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Alabama Memories . . .

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Well, as if I needed more problems, when I got into work this morning, and rebooted my computer, it wouldn’t come back up.

Looks like the SSD boot drive has died. But to be sure I bought it home and plug it into my computer here as an external drive.

And “It’s dead, Jim”.

I’m fully backed so nothing will be lost, but it’s always a pain to set up a new drive.

* * * * *

There’s a Facebook group called Alabama Memories, and I recently came across this photo.

And I’m pretty sure this was taken at my family’s motel, White’s By The Sea, at Gulf Shores, AL

I remember these permanent beach umbrellas that my father built.

And here’s a colorized version, and the cottage color looks familiar.

And another tell-tale is the car shown in this enlargement.

I’m pretty sure that this is our Pontiac shown below.

And yes, I often dressed formally to play outside

* * * * *

Tomorrow’s going to be an early one, with our yearly GP appointments starting at 8am, so it’s up at 6, and on the road by 7.

Later, we’re having lunch at King Food with Debi and Ed.


Thought For The Day:

It’s not my fault you thought I was normal. You’ve had enough time and plenty of clues to figure it out!


Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2010- Homes Of The Hollywood Stars

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.


April 21, 2010

Homes of the Stars…

We now have a middle name!

Our upcoming grandson’s full name will be –

Landon Thomas Morrison


We left the rig about 10 am headed for Hollywood and our Movie Star Home Tour.

We got there early enough to have lunch so we decided to try the Hooters across the street from Grauman’s Chinese Theater where our tour would start.

One thing we’ve noticed is the Hooter’s hot wings out west are not nearly as hot as the Hooters in Texas. We both had ours at “911” which is their hottest normal temp. (Some Hooters also have off-the-menu temps called “Bentley” and “Elvis” which are hotter still.)  But “911” out here is only about equal to ‘Hot” in Texas.

Anyway, we got with our group and were led to our tour bus.

TourBus

Since rain was forecast and it was sprinkling on the way in from Lancaster, we were a little worried, seeing as how we didn’t have a roof. But our tour guide said not to worry, that if it rained, he had a backup plan. Jan asked what the backup plan was, he said, “We get wet!”.

Oh boy!

But off we went. And it turned out fine. The rain held off and the sun even came out for a while.

And now, in no particular order, here are some of the homes we saw.

Bob Barker of “The Price is Right” fame

BobBarker

The mountain-top retreat, high above Beverly Hills, has been owned by both Steven Spielberg and Merv Griffin. It’s up for sale now.

Speilberg

This is the entrance to Bill Cosby’s home.

BillCosby

This one is newly built by Richard and Kathy Hilton, the parents of Paris Hilton.

Hiltons

This home was used both in Will Smith’s “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and in “Mommy Dearest”, with Faye Dunaway.

FreshPrince

This under-construction mansion is rumored to be the new home of Arnold Schwarzenegger, but it’s supposed to be a tight secret with a lot of security around it, even under construction.

Arnolds

This was Rosemary Clooney’s home.

RosemaryClooney

This is one of the homes used in the Beverly Hillbillies.

BeverlyHillbillies

This is the Beverly Hills Tower, home to Elton John, Cher, Sidney Poitier, and Matthew Perry, among others.

BHTower

This is Nancy Reagan’s Nail Salon, where she has her nails done every Thursday.

NancyReagansNailClinic

This is all that remains of the location of “77 Sunset Strip”. It’s the valet parking area, and it’s not located at 77 Sunset Strip, anyway. It’s more like 4800.

77 Sunset Strip

This is the home of “Colombo’s” Peter Faulk.

PeterFaulk

And this is Helen Hunt’s home. And it’s up for sale, if you’re in the market.

HelenHunt

This is the back of Johnny Weissmuller’s home. It has a quarter-mile-long swimming pool that winds through the estate, with trees and vines so he could still play Tarzan. His family still owns it.

Weismuller

This is the front gate of Michael Jackson’s home where he died.

Michael 2

The balcony here leads into the bedroom where Michael’s body was found.

Michael 1

This was the home of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.

Lucy

And right next door was Jack Benny’s home. It’s now owned by Jon Lovitz.

JackBenny

And right next door to that is Carol Burnett’s home. That’s some neighborhood.

CarolBurnet

This is Dr. Phil’s home, also known as the “House that Oprah built”.

DrPhil

This is Tom Cruise’s home, or what you can see of it.

Cruise

And this home, complete with gargoyles, was the home of Dracula’s, Bela Lugosi.

Bela

This is a shot of the LA skyline, as seen from the Hollywood sign viewpoint.

Skyline 2

And, of course, the Hollywood sign itself. It originally said “Hollywoodland” and was erected in 1923 as an advertisement for the Hollywood Land Co. The last four letters were removed in 1945, or destroyed by a rocket belt-wearing Nazi spy crashing into it in the movie “The Rocketeer”. Take your pick.

Sign

Back at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, there are always a bunch of movie characters in costumes for people to have their pictures taken with. We’ve seen Spiderman, The Hulk, Batman, Darth Vader, and Princess Leia, just to name a few. However, only in Hollywood would you find KFC’s Colonel Sanders and Jesus, walking and talking.

ColonelAndJesus

Seeing this made me want KFC for dinner, so we stopped and picked some up on our way home.

I wonder it I’ll want to go to church on Sunday, too.

Stopping at KFC, I finally got to try the new Double Down Chicken Chicken Sandwich.

doubledown

It’s two strips of bacon, two slices of Monterey Jack and Pepper Jack cheese, and Colonel’s Sauce, between two chicken breasts. It’s messy to eat, unless you keep it in the wrapper, but it’s delicious.

And at 540 calories, it’s not bad calorie-wise, either. That’s 140 calories less than a Whopper and 160 calories less than a Big Mac.

And did I say it’s really, really good?


April 21, 2011

Pelonis and DirecTV . . .

This morning started for me about 10:15. Jan of course, gets up earlier. I made coffee and we split a bacon cheese bagel from the Fry’s in Cottonwood.

Our next onerous task was simply to gaze out the windows and enjoy the great view.

The Elk’s Lodge here in Show Low has a very nice RV park with the beautiful surroundings and full hookups for only $15/day.

Show Low Elks Lodge 1

And it also has just the perfect amount of trees, enough to provide some nice shade, but not too many to block the satellite dish.

Show Low Elks Lodge 2

Around 12 Jan heated up the last of the pizza from our visit to Crusty’s Pizza in Camp Verde this past Monday, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon working on client web stuff.

About 3 pm I decided an hour nap was in order. Then, after a very nice nap, I tackled a problem with our Pelonis floor heaters.

Pelonis Heater

There was so much dust and cat hair accumulated over the last 4 years that it was causing them to overheat and shut down. So I wanted to take them apart and vacuum them out.

Easier said than done, however.

It quickly became obvious that these things were not designed to come apart. They seemed like a Chinese puzzle, but what I didn’t count on is that they were kind of spring-loaded. When I got them apart to a certain point, it just exploded into a bunch of pieces. So now I’ve got to get it all back together and hope I don’t have any pieces left over.

I hate it when that happens!

Then, a little before 5 pm our DirecTV started acting up. It was flashing a message telling me that one of the two tuners had lost the satellite signal. This happens occasionally when the wind blows the dish a little off aim. But before going outside to adjust it, I checked the signal level on the DVR, and it said both tuners were 90% or above. It also was supposed to record Big Bang Theory starting at 5 but it didn’t.

I first tried resetting the DVR with the button, but after it came back up in about 5 minutes, it still was doing the same thing.

So I called DirecTV, got put straight though to Tech Support. After verifying my ID, he started sending commands to my DVR over the sat link and having me tell him what I saw.

Then he sent some more data down to my set and had me run the System Setup using the new data. And this fixed the problem. As soon as the system came back up everything was working fine.

Great service from DirecTV.

Later we headed out for supper. We first tried Native New Yorker (yeah, I know we ate there yesterday, but it was really good), but they had a 45-minute wait. So we drove over to the Pizza Factory for an OK meal. Certainly not as good as Crusty’s or Da Boyz, but OK.

That’s it for today. Probably shopping and some errands tomorrow.


April 21, 2013

Moving Day . . . Again

Today was once again moving day. We had to move back one space to the left. A real pain in the butt, but it means we go from paying $20 a night to paying $3 a night for the next 10 days.

Since it was supposed to be 90 today, we decided to move a little earlier than we did last Sunday, so about 12:45 we hit the road, or at least drove across the road and then backed into the site next door.

It took several back-and-forths to get it straight because the site doesn’t have a lot of room between the pad and the sewer connection.  As it was, when the rig was right alongside the patio, the sewer connection was only about 6 inches from my rear tire on the other side.

CountrySide 2

CountrySide 1

But it fit, which is what mattered. So we’re now parked until we leave for Las Vegas on May 1st.

Later, Jan and I headed about 25 miles away to Fry’s Electronics. As it turns out, I needed an RF Modulator to finish hooking up our new DirecTV HD DVR.  Our old DVR had an F connector output on channel 3/4 that feeds the bedroom TV. But our new DVR only has video/audio outputs, but no RF. So I needed one of those things people used to hook their video games up to their TV, but I wanted one that also had an S-Video input for the best quality.

After finding what I needed, (and a few other things, of course), we headed down the road about 5 miles to another of our favorite BBQ places, Rudy’s BBQ.

Rudy's BBQ 1

Jan had the Loaded Baked Potato with Brisket, and I had a little brisket, a couple of ribs, and a half link of jalapeno sausage, i.e. a little bit of everything.

Getting back to the park about 8:30, it was another long, but nice day.


April 21, 2014

A Very Short Season . . .

We made the move back to the Colorado River Thousand Trails. our 3rd stay since we left Galveston Bay RV Resort on Feb 24th, and hopefully our last park stay in the area before we head north.

As it stands now, we’ll leave here on May 2nd, heading up to Elkhart, IN, and then on to Goshen, IN for the 54th Escapade starting the 12th of May. We plan on making several stops along the way to visit family.

Getting into Colorado River, we had our choice of 50 amp sites, so this time we picked a site at the top of the hill in the ‘A’ section, and got a nice site overlooking the field below. I thought about pulling straight in so we would be looking out over the field from our windshield, like we overlook the bayou at the Galveston Bay park. Of course, this means that we have to hook up our utilities underneath the rig, but we have long enough cords and hoses to do that with no problem. But for some reason, some parks frown on this, and since I hadn’t checked it out beforehand, I decided to back in as normal.

Colorado River A Circle 1

Colorado River A Circle 2

Colorado River A Circle 3

Unlike a lot of the other sites, this one is nice and level, with a gravel pad and a concrete patio.

One thing we noticed coming up US71 and the turnoff to the park is that all the bluebonnets are just gone. And in only two weeks. Now that’s a short growing season.

Colorado River Bluebonnets 3

Colorado River Bluebonnets 1

Colorado River Bluebonnets 5

We know the area hasn’t been mowed, because the Indian Paintbrushes are still there. We had thought about driving up to the Brenham area later in the week to check out the big Bluebonnet fields, but we may reconsider now.

Now that my shear pins have come in, and look to be the right ones, I’ll try to get underneath there and get it replaced pretty soon. But as before, we had no problem doing it manually this morning as we left the Lake Conroe TT Park. But hopefully, this morning will be the last time we have to do it that way.

We’ll see how it goes tomorrow.


April 21, 2015

High Taxes and Small Cracks . . .

I mentioned the other day about the 12% tax this Thousand Trails charged us on the $5 a day / $70 for two weeks upcharge for our 50amp site. Well, I found out where that comes from.

The normal sales tax rate here in Las Vegas is 8.1%. The 12% amount is the hotel tax charged here, the ‘room’ tax. Now why the $5 charge for 50 amp is a ‘room’ I can’t explain. I do know that I’ve never been charged tax on 50 amps before. But as Jan says, “Hey, it’s Vegas, Baby!”

After our morning coffee and English muffins, I put the finishing touches on the magnetic shade that covers the large driver’s side window, and got it mounted outside. And it quickly made a big difference in the heat coming in. Enough so that AC’s cycled on and off during the hottest part of the 85+ degree day. So far, so good.

Later in the afternoon, I took a shot at fixing the small radiator leak I’ve had for a month or so. I found that there was a small vertical crack on the top right edge of the radiator.

Anticipating this repair, I had picked up a tube of this JB Weld Epoxy.

JB Weld

J-B Weld SteelStik Steel Reinforced Epoxy Putty Stick

It’s easy to use, handles temps to 300 degrees, and pressures up to 900 PSI. So it should handle the radiator repair with no problems.

Radiator Repair 1

The crack ran just along the edge of the scalloped piece of metal on top of the radiator body. I first cleaned the area with a wire brush and roughed it up with sandpaper for increased adhesion. Finally, I wiped the area down with rubbing alcohol and let it dry.

Cutting off a marble-sized piece of the JB Weld, I rolled it around in my fingers until it was a single color, and then into a 4” long snake. Then I pressed it into place along the crack and a little further out from the ends of the crack.

Radiator Repair 2

Checking back in an hour I found the joint perfectly cured and ready to go. So we’ll check it out tomorrow during our Wal-Mart trip.

For dinner tonight Jan heated up some of the Baked Spaghetti that we picked up from Crusty’s Pizza in Camp Verde before we left last Sunday. Really good.


April 21, 2016

It’s A Rule . . .

I spent most of the day tracking down missing software and downloading needed programs from the Internet. One thing I’m doing is that I’m only reinstalling software as I need it, which should keep some of the clutter down.

Later I also connected up my Backup Drive and started copying over data files, documents, pictures, videos, and music. All told, about 300 GB worth, including over 29,000 photos since 2006, two years before we started RV’ing.

This new computer is only about two years newer than my old one, but much, much faster. So in the end, this will all be worth it.

I was kind of surprised by this HD failure since I got no warning whatsoever from the motherboard’s S.M.A.R.T. monitoring (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology; often written as SMART)

SMART is a system that monitors HD reliability and reports if there are any problems. Now it won’t catch everything, but it does give an indication on 60-70% of failures.

So I guess my HD was in that 30-40%

Something next week, after we’re at Medina Lake, I’ll do my freezer trick and see what I come up with.

Dennis and Carol Hill picked us up a little after 5pm and we headed off north of Willis to have dinner at the Fish Pond Restaurant. We’ve eaten here a number of times, but it was a first for Dennis and Carol.

And everyone seemed to enjoy their meal, with Carol having Liver and Onions, Dennis having the Chicken Fried Steak, while Jan went with her favorite Chicken Fried Chicken. I tried something a little different, the Steak Fingers. I guess everyone liked what they had, since there were four clean plates at the end.

And as usual when RV’ers get together, we talked for longer than we ate. I know, I know, hard to believe, right? But we did. In fact, I don’t think we’ve ever been out with a group of RV’ers where it didn’t take at least 3 hours.

I think it‘s a rule.

Actually between the restaurant and the visiting in our rig afterwards, it was over 3 hours. But I think that was so Carol and Dennis could play with Karma, who seemed to enjoy all the attention. I kind of figured she might run and hide, but she’s turned out to be a real people cat.


April 21, 2017

Try It And Let Me Know . . .

Never Mind. It’s Fixed Now.

Jan and I were out the door and on our way up to the Verizon store on Nellis Blvd about 9:30 to pick up my new Samsung Galaxy S8+.

The store didn’t open until 10am but I guess maybe I was expecting ‘new iPhone-day of release’ lines, and there were four other people in line, but just to pay their bills.

It took about an hour to get my new phone set up and configured, all my contacts moved over, and my phone number moved also, as well as Jan’s phone number changed over to my old Galaxy S5 which now becomes her phone. So now she can ditch her old LG Revere Flip Phone.

(Note it wasn’t called the LG Dawes Flip Phone. Just another instance where Paul Revere got all the credit.)

I had planned to order an Otterbox Defender case for it from Amazon since it was about $15 cheaper than Verizon’s list price, but when I told them that they gave me the Amazon price. I will order a wireless charging pad from Amazon when we get to Soledad Canyon after tomorrow.

Finishing up with Verizon a little after 11am, we drove back over to Blueberry Hill Restaurant again, this time for breakfast.

Besides coffee, Jan had eggs, hash browns, and bacon

Blueberry Hill Eggs & Bacon

while I got the Chicken Apple Compote Waffle with bacon.

Blueberry Hill Chicken Waffle

Good coffee and a delicious meal.

Leaving Blueberry Hill, we drove down Pecos Blvd to top off the gas in the truck at the Sam’s Club. With California’s recent $0.12 / gallon tax increase, unleaded is more than $0.30 / gallon higher than it is here in LV.

While we were getting gas we noticed all the new snow on the peaks to the west of us. Quite a difference.

Sam's Club Snow

What happened to Global Cooling/Global Warming/Global Cooling/Climate Change?

Getting back to the park, I picked up an Amazon package from the ranger station. It’s really nice that the Thousand Trails here does not charge $2 to hand you your mail.

Back at the rig, a nice nap was in order before I went back outside and crawled under the rig to unhook the sewer hose and stow it and the water hose away. Less to do tomorrow morning before we leave for California.

Later I spent the evening downloading apps to my new phone and getting things set up like I want. So far I’m really happy with it. with my only regret that they’ve changed the charge/data connector from the standard micro USB connector to the newer USB-C connector. But besides an AC charger module and cable, they also include a micro USB to USB-C adapter so I can still plug it in all my other cables. At least until I lose the tiny little adapter.

Tomorrow we’ll make the 250 mile trip over to the Soledad Canyon TT park near Acton, CA, and about 15 miles south of Palmdale. We’ve never stayed here before, but it’s supposedly nice and we’re looking forward to it. We’re booked there for a week before we head north for a two-week stay at the Bend/Sunriver TT, one of our favorite parks.

I mentioned yesterday about a problem calling Good Sam’s Tech Help Line and getting a sex talk line where girls could talk to hot guys.

After confirming that there really was a problem, I put in a call to a Verizon Engineering number that I got from a friend who works for Verizon. And after talking to them this afternoon, I got a call back this evening.

Turns out that in some parts of the country, and only with Verizon customers, the last two digits of the number were being reversed. So 4457 became 4475, and vice versa.

In addition, it would make a difference whether or not you dialed the number as 1-800 or as 800 by itself.

But it’s fixed now. So, Never Mind.


April 21, 2018

Black Bears and Kindle Books . . .

Not much went on during the day. I did some web stuff and worked a little on my project.

I did go outside and put my anemometer pole back up. I had taken it down when we did our RV test drive last Sunday and waited to put it back up today until I had redone the mounting.

Tomorrow afternoon (Sunday) we’re meeting Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at one of our favorite diner chains, the recently opened Black Bear Diner up in Katy. We’ve been eating at Black Bear locations out west for years, from southern California all the way up to Bend, OR, and as far east as Las Vegas. In between were Mt. Shasta CA, Redding CA, Yreka CA,  and even the original one, the Hi-Lo Café in Weed, CA. Though actually, it’s the Hi-Lo Motel and Café . . . and RV Park.

So why is the first one called the Hi-Lo Café and the rest of them called Black Bear Diners? Well, there was a divorce involved, and so in 1995 one party moved down to Mt. Shasta, about 10 miles south and opened the first Black Bear Diner in the shadow of Mt. Shasta itself

Mt Shasta RV Park

They both have the same newspaper-like menus, and the menu items are pretty much identical, just with different names. But all the same delicious food.

The last time we ate at the Hi-Lo Café was last May right before The Great Transmission Repair. And as part of that, we ended up staying at the Hi-Lo RV Park for a couple of days.

One thing interesting about the Hi-Lo café and Weed, CA is that they consider themselves the actual beginning of the Al-Can Highway.

Al-Can Beginning

Now Dawson Creek, Canada might disagree with that, but Weed makes a pretty good case.

Dawson Creek BC

They say that US 97 originates in Weed, CA and goes all the way up to Dawson Creek. And checking it out when we got home shows they’re right.

US 97 runs up to the Canada border at Oroville, WA and there it becomes PH (Provincial Highway) 97, and, poof! 1400 miles later you’re in Dawson Creek. And then PH 97 runs along with the Al-Can all the way up to Watson Lake in the Yukon along with PH 1.

But when you get to Dawson Creek, it’s still another 1500 miles to Fairbanks. A long trip.


April 21, 2019

27 Friends, 4 Dogs, and . . .

One Very Nervous Cat.

Brandi really gets into the whole Easter thing, including an Easter wreath. I didn’t know they even made Easter wreaths.

Brandi's Easter Wreath

Everyone sat out around the fire pit last night, enjoying the nice weather and the lighting.

Brandi's Backyard at Night 1

Brandi's Backyard at Night 2

Today people started pouring in around noon, with the kids hitting the pool

Brandi's Easter Pool Battle

and the adults hitting Brandi’s Moscato Punch,

Brandi's Easter Moscato Punch

and Jan’s Sausage Balls.

But everyone showed up for the Easter Lunch Buffet with Brisket, Turkey, Jalapeno Sausage, Baked Beans, Ham-Wrapped Asparagus, Salmon, Mac N Cheese, Salad, and more.

Brandi's Easter Buffet

Later, after everyone was stuffed, the older kids hid Easter Eggs all around the backyard with each child having his own color eggs to find, so no fighting over them.

Brandi Easter Egg Hunt

Then it was more pool time for everyone.

Brandi's Easter Pool Layout

Brandi's Easter Pool Party

Jan and I finally got home about 6:30, trying to get to bed early for week-long sprint to Friday.

Brandi sent us home with a couple of her full-size suitcases for our upcoming trip. They looked awfully big so the first thing I did was to measure them to be sure they meet Lufthansa’s requirements.

One of the cases measures 31”H x 18.5”W x 11”D for a total of 60.5”

The other one measures 29”H x 19”W x 10”D for a total of 58”

Lufthansa allows a total size of 62”, so we’re good to go.

Well, also with the 50# limit, too.

But I did figure out that the laptop bag I was planning on using as my second carry-on is too large, so I’ll have to find something smaller that will still fit all the electronics I want to carry, I.e. laptop, power supply, Samsung Tablet, Kindle, Kindle Fire, etc.

Tomorrow is my second-to-last day at work before we leave, and I still have a lot to wrap up. So I’ve started to prioritize things, things that must be done, things I’d like to do, and things that would be nice, but that I can blow off.

One thing I’ve decided to do is to take the rental car back Thursday afternoon rather than early Friday morning, since we won’t need it after that.

Hopefully.


April 21, 2021

PB&J and Ghost Pepper Cheese . . .

Looks like I going to have to rethink slightly the Hibiscus watering system I set up as a test for when we’re going to be gone for two weeks in June.

Hibiscus Watering Setup

The concept is working fine. Alexa turns the water on at 9:00am every morning and then off at 9:01, sending a notification to my phone. But looking at the rate of water usage, I’m not sure that the kitty litter bucket will hold enough water to last for the approximately two weeks we’ll be gone. Especially since it’s possible/probable that I’ll have to increase the watering amount as the weather gets warmer.

So my new idea is to install a water hose timer in a garden hose running from the outside faucet to the bucket.

Water Hose Timer

This will let me add water to the bucket on a regular basis, i.e., let it run for 5 minutes every other day. As long as it keeps the bucket filled, it doesn’t matter if it runs over a bit. The timer is only about $20 on Amazon, so it won’t hurt the wallet too much.

Tomorrow we plan on having lunch at Texas Huddle Grille once again. Jan wants another of their Mushroom Cheddar Bacon Cheeseburger, and I’m really jonsin’ for one of their PB&J Bacon Cheeseburgers spiced up with their Ghost Pepper Cheese.

Then probably the usual run-around type of errands for the afternoon, and maybe ending up with Cowboy Coffee for Sugar-Free Hazelnut Lattes with Almond Milk and Sugar-Free Whipped Cream.

Yum!


April 21, 2022

They Just Followed Us Home . . .

Jan and I had lunch once again at our new local Pho Barr just a few miles east on FM646. Our 2nd time there since it opened about 10 days ago, it was just as delicious as always.

Though we got our regular Spring Rolls, Vermicelli Bowl, and Pho Ga, we also got an order of their Fish Sauce Chicken Wings to split.

Pho Barr Fish Sauce Chicken Wings Kind of

Jan first had them a couple of weeks ago when we had Pho Barr take-out up at Brandi’s in Katy. And they were so good she wanted them again. But she also wanted her usual Grilled Chicken Vermicelli Bowl.

So we split the wings, and that gave us more of our main dishes as left-overs to bring home for dinner tomorrow.

Next up was a haircut for me. I told the guy, “Short, but Not Too Short.” Now his wife knows how to cut it, but she was busy with someone else.

But he apparently has a problem with the ‘Not Too Short’ part. The only way it could be any shorter would be if he just shaved my head.

You’d think I’d learn.

Coming home we made an HEB stop and it seems we picked up a couple of hitchhikers who followed us home.

New HEB Flamingos

I know we swore no more flamingos, but Jan said, “Oh, they’re just too adorable.” Love the flip-flops.

So now it’s again No More Flamingos!

Unless they’re just too adorable, I guess.


April 21, 2023

Flyway . . .

As I thought about yesterday’s SpaceX Starship Heavy test flight, the ship didn’t blow up all on its own. Once they knew it wasn’t going any further since the booster and the Starship wouldn’t separate, they purposely detonated it.

Looks like they’re really coming along on Webster’s new Flyway development. At 80 acres, it will encompass a number of hotels, restaurants and entertainment centers.

Flyway At Clear Creek 3

Probably the highlight of the place is going to be the Great Wolf Lodge.

Great Wolf Lodge Webster

The 532-room resort will encompass 27-acres and feature a 95,000 square-foot indoor water park and a 58,000 square-foot Great Wolf Adventure Park and should be open in mid-to-late 2024.

And it looks like they’re making a lot of progress on it.

Great Wolf Construction

Looking forward to it.

Right around the corner from us, a tree service has been taking down this tree after a couple of big limbs fell during a recent windstorm. And apparently, it’s been growing here for a long time, since they had to cut out a chunk that had grown around a cable TV wire. So now it just hangs there.

Tree Trunk with Chunk


April 21, 2024

Chichén Itzá . . .

Lunch today was Denny’s for our Ultimate Omelets once again.

And it seems our Ultimate Omelets are ‘Ultimate’ than others.

This is what a ‘normal’ Ultimate Omelet’ looks like.

And this is what ours looks like.

This is what happens when you tip Hugo, the cook, every couple of weeks.

Then it was on over to HEB, then gas and home.

A nice, delicious day.

My first order from Cost Plus Drugs should be here tomorrow, with Jan’s running a few days behind. I was very happy with the prices, especially when compared with our former Kroger’s/GoodRx plan.

I’ll keep you informed.

We’re still trying to put together our December cruise itinerary/excursions list, but one of the places we really want to visit is Chichén Itzá on the Yucatán peninsular.

Unfortunately, at this point in our lives, we probably won’t be doing this.

You’d think that they’d install one of those chair lift thingies, but NO.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Easter To All . . .

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

Happy Easter To All . . .

Jan and I were on our way to Katy by about 9am. When we left we were expecting rain the entire trip, we got almost none. Just a few heavy sprinkles for a few minutes.

First up, we got a tour of Landon’s new room. He’s completely moved upstairs now and his room looks great.

Brandi fixed a great meal of Roasted Chicken, Roasted Carrots and Parsnips, and Roasted Potatoes.

Delicious!

And here’s the group.

Landon’s had another growth spurt, so he’s now taller than Brandi, and gaining on Lowell.

And he’s only 14-1/2. The 1/2 he insists on.

And of course the doggies.

Bottom to Top, that’s Max, Jack, and Baxter.

They seem to get bigger every time we see them.

* * * * *

We’ve got a busy week coming up.

Tuesday morning Jan and I have our yearly GP appointments, then we’ll be getting together with our friends, Debi and Ed, for lunch/dinner? at King Food.

Wednesday morning we’re seeing them off with breakfast together at our local Denny’s before they head back up to their home in Trinity.

Later, Wednesday afternoon, we’re picking up a rent car, and then dropping Karma off at Jennifer’s, where she’ll stay while we head up to Fredericksburg/Kingsland on Thursday morning for our big family get-together.

Can’t wait.

BTW I’m getting a rental car since I haven’t had a chance to get the Jeep’s MAP sensor changed out yet.


Thought For The Day:

I have a very strict gun control policy: If there’s a gun in the room, I want to be in control of it. – Clint Eastwood


Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2009- Our Visit To Disney World And The Fort Wilderness RV Park

2010- Our Visit To The Bonnie Hunt TV Show

2014- Our Big Family/Friends Easter Get-Together

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


April 20, 2009

We’re going to Disney World…

Walt Disney World

Actually, we’re already here.

We got in today, but we won’t start visiting the parks until tomorrow.

We’ll be here until May 1st  so we have plenty of time to see everything.

Here are some pics.

Our RV site at Fort Wilderness, Disney’s RV park.

Disney's Fort Wilderness RV Park

Disney’s Fort Wilderness RV Park

Two Beauties

Two Beauties

World Sphere

Spaceship Earth Sphere


April 20, 2010

The Bonnie Hunt Show x 2…

First, a repeat announcement

Our daughter Brandi called from the doctor’s office about 8:30 this morning to tell us that our upcoming grandchild is a boy. And his name is Landon. And he’s due the first week of September.

So now we will have a matched set. One of each.

Landon –

And our granddaughter Piper –

Piper

And only 17 years apart.  Landon is due on Piper’s 17th birthday.

Anyway, back to today.

Today was a twofer. We were going to attend the taping of two episodes of the Bonnie Hunt Show at 2pm and 6pm.

The 2pm show will be aired tomorrow, April 21st, and the 6pm show will air on Thursday, April 22nd.

We left the rig about 9 am, because we wanted to have plenty of time to have lunch before the taping, and also allow for any traffic delays.

We decided to eat at a place about a block from the studio called Kay & Dave’s Mexican Cantina. Jan had a two-item combo plate and I had a lunch special, with chicken tortilla soup, salad with lime-cilantro dressing, and a Chile Relleno. The relleno wasn’t as good as Esther’s last week, but it all was good.

We had to check in before noon at gate 2 of The Culver Studios, where The Bonnie Hunt Show is taped.

Culver Studios

The Culver Studios, under various names and owners, has been around since 1918. It has been called RKO, Desilu, and Hughes Studios, among others, and owned by such as Cecil B. DeMille, Lucy and Desi Arnaz, and Howard Hughes,

Movies such as Gone with the Wind, King Kong, Citizen Kane, A Star is Born, and E.T.  were filmed here. And TV shows like Batman, Lassie, The Andy Griffith Show, Hogan’s Heroes, The Untouchables, The Real McCoys, and more recently, The Nanny, Deal Or No Deal, Las Vegas, Mad About You, Scrubs, and, of course, The Bonnie Hunt Show were/are filmed here.

After standing in line for a few minutes, we were given badges with our seating number on them, in our case, 80 and 81, After about 30 minutes we were led to an outdoor seating area where we stayed until about 30 minutes before show time. At that time we were taken to our seats in the studio. But before that, we had to go through a security check, including metal detectors. This was to ensure that we had no cell phones or cameras with us.

Which is why we have absolutely NO pictures of anything to do with the show.

And they fed us too. As we were walking in, they handed us a hot dog wrapped in foil and a can of root beer.

Then about 15 minutes later, Bill, the warmup guy, came out and got things started by telling jokes, asking questions of the audience, and telling us how the show was going to work.

The show, like most talk shows, is taped in real time, In other words, It takes one hour to tape the show. When it’s time for a commercial, they keep the tape rolling in black, and everyone on stage takes a break for 60, 120, or however many seconds the commercial break lasts, and then the show picks back up.

During the break, people swarm out on the stage, ladies touching up the hair and makeup of both Bonnie and her guests, sound guys checking mics, lighting people checking, well, lights, and other staff talking with Bonnie about things on the show.

Then, poof, about 5 seconds before the end of the break, everyone disappears, and Bonnie looks up at the camera and says “Welcome back”. It’s all very smooth.

The first show’s guest were Brian Austin Green and Yvette Nicole Brown. Toward the end of the show, Bonnie did her regular “Dessert of the Day” segment, which was a Boston Cream Cupcake, And we all got one. Staffers passed out boxes to each of us, but asked us not to eat them till later.

About 10 minutes after the show was over, they set up for a pickup. A pickup is a guest segment to be inserted into a later show. In this case, it was Anthony Anderson from Law & Order who taped a segment with Bonnie that will be used in a show sometime next week.

After that, Bonnie came out in the audience and walked around, thanking people for coming. A really nice touch.

By then it was about 3:30 and we were told to be back for the second taping about 4:45 pm. We decided to go back to the same place where we had lunch and just share an order of nachos and an order of apple-cranberry bread pudding, since we were still pretty full from lunch.

Back at the studio we were led back in right on time. They also tried to give us another hot dog and root beef, but we turned them down.

Bill, the warmup guy, told us that one of the listed guests, Ed Begley, Jr., of Living with Ed, would not be there, but we were supposed to clap when his name was mentioned anyway. Bill said that Ed Begley’s would be taped later and inserted in the show, just like Anthony Anderson’s was done earlier.

The other guests were Patrick Warburton of “Rules of Engagement” and “Seinfeld”, and Robert Keenan, the director of the movie “Food, Inc.”

The other neat thing was we got some giveaways. We each got a T-shirt, a DVD and a book of the nature film by Disney called “Earth”, and a DVD of the movie “Food, Inc”.

Again, after the show was over, Bonnie came out and walked around the audience, talking to people and thanking them for coming. And this time Jan got to shake her hand.

It was about 7:45 pm by the time we were heading back to the truck, and it was about 9:15 by the time we got back home.

A long day, but a fun day.

And tomorrow, still more fun.

We’re going to take a tour of the movie stars’ homes. I think we’ll probably just see a lot of big, locked gates, but we’ll see.


April 20, 2011

A Small World . . .

Our travel to Show Low Day began with coffee and muffins about 7:30 and then pulling out of our site about 9:20 heading over to the Maverik Country Store we had scouted out yesterday.

By fueling up in Camp Verde, rather than making the 10 mile round trip into Cottonwood just to save a penny a gallon, we could head straight out on AZ 260 to Show Low. But my finely crafted plan was not to be.

When I got to the station I found a double trailer fuel tanker stretched across the front of the station, right where I planned to pull in. So I had to go past the station entrance and come in from the street to the side of the station. But this left me blocking the tanker from leaving. By the time I got parked the tanker guy was finishing up, and I asked him if he wanted me to move so he could get out.

He said ‘No’, he still had some paperwork to do. He then asked how we were doing. At this point, I thought he looked familiar, and it turns out he was a vendor at the recent Rally in Yuma this past March.

Wow! RV’ing is really a small world!

Once I started fueling up, I still had problems, or rather, the pump did. It kept crashing, and then they would have to reboot it. Who knew gas pumps could crash?

I put in 127 gallons of diesel for a total of $525.00. But I probably won’t need diesel again until next month after we leave the Yosemite area, heading for northern California.

We finally pulled out of the station about 10:30. As we pulled out on the highway, Jan looked over and said “This feels good”. We’ve been parked for 3 weeks and it’s good to be back on the road.

The 150 mile trip took us through some spectacular scenery, and though there were a couple of hairpin turns, the roads were good and the drive was easy. There were a couple of long, slow climbs, but our rig held its own on the hills.

Show Low Trip 1

Starting at about 3200 ft. in Camp Verde, we climbed to over 7500 ft., before easing down into Show Low at about 6400 ft..

Show Low Trip 2

We pulled into the Elk’s Lodge about 2pm, and after checking in and getting set up, we headed out to have a late lunch at Native New Yorker, an Arizona chain we ate at last year and really enjoyed. They have potato skins, sandwiches, calzones, pizza, chicken wings, and chicken tenders (They call them ‘strippers’, and I got really excited when I saw the sign ‘Today is Stripper Wednesday’), and it’s all good.

Getting back to our rig, a little later I got the sat dish set up, and we finished up our day watching TV.


April 20, 2013

Our Grandson Landon, the Music Critic . . .

Brandi said that the other night she was in bed with Landon watching one of his favorite shows and singing along with the theme song. Landon reached over, put his hand over Brandi’s mouth, and said, “Calm down, Mommy!”

Out of the mouth of babes, so to speak.

They’re making more progress on Brandi and Lowell’s new house. The first coat of paint is on the walls and some of the kitchen cabinets are installed.

LandonNewHouse6


We spent most of the day waiting for the DirecTV guy to get here with our new HD DVR. He was supposed to be here between 8 and 12, but didn’t make it until almost 2 because he got hung up at another job.

We upgraded to an HD DVR, but not for the HD service.

Winegard Carryout

Our Winegard Carryout Satellite Antenna doesn’t work on HD, but since it was free, we wanted to upgrade to the HD model because it holds so many more hours of video, over 400 hours compared to our old R-16 which only held about 70. Plus I can plug in an external HD that will allow it to hold over 1600 hours. Neat.

But we did run into a problem in setting it up. Although the DVR will work just fine on SD channels, it can only be activated while connected to an HD-capable antenna. So he had to take it back to his shop, hook it up to his HD antenna and activate it, and then bring it back here.

Which of course made him late for his next appointment, so I couldn’t complain about him being late for mine.

But finally about 4pm it was up and working. Now we just have to go back and reprogram it for all the shows we want to record.


For dinner, we had the leftover pizza from our visit to Organ Stop Pizza the other night. Still really good and very cheesy.

About 6:45 Jan and I headed out for our walk. We did about 1.25 miles before calling it a day, using RunKeeper to keep track of our time. It’s nice to see that we keep picking up our time a little bit every walk.


If you’re a history buff, I’ve been reading a really good book that you might be interested in. It’s called The Battles that Changed History and is an excellent read. It covers 16 battles from Alexander the Great against the Persians, through Jeanne d’Arc, and ending with the Battles of Vicksburg and Midway.

One of my favorite of literary subjects is Alternative History, where one historical event unfolds differently, and changes things afterward. One famous turning point used is Lee’s Lost Orders.

A copy of the orders, detailing Lee’s battle plans for what became known as the Battle of Antietam, was lost by a Confederate courier and recovered by a Union corporal. This led to McClellan being able to blunt Lee’s attack and force him back out of Union territory. Although not really a Union victory, Lincoln used it to justify his issuing the Emancipation Proclamation which discouraged Britain and France from recognizing the Confederacy.

In Harry Turtledove’s How Few Remain, the first book in a 14 book series, the Lost Orders are not found by the Union, the Battle of Antietam is not fought, the Emancipation Proclamation is not issued, Britain and France come in on the side of the South, and the Confederacy wins its independence. Of course, he takes a whole book to tell you this.

Even a luminary such as Winston Churchill wrote a ‘counterfactual’ as he called it, detailing how Lee won at Gettysburg, thus changing the course of the Civil War.

Sorry. It seems like I took the long way around to get back to talking about “The Battles that Changed History”, but the battles described here are perfect examples of where a small change could have major consequences on history.

Check it out.


April 20, 2014

Easter Party . . .

Jan and I left the rig about 10 am, heading down to Katy for Brandi’s big Easter Party.

Earlier in the morning, Chris posted this Easter photo of our granddaughter Miss Piper. Looks like she’s about 5 or so. A cutie then, and a cutie now.

Piper at Easter

Brandi had done a really great job on the several table settings, staying with the Easter theme.

Easter Table Setting 1

Easter Table Setting 2

And our son Chris came with this really neat ‘Peep’ Cake. And it tasted great too.

Peep Cake

We ended up with about 25 friends and family, and probably enough food for a couple of dozen more.

Easter LivingRoom 1

And of course, everyone had fun catching up since last year.

Easter LivingRoom 2

Later in the afternoon, the Easter Egg Hunt was on.

Easter Egg Hunt 1

Easter Egg Hunt 2

And then Landon got to sort through all his loot.

Easter Egg Hunt Spoils


There were some packages waiting for me at Brandi’s, and I think this time I finally got the correct shear pins for our slide. At least they look like they’re the right size.

Shear Pins 1034

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to install it (I got two spares) before we leave here tomorrow morning, but I’ll take care of it before we leave Colorado River.

The other thing I got in the mail was my new Square credit card reader for my phone. If you’ve been using one of these, you need to go online and request a new one. Your present one will not work after June 1st.

Tomorrow morning we’ll make the 120 mile trip back to the Colorado River TT park for a couple of weeks before finally heading north to Goshen, IN for the 54th Escapade starting May 12th.


April 20, 2015

Who’s Watching You?

It was nice to be able to sleep in this morning and not have to get up at 6am like yesterday. But back to work. So after our coffee this morning, I went back to work on my magnetic shades.

Parked where we are, we’re facing due west so we were going to need the solar shades when the temps start hitting 90 next week. So I cut slits in the hem of the two front screens so I could tuck additional magnets into place. I then sealed the slits with a small piece of Gorilla Tape.

Since I’m still in beta test on this, and haven’t fastened the magnets to the inside yet, Jan stuck the magnets on by hand as I put the shades in place outside. The extra magnets seemed to make the screens much more secure, so we’ll see how they hold up over the next few days.

After a quiet afternoon, we left the rig about 4pm,  heading out to have dinner at the Boulder Station Casino right up the road. As I was locking the door, I looked up at the noise of a jetliner passing overhead. But also overhead, about 100 yards away and about 200 feet up, I saw this. Grabbing my Panasonic camera from inside I got these photos.

Phantom Drone 1

Phantom Drone 2

Before I zoomed in, I thought it was probably a DJI Phantom, and so it was.

You can buy one with all the bells and whistles here on Amazon for only $1175.00

Phantom Drone Amazon

DJI Phantom 2 Vision+ V3.0 Quadcopter with Gimbal-Stabilized 14MP, 1080p Camera

One thing that was kind of curious is that as I was snapping photos, I could tell the quadcopter was slowly rotating. When it got to a point where the camera seemed to be pointing in my direction, it suddenly started moving away from me at a pretty quick pace.

As Jan said, “Coincidence? I think not.”

Who knows?

We got to the Buffet restaurant at the Casino a little before 4:30, apparently just ahead of the rush. We only waited a few minutes for a table, but by the time I got back to our table from the buffet, the line was out around the door. Great timing!

After a really good meal for only $10 each (cheaper than Golden Corral), we drove out on Desert Inn Dr. to check out a couple of possible places to fill up with diesel when we leave here in two weeks. Luckily for us, the two places with the cheapest diesel prices are right down the road for us, and right on our way out of town. And there’s plenty of room to get the rig in and out.

Neat!


April 20, 2016

WD 1 TB Hard Drive . . . R.I.P.

When I got up this morning, I was welcomed by a black & white screen on the computer, but worse was what it said.

Can Not Find Boot Device:

Please Insert Bootable Media

Crap!

Translated, that means it can’t find the hard drive.

And since I’m pretty sure it didn’t run off and hide, that means it’s died.

Crap!

Jan said she was online this morning, and about 7:40 she tried to go to another website and the computer froze. And when she rebooted, she got the B&W screen. So I turned it off to let it cool down.

Luckily I did a full backup less than a week ago, so I’m pretty good there. But first I needed to get a working desktop PC going again. I’ve got the laptop, so I got it out so we could get online for the day.

Normally the laptop only gets used on travel days for our Delorme GPS map program and Silverleaf engine display. In fact the last time I used it like this was last year on our gate guarding gig

While I was online checking email, I was thinking about what I wanted to do. I had a new 3 TB hard drive that I bought a while back for a client project that didn’t pan out, so I could put the new HD back in it. Or I could put the new HD in a newer computer that I had stowed away.

The only problem is that the newer one is a full-size desktop model, while the one that died is a mini-desktop unit that sits under the monitor. But since the full-size one was newer and faster, that’s the one I decided to go with.

Digging out the computer and the HD, I put the two together and started to install Win7. I decided to try out the Win7 install on a USB drive that I bought a while back.

Win 7 USB_thumb[7]

Win7 on USB

I got this back last December, but checking on Amazon tonight, it’s no longer available, but it allows you to quickly install a new copy of Win7. Of course, you still need a Microsoft serial number, but I can reuse the old one from the sticker on the side of the case.

The install went very quickly with no major hiccups, and about 45 minutes later I was downloading and installing the necessary drivers and apps. At this point, I put it aside for dinner.

Next, I started downloading and installing the programs that I wanted – Chrome, LibreOffice, Open Live Writer, Total Commander, etc. These will get me back online, and then in the next day or so I’ll hook up my backup drive and transfer the rest over,

But I also may be able to recover some of the last week’s data that didn’t get backed up. When I turned the computer back on, it actually booted up and ran – for about 10 minutes, and then it locked up. So the problem was heat-related. Which means that I’ll probably be able to get some data off using the freezer trick

You do this by putting the drive in a zip-lock bag and leaving it in the freezer for a couple of hours. Then you take it out and hook it up as quickly as possible, and then copy data off as quickly as possible. This works better if you make a list ahead of time of the most important stuff you need.

Tomorrow we’re having dinner with Dennis and Carol Hill at the Fish Pond Restaurant, and we’re really looking forward to it.


April 20, 2017

Not The Help I Was Looking For . . .

Another nice quiet morning. Jan read and I worked on some web stuff before finishing up some rig repairs.

Recently I’ve seen some discussions online about Passport America, both pro and con. Personally, I can’t recommend it more.

We’ve been Passport America users since we first started RV’ing and it’s saved us $1000’s over the last nine years. In fact it’s already saved us $280 with our two-week stay at Santa Fe RV Park in Apache Junction a few weeks ago, and next month it will save us over $315 for a two-week stay at a very nice park north of Rapid City, SD.

Yes, some parks only allow 1 to 3 days, sometimes not on weekends, or during peak times. For example, the park in Rapid City doesn’t take PA the week before Sturgis and the week after. Otherwise, it’s unlimited.

We’ve even used PA as our outweek at Thousand Trails and Encore parks. Back in 2013 we spent a month at the Countryside RV Park in Apache Junction. We stayed for two weeks at $3 a night under our TT membership, one week under PA, and then another week under TT.

The funny thing was we found that different memberships are allotted different spaces, so when we switched over to PA for a week, we had to move the RV one space to the left, and then back one space to the right when the week was up.

The other complaint is that some of the parks are not the best. For that, I use RVParkReviews.com to check them out, as well as Google Maps Satellite View and Street View.

I don’t have any parks scheduled after Rapid City for our trip back to Houston, but I’m sure I’ll find a bunch more PA parks along the way.

A little after 3pm Jan and I headed out, first for a scenic trip down to Boulder City and Lake Mead to drive around a bit through Old Boulder City and check out the lake.

Lake Mead 2017

Coming back into Henderson, we detoured down I-215W to have dinner at Claim Jumper’s, another of our favorite steak places. Claim Jumper is part of Tilman Fertitta’s Landry’s Restaurants chain. Elsewhere in the country, his Saltgrass Steakhouse is similar in menu.

We both started out with their upgrade salads, with Jan getting the California Citrus Salad, with Mandarin oranges, pecans, apples, cranberries, avocado, resins, green onions, and Bleu Cheese crumbles.

Claim Jumper Salad

I got my favorite Wedge Salad with a wedge of lettuce, bacon, tomatoes, red onions, a Bleu Cheese Vinaigrette and Bleu Cheese crumbles.

Claim Jumper Wedge Salad

Then it was on to our steaks, Jan’s New York Sirloin,

Claim Jumper Jan Steak

and my usual Ribeye.

Claim Jumper RibeyeSteak

Both really, really good steaks.

As if we weren’t full enough, we split an order of their Berry Butter Cake.

Claim Jumper Berry Butter Cake

Made with a mini-Bundt cake, butter cream frosting, fresh strawberries, fresh raspberries, and powdered sugar, and served warm with ice cream, it was really delicious.

We’ve never been disappointed by a meal at Claim Jumper’s.

I’ve been a member of Good Sam’s Platinum Roadside Assistance for years, and one of the perks of the Platinum membership is being able to call an RV Tech if you have a question. But all the time I had the membership I’ve never called, so I didn’t know the phone number.

So I went to the Good Sam website and found this brochure for the Platinum Service.

http://images.goodsam.com/goodsamroadside.com/pdf/2017/Platinum%20MBB%20web.pdf

And on the second page, it gives you this phone number.

GS Platnium Tech Help Phone

But when you call that number, you get a sex talk line, and not a fun one for me, but one asking if you girls want to talk with hot guys.

Not the help I was looking for.


April 20, 2018

They Don’t Make ‘Em Like They Used To . . .

The replacement fuses for the electrolysis machine came in today, so I installed them and turned it on. And it stayed on and worked with no problems.

But after I buttoned it up, it didn’t. So I took it back apart, and now it worked fine again. WTH?

Clareblend MiniBlend

But a little investigation showed the problem. Because of the way two of the cables were laced together, they pulled another cable partway off its socket. And then when you opened the case back up it seated back into place. So I retied the cables and the problem was solved. And after thoroughly testing out the unit it was shipped to a customer this afternoon.

When I got home about 4:15 we turned right back around and headed back over to the Whataburger at Victory Lakes for dinner, i.e. Whataburger Jr’s, hot and juicy. One nice is that Whataburger has free drinks for seniors. Sometimes you have to ask, but usually, like today, they volunteer. Nice.

Then it was across the parking lot to the Lowe’s to take back some of the project parts that I got yesterday that didn’t work out, and replace them with some different ones. Hopefully, these will work out better. I’ve still got one part coming in from Amazon next week so I can finish it and up and then tell you about it.

Next, it was right next door to the WalMart for a few things that we found we needed. Finally heading back toward the rig we made a gas stop at the HEB along the way, before getting home a little before 7pm.

One thing I’ve noticed in the last few years is that replacement parts we’ve bought for the rig don’t seem to last nearly as long as the original ones.

After our blowout in May 2015 both our passenger side outside mirror and our retractable door step were replaced due to damage. The step died about a year ago, and this past Sunday I noticed that my passenger side mirror no longer works. So that’s another thing to fix.

And both of our original Fantastic Vent Fans worked for over 15 years before I needed to replace the motors/gearbox. The replacements only lasted about 3 years before I had to replace them again. And that’s maybe why FF no longer gives a lifetime warranty. Strange how that works out.

On the other hand, our Sharp microwave, our Dometic NDR-1292 fridge (which has never had a recall), our Attwood water heater, our Coleman rooftop air, and our Splendide washer/dryer, all 19 years old, are all still hanging in there. Of course, most of these I’ve had to patch now and then. But I could fix them.

The newer stuff, not so much.


April 20, 2019

I Tried, I Really Did . . .

But I couldn’t get my phone to sync up with my laptop, so I have no photos to post.

About 10:30am, Jan and I headed up to Brandi’s in Katy to spend Easter weekend, our last time together until the end of May.

Jan made her world-famous Sausage Balls, while I went with Lowell to get the dogs washed at a nearby do-it-yourself doggie wash. I dog-sat with one of them in the car while Lowell did the first one and the other. Otherwise the one left in the car by himself gets jealous and creates havoc.

Normally Lowell takes one from home and then comes back and takes the other one, so this just saved him a trip.

Brandi 8

Tomorrow we’re having a whole horde of folks over for a combo Easter dinner/pool party, with at least two dozen or more people here.

Should be fun


April 20, 2020

No, but possibly, maybe . . .

Well, I had my WuFlu antibody test this morning, and the results are No, but Possibly, Maybe.

Well, that was helpful.

My test was negative, but had a couple of side indicators that said kind of yes. The problems are apparently several.

The length of time since I was sick, almost two months in my case, and which of the 8-10 different strains I had. Different strains leave different levels of antibodies, which also explains why there have been reports of some people catching the WuFlu more than once.

Plus the other possibility is that the tests are actually defective.

UK government admits Covid-19 antibody tests don’t work.


April 20, 2021

King Food and Sous Vide . . .

We sat outside this morning with our coffee, enjoying the nice weather and talking about upcoming events. Then I took care of some maintenance chores like changing out a water hose with a pinhole leak, and getting a bucket of sand so I could relevel and set the pavers that I put in between the rig door and the patio area.

Then it was out and about for lunch and errands, with the lunch stop being long-time favorite King Food for Hot & Sour Soup and Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce with Jalapenos.

King Food Chcken Garlic 4

Then after a quick stop at WalMart for some landscape items, we filled up with gas at the Sam’s next door. Seems like gas prices have steadied at about 90 cents over what it was in November. Hopefully, it won’t start taking off again.

Then coming home, we made an HEB stop for a few things, one of them being a Styrofoam cooler to experiment with setting it up as a Sous Vide cooker enclosure.

Then of course we had to make a Cowboy Coffee stop so we would have another excuse to set out on the patio some more. Always nice.

I had seen Styrofoam coolers used as Sous Vide cookers on the Internet, but I was curious about how the Styrofoam would stand up to the hotter temps used for slow cooking ribs, etc., i.e. 160° or so.

So I cut a hole in the cooler lid just large enough to hold my Inkbird Sous Vide Cooker and gave it a try.

Styrofoam Sous Vide Cooker 1

I filled the cooler with tap water to the high water mark on the cooker, set it for 160°, and turned it on.

It took about 55 minutes to bring the 69° tap water up to 160, and then I let it run for about an hour. At that point, I turned it off, let it cool down a bit, and then dumped the water out in the sink.

And when I checked out the inside of the cooler I found no indication of too much heat, and the outside of the cooler never even became warm. So I guess we’re good to go for Ribeye’s next weekend. Maybe.

It will take a little juggling, because I like my steaks Medium-Rare and Jan likes hers between Medium and Medium-Well. So what I plan to do is to do them Medium-Rare in the cooker, and then take Jan’s out and put it on the gas grill for a bit to bring it up to Medium-Medium-Well. Then I’ll take mine out when hers is almost done and put it on the grill for a few minutes too.

The Sous Vide cooker is supposed to be able to hold steaks at a certain temp for a while without overcooking, so I’ll see how that works out.

And tomorrow’s another day.


April 20, 2022

Playing Hooky . . .

I played hooky from work today.

Sometime during the night I rolled over and got a VERY sharp pain in my lower back and right hip. And when I got up about 8am, I was still having a lot of pain when I moved.

But just because I was home didn’t mean I wasn’t working. I continued with my usual online stuff, emailing out invoices, processing PayPal payments, and sending out our Bank Wire Transfer info to customers making large purchases, >$1000.


April 20, 2023

It was a R.U.D.

We were out the the door and on our way up to Conroe by about 9:45 this morning, to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt for our monthly lunch get-together.

And just like last month, we were meeting at La Pizca, a newish Mexican restaurant there. We were back again because it was so good last time.

This time, not so much.

Both Ed and Debi’s orders were not correct, with Ed’s so wrong they gave him another dinner to take home as a replacement. Debi’s was also wrong, but they brought out replacements.

Jan said her Chile Relleno was so tough that she had trouble even cutting it.

My Chicken Tortilla Soup was OK, but not nearly as good as last time, and my side of ‘Grilled Veggies’ that I ordered consisted of a cup of grilled onions.

Well, onions are a vegetable, I guess.

When we asked our waiter why all the screwups, he admitted the cook was new, didn’t know the menu very well, only spoke Spanish, and had trouble reading the tickets since he (the waiter) only wrote in English.

We told him they needed a new cook, or at least the old one they had last month.

RV Group Ed & Debi La Pizca 20230420

Next month, it’s obviously going to be somewhere else, in this case, the Outback Steakhouse in The Woodlands.

The Starship Heavy launch today got off to a good start, lifting clear of the pad and heading out. Making it through MaxQ (Throttle Back and then Back up) when then about 23 miles up, going over 1000mph, it experienced what’s known in the business as a R.U.D., a Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly.

The problem occurred about the time of MECO (Main Engine Cut Off) and Stage Separation. The 33 engines didn’t shut off and the stages didn’t separate.

Then about 4:00 into the flight, it all went BOOM! Actually, I think it was deliberately destroyed. But we’ll know more in the next few days.

But SpaceX considers the test a success since it didn’t blow up on the pad and made it that far. After all, Musk said he thought this first flight only had a 50% chance of success, and both the booster and the Starship were going to crash into the ocean, even if the flight had been a complete success.

Here’s a video of the launch and RUD, starting about 40 seconds before liftoff.

It will be interesting to see how long before the next attempt.


April 20, 2024

Party!

Lunch today was at Las Rameriz Mexican, our first visit in a while. Always delicious

Then it was on up the feeder for our weekly Wal-Mart visit, then home.

Recently, after I got tired of the dish towels we were using that would not really pick up water if you wiped the counter with one, I ordered these from Amazon.

Cotton Terry Cloth Dish Towels

Where the original ones would just spread the water into a fine film, these new ones get it all.

We’ve been waiting for the new nearby Big Horn BBQ to open. Originally we had heard this past Wednesday the 17th, but that came and went. So now we’ve heard next week, or even June.

It’s a combination BBQ restaurant, meat market, convenience store, gift shop, and gas station. We ate at the one over in Pearland a couple of months ago, and it was pretty good.

It’s just sitting there, looking all ready to go, so I’m wondering if they’re just waiting for their final inspection before they can open. And from what we’ve heard, that can take a month or more. So they just have to sit there and wait for the inspector to show up.

Monday afternoon, I put my 2023 taxes in the mail via a Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope on its way to the IRS office in Austin. And as expected, it arrived in Austin the next day.

However, since then, it’s been moving from USPS facility to USPS facility, while still in Austin. Originally supposed to be delivered on Wednesday, it’s still in limbo.

Jan wanted to be sure that I passed on how much she likes her new Echo Dot with the Clock. And she discovered a new neat feature last night.

She normally goes to bed before me, and used her old Dot to play music, specifically ‘IHeart Music From The 50’s’. And it seems this latest version scrolls the song title and singer across the clock display at the beginning of each new song.

Our daughter Brandi sent over this photo of Landon (on the right) and his friend Adam heading off to an 8th Grade school party.

Brandi said she tried to comb his hair and tuck his shirt in, but he said he didn’t want to look too DRESSY!