 even knows who he is?

Our long-time friend and fellow RV’er, Debi Hurlburt, of Debi and Ed Hurlburt fame, has long had a Facebook area called Debi’s RV Kitchen. But now she’s venturing into the video field. And here’s her first video.

Dirty Rice – Cooking in the RV

Looks like our upcoming storage shed project will be a true do-it-yourself project. Turns out Home Depot, where we’re going to get the shed, doesn’t offer any assembly assistance, and it looks like using one of the online services like TAKL would cost me about twice what the $269 shed is going to cost me.

And that’s just for one guy helping me, not me getting to watch two guys doing it all. So it’s just going to be me, with Jan helping out as needed.

We do want to get it all done without too much delay, so I’m going to take off work on a Friday and a Monday so we’ll have Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, if necessary.

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March 6, 2021

Prince of Darkness . . .

Jan drove into work with me yesterday morning so she could spend the day getting her nails done, and then some shopping at Baybrook Mall for a while.

In fact, she’s decided to do it again once a month or so.

This afternoon we left the rig about 12:30 heading up to the new Eggcellence for brunch.

Jan tried something new this time, the Avocado BLT.

But I stuck with my favorite, the Texas Sampler.

We both get Fruit instead of the Hashbrowns, and I get an English muffin rather than the buttermilk pancakes that are supposed to come with mine. Every calorie helps.

Then it was on up the feeder a bit to one of Jan’s favorite places, Harbor Freight. Yeah, I know. She’s weird, but then she does love me. So I guess it works.

Our next stop was back down at FM646 where Jan got her hair cut while I picked up a few things at the HEB next door. Then it was home for the night.

Tomorrow it’s up on the roof for me. I’m going to replace the motor/fan unit for our rear Fantastic Vent Fan on the rig. Then I planned to take a look at the overhead AC unit to try and find where the problem with it is.

While I was in HEB this afternoon, it sure seemed like a lot of people aren’t waiting until next Wednesday to go maskless, but have jumped the gun.

And it’s easy to see why. I mean, what difference can it make if everyone ditched them today, or four days from now? When the governor of Mississippi announced the end of lockdowns and masks for his state, he did it the very next day.

It seems I’ve been coming across a number of neat cars in parking lots lately, And today it was this really nice 1955 Chevy.

For some reason, it doesn’t look as nice in the photo as it is in real life. But it’s spotless. The owner, who walked up while I was taking the photo, and told me it was a 150 model, without all the chrome trim of the Bel Air.

And then he showed me the engine,

He said it’s an LS series Corvette engine that he put in after he burned out the original one. And when he cranked it up, you could hear the 3/4 grind cam’s ‘lump, lump’ idle. And the dual glass pack mufflers.

Another really neat ride.

And on the subject of cars, anyone who ever owned a British sports car, or any British car, really, will appreciate this.

In 1967 I bought a 1965 Triumph Spitfire like this one, except mine was race-prepared for SCCA racing and had a rollbar and a white racing stripe down the middle.

I bought it from the brother of an ex-girlfriend (it did not end well). And in hindsight, this should have been a warning. But the brother did warn me about some of the car’s, let’s call them ‘electrical idiosyncrasies’.

‘Idiosyncrasies’ like the left turn signal also turned the radio on and off. And turning on the radio would sometimes honk the horn. And there were a number of other intermittent ones. I’d fix one and another one would pop up.

Finally, out of patience, I spent a couple of weeks pulling an entire new harness through the frame and fixed it once and for all.

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March 6, 2022

Pho Barr and Family . . .

We were on our way up to Katy a little before 11, to introduce Brandi, et al, to their Pho Barr location. which is only a couple of miles down the Westpark Tollway from their home.

Like our Webster location, this Katy location is located in a strip mall, and strangely, right next door to a Thai restaurant, the same as ours down here.

First up, they brought us a couple of orders of their Grilled Pork Spring Rolls with their Spicy Peanut Sauce.

Really crunchy and delicious as always.

Jan got her usual Grilled Chicken Vermicelli Bowl, but in this case, it was done with white meat chicken, rather than the dark meat they use down in Webster. Jan likes both, but white meat a little better.

Brandi had the same thing, but with the Grilled Ribeye instead.

Lowell went in a different direction, with the Grilled Chicken Rice Plate, complete with a Sunnyside Up Egg like this.

For my part, I stayed the course with my usual Pho Ga, which means white meat chicken.

Everyone agreed it was all really good, and that we’ll probably eat here again when we’re back in the area.

All the dishes here were the same as our local Pho Barr, but a little different, I guess due to different chefs.

Then it back over to Brandi’s so I could install the HP 4650 printer/scanner that I was giving Landon. I’m upgrading to an HP 6978 which should be here this Wednesday.

Later, heading home, we made a detour by the Katy Trader Joe’s so Jan could pick up some of her favorite stuff. Hopefully they’ll get one down in our area someday soon.

After that, and almost home, we made a HEB stop at our local one for a few things for dinner next week, finally getting back to the rig about 4:30.

A really nice day.

We’ve gotten a lot comments and questions about Streaming, so I thought I would give you some more information about it.

Starting at the Home screen you can choose which app you want to use to stream.

Then, in the case of YouTubeTV you can choose to watch Live TV, selecting from a list of channels.

This list is customizable, showing only the channels you want to see, and in the order you want to see them.

And when you do select a show to watch, you get this choice.

If the show is already on, you can select ‘Start from beginning’ and do just that.

Or you can join it live and in progress.

If you go to the Library, you can see all the shows you have selected to DVR. And you can set an unlimited number to record, even at one time.

In our case, we’re recording 176 shows right now.

And as I mentioned, when you set a program to record, you get every season it was on the air.

As you can see, when you set Law & Order to record, you get all 20 seasons of reruns, plus the new 21st season of first runs.

Let me know if you have any more questions.

A few days ago I posted this photo of Jan’s Flamingo Flamboyance, showing the two new additions.

But as I mentioned, you can’t really see all the flock hiding in the back, so I took this one from the side.

Some of them flutter, some spin, and some light up at night. However the effect of that is somewhat lost because of the streetlight right out in front of us.

But if Jan’s happy, I’m happy.

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March 6, 2023

If It’s Tuesday, It Must Be . . .

Kelley’s over in Alvin for lunch, and then the several-times-delayed POpShelf.

Maybe. But we’ll see.

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March 6, 2024

The End Of An Era . . .

I’ve blogged before about the project to ‘De-Extinct’ the Wooly Mammoth.

It seems that recently they made a big step.

Researchers have made a major breakthrough that could see woolly mammoths returning to life before 2028.

Scientists from Colossal Biosciences have successfully created elephant ‘pluripotent’ stem cells which can grow into any cell in the body.

While this has already been done successfully in humans, rabbits, big cats, and even the northern white rhino, until now, it had never been done before with an elephant.

While the de-extinction of the woolly mammoth might be the ultimate goal, Dr Church says that the first step is to create an elephant-mammoth hybrid.

Next up: The Dodo – Extinct since the late 1600’s.

Linda, one of our long-time readers, questioned the map I posted yesterday showing the highest-paid public employee in each state.

She didn’t think that College Presidents and Coaches would make more than Politicians.

Here was my answer.

Au Contraire!

For example, here’s two states I’m familiar with, Texas and Alabama.

The Governor of Texas makes $153,000/year.
The President of the University of Houston makes $1.7 million/year.
The Football Coach of U of H makes $4.5 million/year

The Governor of Alabama makes $125,000/year
The President of the University of Alabama makes $700,000/year.
The Football Coach of U of A, Nick Saban, makes a base salary of $1,105,000/year.
But with perks and incentives, he made $11,400,00 last year. He is the highest-paid coach in the country.

Colleges and College Sports are Big Business!

It’s the End of an Era!

This afternoon I texted Sylvia, our favorite Twin Peaks server, to see if she was working tomorrow afternoon, since we wanted to have lunch there.

But we were very surprised to learn that she’s no longer working at TW, but has moved right next door to the new BoomerJack’s, where she’s working evenings at the bar.

So we’re waiting to hear back from her about what her days/hours there are.

Sylvia has been our regular server since early 2021, and she won’t be the first favorite server we’ve followed from place to place.

 

 

 

Remember, to access our blog links,
Right-Click on The Link and Select ‘Open in New Tab’

I talked in yesterday’s blog about Alexa+ and how to sign up for it when it’s available for your model of Alexa. Turns out you don’t need to do that.

Just ask Alexa, “Alexa, what is Alexa+?”

She will tell you about Alexa+ and then ask you if you want to be notified when it’s available for your Alexa. Tell her ‘Yes’, and you’re done.

* * * * *

I’ve blogged in the past about the company, Colossal Biosciences, that’s trying to resurrect the Woolly Mammoth and several other extinct species, like the Dodo Bird and the Tasmanian Tiger.

And this is their first step –

Woolly Mice

Scientists have genetically engineered mice with some key characteristics of an extinct animal that was far larger — the woolly mammoth.

This “woolly mouse” marks an important step toward achieving the researchers’ ultimate goal — bringing a woolly mammoth-like creature back from extinction, they say.

“We ended up with some absolutely adorable mice that have longer, woolly, golden-colored coats,” Shapiro says.

The mice also have fat similar to the mammoth, Colossal says, enabling them to survive in cold weather.

Colossal hopes to produce mammoth-like Asian elephant embryos by next year and their first calves by 2028.

Of course when some people heard about Woolly Mice, they thought of something like this.

Personally I like the golden furry ones better.

And then there are some people who remember Dr. Ian Malcolm’s (Jeff Goldblum) quote from Jurassic Park.

Well, it’s not like they’re trying to resurrect a T-Rex.

* * * * *

Dinner tonight was a big Crockpot batch of Jan’s Chicken Soup.

Delicious as always.

* * * * *

As it stands right now, SpaceX’s Starship #8 launch has been rescheduled to Friday, March 7, starting at 5:30pm.

Stay Tuned.

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Thought for the Day:

Not my circus. Not my monkeys. But I can pick out the clowns at 100 yards.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

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March 4, 2009

It’s always something…

When we started to head out for lunch and shopping this morning, the first thing I had to do was unhook the toad.  We didn’t go out Tuesday night after we got here so we were still hooked up.  Usually this is about a 5 minute job, but not today.

Normally when we pull into a site the toad is straight out behind us, but as you can see from yesterday’s post, we are parked on a site with a slight curve.

This put enough pressure on the tow bars that they did not want to release by hand. They also didn’t want to release using a big hammer and a lot of lubricant.  I then tried to unhook the entire hitch from the back of the coach, but it was binding just like the tow bars so no luck there.

Finally I was able to get everything loose by having Jan jog the truck in reverse and forward while I pried on things. So, an hour later we were finally on our way.

To quote  Roseanne Roseannadanna, “It’s always something.”

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March 4, 2010

Gift Certificates and Migraines…

Today was our first full day in here in Yuma and it was time to start canvassing local businesses for gift cards/certificates to give away as door prizes for the rally.

But unfortunately, Jan woke up with a migraine so we were a little slow getting moving, but we got on the way a little before 11am.

Our first stop was lunch at Mickey D’s, which got Jan feeling a little better. Then we were off to go a’begging.

We hit several restaurants with good luck and then stopped by an RV parts store and picked up several gift certificates, and also the toilet parts I needed to finish my repairs.

We spent the rest of the afternoon stopping at restaurants, RV parks, and RV parts stores.

We headed back to the Fairgrounds about 5pm and then headed out to Famous Dave’s BBQ for dinner with Tom and Barbara, and Jan and I.

We had a great time and really good food, to boot.

Tomorrow we head back out for more door prizes.

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March 4, 2011

Chocolate Crafters . . .

After fixing coffee this morning, about 11 am I headed back out to re-survey some of the power outlets that I had located a few days ago. I was trying to reconcile the two different maps that I had, to be sure we know where all the power hookups are, because they’re scattered all over.

Finishing that up, just like yesterday, about 2pm I headed out to try to round up the last of the door prizes. And I made a lot of progress, leaving just a few to wrap up tomorrow.

One of the places I wanted to try was Chocolate Crafters, much recommended by Laurie and Odel at Semi-True Tales of Our Life on the Road, one of the blogs Jan reads every day.

And Laurie was right. You start drooling when you walk in the door. They gave me a number of samples, including my favorite, the Kona Coffee Bark, with real Kona coffee in it.

I’m going back tomorrow to pick up the door prizes, and this time, Jan wants to go with me. Funny how that worked out.

About half an hour after I got back, we headed out for supper.

The 6 of us ended up at The Ranch House Restaurant, a couple of miles away. We got there just in time, since about 15 minutes after we were seated, they were on a wait.

The food was pretty good, but the consensus was that it wasn’t as good as Famous Dave’s BBQ.

And, as has become our routine, we adjourned to a nearby DQ for ice cream and more conversation.

Coming home we stopped off at Wal-Mart so I could get a webcam so we can Skype with Master Landon back in Houston.

---

March 4, 2013

This Magic Moment . . .

Jan was feeling a lot better today so about 3pm we headed out to San Antonio. Our first stop was at the Post Office in the Leon Valley area to mail off a card to Master Landon.

Then it was my turn, stopping at a nearby Radio Shack and Advanced Auto Parts to pick up the parts for the toad towing light tester I want to build. I had hoped to get everything at Radio Shack, but they didn’t have the ATM fuse holder I needed so I headed down the block to the auto parts store to pick one up.

Finishing with this, we headed north on I-410 to the Magic Time Machine, and just as we planned, got there right as they opened at 5pm.

NOT!

As it turns out, they didn’t open until 5:30. So we sat in the car and read our Kindles for a while before they opened. Checking later, one place on their website says 5 and another says 5:30.

We’ve been eating at Magic Time Machine since the early 80’s and always have a great time.

It’s really a unique place, a maze of little rooms and tables, with a lot of twists and turns. In fact it’s easy to get lost, and a lot of people do, going to the bathroom and then not being able to find their way back to their table.

Another unusual item is their Salad Car. It’s a salad bar built into a 1957 MG TC. Neat!

The other neat thing here is that all the waiters and waitresses are dressed up like fictional characters. We’ve been waited on by Wonder Woman,

and the Joker, among a number of others.

After finishing up our really good steaks, we headed out about 7:15. But along the way we made a quick stop at Ulta so Jan could pick up a few things, finally getting back to the park about 8:30. Another fun day.

Tomorrow we may take a trip over to Bandera to check the place out, before coming back to Boerne for a few things, and also to take a look at the HEB gas station since we want to fill up on Monday before heading for Balmorhea 375 miles away.

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March 4, 2014

More Frozen . . .

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland, and long rumbles of snow thunder, some that went on for almost a full minute. And when I went up to the park office about 1pm, it still looked like this.

I would imagine that the palmetto bush in the foreground is a little confused about this weather.

And of course, you can’t have a winter wonderland without icicles, can you?

I had gone to the office to sign up for the potluck dinner tomorrow night, and check on getting propane when we leave here this coming Monday. We’re down to about 1/4 tank, which is pretty good since the last time we filled up was September 18, 2011 in Elkhart, IN. And before that, it was July 2009 in Bangor, ME.

Pretty much the only time we use propane is to run the fridge when we travel, and when we occasionally boondock or Wally Dock and want a hot shower. We have used our rig’s propane furnace the last couple of days, the only time in about 4 years. We normally just use one or more of our electric heaters, but since we’re on 30 amps here and can only use one heater, we’ve needed the rig heaters because it’s hardly gotten above freezing for the last couple of days.

I do always check the heaters every year right before we leave the Houston area and head out for the year’s travels, to be sure they’ll be working if and when we need them.

---

Was anyone else set to DVR Downton Abbey this past Sunday and found that because of the time change, you didn’t record it? Normally Masterpiece Classic AKA Downton Abbey comes on at 8pm CST, but, I guess, because of the Oscars, the season finale (Episode 8) came on at 6pm, not 8.

But if you did miss the finale, you can go to www.pbs.org and stream the episode. In fact you can stream every episode of this season. Check it out.

---

I posted a new recipe to Jan’s Favorite Recipes area. It’s what we had for supper tonight, Crockpot Chicken and Dressing. We got it off Debi Hurlburt’s RV Cooking blog, and it’s really good. And very quick and easy, only about 4 hours on low in the crockpot. Give it a try.

---

When I fixed our breakfast English muffins this morning, I used some our of son Chris’ Habanero Jelly on mine.

Too infrequently Chris brews up a batch of his famous Habanero Jelly, along with Apple Butter and Banana Butter. I had thought we were out, but I discovered a jar of the Habanero in the back of the fridge, so I can add a little wake-me-up spiciness to breakfast.

In the past, Chris has sometimes sold his jellies at local flea markets, and sells it all out. The problem is the ‘100% Homemade’ on the label. It takes several days, start to finish, to prepare a batch, so it’s very time-consuming. But, boy is it good!

BTW, the ‘PJ’ in PJ’s Jellies is named for their daughter/our granddaughter, Piper Jean.

---

March 4, 2015

We Tried, We Really Tried . . .

After yesterday’s early morning, we got to sleep in a little this morning since we didn’t plan to leave until about 11am. That’s CDT, and we’ll be in MDT about 5 miles down the road. So we’re really leaving about 10am. Which will put us in Las Cruces about 1pm since it’s only about 165 miles away.

Jan had planned to drive some today, but since it was raining pretty steadily when we left, she decided to put it off for another day. Maybe Friday when we head to Tucson.

The rain finally cleared up about 50 miles along the way, and the sun actually came out, but still with a lot of clouds

Like the last couple of days, today’s trip was smooth with no problems . . . until . . . well . . . they lied.

For the last few years, friends have been recommending the Loop 375 Transmountain Drive around El Paso to avoid all the traffic. They even talked about the scenic views. But it was all for naught.

Once again we were led astray.

We had actually tried to take this route twice before. The first time the road was closed for some reason, and the second time traffic was back up out on the Interstate at the exit, and was stopped as far up the road as we could see.

But a siren call lured us in again, and we took Exit 34 for the Loop. And of course, as soon as we took the exit, there was a sign saying, “NB 375 Closed. Use Alt Route.”.

And exactly why couldn’t they have put this sign out on the Interstate BEFORE the exit?

So we continued on down the feeder, finding no other exit except the SB one. We kept looking for any sign of an “Alt Route”, but no luck. So instead, we trundled along in a line of cars, making all of 20 mph.

This went on for about 8 miles, as we watched all the cars on the Interstate to our left streaming along at 60 mph. There were no more exits in any direction, until finally we were led right back out onto I-10. So apparently, the “Alt Route” was just to eventually put us back on I-10, and that’s it.

We pulled into the Coachlight Inn RV Park in Las Cruces, NM about 1pm and got set up. We’ve stayed here a number of times, and it’s a nice little park, And Passport America, to boot. So it was $18.60 for 50amp FHU. Nice,

Later, a little before 4pm, we drove over to Old Mesilla to have dinner at La Posta de Mesilla, where we always eat when we’re in town. I first ate here in 1981 when I was out here at White Sands working on some Shuttle stuff with NASA. And then I brought Jan here on our first RV trip in 2007 in our rental Class C.

We’ll be here for two days before we head over to Tucson on Friday for the Escapade that starts Sunday, the 8th. Don’t forget I’ll be giving a seminar on Gate Guarding during the rally, so check it out.

---

March 4, 2016

OOPS!

or I’m getting really good at this.

After coffee and breakfast this morning, I started pulling my washer back out of the cabinet. But the first step was to go outside and loosen the vent deflector and hose.

Then it was just a matter of pulling and dragging, tugging and cursing, until I had it out of the cabinet and onto the floor dolly. Moving it out into the kitchen, I put down some padding and turned the washer upside down.

But even before removing the bottom panel, I saw at least part of the problem. One of the two bolts that held the angle bar in place, the bar that held the new pump, was gone.  And then removing the panel told me the whole story.

When I originally installed the support angle bar, I used a 1/4” bolt on one end, and a smaller bolt on the end by the orange arrow. I used the smaller one there because it was too small an area for where I wanted to put the bar. And the reason I wanted to put it there was so the electric leads for the pump would still reach without having to lengthen them. And that’s what happens sometimes when you take a shortcut.  It bites you in the bottom.

The reason for the leak itself was immediately obvious.

When the mounting bar came loose, the pump moved, and that pulled the hose loose that goes from the filter into the pump. Thus the leak.

So now I started over by remounting the bar in an area where I could use the larger 1/4” bolt. Then I spliced longer power leads into the harness and moved the pump into position. This let me reconnect the drain hose and tighten down the clamp.

As before, I wanted to give it a test before I put it back in the cabinet, so after I replaced the bottom panel and turned it upright, I plugged it in at the sink, dumped a couple of quarts of water in the drum, and turned it on.

Then after that successful test, I put it aside until we finished dinner, a delicious rerun of last night’s Chicken and Dressing Casserole, Green Bean Casserole, Cranberry Walnut Salad and Grilled Bread. Still really good.

After dinner I reinstalled the washer and got it all hooked back up. Next up was two loads of laundry during the rest of the evening for a test.

Hopefully it’ll last longer than six loads this time. But on the plus side, I’m getting really good at taking the washer out and putting it back.

So with this out of the way for now, tomorrow I’ll get back on my rig oil leak.

Oh, boy!

---

March 4, 2017

Mamacita’s Meetup . . .

With it drizzling rain pretty much all day, that put a kibosh on any outside chores, so I spent most of the day going over our upcoming trip schedule.

I nailed down a few more parks, and made a few reservations,  A ‘*’ by the date means I have a reservation there. Many of these I won’t contact until a few days before.

---

*3/08 -Travel to Colorado River   Columbus, TX

*3/10 -Travel to Pecan Valley RV Park   Junction, TX

*3/11 -Travel to Saddleback Mtn. Park   Balmorhea, TX

*3/12 -Travel to Coachlight RV Park   Las Cruces, NM

*3/14 -Travel to Cochise Terrace Park   Benson, AZ

*3/18 -Travel to Voyager RV Park   Tucson, AZ

*3/25 -Travel to Santa Fe RV Park   Apache Junction, AZ

*4/08 -Travel to Las Vegas TT Park   Las Vegas, NV

*4/22 -Travel to Soledad Canyon TT   Acton, CA

*4/29 -Travel to Turtle Beach TT (?)   Manteca, CA

*4/30 -Travel to Friendly RV Park   Weed, CA

*5/02 -Travel to Bend/Sunriver TT   Bend, OR

*5/16 -Travel to ??   Hermiston, OR

*5/17 -Travel to Blackwell Island RV   Coeur d’ Alene, ID

*5/19 -Travel to Riverfront RV Park   Garrison, MT

*5/20 -Travel to Billings Trailer Village   Billings, MT

*5/22 -Travel to Gillette Cam-Plex   Gillette, WY

*5/23 -Travel to Elk Creek RV Park   Piedmont, SD

*5/30 -Travel to Belvidere KOA   Midland, SD

*6/01 -Travel to ??   North Platte, NE

*6/04 -Travel to ??  Salina, KS

*6/05 -Travel to ??  Pawhuska, OK

*6/08 -Travel to ??  Paul’s Valley, OK

*6/11 -Travel to ??  Waco, TX

*6/14 -Travel to Lake Conroe TT  Conroe, TX

*6/25 -Travel to Colorado River TT  Columbus, TX

---

A Total Distance of a little over 4400 miles.

We’re coming back here at the end of June for a big family reunion. Then we’ll head back out for a couple of more months until the end of August when we’ll come back for Landon’s 7th birthday. After that, it’s gate guarding time again.

In a follow-up to Moen’s excellent customer service, I got an email from them today, saying that my FREE part had been shipped.

And in a follow-up to iDrive’s sucky customer service, I still have not heard back from them answering my questions about any actual activity on the account.

Yesterday I was able to repair the socket that holds the AC Blower Resistor Pak for our Dodge Dakota.

A while back, a high resistance in the socket burned the common pin off the plug and damaged the socket itself.

Since then we only had the high speed on the blower because I used a paper clip to bypass the resistor pak.

But I was able to repair the socket and install a new resistor pak.

So now we have all 4 speeds again.

About 3:45 Jan and I headed down to the Clear Lake area once again for Jan’s yearly get-together with five of her former Medical Records coworkers. They all have done this every year since we started RV’ing in 2008, and Jan looks forward to it for months.

Jan had me come by the meeting place, Mamacita’s Mexican Restaurant, in Webster to get a picture of the group.

I didn’t have any trouble finding the group. I just asked at the front desk where the rowdiest bunch was seated and they pointed me in the right direction.

Jan’s already looking forward to next year’s meet.

---

March 4, 2019

Easy Peazy. . . .

Today, in another step forward, I managed to drag my client kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

After setting up the return of the defective Brother FAX machine to Amazon, I fast-talked my client into switching over to an online FAX service instead of ordering a replacement machine.

I use MyFax for faxes and have for years. They give me both a local and a toll-free number, and for $10 I can send 100 pages and receive 200 pages a month. And I have never come close to hitting those limits. And I doubt my client will either, since they only send and receive a few faxes a week.

But my client already has both local and toll-free numbers and didn’t want to change them so I checked to see if we could use our own numbers and found that we could transfer them. So then I called Spectrum VOIP, where we get our phone/internet service, to see what that would entail. And found a whole ‘nother solution.

Turns out Spectrum has their own fax service, and since we were already paying for the fax machine interface,  the service was free. So a few minutes later they had reconfigured our two numbers to the online service and we were good to go.

In case you have used one of these services, you receive faxes as a PDF file in an email, which you can print out or not as needed. To send a fax you just enter the phone number followed by @fax01.spectrumvoip.com in the TO:  field. Then enter the Subject, and your text in the Body. If needed you can attach a document in pretty much any format, i.e., Word, Excel, JPG, PDF, etc.

Easy Peazy.

Amazon also made sending the fax machine back easy peasy. I just went back to the product order page, clicked Return or Replace Item, chose Item Defective or Doesn’t Work, and described what was wrong with it in the Comment box.

Then I clicked on UPS pickup at the office and a refund onto my debit card. Finally all I had to do was to pack it up back into the original box and I was done. The UPS guy will bring the label when he picks it up. And if it’s like they’ve done in the past, as soon as the box is logged into the UPS system as ‘picked up’, I will receive my refund.

Again, Easy Peazy.

Jan is never easy to buy for, but occasionally I score big. She does like earrings, especially dangly ones. Now in reading over our upcoming trip Europe Cruise FAQS, it says that there are no formal nights, but the recommended evening dress is ‘elegant casual’. Now to me, that sounds kind of like  “jumbo shrimp’, ‘boneless ribs’, or ‘limited nuclear war’.

So I found and ordered these for her.

Certainly looks elegantly casual to me.

What do you think?

---

March 4, 2021

Almond Blossoms . . .

Well, it’s not the thermostat. I pulled the cover off this morning and shorted across the common and the Y (Yellow) terminal and got Zip, Zero, Nada. So this weekend, I’ll tear into the overhead unit to see what’s what.

Luckily the temps are pretty much staying in the 60’s for now.

About 1pm Jan and I headed up to Webster to have lunch at Twin Peaks once again. Jan decided to try something new this time, getting their Spicy Chipotle Chicken, with grilled broccoli and green beans.

She gave me a bite of the chicken and it was really good.

I combine two of my favorites, their Wedge Salad, and their Venison Chili, with their Lunch Soup and Salad Combo.

This is their Half Wedge with a bowl of their Bambi Chili. Really, really good.

Recently Twin Peaks has been a place to find interesting vehicles on the parking lot. Last time we were here we came across this Shelby Cobra replica.

Then today when we came out we found this beautiful Z28 Camaro parked right next to us.

What’s really kind of sad is that this Camaro has an ‘Antique Auto’ tag. Back in my day those tags were reserved for Model T’s and the like. Though I guess this Z28 being 50+ years old, I guess it probably does qualify.

Then it was on up to Sam’s for some of Jan’s Joint Juice before a stop at our storage room to drop off a few things. Then our last stop was at Cowboy Coffee for a couple of Cold Blended Sugar-Free Hazelnut coffees with Almond Milk.

Then getting home, we sat out on the patio and listened to the wind chimes for a while.

A very nice day.

When Jan and I were in Paris back in May 2019 we attended the Van Gogh Illuminare Exhibit while we were there.

Imagine being inside Van Gogh’s paintings, as they paint themselves around you. They come to life in 3D, as they move around you.

Well, that experience is coming to the U.S, and to Houston in particular. And we’ve got tickets for the 2pm showing on Sunday, November 21st for Jan and I, Brandi, Lowell, Landon, and a Landon friend to be named later.

Check out this video.

And this is a video clip that I took in Paris.

Besides Starry Night, I think Almond Blossoms is my next favorite.

I even have it as the cover for my Samsung Tab 4 tablet.

You can find out more about the local Houston show, Van Gogh – The Immersive Experience here.

And there are shows scheduled for other cities around the country.

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March 4, 2023

Nice And Quiet . . .

Today was a nice, quiet one, starting with lunch at Texas Huddle once again. And since there were no Major League games scheduled today, the place was probably quieter than we’ve ever seen it.

Nice.

As usual, Juana, our regular server took great care of us, bringing us our drinks without us even having to order them

Jan got her usual Bacon Swiss Mushroom Burger, the Keto way, I.e., no bun. And no Swiss, but Cheddar instead.

And she gives the Bacon to me. So she really just ends up with a bunless Cheeseburger with Mushrooms.

We both started out with their Side Salads, Jan’s the usual way

but mine with Blackened Chicken added.

Plus of course, Jan’s Bacon.

Good enough that this ended up being my meal.

These last few days have been the ‘nice’ time I mentioned above. The weather had been just about perfect.

Clear and Sunny, with highs in the low 70’s and lows in the high 40’s/low 50’s. Wish we had it year-round.

Nice!

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March 4, 2024

Spring?

The new sites here at the park are really coming along. When I left this morning there were stacks of grass sod sitting around.

And when I got home it looked like this.

It looks like the only thing really left is to install the street lights at the back of some of the sites.

They could be open in the near future.

On the way into work this morning, I stopped at the Webster UPS store to drop off an Amazon return, and I saw something really funny.

Apparently, you can return almost anything to Amazon. I think it’s some kind of portable washer like this one.

The two ladies carried it in, showed the clerk the QR code on their phone, got their receipt, and were gone.

Coming home this afternoon I stopped off at the PO to close out our PO Box and turn in the key. I put in a change of address for here at the park starting last Thursday, and we’re already getting mail here, so I guess we’re good to go.

It looks like somebody, or something thinks Spring is nigh. Saw this in a nearby subdivision.

A little Interneting said it’s an Ornamental Pear Tree. (Partridges Not Included.)

Hope it’s not surprised by a March freeze. We’ve had them before.