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BCOZZY . . .
Since today was my last day at work for 3 weeks, I spent a lot of time being sure that everything was ready.
Jan and I dropped Karma off at Jennifer’s this afternoon, which will make it easier to load the car since we won’t have to worry about her getting out with the door open so much.
* * * * * * *
This past weekend we watched two new shows, and one old favorite.
The two new ones were Cupertino and Eternally Yours.
Cupertino, done by Michelle and Robert King, who did Evil and The Good Wife, another two favorites of ours, follows two lawyers, unfairly fired from their respective tech firms, who unite to take on high-tech companies that are abusing their customers and stockholders.
A really good show with a lot of humor
Eternally Yours, which is done by the same people that do Ghosts, tells the story of two vampires from Austria who have been together for 500 years. At this point, they’re a typical bickering couple, upset with their kids, and not liking that they have to move every few years since they don’t age. And the husband is mad because he can’t exercise at the gym since there are mirrors everywhere.
A really funny show.
And of course, old favorite, Elsbeth is off to a great start.
* * * * * * *
Though Jan has a couple of those horseshoe-shaped neck pillows, I got her one of the BCOZZY Travel Pillows for the trip.
Of course, Jan, being Jan, she couldn’t get one of those drab black or dark blue ones. No, she had to get the Gold Leopard one.
Hope they’re as comfortable as they say.
* * * * * * *
Tomorrow we’re picking up our Nissan Altima from Enterprise about 3 pm, and then the work begins. I want to move our Alexa, my Garmin GPS, and my Rove Dashcam over to the Altima, as well as start getting it loaded.
Thought For The Day:
But, But, It Was All Columbus’ Fault!
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2008 – More Photos From Our Time In Alaska
2015 – On Further Consideration
2018 – No Longer Virgins
2019 – Stille Nacht
2022 – A Wild Turkey Chase
2023 – Fire and Smoke
2024 – They Did It!
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
2008
More Photos From Our Time In Alaska
October 13, 2009
Hooooo! Hooooo!
We’ve had a gnawing hunger for hot wings, so finding out there was a Hooters over in Mishawaka, we headed out.
After a great lunch (with leftovers) of Three Mile Island (their 2nd hottest) chicken strips and wings, we started looking for a Natural Foods store that was supposed to carry Aunt Gussie’s Sugar-Free Cookies, which are Jan’s favorites.
Unfortunately, the store was out of business.
After that, we headed over to David’s Bridal to look for a pair of earrings Jan had seen in a magazine. But no luck there either.
Getting back, I walked over to a friend’s coach to see if he wanted to come over and look at my VMSpc computer interface. This is a gadget that plugs into the engine diagnostic plug underneath the dash of our coach and gives you direct access to all sorts of engine readings, many of which aren’t available on the dashboard panel.
You can create your own gauges, make them any color, and place them anywhere on the screen. You can also set alarms for too-high and too-low values and also change colors.
And if you get a Check Engine light, it will tell you what the problem is. A great product!
Jan and I are still going through boxes, trying to eliminate stuff we don’t need.
October 13, 2010
Direct TV and Stolen Property . . .
We got an early start this morning, getting before 8 am because the DirecTV TV guy was supposed to be here between 8 – 12 to install our new DVR system.
Of course, I didn’t really expect him to be here at 8 am, but if I slept late, he’d be knocking on the door at 8 am.
And lo and behold, at 8 am the phone rang. And it was DirecTV and … he’d be here after 9, or maybe 10, or before noon, anyway.
Oh well.
About 9, I drove down to the office to pay up for another month and see if the guy in our old site, site 80, was going to leave any time soon.
Jan really wants to be back in our old site, the one we were in the last two years, but there’s someone in it. The office did say that he’s paid up through this Friday, so maybe he’ll be leaving then.
We can hope.
At 9:30, the DirecTV guy called and said he was running late and it would be after 10:30 before he got there.
And it was. He finally showed up at 11:30.
He got everything installed pretty quickly with no problems.
But then … a problem.
He wanted to take my old receiver with him. He said his work order showed the install was a swap. I told him this was my receiver and I had bought it from a pawn shop in Phoenix for $29 two years ago.
He said I would have to call Customer Service and get it worked out.
When I called and got put through to Access Control, I got a big surprise.
I was not the owner of the receiver. Some guy in Massachusetts was given the box by DirecTV, and when the account was closed, the receiver was never turned in.
How it ended up in a pawn shop in Phoenix, I don’t know. But basically, I was in possession of stolen property. And what’s even stranger, it was packed like a new machine, all shrink-wrapped and tie-wrapped in a DirecTV box.
So, needless to say, I let him take it. No big deal.
But I didn’t tell them I had another one down in the basement!
By the time the guy left, it was about 1:30, and it seemed like a good time for a nap.
Getting up about 3:30 pm, we headed back over to the Victory Lakes area, this time to try out the new Spring Creek BBQ that had opened last night.
We had been watching the ‘Open Soon’ banner stretched across the entrance for a week or so now, and were getting impatient.
When I drove by it about 5 pm yesterday afternoon, it still had the Open Soon banner on the front, and there was not a single car in the parking lot.
When we pulled into the Chili’s across the street at Victory Lakes about 6 pm, the banner was gone, the parking lot was full, and there was a crowd of people out front.
We assumed it was open.
Wrong!
We drove over there about 4 pm today to eat and found them not open and the banner back on the front. There were cars in the back, however, and we could smell BBQ cooking.
So I guess it’s close, but not yet.
So our second choice was Ryan’s down in Texas City for some of their great fried chicken.
Sherry Morrison, Lowell’s sister and Landon’s aunt, posted this Landon photo on Facebook this morning.
And Brandi sent this one over this evening.
Master Landon just laid back and was hanging out.
I sent this info out to all my clients this morning, but I thought our blog readers might want to see the info too.
Nasty Virus Alert!
I wanted to let everyone know that I recently discovered a really nasty new virus attack.
This concerns anyone who has a router or a wireless router.
It seems many people don’t change the default password when they install their router.
A new type of attack lets your router be taken over and controlled by using the default factory password.
Some symptoms are repeated virus attacks on your machine despite running virus/malware protection, being redirected to websites that you didn’t click on, and not being able to update some of your malware protection.
I discovered the problem when I could not get the MalWareBytes Anti-Malware program to update on several machines. It would always give me an error.
The quick fix is to:
1. Physically unplug the Internet connection from your router.
2. Check your router manual to see how to do a reset on your router. It is normally done by sticking a paperclip in a small hole on the back of the router. But check your manual for the exact procedure. If you can’t find your manual, you can download a copy from the manufacturer’s website.
3. Now check your manual to see how to access your router directly from your computer. It is usually done by typing the router IP address in the address bar of your Internet Browser. It will be something like 192.168.0.1 or something similar.
4. This should bring up the router login screen.
5. Enter the default login and password.
6. You should see a menu item to change the router password. Change the password to something unusual. Don’t use your name, birthday, or something similar. I like to use two words, separated by two numbers, i.e., ‘cabin46PluG’. Try to stick a capital letter or two in there also.
7. Now save your changes and write the new password on your manual copy.
8. If you use a wireless router, be sure to check if you are using an encrypted connection such as WEP or WPA. WPA is better. Your manual will tell you how to set this up on the router and your computer.
9. If you have a wireless router (It will normally have small antennas on the back), but you are not using the wireless, check your manual to see how to turn off the wireless portion.
10. Now unplug the power from your router, wait about 20 seconds, and then plug the power back in. Plug your Internet connection back into the router.
11. Lastly, reboot your computer and run any/all of the virus/malware problems after updating them.
October 13, 2011
Keeping a Level Head . . .
or a level RV.
Woke up to a dreary, overcast morning. So hot coffee really hit the spot.
After Jan fixed a great lunch, it was off to the RV/MH Hall of Fame to work on their computer systems some more. It’s taking a lot longer than I thought because their Internet connection is only 768K, and it takes a good while to get all the software installed and updated. And still more to do tomorrow.
Getting home about 5:30, we all headed out to King Wha for a great Chinese meal. I think King Wha has become our new favorite Chinese place.
Now to leveling.
I’ve had really good luck using one of these.
It doesn’t matter which direction you have it turned, as long as you keep the arms parallel and perpendicular to your coach.
All you have to do is place it on the floor and press the center button. If one of the lights flashes red, your rig is low in that direction. So all you have to do is adjust your levelers until all the lights are green.
Done. And after a few minutes, the leveler turns itself off automagically.
The only thing you have to be careful of is not dropping it. That can throw the calibration off, and you will have to recalibrate it. And to do that, you have to have a level surface.
October 13, 2014
Found It!
See, procrastination pays.
Well, eventually.
After two days of 192 and 199 vehicle counts, we had a big jump today up to 222 as both fracs came online. An extra 25-30 vehicles may not sound like a lot, but remember those vehicles usually come back out, which means about 20 vehicles an hour passing through, one every three minutes or so. Which doesn’t give you a lot of time to sit down, just enough to get them entered in the log, and get ready for the next one. But you don’t get bored, and time passes pretty quickly.
But complicating things today was rain. Lots and lots of rain last night and all this morning. So much so that the pond behind us started to overflow its banks and out underneath the rig.
Then, after the rain finally stopped, the wind really picked up, enough that I had to install some extra tie-downs on the canopy, mostly because with the tarp we’re using for a cover now, there is no relief vent at the top to bleed off some of the pressure.
But the upside to all this is the cool front coming through, giving temps in the high 70’s and no rain for the next week or so. Perfect gate weather.
And on another upnote, we got Frac Food today, but we’re not sure from whom. I thought the side of the truck said Oma’s Mexican Grill. Jan thought it said Anna’s. The problem was caused by the fancy script on the logo on the truck. But we know it was Mexican. Since Jan already had dinner planned for tonight and tomorrow night, we’ll have it a couple of days from now. Mexican food ages well.
Our son Chris is on a bike trip out west with some of his firefighter buddies, camping along the way. I’m not sure where this was taken, but it looks like he’s enjoying himself
Scotty, our GGS support guy, showed up today to top off our diesel and water, and also to bring us more login sheets. With the increased traffic, we’re going through them like crazy, and we’re down to our last pad. Noticeably, he did not bring us our new shirts that we’re supposed to have been wearing since last Friday. I didn’t bring it up either.
See, I even procrastinated until the very last paragraphs to tell you I found my basin wrench, and apparently it was right where I didn’t leave it.
I mentioned last week that I was going to replace the lavatory faucet in the rig, but I couldn’t find my basin wrench, and that I was going to buy another one so I could find the one I already had. And my scheme worked perfectly, as this evening I found the missing one without ever opening the new one. So back to Wal-Mart it goes.
To quote Col. Smith, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
October 13, 2015
On Further Consideration . . .
After I posted yesterday’s blog about my Mighty Mule problem, I decided to forget about talking to the company and just let Amazon handle things. So in about 90 seconds, I had my refund scheduled (They said it will be 2-3 days till it shows up), and had my new Mule on the way, along with a few other things sitting in my cart waiting for my next order. Everything should be here on Thursday.
Later on, several readers suggested I do the same thing. Great minds think alike.
I headed into Carthage a little after 11 am, planning to drop off our garbage at the trash trailer at the new frack site right up the road on the way. But that didn’t work out too well because there was no trash trailer there. But then we didn’t have one here for the prep work, only after the frack actually started. And they’re obviously still not ready to frack here.
The gate guard at the other site asked me to bring her a loaf of bread when I asked if she needed anything, so it was off into town.
Normally, this would have been just a lunch run, but I forgot to stock up on my Lipton’s Diet Citrus Green Tea last Friday when I was at Wal-Mart. Plus, Jan needed more bottled water, and I needed printer paper too. So I made a quick Wally stop before picking up lunch at Whataburger. We’ve been going there so often that the counter guy just about knows our order by heart. I even have it in my phone, so I don’t forget and leave something off.
TO GO ORDER
2 Apple Pies
Jan’s Whataburger Jr. Large Combo
With only:
Cheese
Ketchup
Mustard
Tomatoes
Grilled Onions
My Whataburger Jr.
With only:
Cheese
Bacon
Tomatoes
Pickles
Raw Onions
Mayo on both buns
Large Drink
We get one large combo and then share the fries, and I get my own drink. I order the pies first, so I don’t forget them, and sometimes they have to cook them up fresh, so this gives them a head start. We normally have the pies for breakfast the next morning after Jan heats them up again. I also stock up on the containers of Spicy Ketchup for our fries, and I get one of their Green Salsa ones to put on my burger. I really like that they have the little containers of this stuff and not the squeeze packets. No matter where you squeeze them out, it’s going to be a mess.
I saw on Facebook yesterday that someone’s new favorite meal at Whataburger is their Chicken Fajita Tacos. I’m sorry, but that’s just wrong.
You don’t go to Red Lobster and order steak. You don’t go to Longhorn Steakhouse and order seafood. And you don’t go to Whataburger and order tacos. It’s ‘Whataburger’, not Whata’taco. And for good reason.
Let’s straighten up out there, people! LOL
One of the things I ordered from Amazon was another of those great KJL Cree LED 900 lumens Flashlights .
I only ordered one at the time, and one thing I noticed is that between all the ones sold through my blog and all the ones sold through other blogs, Amazon’s pricing algorithms detected a run on them. And as I’ve seen before, they jacked the price up $1, from $8.99 to $9.99.
I’ve noticed this with several other items I’ve mentioned in the blog, like the super-strong magnets and the LED strip lights to replace the small fluorescent tubes in our rig.
So get in while you can before the price goes up again.
October 13, 2016
Texas or Oklahoma?
Since we had breakfast yesterday at Denny’s, we didn’t do our normal travel day breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Conroe, or Schobel’s in Columbus this morning, so I was able to sleep in until 8:30 this morning.
So after a somewhat leisurely morning, with coffee and breakfast sandwiches, we pulled out of our site a little before 11, got hitched up, and were on the road a little after 11 am.
After a smooth trip (definition of a ‘smooth trip’ is that nothing fell off, came loose, or broke) we pulled into the Colorado River Thousand Trails about 1:30 pm, got checked in, and set up in A25, a very nice site with a nearby tree.
Since we ran the generator the whole way, we also used our Amazon Alexa Echo to listen to the radio using iHeartRadio over our Verizon AirCard as we traveled.
Neat.
This morning, before we left Lake Conroe, Jan noticed her LG Revere flip phone was dead. Now this actually happens fairly often, as she doesn’t use it a lot and then forgets about it, allowing the battery to run down.
But when she plugged it in, instead of showing the ‘Battery Charging’ graphic, it said ‘Use a Genuine LG Battery’ and then shut off. After trying this a couple of times with the same result, I went for the big gun again.
So, popping off the back and pulling the battery, I sprayed both contacts with Strike-Hold and then put it all back together. And a few seconds later, it showed this.
Strike-Hold does it again.
After we got settled in, I put a call into Mike Crosby of SiteWatch to talk about Oklahoma gate guard jobs. Turns out he and his wife started with Gate Guard Services about 10 years ago, and we know a lot of the same people and have worked in a lot of the same areas.
Although he’s in charge of SiteWatch’s OK area, he also knows a lot about the South Texas area, specifically the Karnes City/Kenedy area. He said almost all of their gates in both areas use guard shacks and iPads, and not RV’s and paper logs. The more we talked, the more I was considering South Texas again rather than Oklahoma for several reasons
First off, the Oklahoma area is almost 500 miles away, while the Karnes City/Kenedy area is only about 180. Plus, Mike said it’s starting to get cold up there, but much less so down in South Texas.
I’m now waiting to hear back from their South Texas guy, so we’ll see how it goes.
October 13, 2017
TT, PA, and More . . .
I spent a couple of hours today stuck between the dueling computers at Thousand Trails, Passport America, and Encore.
As I mentioned yesterday, I was trying to use Passport America for our week out here at Lake Conroe, from this Sunday, the 15th, to the 22nd. Then we’d come back in on the 22nd until the 5th of November. Then after that, Lather, Rinse, Repeat.
Or at least we’ll see.
But when I called Encore to book our PA stay here, Erica found that she wasn’t able to book us here, apparently due to the ‘G’ section being blocked out due to the power problems. Because of that, the computer said that there were no open sites here to book us into, though she found she could book us in here under Encore.
She suggested that they should be able to book it here locally, so I should try that. But when I got the Ranger’s Office on the phone, I found they couldn’t either, or didn’t know how to actually book a PA reservation.
First off, they said, like Erica, that the park was full next week. So I suggested that they try to book someone in next week under TT, and they found they could. But when I asked why they could book under TT but the park is full under PA, they then put me on hold, coming back in about 5 minutes, saying they’d talked to Rebecca in the office, and she said if they couldn’t book it under PA, then they couldn’t book it at all, and I was out of luck.
Knowing this wasn’t what Rebecca said yesterday when I talked with her and Randall Cox, the park manager, I made my own call to Rebecca. Turns out that’s not what she said, and they didn’t tell her the entire story. She said to tell them to just force the booking under PA, and if they still couldn’t, to call her back.
Well, they still couldn’t do it. So what they finally did was to book me in under one of the two one-week extensions my TT membership has each year. And for only $35 for the week, it’s a great deal.
The problem is that my membership doesn’t have these extensions. I’ve confirmed this with TT a couple of times. But since $35 is better than the $178.50 cost under PA, I let it ride.
But later in the afternoon, when I went into the TT website to book us back in under TT on the 22nd, it all came back to bite me. Since the TT computer showed me as effectively here in the park for three weeks straight, it wouldn’t let me back in for another two weeks, starting on the 22nd. Oops!
So I got back on the phone with the TT main office to try and fix it. I ended up talking to a very nice young lady named Jonnette, who very quickly fixed the problem, unbooking my one-week TT extension. She switched it over to a PA reservation and then booked us back into Lake Conroe under TT on the 22nd.
All this only took Jonnette about 5 minutes. Wish I’d been able to talk with her to start with. And hopefully, this will all go better next time if we decide to do this again.
October 13, 2018
No Longer Virgins . . .
Charlee put us in her duplex condo, so after coffee and a relaxing morning, we headed back to the house. Later, after Jan and Charlee spent some more time talking over recipes and cooking, Charlee, Monica, Jan, and I drove over to the nearby Deli Inn Diner for breakfast/lunch.
One of those ‘hole in the wall’ places that’s mostly frequented by locals, Deli Inn proved to be a real find . . . at least for us. Charlee et. al. eat there all the time, so much so that everyone greets them by name.
Jan had her first Cuban Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries. Made with ham, pork, cheese, mustard, and pickles, layered on bread, which is then pressed and grilled.
Jan says she has a new favorite sandwich.
Being also a breakfast place, I had my two eggs over medium and bacon, with the addition of French Toast.
Really good, especially the bacon and the French Toast.
Great coffee, too.
Then, toward the end of our meal, there was a gathering of waitresses around our table, chanting, “Vir-gins, vir-gins, Deli Inn Vir-gins” several times before giving us a couple of their enormous home-made muffins. And then squirting us with squirt guns!
So Jan and I are no longer virgins, especially the Deli Inn kind.
After that delicious meal, Charlee took us on a tour of all the hotels, mansions, and estates in the West Palm Beach area, including The Breakers, Mar-A-Lago, and many others, as well as the beautiful, blue Atlantic Ocean
When we were through here in 2009, we checked the price of the renowned Sunday Brunch at The Breakers, and found it was about $80. Ouch! There is just no way either of us could eat $80 worth of food. Actually, we couldn’t eat $80 worth of food together.
And in the intervening 10 years, it’s gotten worse, much worse. The Sunday Brunch is now $120. Bigger Ouch!
But it’s a real deal for your children, 3 through 11. They’re only $50.
Back at their house, Charlee copied off a bunch of recipes for Jan before we headed back to Mims about 2:30, getting home about 5:30.
Karma was certainly glad to see us.
October 13, 2019
Stille Nacht . . .
I spent most of the day trying to fix a problem I may have caused. But if I did, I’m not sure how.
Which also means I don’t yet know how to fix it.
I have a friend’s HP Envy 360 15m-cn0011dx laptop, so I could upgrade the SSD from 256GB to 1TB, and the RAM from 8GB to 16GB. But along the way, as I was removing the battery, one of the very, very tiny screws, only slightly larger than the ones in eyeglass frames, dropped off the end of my magnetic screwdriver and fell down into the computer underneath the touchpad circuit board.
So, no problem, right? I’ll just remove the circuit, retrieve the screw, and put it all back together, right?
Then I snapped in the new 8GB RAM stick, put it all back together, and booted it up. I only make one change at a time, so it’s easier to troubleshoot if there’s a problem.
So after I booted into the BIOS to update for the new RAM, I let it go on into Win10 with no problem. Until I tried to use the touchpad.
The cursor moved just fine, but the left and right click areas didn’t respond at all. So I took it back apart, removed the touchpad board, cleaned everything, and tried it again. And again, no luck.
So that’s where I’m at right now. I guess I’ve got some Googling to do.
I mentioned in last night’s blog that I really enjoyed Dennis Ivey’s rendition of ‘Old Rugged Cross’, and I told Jan as we were driving home that it really hit me because ORC was one of the two songs I played and sang the very first time I ever performed in public.
It was Christmas time, 1963, I had just turned 15 back in October, and I had somehow been roped into narrating the Christmas Story play at our church in Athens, AL. I think I was asked to do it because my voice was the only one not still squeaking.
As I told the story of the Manger, the Three Wise Men, the Angels, and the Shepherds, a bunch of young kids were acting out the story in front of me. One of the Shepherds even had a live sheep on a leash, which immediately crapped on the floor.
The Sheep, not the Shepherd.
Anyway, I had asked the Minister if I could also perform a couple of hymns afterward. He just asked if I needed the organist, and I said no.
At the end of the pageant, I pulled out my trusty Sears acoustic guitar from under the podium, and after a shaky start (my $24.99 guitar never was very good at holding tune for very long), I first played and sang Stille Nacht in the original German, and then again as Silent Night in English. I was taking German in the 10th grade, and we had to learn it for class.
Silent Night was originally written in German and first played in an Austrian church for Christmas Eve midnight mass on December 24th, 1818. It was written for the guitar because the church’s organ had been damaged by a recent flood.
So it made sense to do it on guitar in a church again.
I finished up with one of my two favorite hymns, ‘The Old Rugged Cross’ (the other one is ‘In The Garden’), kind of covering from the beginning of the Christmas Story to the very end of the story.
I got a lot of compliments afterward, from parishioners who didn’t know I could play and sing, and especially from my surprised parents, who knew I could sing, but didn’t know I could really play the guitar, since I had practiced in secret.
And it all worked out great, since I ended up getting a new Fender Stratocaster Sunburst for Christmas.
I really wish I had kept it, because though I thought it was expensive at the time (about $300 if I remember correctly), it would be worth $10,000+ by now.
Yikes!
October 13, 2020
We’re Still Waiting . . .
We’re now in our 3rd week of waiting for our Absentee Ballots to arrive from South Dakota. According to the state’s website, they were mailed out on 9/28/20.
Thinking about checking out nearby ditches and Dumpsters.
Jan and I headed out for lunch and shopping about 1 pm. Lunch was at East Star China Buffet up in Webster, our 2nd favorite Chinese buffet.
Why would we eat at our 2nd favorite, you say? Well, Yummy, Yummy, our 1st favorite, has not yet reopened since the recent unpleasantness, and may not ever, I guess. We don’t know. We’re hoping that they’re waiting until the rest of the restrictions are removed before reopening.
It’s our 1st favorite because it’s closer, cheaper, and has some specific dishes we like.
But East Star is pretty good too.
Then we made a stop at the office to pick up our Amazon orders, and then by the nearby HEB grocery store for a few things that only they stock. Next, it was by the Wal-Mart down in our area for a prescription and a few more things before getting home about 4:30.
October 13, 2021
Texas Hot and More . . .
Catching up on yesterday, we had lunch once again at The Cookshack. But unlike our previous visits, I didn’t go for the superhot AMF tenders, but just stayed with their normal hottest hot, Texas Hot.
I decided to try the Ribs and 2 Tenders, with both done Texas Hot, along with their Sweet Potato Waffle Fries.
I really liked the fries, since unlike all the other Sweet Potato fries, these had just a light sprinkle of salt, the perfect complement to the sweet.
Though I ate ALL the sweet potato fries, I only ate one of the Tenders and half the Ribs, so I had the rest to take home.
Really good.
Jan had her favorite Shack Salad with a Medium Tender on the side.
Tomorrow we’ve got a get-together with old Alvin Opry friends, this time at the Texas Roadhouse here in Webster. Really looking forward to it.
Then next Thursday we’ve got another get-together with our RV friends, Debi and Ed Hurlburt, this time at the El Palenque up in the Spring area.
More Fun!
In a previous blog, I told you about the Brach’s Candy Company’s ode to Thanksgiving Dinner.
Well, today I came across this hilarious Facebook post reviewing the holiday goodness of their Thanksgiving Candy Corn medley.
Check it out.
October 13, 2022
A Wild Turkey Chase . . .
and No, not the booze.
Lunch today was at Spring Creek BBQ once again.
Jan got her usual Baby Back Ribs,
while I got my usual Hot Pepper Sausage & Beef Brisket.
Always delicious.
Then it was on up I-45 to the new HEB in Webster on a Turkey Hunt. Jan really likes their Rotisserie Turkey Breast, which is rotisserie-cooked in each store and sold still warm.
But she hasn’t been able to find them for a while. They always had plenty of the Rotisserie Chickens in all the different flavors – Original, Lemon Pepper, Orange Pepper, BBQ, Mesquite, etc., but no turkey.
We did find that they put them out on Thursday, so we thought we’d make the rounds, hoping to luck up. But the I-45 store was a bust. Plenty of chickens, though.
So next it was on down to my long-time barbershop for a trim before checking out the nearby Friendswood HEB on our wild turkey chase. And again, no luck.
Next up was a car wash/vacuum out at the Ocean Car Wash. The Works (which includes Ceramic Sealant, Soft Foam Wash, TRI-Color Foam Wax, Underbody Rinse, Wheel Cleaning, Tire Shine, Clear Coat Protectant, Rain-Guard, & Ocean LAVA Carnauba Wax) used to be $16, now it’s $20.
But the Jeep sparkles now. All shined up for our upcoming weekend trip.
Finished up in this area, we headed back down toward Santa Fe, making our 3rd HEB stop at the one in our area. And struck out again. But this time, I asked a young lady in the Deli area who was running the big rotisserie ovens what the deal was with the turkey shortage.
And she said that was the problem. A shortage of turkeys. They had not been able to get turkey breasts in the size they needed. She agreed it might have been due to the oncoming holidays, but said they hadn’t had a problem in previous years.
So you might want to start stocking up now for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
October 13, 2023
Fire and Smoke . . .
The SpaceX Falcon Heavy – 16 Psyche launch went off right on time this morning, and it was really a sight as it threaded its way through the clouds.
The payload, a mission to the asteroid 16 Psyche, will take about 6 years to reach its destination, exploring the largest known metallic asteroid. An asteroid that could be worth quadrillions of $$$, if it can be mined at some point.
I was typing away at my computer at work this afternoon when suddenly there was a loud crack and a ball of flame and smoke came up from the left rear of my Dell desktop.
Holy Crap!
Turns out that the power supply had given up the ghost (and the fire and smoke). Looking it over, I probably could have replaced the power supply, but there was a good possibility that some other components might have been damaged.
The computer was a little over 3 years old, and was actually a refurbished model from Amazon. So it made sense to replace it with another one.
So I found this one, bigger, better, faster, for only $220. The new equivalent was over $800.
These refurbished models are actually trade-ins from large companies that replace their computers every two years or so. Outside companies buy them up, check them out, update the software, and sometimes the hardware, like RAM or HD’s, and put them up on Amazon.
I’ve had really good luck with these. In fact, this is the first one I’ve ever had die on me. The others just needed to be replaced by something faster.
Yesterday, when we went to the Texas Roadhouse for lunch with our Alvin Opry group, I noticed they now had 5G in the area, and I thought I’d check it out using Speedtest.net. And we have a new winner.
428 Mbps!
My previous high was 299 Mbps, so this was a big jump.
Of course, in our area, when we actually have 5G (it comes and goes), I only get about 30 Mbps.
Hoping it will get better.
Tomorrow morning, Jan and I are heading out about 8 am for our visit to the Wings Over Houston AirShow. We want to get there early to get closer parking to the gate. We’ve got tickets in the Family Chalet area just like last year. And the really nice thing is that it comes with both breakfast and lunch.
Really looking forward to it.
October 13, 2024
They Did It!
First off, readers wanted to see Jan’s Glittery Halloween Toes, so here they are.
Pretty, pretty, pretty!
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Our trip down to Galveston this afternoon to eat at Saltgrass Steakhouse had an ulterior motive. We were meeting up with Chris and Perry LaClaire, who stopped off on their way back to Florida.
Besides our usual steaks, Chris ordered a platter of the Range Rattlers, large Jalapeños stuffed with Shrimp and Monterey Jack Cheese, as well as a side of delicious Onion Rings.
Our first time having these, and they’re really good.
It’s been about 3 years since we’ve seen Chris, and though I did a website for Perry and I’ve talked to him a number of times on the phone and via email, this was my first time to put a face to the voice.
After our usual great Saltgrass meal, we followed Chris and Perry back over to their RV park to check out the Entegra Class C that they purchased recently.
Really nice, and very spacious.
Finally, about 5:30, we got our hugs and said our good-byes and headed back up to Santa Fe.
Hopefully, it won’t be another 3 years before we get to see them again.
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They Did It!
I mentioned in yesterday’s blog about SpaceX’s upcoming Starship #5 launch. And it went off pretty much perfectly, even the part where the booster returns to the launch pad and is caught in midair by the ‘chopsticks’.
Check out this 1:15 video detailing the launch and the chopstick recovery.
The reason SpaceX wants to do it this way is to accelerate the turnaround time between repeated flights.
After the booster is caught, it is lowered to the launch pad, checked out, and refurbished. Then another Starship is stacked on top of the booster. At that point, it’s refueled and ready to go again.
Tomorrow, probably more errands.
October 13, 2025
It May Be The Last One . . .
Coming home from work this afternoon, I stopped off at our local Popeyes and picked up what may very possibly be my last Rojo Smokin’ Chicken Sandwich.
The first clue was the fact that the Last Dab Sachets and the Last Dab Ranch sauces were no longer available. And according to the manager, they will only have the sandwiches until they run out of the special sauce that goes on the chicken.
So they’ll probably be gone when we get back from our trip, the first part of November.
Bummer!
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My recent gun posts have garnered a lot of questions, with the latest being, “How Many Guns Do Jan and I Own?”
And my answer is the same one I always give when asked this question.
“More Than One.” or maybe “Not enough.”
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SpaceX’s StarShip Flight #11 went off at 6:23 pm CDT, and as far as I’ve heard, it was a complete success.
About 6 minutes after launch, the Super Heavy Booster returned to Earth,and after hovering over the water for about 10 seconds,
dropped into the ocean, ending in a big KABOOM! which is what you get when you drop 6000°F engines, along with residual fuel, into cold water.
More tomorrow.
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On a sad note, I just found out today that my cousin Marjorie Walker died back in April. I normally called her every couple of months, but recently her cell phone just rang and rang with no answer. Why it’s still active, I don’t know.
Actually, she was my First Cousin, Once Removed, since she was my mother’s First Cousin, and we last saw her in May 2024, when we were up in Athens, AL last year.
I had tried to call her a couple of times in the last few months to let her know that we weren’t going to see her this year, but next year for sure. So, this evening I decided to check the Athens, AL Obituaries, and there she was.
She was 96.
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Tomorrow it’s CostCutters for haircuts, Adriatic Cafe for lunch, Ocean Wash for a clean Jeep, and the Post Office for a Hold Our Mail form.
