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Starbase . . . Louisiana?

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Starbase . . . Louisiana?

Our haircuts went off on schedule this morning, with a gas stop at our local QuikTrip for gas at $2.94/gallon.

Nice!

* * * * * * *

With Labor Day and 9/11 on the horizon, Glinda the Good Goose has assumed her Uncle Sam persona.

Coming up: Pumpkins, Pilgrims, and Santa Claus.

* * * * * * *

A neat time-lapse photo of this morning’s Falcon 9 launch from the Cape

What’s significant about this is that it’s SpaceX’s 100th Falcon 9 launch of the year, and the 37th flight of Booster B1067.

And in a surprise announcement said that this will be the last Falcon 9/Starlink launch from the Cape. All further Starlink launches from the Cape will be done via StarShip.

* * * * * * *

I mentioned previously about how Elon was looking to establish a new Starbase in Louisiana. Well, today it was formally announced.

SpaceX has just officially announced Starbase, Louisiana, a new $100+ billion spaceport in South Louisiana near Pecan Island, covering 140,000 acres.

Construction starts in 2027, with the first Starship launch from the new site planned for 2029.

Starbase, Louisiana will be built to support thousands of Starship flights a year. This self-sustaining spaceport will have propellant production, power generation, deep-water shipping capabilities, vehicle processing facilities, and an airport.

SpaceX is committed to investing at least $100 billion and creating more than 3,000 new jobs at Starbase, Louisiana hiring heavily from nearby communities and utilizing Louisiana workers’ extensive experience of building complex infrastructure in their unique environment.

In Vermilion Parish, the shoreline is eroding between 3.3 and 23 feet per year. SpaceX is partnering with state and federal agencies to expand Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan and Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act projects, including Gulf shoreline protection breakwaters designed to reduce wave energy and slow loss along the Gulf edge.


Thought For The Day:

Google Knows Everything!

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.


Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2013 – We’re Still Gateworthy

2015 – It Ain’t Pretty

2017 – Post Harvey

2018 – Decisions, Decisions

2023 – She’s Back

2024 – Under The Knife . . . Again

And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™


August 26, 2009

All in all, A very nice day!

I spent this morning going through the plastic bins in the basement compartments, looking for some missing stuff and doing a little organizing. Didn’t find everything I was missing, but I did find some stuff that I didn’t realize I was missing.

About 2 pm, Jan and I headed out to lunch and shopping.

Once again, we ended up at the truck stop restaurant here in Houlton, ME.

This is a really good place to eat, and their desserts are fabulous. We were told they have their own baker who does nothing but make their desserts. We noticed several diners taking home whole pies. Turns out this ‘truck stop’ is the most popular restaurant in town.

After our meal, we went by the Verizon store so I could get another stylus for my phone, but they were temporarily closed due to a ‘building problem’, whatever that was. We’ll try again tomorrow.

Next, we headed downtown to the CarQuest store to pick up a serpentine belt for our coach engine and then to the local Visitor’s Information Center to see if they had anything on Nova Scotia/Newfoundland.

They didn’t,  but we bumped into a guy from Canada who gave us a lot of tips and places to see, so it all worked out.

Then it was on to Wal-Mart, and then home about 4 pm. We then sat outside for a while, enjoying the beautiful weather, and letting Mister roam around for a while.

All in all, a very nice day.


August 26, 2010

…drove my Chevy to the levee…

While I was out working, this photo came in from Brandi, of Landon sleeping, still wearing his bilirubin light vest. I can hardly wait to see him in a couple of weeks.

Landon Sleeping

While I was at Cracker Barrel for lunch, I took this photo of what I was told is a 1955 Chevy Bel Air. (I thought it was a 58. What do I know?) It’s a really nice-looking car. A little Googling told me that, new, this car cost a little under $2,000, and today, depending on condition, it now goes for $40,000 – $60,000. WOW!

1955 BelAir

About 5 pm, I drove over to Ryan’s for some of their great fried chicken. Just as I was leaving, Jan called from Houston and said that Landon went back to the pediatrician today and found that his bilirubin count is now down to 9, so Landon won’t have to wear the light vest anymore.

Yay!

Sure will be glad when Jan gets back.


August 26, 2011

Work, Work, Work . . .

Jan woke up really under the weather this morning, feeling queasy and nauseous. Don’t know if she’s got some sort of bug or what.

I guess we’ll see.

In the meantime, I got back on my chore list.

My first project was to finish my exterior satellite TV hookup. Before we got the DirecTV DVR, we fed our satellite dish’s signal in through the park CATV input back in the electrical bay. But when we got the DVR, it required two input lines, so for a while, I was running the 2nd line in through the driver’s window.

So after checking with American Coach to be sure I wasn’t drilling through anything vital, I drilled two holes in the floor between my driver’s chair and the window. The holes come out through the top of the storage bay, right below me, and the satellite antenna cables now connect into the bay.

The cables here connect with the satellite receiver overhead. And when we travel, I will just unscrew the cables and store them away.

I haven’t screwed the plate down yet since the new laminate flooring will eventually go there.

Satellite Floor Plate2

Next, I started working on getting the last of the carpet out from under the steering wheel. Man, this stuff is thick and tough to cut. Makes me wish they’d put cheaper carpet in our coach.

When my knees couldn’t take it anymore, I moved to my next project: redoing the caulking around the base of the shower where it connects with the walls. But first, I wanted to be sure I had the joints completely free of any mildew. So I spent some time spraying it with a diluted bleach solution and then brushing and rinsing it. I’ll probably be able to caulk it tomorrow.

Then it was on to the arms on Jan’s chair. The foam rubber padding has come unglued and twisted around inside the cover. So I removed the arm from the chair, removed the cover, and spent some time regluing the foam to the wood frame. When it’s all dry, I’ll put it back together and do the other one.

Tomorrow I’m going to install a new dash radio/CD player. I’ve never really liked the one that was in the rig when we bought it, which apparently was a replacement anyway.

Jan was still feeling pretty crappy when she went to bed. Hopefully, she’ll be better tomorrow.


August 26, 2012

Three States and Two Time Zones . . .

We pulled out of Timber Trails Campground this morning, heading for Celina, OH. But we took a detour about 8 miles down the road to stop off at Denny’s to have a last breakfast with Jan’s sister Debbie and her husband Jim.

After a good breakfast and goodbye hugs, we pulled out on I-70E for the 325-mile run to Celina. Except for a long stretch of rough road around Indianapolis, the trip was pretty smooth. One thing is that for the last two mornings, the rig engine has been much quicker to start than the previous mornings, and neither morning did it quit running. But it still isn’t starting quite as quickly.

But on a positive note, the generator worked fine for the 2nd day in a row. So that was good.

We got into Celina a little before 4 pm, and after getting hugs all around, we got parked and set up. Then it was time to decide the most important item of the day – where we’re going to eat supper.

Finally decided to try the China Wok Buffet.

Good Decision.

Oh yeah. Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Central, and Eastern.


August 26, 2013

We’re Still Gateworthy . . .

After being told we probably wouldn’t be sent out until tomorrow, the call came about 3:15 to head ’em up and move ’em out today. And at about 3:45, we did.

We were sent to what I call the 2nd gate. Right off US-281A and only about 6 miles from the GGS office.

Whitsett Gate 2

And as it turns out, the previous gate guards who work for another company did not know they were being replaced until this afternoon. They weren’t really happy to see us pull in.

We were able to park on the other side from where these guards were parked. This puts our windshield pointing east rather than west into the afternoon sun. It will really help with keeping things cool.

This was what we refer to as a ‘Hot Gate’. We hit the ground working, Jan logging vehicles in and out while I was getting the rig parked and everything set up. We had the usual great support from the Gate Guard Services guys, who had our power, water, and sewer trailers all set up and ready to go.

About 5:30, I drove back over to the Interstate and got us BBQ sandwiches for supper at Choke Canyon BBQ. Turned out to be pretty good.

I went in after supper and tried to sleep for a while before my 11p – 7a shift started, but didn’t have much luck with that. But I bet I’ll sleep good next time.

More from the Whitsett Gate tomorrow.


August 26, 2014

A Cold Snap . . .

Well, maybe a ‘cool’ snap. It was 93° today, not exactly ‘cool’, but compared to yesterday’s 101, you could call it ‘coolish’, I guess.

Tomorrow, Jan and I will make one last trip down to Webster to take care of some errands and have lunch at King Food, our longtime favorite Chinese place. After a quick client visit and a stop off at our storeroom, we’ll head back to the rig, with a stop at Brandi’s if it’s time for them to be home.

For dinner tonight, I fixed up one of Jan’s delicious standards, Pasta Chili. Made with spaghetti or elbow macaroni, I added a can of Steak & Shake Chili, a can of Habanero Rotel Tomatoes, and a can of Bush’s Chili Beans. Topped with Shredded Cheese and served with a couple of slices of garlic bread, it’s a great meal.

One thing that makes this a quick and easy meal is the Microwave Pasta Boat.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Just dump in your pasta, add water and a little salt, and pop it in the Microwave for about 20 minutes. Works great.

And it’s also a great vegetable steamer. Check it out.

Saw an article today about a new 3.5-inch HD being introduced by Hitachi.

It’s 8 TB. That’s Terabytes. As in 8000 Gigabytes, or 8,000,000 Megabytes. In something smaller than a paperback book.

I remember my first HD. It was a 10 Megabyte SCSI drive, the size of a shoebox, and it cost $800.00. Now I can buy a 1TB HD, 100,000 times larger than my 10MB, for less than $60.00.

Now that’s Change.


August 26, 2015

It Ain’t Pretty . . .

But it works.

Today was our first full day on this gate, and it’s turning out to be a really nice one. We had a whole 38 trucks come through during the 24 hours, making for easy shifts for both of us.

Unlike a lot of gate-guarding couples, Jan and I split up our shifts, rather than working two 12-hour shifts. Jan works from 7 am to 1 pm, I work 1 pm to 6 pm, then Jan works 6 pm to 11 pm. And I finish up the time by working 11 pm to 7 am,

When Jan comes on at 7 am, she brings out breakfast, usually a breakfast sandwich or English muffin, and we eat together before I go in to sleep. Then I bring out coffee around 11:30 am to have together. Around 1:30 or so, Jan hands me out a snack for lunch, normally bread and cheese, or maybe fruit.

Then, when she comes out at 6 pm to relieve me, she brings out supper, and we eat together before I go in to sleep. Last night it was our leftovers from Little V’s Vietnamese Bistro last Saturday night, and it was Nachos tonight. But always something simple and easy.

As you can see from this schedule, I sleep about 4 hours, twice a day, which works fine for me. But your mileage may differ. I have no problem doing this for the entire time we gate guard. We know many couples who do the 12 and 12 thing, but this works great for us.

Last night I finished putting up the canopy frame and tied the tarp down on top. Blog readers who were with us last year might remember when a downburst during a thunderstorm shredded the fabric top of our 13′ x 13′ Coleman canopy. So for the rest of our time, I put a tarp over the frame.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

One problem with using the regular canopy top is that there is no way to quickly remove it in case high winds are on the way. But with the tarp, I can easily pull it off after releasing the tie-downs. Much better than buying a new $80 canopy top from Coleman a couple of times a year.

Of course, it ain’t pretty, but it gets the job done.


August 26, 2016

Almost, But Not Quite . . .

We kind of started logging this evening since it looked like they were going to start drilling.

But they’re still having problems, at least partially because this is a brand-spanking new rig. As one guy said, parts of it still had the bubble wrap on it. But then tonight, a CANRIG guy said, maybe Saturday, maybe Sunday. So I guess we’ll see.

We’re pretty much all set up with the canopy, chairs, table, and clock all in place. And I’ll gradually get the electrical stuff, i.e., chargers, lights, etc., in position and working.

We did have something unexpected happen today, though.

We got fed.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

A young lady came through the gate and asked if we liked BBQ, When we said YES!, she said she was catering today and would save a couple of plates for us.

Really good BBQ. Don’t know who she was with, or if this will be a regular occurrence, but it was nice. And Banana Pudding for dessert.

Jamie’s coming back by Monday or Tuesday to bring us more water. We only had about 350 gallons to start with, rather than the 500 gallons the tank holds.

Don’t know where he’s getting his water now, but it’s really soft. I know in some cases he buys it from city water works or the fire department.

He’s also bringing me a hard hat so that I’ll have one to wear when I go on the pad. It’s a requirement here, even for civilians.

That’s about it for today, with not much noteworthy happening.

Hopefully more tomorrow.


August 26, 2017

Post Harvey . . .

Maybe.

For Jan and me, Harvey was kind of a bust, at least as far as hurricanes go.

But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for 100,000’s of Texas residents down in the Corpus Christi/Rockport area, with widespread destruction over the entire area.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

According to Facebook, this is the remains of the Pioneer RV Park in Port Aransas. I’ve heard various stories as to why so many rigs were there, from that many of them were left there permanently and the owners couldn’t get back in time to get them out, to they couldn’t leave because of the gas shortages. Like most things, it’s probably a little of both.

Our prayers go out to everyone.

Just to be safe, I went out and let in our awnings about 1 am before I went to bed, figuring it would get really windy overnight as the storm bands passed over. But we had next to no wind whatsoever and never lost power.

Although we had some rain during the night, none of it was very heavy. In fact, several times in the past we’ve had much heavier wind and rain here just from normal thunderstorms. And when we used to winter over at the Galveston Bay RV Park down in Dickinson, we regularly had squalls coming in off Galveston Bay with 50-60 mph wind gusts and really heavy downpours.

Jan and I were both up about 8 am, about 3 hours early for me, and a little late for her, but we wanted to check in with our kids, Chris down in the Clear Lake area, and Brandi over in Katy.

Turned out that although they both seemed to have more rain and wind than we did, they didn’t really have any problems from the storm.

Of course, depending on whose hurricane track you want to believe, the Houston area might be in for more bad weather if the now-tropical depression Harvey turns northeast and heads back this way.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

But based on this plot of possible Harvey tracks, it could go in pretty much any direction, so I guess we’ll see.

But whatever happens, we probably won’t leave the rig tomorrow, just like we didn’t leave today. Especially since the Weather Channel says that we’re in for High Winds/Heavy Rain here in the Conroe area tomorrow.


August 26, 2018

Decisions, Decisions . . .

For once, we didn’t have much on the schedule today, except for gassing up the truck and eating lunch out somewhere.

And now we’ve got a problem. But it’s a good one to have.

We’ve eaten at San Lorenzo’s, a nearby Mexican restaurant, twice now, and it’s really good. But for some reason, we couldn’t be satisfied with just one good nearby Mexican restaurant, so we had to go and find another one.

There is a Los Ramirez Mexican restaurant near my client’s office, and it’s always busy, to the extent that my client’s parking lot apparently gets used as the restaurant’s overflow parking at night after the office is closed.

We had noticed that they have another location near us on the way down FM-517 to our storage unit. So today we decided to give it a try. But we didn’t have really high hopes since we checked out the menu and thought the prices were really cheap. I mean, REALLY cheap.

And in comparison to San Lorenzo’s, it didn’t get off to a good start. Neither of us thought the chips and salsa were as good here at Los Ramirez. The salsa at San Lorenzo was thicker, and warm, as were the chips. Not that it was bad, it was just . . .

Jan got the Pechuga Rellena, a chicken breast stuffed with Grilled Shrimp and Broccoli, and served with Charro Beans, Lettuce, Tomato, and Sliced Avocado.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I got my go-to usual Beef Fajita Taco Salad, but wasn’t expecting a lot since it only cost $6.99. So I was very happily surprised to get this.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

The meat was delicious and wasn’t just spread on top. It was piled up all the way to the bottom. There must have been at least a pound of fajita meat in there.

And Jan was crazy about hers. It was absolutely stuffed with grilled shrimp, and the broccoli had been grilled as well.

And remember the ‘cheap’ part. Well, it was. But cheap AND delicious go well together. Jan’s Pechuga Rellena was only $7.99, $3 or $4 cheaper than the equivalent at other places.

And my Beef Fajita Taco Salad was only $6.99. But it gets better. That salad is also on their lunch menu, which is every day from 11 am to 5 pm. So it was only $5.59!

I’ve paid $11.99 for something as good as this elsewhere. And this is the first time in a good while we’ve both had full meals with iced tea for only $18.14 plus tip.

So now we have a problem. Two nearby Mexican restaurants, both really, really good.

Decision, Decisions!

Jan and I started talking about our upcoming trip to Florida, sometime in October. But because we’re going a slightly different way than we have before, we’re looking for a nice, cheap (there’s that word again), RV Park for a one-night stop in the Tallahassee, FL area.

So, any recommendations?


August 26, 2020

Three Gates and A Hurricane . . .

Well, as of about 2 am Thursday, there’s been no rain, no wind, no nothing really, here.

Yet.

And looking at the weather radar, it’s a pretty tight storm and doesn’t show any rain bands reaching out anywhere close to us, even as it rotates.

Yet.

In fact, right now it looks like the storm is going into the Cameron/Lake Charles area. At least that’s what all the weather guys seem to be saying as they’re standing out in the storm while they tell all of us to stay inside.

They have one female reporter out in the storm who needs to be tied down or something. She has literally been blown out of the camera frame several times.

It does look like the winds are not as bad as had been forecast, seeming to stay in the low 100’s, rather than the 140-150 mph that they were touting.

Small favors, and all that.

Going into work this morning, about 10 am, I did see a number of houses with plywood on the windows and others that had their storm shutters closed. Plus, the traffic was much, much lighter on the roads.

Just in case, I did go out about 9 this evening to let in the window awnings and stow away the DirecTV satellite dome and table. It can’t hurt.

But as of right now, for us at least, it’s so far, so good.


August 26, 2021

Snoozin’. . .

Lunch today was at the Snooze up in Webster, a nice change since we haven’t been in a while.

Jan got her usual Bravocado Toast, but instead of the hard scrambled eggs she ordered, they gave her kind of an omelet mixture, which she was not really happy about since some of the yolk wasn’t done as well as she liked.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I usually just get the Classic 3 Egg Breakfast with Bacon and Fruit, but I wanted something different, and then this caught my eye, the Habanero Pork Belly Benny, with this description.

Seared, cider-braised, habanero pork belly on top of a grilled English muffin with bacon espresso jam and poached eggs. topped with cream cheese hollandaise and cranberry relish.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And it was really, really good. Spicy, creamy, and sweet.

Certainly Have-Again good.

Then it was on over to Costco to stock up on some things, finishing up at HEB, and then Cowboy Coffee on the way home.

A very nice day.


August 26, 2022

A Long-Time Friend. . .

Not much happened today at work, just a lot of rain, to go along with the lot of other rain we’ve had the last few days. According to our La Crosse rain gauge, we’ve had almost 8 inches of rain in August, and almost 4 inches of that in the last 3 days.

Tomorrow we’re meeting up with long-time friend Tricia at the Texas Huddle up in Webster for lunch. Then it’s Costco, HEB, and the Post Office to check our mail.


August 26, 2023

She’s Back . . .

We were on our way up to Webster by about 11:30 to have lunch at Texas Huddle for the first time since they closed back in early June. We left this early since we had to be back down in our area to get our haircuts by 1:30

And when we asked if Juana had come back, we were happy to hear that she had, but . . . she wasn’t working this morning. But that she would be in tonight.

Disappointed, but glad she was back, and we’ll catch her next time.

Then, about 10 minutes into our meal, look who showed up.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Turns out she’s been working at Mia’s while Texas Huddle was closed, and right now she’s still working at both. But she’s coming back to Huddle full-time next week

Getting our goodbye hugs in from Juana, we were on our way back down to the CostCutter’s in our area for our haircuts. And it was on over to Wal-Mart, and then home for the day.

Tomorrow we’re again heading out about 11:30, this time to meet long-time friends Bob & Maria Sutton for lunch at King Food. Then we’re going over to their house so I can get her LG TV, her Bose Soundbar, and her Amazon Fire TV Stick all talking with each other.

I mentioned the other day about the new Gel Seat Cushion that I ordered from Amazon.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And as I said, if I really liked it, I was going to order one for work.

And I did, so I did.

And I really liked that I was able to order it at 4:56 this afternoon, and it showed up at 7:46 this evening.

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog about the Wind Turbine Blade ‘Graveyard’ up in Sweetwater, TX, where they’re being stored for possible recycling, though it’s looking like the whole ‘recycling’ thing was a government subsidy scam.

At least in Sweetwater.

But up in Casper, WY, there is an actual graveyard where the blades and motor/generators are being buried for real.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Google says that the Wind Turbines have 20-25 year lifetime, and that the blades and motor/generators are replaced after 10-12 years. So that’s 6 blades during the lifetime of every Wind Turbine. So based on the number of Wind Turbines I’ve seen out in West Texas, it’s not going to be long before we’re up to a$$e$ in blades.

Oh, and there are Solar Panel graveyards too.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

They also don’t recycle very well.


August 26, 2024

Under The Knife . . . Again

No, not Jan.

Me.

Again.

Back in Sept-Nov 2021, after about a month of tests, I had a Cervical Spinal Fusion on my C4, C5, C6, & C7 vertebrae area.

You can read more about it here.

https://ourrvadventures.com/2021/11/under-the-knife/

(Right-Click on Link and Select ‘Open in New Tab’)

I was told at that time I also had problems in my lumbar area, specifically L4, L5, and S1, and would have to have something done there eventually.

Well, that time has come.

For the last couple of months, I’ve been having more and more problems with leg pain, stiffness, numbness, and sciatica in my right side, causing me problems with walking steadily.

So today, Jan and I had another get-together with my neurosurgeon, Dr. Jeremy Wang. After going over the MRI/X-Rays that I had done this past Thursday, we discussed the possibility of trying shots/rehab before surgery. But he said that would only delay the problem, not fix it.

So surgery, it is.

This time, rather than having my vertebrae fused together with a titanium plate like with my cervical fusion, my lumbar vertebrae will be held together with screws and brackets.

He said it will take about 3 weeks to get Medicare approval and everything scheduled.

Can’t happen too soon for me.

Coming home, we decided to check out a new nearby restaurant we’ve been hearing about, El Jefe.

Mexican, of course.

The inside is very well-done, in the current favorite post-industrial look.

Nice.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Looking over the menu, some things in Mexican, some things in English, Jan decided to get the Roasted Chicken,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

while I got something a little different, the Costillas de Res.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Both really good.

And also very, very good was their Tomatillo Green Sauce. Maybe the most tasty we’ve ever had.

Even though we have Los Ramirez, we’ll have to try here again.

The only downside is that they don’t serve Iced Tea.

This is Texas. What’s up with that?

* * * * * * *

Back in 2017, the then-CEO of Boeing, Dennis Muilenburg, said his company would beat Elon Musk to Mars.

7 years later, it has been forced to abandon NASA astronauts at the ISS, who will now be rescued by SpaceX.

Ouch! That’s gotta smart.


August 26, 2025

A Perfect Flight . . .

SpaceX StarShip #10 went off right on time at 6:30 pm CDT, and as far as anyone knows right now, it went off perfectly.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Rocket ascending through a partly cloudy sky during daylight.

Rocket ascending through a partly cloudy sky during daylight.

Rocket ascending through a partly cloudy sky during daylight.

After a picture-perfect launch, about 7 minutes later, the Super Heavy 1st Stage Booster returned to the Gulf of America near the launch point, and after hovering in midair for a few seconds to simulate a landing, dropped into the ocean as planned.

Rocket ascending through a partly cloudy sky during daylight.

They wanted to use this flight to expand the operational envelope of the booster, and not to try and recover it.

The next milestone was achieved about 18 minutes after launch, which was to deploy 8 simulated Starlink satellites.

It starts out looking like this.

Rocket ascending through a partly cloudy sky during daylight.

Then each one slides down the stack and is ejected out the port that opened in the side,

Rocket ascending through a partly cloudy sky during daylight.

leaving an empty bay.

Rocket ascending through a partly cloudy sky during daylight.

A little later, another goal was achieved when they relit one of the 6 Starship engines to simulate lighting off an engine while in orbit.

Rocket ascending through a partly cloudy sky during daylight.

Then, about an hour into the flight, the StarShip began its reentry,

View from a rocket ascending through the atmosphere with Earth below.

finally hovering over the water in the Indian Ocean, again simulating a landing,

View from a rocket ascending through the atmosphere with Earth below.

before dropping into the sea,

View from a rocket ascending through the atmosphere with Earth below.

View from a rocket ascending through the atmosphere with Earth below.

close enough to the pre-positioned camera buoy to be caught on camera

On To Mars.

* * * * * * *

They Knuckled Under and Uncle Hershel is Back!

Cracker Barrel scraps new logo design, keeps ‘Old Timer’ after listening to customers

“We thank your guests for sharing your voices and love for Cracker Barrel,” the restaurant chain said in a statement to FOX Business. “We said we would listen, and we have. Our new logo is going away and our ‘Old Timer’ will remain. At Cracker Barrel, it’s always been – and always will be – about serving up delicious food, warm welcomes, and the kind of country hospitality that feels like family.”

CRACKER BARREL’S CEO DISMISSED WARNINGS FROM A TOP INVESTOR WHO CALLED THE REBRANDING ‘OBVIOUS FOLLY’

Masino and her board of directors dismissed at least four warnings by a top investor, Sardar Biglari, that the rebranding was “obvious folly,” filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission reveal.

“Cracker Barrel is not a broken brand, but it has a broken board,” he wrote, in a scathing seven-page letter to shareholders.

They should have listened to him.

* * * * * * *

Lunch today was at the Doggone Crazy Hot Dog Food Truck once again. Mona said she expects to have the two additional food trucks going this Saturday, one selling Hot Wings and the other one selling Philly Cheesesteaks.

We’ll have to give them a try.

During our past visits, we had seen a lady selling flowers at the side of the road along FM646, and Jan wanted to buy some from her.

Colorful bouquet featuring a sunflower with a decorative pink butterfly pin.

 

 

 

 

 

All The SpaceX News That’s Fit To Print . . .

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

All The SpaceX News That’s Fit To Print . . .

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Boosters were originally planned for 10 missions before major refurbishment. But now Booster B1067 has launched and landed 36 times over the last 5 years, and it’s still going strong.

But despite this longevity, SpaceX plans to retire its workhorse Falcon 9 rocket once the company’s giant next-generation Starship begins regular operational flights.

According to Elon, “Once Starship is flying reliably several times per week, it makes sense to shift … production resources to Starship to get launch rate to several times per day,” he wrote.

In fact, he says, “We’re aiming to reach 30+ Starship launches/day in 2030, which is ~10k annualized.”

Amazing when you think that 2030 is only a little over 3 years away.

And in the latest news from Christmas Island, the Heavy Lift Semi-Submersible MV Forte is expected to load Ship40 in the next couple of days to begin its journey back to Starbase, TX

Finishing up on the space theme:

The first person to fly a plane, the first person to go to space, and the first person on the moon were alive at the same time.

* * * * * * *

A couple of days ago I posted about how two weather reports 25 years apart with the same mid-80’s temps had one talking about how pleasant it was going to be, and the second one calling it an extremely dangerous heatwave.

And in this same vein is this article about the drought-caused low water levels revealing Roman ruins, sounding like they were just seen for the first time since Nero’s time.

Drought-hit Tiber River exposes ancient ruins of Nero’s Bridge in Rome

However, if you read the long article and get to the bottom of the 5 paragraphs, you find this sentence.

The last comparable appearance of the ruins occurred during a similar drought in 2022.

* * * * * * *

Tomorrow’s haircuts for both of us.

And in a calendar change, our Thursday sojourn up to The Woodlands to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt has been moved to Friday.


Thought For The Day:

From A 1930’s Science Fiction Magazine.

Looks like they got it pretty accurate.

However, I think one of them should be looking at a Cat video.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.


Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2013 – Our New Gate?

2014 – Counting Down to the Gate

2015 – Carthage Gate

2016 – Ramping Up The New Drill Rig

2018 – Pool Parties and Staterooms

2019 – Putting On The Brakes

2023 – Where Old Blades Go To Die

And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™


August 25, 2009

My Brother’s Place…

Today was another travel day.

We left Pumpkin Patch RV Park a little before 11 am and headed northeast on I-95 to Houlton, ME, located right on the Canadian border.

But before we got on the Interstate, we stopped off at a truck stop to top off our propane tank.

The last time we filled up with propane was in Whitehorse, BC, last October on our way back from Alaska. In warm weather, the only thing we normally use propane for is to power the frig while we’re on the road, and for hot water when we boondock.

But since we just dropped below 1/2 tank last week, I wanted to be sure we had plenty of propane before heading into Canada and colder weather, since we do use it for the two gas heaters in our coach. And it’s supposed to get colder very soon.

Tomorrow night it’s supposed to get down to 46°, and the night after, 40 degrees. We have two electric floor heaters, but sometimes we still need the coach heaters.

We pulled into My Brother’s Place RV Park about 1:45 pm, and got set up. An hour or so later, we headed out to drive around the area and grab a late lunch.

After dropping off some mail at the Post Office, we stopped off at a couple of parts places to pick up a spare fuel filter and engine belt before we cross the border. It can sometimes be hard to get parts over there.

Before heading back to the coach, we stopped for dinner at the local truck stop, since we were looking for a place that served breakfast all day. Jan had some great Blueberry Pancakes, and I had a Meatlover’s Omelet. All really good.

The park here is pretty nice, with big pull-thru sites and plenty of space between each coach.

My Bother's Place

Tomorrow I’m going to fix some stuff around the coach and kind of take it easy. Jan’s just gonna take it easy.


August 25, 2011

64.8 pounds . . .

or 2 pounds and 2 inches. Take your pick.

The first one is how many pounds of stuff Jan has proudly thrown away in the last week, mostly old magazines and brochures.

The second one is how many pounds and inches Landon has grown since his 9-month checkup.

Brandi called this afternoon and said Landon had his 1-year checkup today. He’s doing great and growing like crazy. He’s grown so tall that he’s been wearing 18-month sizes for a good while now.

NBA here we come.

After early morning coffee, we headed out about noon to drive about 15 miles away to Paris, IL. I wanted some more ‘F’ connectors for my satellite system upgrade, and Jan wanted to hit the Wal-Mart again.

But our first stop was at Los Tres Caminos, a local Mexican restaurant that was listed in the top ten restaurants in Paris. Of course, there may be only ten restaurants in Paris, since number 10 on the top ten list was Wendy’s.

But in this case, the listing was right. This place was GOOD.

Jan had a combo plate that included a Chile Relleno. She said it was almost as good as Esther’s Taco House. Almost, but not quite. (Gina will know how good this means it was.)

After lunch, we drove right down the street to the Wal-Mart SuperCenter. Although we were just at Wal-Mart this past Monday and spent about $140, somehow Jan found she needed another $144 worth of stuff today. I think she’s trying to fill up that 65-pound hole she made this week.

Coming back into the downtown, and after dropping off three bags of clothes at the local Goodwill, I stopped to take some photos of the beautiful Edgar County Courthouse. Built in 1891, it looks as good now as it did when it was built.

Paris Courthouse 1

Paris Courthouse 2

Here’s another shot from the Internet.

EdgarCounty_Illinois_Courthouse

We noticed a number of other buildings, like churches and schools, built in the same style and probably, time period. A very nice little town of about 10,000 people.

And on a trivial note, besides their beautiful courthouse, Paris’ other claim to fame is that Carl Switzer, who played ‘Alfalfa’ in the ‘Our Gang’ comedies, was from here.

Our last stop before heading home was the local True Value Hardware for some other things I needed.

Getting home, I started back in on my chore list.

Later, Jan fixed a great dinner of Potato Skins and Jalapeno Poppers, with some more of her Cherry Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert.


August 25, 2012

Family . . .

We pulled out of Hinton RV Park in Sikeston, MO, about 9:30 this morning, making a quick detour to get diesel before heading out for the 185-mile run to Vandalia, IL, where we’ll spend the night at Timber Trails Campground, a very nice Passport America Park. We always stay here when we visit Jan’s sister and her family.

It was really nice to have the generator working again so we could run the A/C’s on the trip. Replacing the fuel filter seems to have done the trick. Made it all worthwhile crawling around under the rig. In hindsight, next time I’ll take the access door off its hinges to make it much easier to get to the filter.

We got into the RV park a little after 1:30, and after getting set up, headed over to Jan’s sister Debbie and her family.

Her kids, Tana, Christina, and Jason, were there, as well as Jason’s wife, Laura, and their two kids, Avery and Ella Jane. Tana’s daughter, Gwen, had already left with her father, so we’ll see her in November when we come back through here.

As it turns out, Laura has the exact same coughing crud that I do. Apparently, it’s not contagious because no one else in the family has it. It was nice to have someone to commiserate with about how bad we feel. And Laura’s pregnant with their 3rd child, so I can imagine how much worse it makes her feel.

And as far as feeling bad, I’m going to wrap this up since we have to be up early tomorrow. We’re meeting Debbie and her family at the Denny’s on the way out of town as we head to Celina. We got a 322-mile trip, so we want to get an early start. But at least we’ll be cool.


August 25, 2013

Gate Guarding and More . . .

I’ve had some more inquiries about gate-guarding and how to get started, so here’s a repost of the info.

When we started last year, we just showed up at the Gate Guard Services yard in Whitsett, TX, and told them we wanted to gate guard. We did not call ahead.

We had heard to do it that way because they get so many calls and requests for info that they really don’t pay any attention until you get there in person.

We got there on Thursday, April 5th, about 5:30, but everyone had already gone home at the office. But the guy working the shop showed us where to park. They have 5 FHU sites and a number of places with power and water. There is no charge for parking there while you’re waiting for a gate or coming off a gate.

The next morning. I went to the office and got our info packets and fingerprint cards. We then drove over to Floresville, about 20 miles away, and got our fingerprints done at the Sheriff’s Office.

Then we had to drive down to Corpus Christi on Tuesday, April 10th, to process our applications and take our security guard tests. We had to wait until Tuesday because they only process apps on Tuesday and Thursday.

Five days later, on Sunday, April 15th, we were on our first gate.

Doing it this way will work in the Spring and Summer, but probably not as well in the Fall and Winter when all the snowbirds are down in South Texas wanting to gate guard for the winter.

Gate Guarding pays $125 a day or more, depending on how busy your gate is. And just to be clear, the $125 is per couple, not per person. The company furnishes you with an 11KW diesel generator, diesel to run it, a 500-gallon water tank that they keep filled, and a portable septic system. So even though you are usually out in the middle of nowhere, you have full hookups.

The one real downside to gate-guarding is that most gates are 24/7. So one of you has to be on the gate at all times. Some couples do 12-hour shifts, but Jan and I prefer to split it up.

She works the gate from 7 am to 2 pm; I work from 2 pm to 6 pm; she works from 6 pm to 11 pm, and then I work from 11 pm to 7 am. This seems to work for us. Your mileage may differ.

But one thing to keep in mind is that although you’re working 12-hour shifts, you don’t actually WORK that much. Last year, we averaged about 80 vehicles a day, and never had more than 130. Based on about 30 seconds per vehicle, you only actually work about 30-45 minutes a day. The rest of the time you’re sitting in the shade reading or playing on the computer. Jan read 84 books in 4 months last year.

For more information, you can go back on our blog starting April 5th, 2012, and read about our gate guarding adventures last year. Or just leave me a comment.


Here’s a list of Gate Guard Companies. The first 4 are the main ones, with GGS the biggest.

Gate Guard Services, L.P.- 361-949-6992

LOMA Rentals, LLC – 817-964-1828

Time Keepers – 830-816-5059 Toll Free – 877-851-7676

Site Watch Gate Guards – 800-561-7202

KC Services – 956-236-5255

Pro Gate Security – 830-776-8666

Oil Field Support Services – 361-815-7050

Trinity – 956-241-1675

Primo Gate Guards – 361-563-9272


Later in the afternoon, it was time for another maintenance chore. Although I clean and wash the AC foam filters every month, it’s been a while since I cleaned the coils.

Despite the filter, some dust and dirt always gets through and lodges on the fins of the evaporator coil and blocks the airflow, thus reducing the cooling. And with another month of 95+ temps on the gate, we need all the cooling we can get.

AC Coil Cleaning 1

Removing the plastic grille shows the air intake over the coil. The screen wire is my addition. I found that because of the wide-open holes, the filter material would get sucked into the holes and deform, letting air leak by. So a couple of years ago, I got some coarse screen wire and just taped it over the vent holes to provide some support for the foam filter.

AC Coil Cleaning 2

AC Coil Cleaning 3

Pulling the screen off, I used the brush adapter for the vacuum to clean all the dirt off the coil.

AC Coil Cleaning 4

Then it was just a matter of putting it all back together and then doing the second one.

Still no news on our gate. Tentatively, we’re supposed to move tomorrow about 2 pm, but we’ll see.


August 25, 2014

Counting Down to the Gate . . .

After we had our coffee this morning, I got on the phone to Jamie of Gate Guard Services to see if he had any gates available now, or maybe in the next few days. But he said he didn’t have anything on the horizon right now, but that, of course, things could change every day. I told Jamie that I was going to check with Diane down at the Whitsett office and that I would call him one last time before we did anything.

When I checked with Diane, she said that they had sites coming up pretty much every day, and to come on down. So as it stands right now, we’ll leave here Thursday morning, going either east or west.

I’ll call Jamie Thursday morning to see if anything’s come available. If so, we’ll head east and north to Buffalo, TX, about 200 miles away, where Jamie’s yard is. If Jamie still doesn’t have anything coming up, we’ll head west and south to Whitsett, about 175 miles away.

Since we now have a leave date, this Thursday, about 12:30, I went down to the park office to re-up for 3 more days. We were originally going to be here until the 30th of August, but I cut it back when we got here. But just in case, I have two weeks booked at the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails starting the 30th, to be sure we had somewhere to be for the Labor Day weekend, in case the gate guard thing got delayed.

Lowell sent over some photos that Landon’s grandmother, Sonja, had taken of Landon at Katy Mills Mall yesterday.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

This is another favorite of his, the Inflatable Bouncy Crocodile Slide.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Although that Croc looks pretty realistic for an inflatable.

A few months ago, Brandi and Lowell moved Landon to a new school. The Goddard School is highly rated, and talking to Landon, it’s easy to see why.

While we were at Rainforest Cafe yesterday afternoon, Landon started talking about the large animated butterflies (about 3ft across) in the trees around our table.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

He told us that butterflies are insects, and how insects, like a lot of other animals, use their colors to ‘camouflage’ themselves from things that want to eat them.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

So here’s a 4-year-old who knows all about butterflies, insects, and camouflage. A 4-year-old (just barely) who knows the word ‘camouflage’ and knows what it means.

That’s just scary.

Tomorrow I’ve got some stuff I want to do around the rig before we head out on Thursday. Luckily, most of it is inside, out of the heat.


August 25, 2015

Carthage Gate . . .

Jan and I were up early this morning, 6:15 early. We wanted to be on the road by 7:15, leaving Henderson for our gate location about 20 miles away. We were supposed to meet Jamie, our Gate Guard Services supervisor, there at 8 am.

Our new gate turns out to be about 1.5 miles off the highway, and close enough to Carthage, TX, to have good cell service and good Internet. We normally name our gates by the nearest town, so this is now officially the Carthage Gate.

Jamie had already logged a couple of trucks in before we got there, but as is our usual method, Jan took over the clipboard and started logging while I got us parked and set up. Actually, I got us parked twice because after I had parked, leveled, and put the slide out, the Company Man came by and asked us to move forward about 15 feet so we weren’t under the high-tension power lines overhead. Jamie and I looked, and we weren’t really under them, but we moved anyway. It’s not a good idea to argue with the Company Man.

The forecast was for thunderstorms this morning, and they showed up with a vengeance about 9 am, with lightning strikes all around and very heavy rain. One strike was so close that the hair on my arm stood up. Jan worked out of the truck during all this, so she stayed pretty dry. By about 10:30, the storm had passed, and the sun was out, making things nice, but humid.

We’re actually in the middle of a cattle ranch, but we haven’t seen any yet, just little reminder piles of their presence. But all in all, it’s a nice site.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

We don’t have a prepared pad this time, so we’re just parked on the grass. Since we’re on kind of a rise, it should stay pretty dry.

We hope.


August 25, 2016

Maybe Tomorrow?

Well, we’re still on vacation as it were, with no definite startup time. Which is fine with us.

They had the derrick in place early this morning, but nothing much else seemed to be happening for most of the day, except for a lot of guys mostly standing around in hard hats.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

This morning, Jan cooked up 5# of ground chuck and 3# of chicken breasts, doing it outside using our electric skillet. This keeps all the grease and fumes out of the rig. Then later in the afternoon, we packed and vacuum-sealed the hamburger in 1# bags and the chicken in 4 bags. So it will be quick and easy for Jan to fix meals for us on the gate.

I spent the late morning and early afternoon getting our canopy frame up and tied down in place before getting the covering on top.

Next, I laid down a couple of pallets over the rocks leading out to the roadside. Jamie brought them with him when we delivered our sewer trailer,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

After I saw the large rocks that they used on the roadway, I knew we’d need something to cover them, since walking on them without twisting your ankle is not easy.

And I’m going to have to get some plywood to cover up the gaps where the mats are bolted together.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Another ankle-twisting possibility.

Around 4 pm, I went onto the pad to drop off our phone numbers with the Company Man. When I got back, Jan wanted to know if I had asked him when he wanted us to start logging vehicles in.

I said, “No, I didn’t want to give him any ideas. When he wants us to start, he knows where to find us.”

Finally, about 30 minutes later, they started raising the derrick.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And about 90 minutes later, they were done.

So I guess sometime tomorrow we’ll finally get to work.


August 25, 2017

Hurricane Fever . . .

Based on the fact that the weather down in the Clear Lake area was forecasted for Severe Thunderstorms and High Winds about the time I would be heading home this afternoon, I decided I didn’t really need to be down there this morning, so I again used TeamViewer to take care of a few things.

About 12:30, Jan went into Hurricane mode and decided we didn’t have enough food in-house, even though we were just at Wal-Mart yesterday, so we headed out for some more shopping.

As we were leaving the park, it was obvious that a lot of people had left.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

We’ve never seen the park this empty

Originally, we were going back down the Interstate to the Wal-Mart, but the traffic lady on the radio was talking about the heavy traffic on I-45 North all the way up to Willis, so we quickly turned around and headed over to Willis and the Kroger’s there, so we would not have to get on I-45.

And of course, being at the Kroger’s meant a Whataburger was right next door, so we ended up there for lunch. As we got parked, we noticed a guy in a pickup truck all ready for the storm, with a new generator and a portable AC in the back. Nothing like preparation.

We did notice that despite what the radio had said, the traffic on I-45 north was moving right along at normal speeds. So much for traffic reporting.

Getting into Kroger’s a little bit later, it was really no busier than a holiday shopping period, except for the empty bread shelves and the almost empty bottled water aisle, probably because they had a guy by the water, restricting how much you could buy.

Jan wanted to know if we should buy some, but I reminded her that we had a 100-gallon tank in the rig, almost full.

“Oh, yeah”

But once again, people seemed to have their priorities out of whack. The bread and water aisles were empty, but who wants to live on bread and water?

But what’s with the full wine and beer area?

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

When I was checking out, the lady in front of me was unloading about 10 boxes of breakfast cereal. When I mentioned that she must be expecting to have her kids home for a while, she rolled her eyes and said she was going to have her sister’s kids, too.

Then, when I asked where the wine for her was, she grimaced and said that, unfortunately, she didn’t drink, but she might be starting soon.

She has my sympathies.

Coming out to the truck, we had our first rain sprinkles, but it died out pretty quickly.

Coming back into the park, I stopped at the Ranger Station to pick up our updated pass, showing us leaving on the 30th rather than the 27th.

While we were there, I asked if the paving was all done, since they had basically just done the entrance and the road past the Activity Center, but not any of the roads among the sites. She said they would be paved eventually, but it was part of a 5-year plan.

When I asked what year they were in, she smiled and said, “Year One.”

So I guess it’s going to be a while.


August 25, 2018

Pool Parties and Staterooms . . .

Brandi, Lowell, and Landon closed on their new house yesterday morning, and then the movers showed up on schedule in the afternoon.

Jan called them this afternoon to see if we needed to come up tomorrow to help unpack, but apparently, they’re taking the weekend off and just hanging out around the pool with friends.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

And that’s a pool you want to hang out around.

We’ve got our stateroom assigned for the ‘Skirnir’, the Viking Longship, for our upcoming cruise. And it’s the cheapest room available. And that’s not because I’m cheap.

Well, not ‘just’ because I’m cheap.

When we did our Alaskan cruise in 1998, we decided that on our next cruise, we would get the cheapest room available since we found we were only in it to shower and sleep. On an ocean cruise, that would be an inside room with no window, but on a Viking River Cruise, it’s apparently a room down in the bilge of the ship.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Well, maybe not quite that low, but it is on the bottom of the 4 decks, which, for some reason, is called the ‘main’ deck.

Our room is listed as a ‘Standard’ room and is 150 sf. It looks like this.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

What I still haven’t figured out is how the rooms are priced vs. where they’re located. There are two different levels of each of the 3 of the 4 room types. The rooms themselves are identical; just the location is different. In our case, our room, #110, is right next to the more expensive version, #112. More expensive by $150.

I emailed a Viking representative to ask the reason for the $150 difference when the rooms are side-by-side, and wondered if the cheap ones were over the engines, or something. But he just said that the more expensive ones were ‘better’. Well, that was helpful.

What’s even stranger is the next room up in price. It’s called a ‘French Balcony’. But apparently the French don’t really have balconies, because neither does this room.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

All it has is a sliding glass door that you can open, but there is no balcony. Just an opening that’s blocked off. And it’s $1050 more than our room. And it’s only 135 sf., 15 sf. smaller than ours.

If you want to have an actual balcony, you have to get a Veranda stateroom like this.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

It’s $1850 more and is a little bigger at 205 sf.

Now, if you won the lottery and want to celebrate with a river cruise, you can book one of the two Explorer suites on the ship.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

At 445 sf. it’s almost 3 times the size of our room, and it costs a whopping $13,000!

Yikes!

Today was another one of those errand days, interrupted by a nice lunch. After dropping some stuff off at both storage rooms, our next stop was at a Chase Bank to deposit the $100 American Express Traveler’s Cheque that Jan found in an old purse into our account.

The teller had never seen one and didn’t really know what to do with it. And neither did the other teller, so they called the manager over. She said she hadn’t seen one in years, and didn’t think they even sold them anymore. At least they didn’t have any at that bank.

Next up was lunch/breakfast at The Egg and I up in Webster. Love their food, especially their Hazelnut coffee. While I got my usual two eggs over medium, bacon, fruit, and an English Muffin, Jan tried their Build Your Own Omelet, with Greens, and an English Muffin.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

She said the Lemon Vinaigrette on the Greens was really good. And it was neat how they put a little of the ingredients – tomatoes, onions, and mushrooms – on the omelet as a topping.

Finally, after a quick Wal-Mart stop, it was back to the rig a little before 4 pm.

A nice, easy, fun day.


August 25, 2019

Putting On The Brakes . . .

Catching up, this is Saturday’s blog. If you missed Friday’s that I posted earlier this evening, just scroll on down.


Finally, this morning, the stars aligned, the sheep entrails were favorable, and the weather cooperated, mostly, so about 10 am I was outside and ready to tackle changing out the rear brakes on our truck

After getting all my stuff out and getting the truck jacked up, I had the tire off and the caliper off. Then, after I pulled the old pads, I removed the brake line from the old one,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

and connected it to the new caliper.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

At this point, I got one of the new rotors out and sprayed it down on both sides with brake cleaner to get the shipping oil off, and then let it dry for a few minutes.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Then, after sliding the rotor on the studs,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I installed the new pads in the caliper and installed it on the mounts,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

and I was done.

It was just a matter of mounting the wheel,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

and tightening it down with my shiny new lug nuts

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

At this point, it was about 11:45, so I went inside for some hydration and a snack. But before I could go back out and finish the passenger side, it started pouring down rain.

When it finally stopped raining and the weather radar looked clear, I was back outside about 1:30 to finish up the other side. And as with most jobs like this, the second one went much faster than the first one. So I was finished up, packed up, and back inside by about 2:30.

Before that, though, I did a quick test drive around the park to check things out and found the braking much better, but of course spongy since I hadn’t bled the air out yet.

Jan and I will probably do that on Tuesday morning. I need her to pump the brake pedal until we get all the air out of the lines.

And after a job well done, I decided to reward myself, and Jan, of course, with dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse, our local favorite.

Very good as usual.


August 25, 2020

Battening Down The Hatches . . .

Although it’s still possible that we might evacuate up to Brandi’s if Laura makes an unexpected move to the west, more than likely we’ll just ride it out here.

When Harvey made a much more direct hit here in 2017, the park here had no flooding or real damage to the facilities or rigs. So that looks good too.

I did go outside this evening and store away all of our yard chairs and other stuff in our storage shed. Anticipating this possibility, I used screw-in anchors and straps to fasten the shed’s plywood base to the ground, and then lag-bolted the shed base to the plywood using steel straps. So we’ll see how it works.

I will also let in the awnings tomorrow as the winds pick up, and then wait and see about the slide.

And if this wasn’t enough, in the middle of all this, I had to replace the battery in the truck this afternoon. I had to use my battery charger to jump it off this afternoon when we left the rig, thinking I had just left something on. But then I had to get another jump when we were out and about later. So I picked a new one up at O’Reilly’s on the way home and swapped it out this evening.

Looking back in the blog, it was about 4 years ago that I installed the last one, which is pretty good in the Texas heat.

Watching the 10 pm weather tonight, it’s looking more and more like Laura is going in around the TX-LA border, but we’ll know more tomorrow morning when I decide if I’m going into work or not.

Stay Tuned.


August 25, 2021

Still Hot . . .

We were dismayed to find out this morning that our good friends Debi and Ed Hurlburt have both been diagnosed with CoVid. We just saw them a couple of weeks ago, and they mentioned that they had just gotten their first shot and were supposed to get the second one tomorrow. But that’s on hold now until they’re better and test negative.

But they’re now supposed to be treated with the Monoclonal Antibodies, so hopefully, they’ll be feeling better soon.

Get Well Soon, guys. Our prayers are with you.

Everyone should now be getting the blog by email again. So I hope the problem’s fixed.

I finished up the last two pieces of my Super Hot Cookshack chicken tenders for dinner this evening, and though they were still very hot, they were not as hot as they were originally.

And sometime soon we’ll go back to The Cookshack so I can try the AMF version two levels hotter than what I had the other day. So we’ll see how that goes.

I mentioned the problem that I was having with our USPS Click N Ship program at work. I finally got an email from PO Tech Support giving me a list of ‘useless’ things to try, all of them supposing that the problem was on my end, not theirs.

Sorry, but when their system won’t accept the reset password they sent me, it gives me a weird Error Message that the Tech Support lady didn’t recognize or find in her system.

Yeah, right. It’s my problem.

So before I did anything else, I once again tried to log in using the last temporary password they sent me yesterday. And what’da you know, it now worked perfectly.

Yeah, right. It was my problem.

Looks like the Wings Over Houston airshow is back on for this year. And I’m lucky because Jan, being an Air Force brat, loves the airshows as much as I do.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Set for October 9 and 10th, it’s going to have the USAF Thunderbirds, the Canadian Snowbirds, and a lot more.

Up until we started RV’ing in 2008, we used to go pretty much every year, but since we normally didn’t get home until around Thanksgiving every year, we missed a lot of them.

So we’re really looking forward to this one.


August 25, 2022

Good Friends & A Mystery . . .

Jan and I were on our way up to Spring by about 10:45 this morning, to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt at the Olive Garden there.

We had been worried about rain along the trip, but it never materialized, so we had a nice, smooth trip. And no overheating either.

We got there a few minutes before Noon and found Ed and Debi already there. Turns out that Janice and Dave Evans had new furniture being delivered, so they bowed out this time.

While Ed got the Lasagna and Debi got an appetizer plate, Jan got the Chicken Alfredo, but with Broccoli instead of Pasta.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

She kind of got a head start on it before I got a photo.

As for me, I just got the Soup, Salad, and Breadsticks.

Olive Garden Breadsticks! YUM!

And Pasta Fagioli Soup. YUM YUM!

We had our usual great time with Debi and Ed,

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

and also, as usual, we already have next month’s get-together booked for the Outback Steakhouse up this way.

Already looking forward to it.

The mystery is a phantom text from Jan’s cell to my cell. But Jan didn’t send it. Or so she says.

Though I didn’t see it until later, yesterday at 1:07 pm, while I was at work, I got a text from Jan saying, “I’m at the movie theater.” It was definitely from Jan, and it had her photo and phone number associated with it.

And when I checked her phone last night, it showed that her phone had sent the text.

WTH!

I could see it happening accidentally if it was garbage text, or an emoji. But a grammatically correct sentence?

So, like I said, A Mystery.


August 25, 2023

Where Old Blades . . .

Go To Die.

There’s a graveyard out in Sweetwater, TX, just west of Abilene.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

It’s where old Wind Turbine Blades go to die.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

They’ve been building up there since 2017, stashed away by a company called Global Fiberglass Solutions. GBS was supposed to be recycling the old fiberglass blades by grinding them up and selling the result. But that never happened, and now people are saying it was all a big scam to get government grant money and then just disappear, leaving the 30 acres of blades for the town to figure out how to get rid of them. And each one of the sections you see is between 50 and 65 feet long.

And it seems this is just one of a number of blade dumps around the state and around the country.

Tomorrow, for the first time since back in May, we’re having lunch at Texas Huddle once again. They closed on June 2 due to a supposed A/C problem, which turned out to actually be a lockout due to non-payment of rent. Then, when they finally reopened a couple of weeks ago, it was for take-out only. Which a number of FB commenters attributed this to the fact that they were having trouble (re)hiring servers since apparently a lot of the workers were still owed wages when they closed. But finally this past Monday, the 21st, they announced that they were now open full-time.

Hopefully, Juana, our favorite server, came back, too. But I guess we’ll see tomorrow.

After lunch, we’re heading back down our way to get our haircut at CostCutters with Leslie, our usual lady. Then, after our weekly Wal-Mart visit, we’ll be done for the day.

This year it’s a little hotter than usual here in Texas, but two years ago at this time, it was cooler than usual. Here’s what I posted back then, and then a couple of days ago.

I know that places further out west are having heat problems, but our summer here has been much cooler than usual. And actually, we haven’t had a 100° day so far this summer.

Unlike our first summer here in 1979, when we had 13 straight days of 100+° temps, and a lot of other 100’s scattered through the summer, here we are 3/4 of the way through August, and our predicted high temps for the next 6 days are 93, 93, 90, 88, 90, and 88.

Not your usual late August temps here in South Texas, believe me.

And I heard on the radio a couple of days ago that we had broken a 114-year-old record temperature here in Houston. By 1/2 of 1 degree. Of course, that means that in 1909, it was almost exactly the same temperature here in Houston as it is now.

And if you check back, you’ll find that many of the temperature records in this area were set during the 1930’s, The Dust Bowl.

After fairly favorable climatic conditions in the 1920s with good rainfall and relatively moderate winters, which permitted increased settlement and cultivation in the Great Plains, the region entered an unusually dry era in the summer of 1930. During the next decade, the northern plains suffered four of their seven driest calendar years since 1895, Kansas four of its 12 driest, and the entire region south to West Texas lacked any period of above-normal rainfall until record rains hit in 1941.

So the weather was nice and wet for a while, and then it got hot and dry, and then it got nice again.

Sound familiar?


August 25, 2024

We Got To See Them Both . . .

Lunch today was at BoomerJack’s for the first time since last June. Besides the good food, we also wanted to catch up with long-time friend, server, Juana, once again.

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But we weren’t expecting to see Sylvia (on the left). She normally works nights, but was on days today.

We used to see Sylvia at Twin Peaks right next door, but she moved over here when Boomer’s opened, along with her BFF Victoria (on the right).

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Though Victoria wasn’t working today, we were happy to hear that she’s pregnant, and she and her husband are expecting a baby boy around the first part of December.

Congratulations, Victoria!

As far as the food, we both went for something different today, with Jan getting the Chicken Tenders with a side of Steamed Veggies.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

I did stay with the Chicken Tender theme, getting an order of their Nashville Hot Chicken Tenders.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Of course, for me, the ‘Hot’ part is relative. So added a side of their Mango Habanero sauce and a good sprinkle of my Carolina Reaper flakes.

All very good.

* * * * * * *

Now that’s an expensive pizza!

Guy paid 10,000 Bitcoins for two pizzas in 2010

(Right-Click on Link and Select ‘Open in New Tab’)

In May 2010, Bitcoin (BTC) had almost no value. On May 18, 2010, programmer Laszlo Hanyecz offered 10,000 BTC for some pizzas. This offer is now considered the first Bitcoin transaction. Hanyecz made the offer on May 18, but it was not accepted until May 22. Hanyecz wrote, “I’ll pay 10,000 bitcoins for a couple of pizzas…maybe two large ones so I have leftovers for the next day. I want food delivered in return for bitcoins so I don’t have to order or prepare it myself. You can make the pizza yourself and bring it to my place, or order it for me.”

At that time, 10,000 BTC was worth about $41; even at that time was kind of expensive for two pizzas.

On May 22, he announced that he had successfully exchanged 10,000 bitcoins for pizza. Thus, May 22 is named ‘Bitcoin Pizza Day.’

So Hanyecz didn’t go hungry. But he might regret not just paying for his pizza with his debit card and holding onto the 10,000 BTC.

The reason?

As of yesterday, 1 BTC is worth about $65,000.

So he paid $650 million dollars for two pizzas.

Hope they were worth it.

* * * * * * *

Looking at the ads that have been running on the blog recently, a lot of our readers are really stepping up their online purchasing.

Recently, I’ve seen ads for both Saks 5th Ave and also Coach Handbags. You know, those bags that go for $895 and much, much more.

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On a more pedestrian note, I’ve seen ads for Modloft Beds, Cheddar’s, Red Lobster, Adobe, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and many others.

Great job, people.

Let’s keep shopping out there.


August 25, 2025

A No-Go Due To Weather . . .

Tonight’s SpaceX Flight #10 StarShip launch made it down to the 40-second mark before holding for a couple of minutes, and then cancelling the launch due to bad weather.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Actually, the weather had been a possible problem all day, with only a 30% chance of clear weather anyway. But they thought they’d give it a try.

Looks like they’re resetting until tomorrow.

* * * * * * *

Looks like we may have lost another one. One of our chicken tender places, CookShack up in Webster, has ‘Temporarily Closed’, never a good sign.

I noticed last Wednesday, as I drove past the location, that there were no lights on, and no cars parked anywhere near. So I checked Google after I got home, and found the ‘Temporarily Closed’ notice. So I guess we’ll see how ‘temporary’ it actually is.

* * * * * * *

Jan and I watched the first episode of Alien: Earth last night, and overall, we liked it. Set in 2120, two years before the original Alien, with Sigourney Weaver, it details the introduction of the Aliens to Earth.

Police vehicles tow a detached car axle on a highway.

Counting the Alien vs Predator movies, there have now been 8 movies in the Alien series, but this is the first TV series, with this Season 1 consisting of 8 episodes.

It is dark, violent, and unsettling. But good.

* * * * * * *

Tomorrow: Doggone Crazy Hot Dogs!