Remember, to access our blog links,
Right-Click on The Link and Select ‘Open in New Tab’
Jan and I spent the morning resting up and slowly unpacking our 3 suitcases. I did remember to retrieve the 3 Samsung SmartTag2’s that I had secreted away in the 2 suitcases we borrowed from Brandi. And I seemed to have done a really good job hiding the one in the big suitcase, because it took me a while to find it, even though I had it chirping to help me.
But it had wormed its way down in the lining and underneath the metal frame.
I really like the new version of these SmartTag2’s. They’re easy to set up, and the batteries last for ~500 days.
I also got a set of these SmartTag2 silicon tag covers with rings to
to hold them. We use one of these to hang a tag from Karma’s collar in case she gets out and wanders off.
Later in the afternoon, Jan and I headed up to the Kelley’s Country Cooking in League City for lunch. We were happy to find Staci, a long-time server friend of ours who used to work at the Denny’s down in our area.
Jan got her usual Grilled Fish,
with the delicious veggie sides.
Though I usually get the Country Fried Chicken Breast, this time I went with the Hamburger Steak with Grilled Onions.
Really good, though I’m not sure how I ended up with 4 veggies instead of the normal 3, but I won’t complain. And I had about half to bring home for later.
Getting back home, we napped and then finished unpacking and putting things away.
Over the next few blogs, I’ll have some more thoughts about our cruise.
Stay tuned.
* * * * *
Forty six years ago today, December 17, 1978, Jan, myself, our 10 year old son Chris, and our 5 year old daughter Brandi arrived in Houston, TX for the next big adventure in our lives.
For the previous two years, I had been the Chief Electronics Engineer over Alabama and Georgia for Storer Cable TV in Montgomery, AL, at the time one of the largest cable TV companies in the country. Later, in the mid 90’s, it was sold off and split up between Comcast and TCI.
I also had a part-time job as a Broadcast Engineer and late-night radio show host at a local radio/TV station. So I stayed busy.
Although I occasionally helped troubleshoot problems out in the field, the ‘Electronics’ part of my title meant that I maintained all of the headend electronics equipment, but especially the satellite system.
At that time there was only one satellite downlinking TV channels for cable systems. RCA Satcom 1 only had 12 channels to start with, though it later went to dual-polarization, with 24 channels.
Among the original 12 were HBO, TBS, WGN, MSG (Madison Square Gardens), ETWN (Eternal Word), PTL (Praise The Lord), and a few others that I’ve long forgotten. It was only after the second 12 channels were added that the whole satellite thing really took off.
At that time you didn’t receive satellite channels on some dinky little 18” DirecTV dish. No, it required a 10-meter (33 feet) antenna like one of these.
And at the time the entire installation was over $100,000. And that’s in 1977 dollars!
In addition to the satellite receiver installation, there was also a microwave system that linked the satellite installation up in Prattville about 15 miles to the northwest, with the offices in Montgomery. It was enough to keep me entertained. But I always had another dream.
My father worked for Boeing on the Apollo program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, and Jan’s father worked for Rocketdyne at Cape Kennedy. So when I was offered a job working on the Space Shuttle Program at Johnson Space Center in Houston, I jumped on it.
Although I accepted the job in October when they flew me out to Houston to interview, I told them I didn’t want to start until the Christmas vacation time frame to make it easier for Chris and Brandi to switch schools.
One thing nice about the move was that they moved us. So while the movers were packing us up on Thursday and Friday, I was wrapping up things at Storer, with Friday the 15th of December being my last day. And later that afternoon we were on our way to Houston, with Jan and I driving our two cars, and my parents in theirs.
After spending the night along the way we finally got into Houston very early on Sunday morning, the 17th. It took a lot longer than it does now because large parts of I-10 were still under construction. But the reason for all the rush was the fact that I was supposed to start work at NASA the next day, the 18th.
Luckily for us, my job with the DOD, moving around to different airbases in the late 60’s – early 70’s, gave us a lot of experience coming into a town and quickly finding a place to rent. And by later that afternoon Jan and my mother had found us a house in the old part of Heritage Park.
While we could have stayed in the hotel for a couple of more days and taken our time, we had another reason to rush. The moving van with all our furniture was due the next day, and if they couldn’t deliver it as scheduled, then it would have to go into storage. And WE would have to pay the unloading, storage, and reloading fees.
So that’s how we all became Texans. As they say, “We weren’t born here, but we got here as quickly as we could.”
And so it began.
Thought For The Day:
Sound familiar, Anyone? Anyone?
“If the present tries to sit in judgment on the past, it will lose the future.” – Winston Churchill
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
December 17, 2011
Chip off the Old Block . . .
First off, more Landon pics.
This is his daycare photo,
and this is Brandi and Lowell’s Christmas Card this year.
About 11:15 Jan and I headed into downtown Houston, actually the Houston Heights area. Jan wanted to visit Penzey’s Spices and we wanted to have lunch at a place our son-in-law had recommended, Carter & Cooley Deli.
Right down the street from Penzey’s, it was a great recommendation. Jan had the Turkey Rueben, and I had a Cuban, with a cup of chili. Very good. I think we’ve found our new favorite deli.
Back at Penzey’s, Jan found the bottle of pure vanilla extract to replace the one that fell out of the pantry and broke on a recent travel day before we got back to Houston. She also wanted to pick up some cocoa powder for Christmas cookie baking.
Heading back to the Clear Lake area we stopped off at Home Depot, before ending up at Brandi and Lowell’s. We (and by we, I mean Jan) were going to babysit Landon while Brandi and Lowell take Lowell’s sister Sherry out for her birthday dinner.
Happy Birthday, Sherry!
While they were out, we took Landon to Barcenas for dinner. And this is where we found out that Landon really takes after his PaPa (me).
It takes out he really likes spicy salsa. We were giving Landon plain chips while we were waiting for our food, and Landon, watching us dip our chips in the salsa, started trying to reach the salsa with his chip.
So I dipped his chip in a little salsa and handed it back to him. He put it in his mouth and his eyes lit up. He started waving the chip for more. A little later I dipped a couple of the fries that came with his chicken tenders into the salsa instead of ketchup, and he wanted more.
I didn’t give him a lot because I wasn’t sure how his tummy would handle it. Might make for some interesting diapers!
“Holy smoke. There’s a fire over there!” (Sizzling Fajitas)
When we all got back home we waited outside for the fire truck Santa to come by. Every year the Forest Bend Volunteer Fire Department escorts Santa around the subdivision for the kids. The fire trucks are decorated with Christmas lights and sounding their horns and sirens, and are a big hit with the kids. And a big hit with Landon, too. He was fascinated with all the lights and noise.
We had a great time, but after a long day, it was good to finally get home.
December 17, 2012
A Great View . . .
After our morning walk, Jan and I sat out by the rig and just enjoyed the view, and the wildlife.
We had a Great White Egret,
a feeder full of Monk Parakeets,
and a hungry pelican looking for breakfast.
While we were walking around the park, a lady stopped and introduced herself as Lillis Palmer. She said our mutual friend Chris Yust had told her we were here and described our rig well enough that she was able to track us down.
Although she had just finished her walk she ended up joining us for the rest of ours. Then we got to meet her husband Dick as he was leaving the park on some errands. We ended up having a good talk about our RV lives and mutual friends. A very nice lady.
About 1:30 I headed out on some errands myself. My first stop was the new CVS where last night I had uploaded the Christmas cards to be printed, since the first one had printer problems. When I mentioned it, they gave me a 25% discount on the cards. Nice!
Then it was on to Fry’s Electronics to check out some new computers for a client. The first thing I noticed is that it’s getting harder to find anything with Windows 7 on it. But I did find a couple of possibilities that I’ll run by my client.
Then after a quick stop at the bank, I headed over to the house to check the mail, and then it was back to the rig.
Finally, it was off to McDonald’s for dinner, since I was craving a McRib, before they go away again.
December 17, 2013
Eats, Drinks, and Scenic Views . . .
About 1pm Jan and I headed out for our 2nd movie day. This time we were going to see Thor: The Dark World. Luckily I have a beautiful wife who likes movies like this just about as much as I do. I mean, two sci-fi movies in two days.
We decided to see the 3D version since, 1) the time worked better for us, and 2) the last few 3D movies we’ve seen have been very well done. Something is not jumping out of the screen every 10 seconds like in the past and you don’t spend the entire time dodging arrows and spears.
Before the movie started, we had the usual trailers, including a couple that looked really good. The first one, an extra long one, was for the next Captain America film coming out this summer. Really looks good.
The second was a completely different genre. Starring George Clooney, Matt Damon, John Goodman, and Bill Murray, it tells the true story (well, as ‘true’ as any movie tells a true story. (Check out “The Butler”) of a group of art experts during WWII who were sent to the front lines to rescue artwork stolen by the Nazis. Looks really good and is now on our “Must See” list.
After a really enjoyable movie, we headed across the parking lot for a first visit to Twin Peaks, a regional restaurant chain that’s growing fast.
Their motto is “Eats, Drinks, and Scenic Views”.
Here’s the Eats, a really great Poblano Chipotle Chicken Sandwich on a Brioche bun.
And the Drinks, really good Iced Tea.
And here’s one of the ‘Scenic Views”. This is our waitress, Lauren. And there’s brains behind the beauty. She’s in college studying to be an engineer.
And now you know why the place is called “Twin Peaks”.
I mean, what’d you think they were going to call it, ‘Hooters’?
That would just be tacky.
As far as Lauren working here and studying to be an engineer, we found something like this before when I was working in Tech Services at a local University. One night we went to Hooters and ran into two students working there that I knew. One of them was finishing up her Masters in Business (MBA and the other one was getting ready to take her CPA exam. So, not all of them are ‘Dumb Blondes”.
Twin Peaks, along with Hooters, Bone Daddy’s, and Bombshells, is one of a growing number of “Breastaurants”, as they’re known in the industry. We both really like Hooters, but weren’t really impressed with the food at Bone Daddy’s when we ate there earlier this year, but Twin Peaks is really good. Jan said her “Chicken Ranch Sandwich” is possibly the best chicken sandwich she’s ever eaten. We’ll definitely go back.
On the way home we were greeted by a beautiful full moon. Just gorgeous.
And wrapping up the blog, here’s the latest fashion accessory for the working man.
December 17, 2014
Too Many Margaret’s . . .
Since it was spitting rain for a good part of the day, Jan and I stayed inside and enjoyed our coffee and muffins in dry comfort.
Later in the morning, I went online to the Post Office website to print out shipping labels for the last of our presents to be shipped out. About 2pm I drove into Columbus to drop them off at the PO. Then it was on into town to the HEB to pick up a couple of things before I headed back to the rig.
On the way back I checked out the Colorado County Oil facility. I’d passed it a number of times, but thought that this time I’d check it out. The $2.64 price for diesel was the lowest I’ve seen anywhere, or even heard about.
It looked like it was a co-op place, but I wanted to check so I stopped in on the way home. I wanted to be sure the diesel pump was open to anyone, and also to be sure this price wasn’t a ‘loss leader’ off-road diesel price. Turns out it is open to the public, and that is the real price. So I’ll plan on stopping there to fill up when we leave here next Wednesday to go back to Lake Conroe, or earlier if we get a call from Galveston Bay RV before then.
About 4pm we tagged up with Tom and Lily Christian and headed up to Ellinger for dinner at Peter’s BBQ. It was their first time, but lucky for us, they seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.
It started sprinkling again just as we got there, and a little bit later Jan and I were looking out the window at US71 when a car came by doing about 60, skidding backwards as he did several 360’s down the highway. Figure he tried to brake on the wet pavement and skidded. Kept waiting for the big ‘crash’ sound, but never heard anything, so I guess he was all right. The road is five lanes wide there so I guess that helped. Lucky for him because about 30 seconds later, a gas tanker truck came by in the other direction. Glad they didn’t meet up.
Tom and Lily came over for a while after we went home and we had a nice time, and pumpkin pie, talking about anything and everything. I know Tom has a lot of great stories about his time in the Army.
Brandi sent over some more pics of Landon and Santa. As before Landon is just enthralled with Santa and won’t take his eyes off him.
Landon knows who brings his presents and he’s not taking any chances.
Finally, thanks to the number of you who corrected me that it was Margaret Mitchell who wrote Gone With The Wind, and not Margaret Mead. I certainly knew that, but I can only plead that it was almost 3am when I finished the blog, and that I met Margaret Mead in 1958 in Nashville, TN. My mother and I got to visit with her for a while, and she signed one of her books for me. So when I think of famous ‘Margaret’s’, she’s the first one that comes to mind.
December 17, 2015
No More Choo Choo . . .
When I got up about 11 this morning, I found that Jan had already been out for a walk about 8am, and she wanted to know if I wanted to do another with her. So I started our coffee and got our pumpkin bread ready to toast, and off we went.
It’s been a good while since we walked so we only did a little over .80 miles, around the loops, and then down to the bridge and back to the rig. By then the coffee was done, so we sat outside with it while we waited for the pumpkin bread to toast.
About this time a gentleman walked across the road toward us, and wanted to know if we were ‘Jan and Greg White’?
Our visitor turned out to be Frank Dillon, a blog reader for about the last year and a half. He recognized us from the blog and came over to say Hi.
Now a solo in a BT Cruiser, he and his late wife used to gate guard, and he wanted to know if we wanted his old Mighty Mule Driveway Alarm. Since he’s not gate-guarding any more he was passing it on to us
We all sat around outside for a good while, talking about all the things that RV’ers talk about when they get together for the first time. Somewhere in here our friend Randy dropped by and we set up a date to have dinner at Los Cabos Mexican Restaurant in Columbus tomorrow afternoon.
Unfortunately Frank is leaving tomorrow so he won’t be able to join us.
Later, about 3:15, Jan and I headed into Columbus to drop off some stuff at the P.O, before heading into downtown Columbus to make a stop at the hardware store. I was looking for a new connector to replace the still slightly-leaking one in my shower, as well as some large hooks to use to hold down my truck floor mats. I think I found something to take care of both problems, but we’ll see in the next several days.
Our next stop was around on the town square to visit the A-Train toy train store that a friend had told me about.
Unfortunately, the Choo Choo had left the station and not returned. All that was left inside was a lot of empty counters and trash.
Bummer!
We did drive around the square to check out the beautiful courthouse. Seems almost like every little Texas town has a neat courthouse square.
Getting back to the rig, I got out the last of the Chicken Tortilla Soup to heat up for dinner. To add a little more ‘body’ I added a can of Chili Beans, and chopped up another Serrano chili pepper to add a little more bite.
Still just as good as the first time. Then after we’d finished up, I dropped another package of chicken breast strips into the remaining broth and used this to poach the chicken so Jan will have it ready to fix her King Ranch Chicken while we’re at Lake Conroe next week.
December 17, 2016
A to Z and Turkey Too . . .
Today was a nice sleep-in, lay-about day, while we waited to be whipsawed by the 83° high – 33° low temps today, a 50 degree swing. Then it’s 43° – 29° day tomorrow.
Jan’s finished up with all the cookies she’s been doing, getting ready to pass them out to local friends.
Then after a quiet nap-inclusive afternoon, Jan heated up the Hodgepodge Beef Soup again, which along with toasted Hawaiian Rolls, made for a delicious meal.
Tomorrow of course being Sunday, it’s back to Barth’s for their Turkey and Dressing/Fried Chicken Buffet. Mmmm. Mmmm. Always Good!
Landon started receiving some of his Christmas presents today. Between Brandi and us, we bought him A thru M of the A to Z Mysteries for Kids. Written for 6 – 9 year old’s, they should be right up Landon’s alley.
Often when I buy something from Amazon, I will check out the reviews, and usually make a point of reading the 1 ![wlEmoticon-star[2]](https://ourrvadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/wlEmoticon-star2.png "wlEmoticon-star[2]"){kind=small}
reviews for a good laugh. Here’s one from these kid books.
By Emberon December 25, 2011
I am very fond of mysteries and psychological dramas, and was very disappointed when I read this purchase, as it took me 10 minutes to do so. Somewhere in the listing there should be a word or two about the age appropriateness of the book being offered. (It IS listed under Children’s Books) I may have liked it if I was in 2nd.grade. This experience has caused me to re-consider looking at the Daily Deals.
I guess I should have realized the title indicated a juvenile selection, but I thought of Agatha Christies ABC Murders , not a kid’s book, so took a chance at this one.
Now I know my ABC’s.
Landon, Brandi, Lowell, and friends, Chantelle, Eric, and Maddox Nugent, went on the Pecan Grove Lights Hayride, the same one we took with them last year. Looks like a good time was had by all.
Yesterday, while I was talking on the phone, I looked up at the TV screen and saw Guy on Diner’s, Drive-Ins, and Dives, doing a story on a place we’ve all been, Joe’s Farm Grill, out in Gilbert, AZ, right down the road from Apache Junction.
You can see the episode here. http://joesfarmgrill.com/food-network/
Great place to eat if you’re in the area.
Regular readers will remember my recent articles about the Electoral College and the recent election.
The Electoral College – Why?
The 1960 World Series and the Electoral College
Frederick Douglass, The 3/5 Compromise,
and Our ‘Racist’ Constitution
Posted under Greg’s Musings, with these articles, I talk about the reasoning behind the Electoral College and why the Founding Fathers set things up that way. and more importantly, why the concept is still valid today.
Of course, there’s been a number of calls for the elimination of the Electoral College, but seeing that it’s part of the original Constitution, it would take a new Constitutional Amendment to eliminate it.
Well now we’ve got a novel idea about the Electoral College from an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law. He thinks the Electoral College can just be ignored because it’s, get this, ‘unconstitutional.’
To get to this point he has to talk himself around in circles, pretty much saying that the Founding Fathers shouldn’t have put it in the Constitution, thus it shouldn’t be in the Constitution, therefore it’s ‘unconstitutional.’
Of course, as I said before, I wonder if he would have been writing this article if the results of the election had gone the other way.
Or it could just be that, as a commenter said on a legal blog, an ‘adjunct professor’ is the lowest of the low, just one step above a grad student.
December 17, 2017
Foggy Hockey . . .
Jan and I were out the door about 12:15 this afternoon heading up to the Sugarland Ice Rink to watch Landon’s last hockey for this season.
‘Watch’ however is not really the operative word here since it was so foggy in the rink that it was hard to make out anyone.
I guess due to the recent heavy rains the humidity in the rink area was sky-high making fog over the ice, and further obscuring the Plexiglas windows surrounding the rink.
It also didn’t help things that the rink was in the low 50’s instead of the usual low 60’s. cold enough that you could see your breath. Plus there were some comments made about how cold the toilet seats were. Brrrrr!
But our next stop made up for everything, our usual after-hockey dinner at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood right down the road.
And a meal of Chicken Fried Chicken, Crab Bisque, Shrimp Gumbo, Boudin, and Fried Okra warmed us right up. We spent most of the time talking over our upcoming Christmas Eve and Christmas Day plans.
Looks like Brandi and Lowell will be hosting a total of about 15 people this holiday, including a number from out of town.
In addition, it looks like we’re on for our long-time family tradition of having Christmas Eve dinner at King Food. In the last 25 years or so we’ve only missed it a couple of times. Our most memorable time was the Christmas Eve in 2004 when it started snowing while we were having dinner. By the time we headed home there was a couple of inches on the ground with parts of Brazoria County getting almost 13 inches of the white stuff.
Jan and I plan to have lunch there on Tuesday and let the owner know how many we’ll have coming.
December 17, 2019
Extra Crispy . . .
After a quiet morning Jan and I headed up to Webster for my Dermatology appointment at 2:45pm. Since I had a Squamous Cell Carcinoma removed from my head in 2014. I’ve been extra vigilant in keeping an eye on things.
I’ve even gone through two of what I call the Devil’s Easy Bake Oven procedure, also known as Photo Dynamic Therapy (PDT).
And believe me I don’t want to go through that again. It’s like my head was done Extra Crispy.
However, this time turned out really well. The doctor froze off a couple of suspicious spots, but said everything else looked fine and I could wait to come back in 9 months instead of 6 next time.
Yay!
Next up was lunch at Cheddar’s, a place we really like, but one we haven’t been to in a while. Great meal as usual.
Then it was on down Hwy 3 to the Home Depot on FM646. Jan was looking for some new cleaning brushes, and I wanted to get a 10” x 36” shelf board to set our new TV on.
After that we made our way back to the rig, with a quick stop for lottery tickets for tonight’s $340 Million Mega-Millions drawing.
You can’t win if you don’t play.
Speaking of our new TV, it’s hard to believe how big, bright, sharp, and clear the picture is, especially when we were streaming one of our favorite movies, The Final Countdown, on Prime Video in HD.
Our normal DirecTV signal is in SD, so it does make a difference. Of course our old 40” Samsung was also in HD, but the picture on this new one is much better.
And the new one also has 4K HDR, so I’m really looking forward to checking it out too, though it will be interesting to see if our park WiFi can handle the increased needed bandwidth for 4K.
On the international front, apparently Jan and I really lucked out on our Paris and London visits last May.
Headlines say that protesters in Paris caused a 391 mile traffic jam the other day, and the buses, trains, and the Eiffel Tower were shut down completely.
And in London there were mass protests going on concerning the recent election, also with buses, trains, and many tourist attractions shut down.
We really lucked out.
December 17, 2020
Hot Chowder and Cold Weather . . .
Jan and I decided that today was going to be a fun day, so about 12:30 we headed down toward Galveston. But our first stop was right down FM 1764 at the New England Lobster & Chowder food truck. Yes, a food truck.
With the colder weather coming in, Jan was jonsin’ for some good New England Clam Chowder, and when we DuckDuckGo’d it, the New England Lobster and Chowder food truck showed up on every list.
So we thought we’d check it on our way down to Galveston and try a bowl. And all the lists were right!
We each got a bowl of the Clam Chowder to eat there before heading on down to the Island.
And it was as good as anything we had in New England back in 2009, or in Florida back in 2018. Turns out that a lot of New Englanders have moved down to Florida, so the chowder there is as good as what we had in NE.
Then it was on down to the Island and our real lunch destination, Tortuga’s Mexican Kitchen on the Seawall. Owned by the same company, Tortuga’s is an upscale version of Monterey’s, like we’ve eaten at for years.
As usual we started off with bowls of their Chicken Tortilla Soup, just as good as Monterey’s up in Alvin.
Then so we’d have leftovers for tomorrow, we got the Super Sampler Platter,
with a little bit of everything.
And after a great lunch, we parked along the Seawall for a while, watching the waves and the birds overhead.
Then after about an hour, we headed back toward home, though with a couple of stops along the way.
And ironically, our first stop was once again at the New England Lobster & Chowder food truck. Jan wanted to get a couple of more bowls of Clam Chowder for tomorrow night’s supper.
Then it was on over to Cowboy Coffee for a couple of large Hot Chocolates, made with Ghirardelli chocolate, cream, vanilla, and homemade whipped cream. Jan says it’s ‘Decadent’.
All in all, a really great ‘fun’ day.
December 17, 2021
On The Way . . .
Since Chris/Linda/Piper/Derek won’t be able to be with us during Christmas due to work conflicts, I got all their gifts on the way up to Chris’ in Kingsland this morning. It’s nice to work at a place that ships out daily via UPS. Just plop the box on the scale, enter the address, click the Ship button, and slap the printed-out label on the box, and I was done.
They should be there on Monday.
For more than 30 years it’s been a White family tradition to have Christmas Eve dinner at King Food, our long-time favorite Chinese restaurant. Occasionally it’s just been Jan and I, and other times it’s been the whole Kit N Kaboodle.
But this year I guess it’s just going to be the Kit, with Jan and I, Brandi, Lowell, and Master Landon. They’re coming down here for dinner, and then we’ll follow them back up to Katy to spend the night there for Christmas morning.
Really looking forward to being there.
Amazon is just getting faster and faster since they opened their new La Marque warehouse right down I-45 from us. This morning I ordered something from them about 9:20am, and they said it would be delivered here at the rig between 10am and 3pm. And it showed up at 12:38pm.
Pretty soon I’ll be getting stuff before I even order it.
Before our Branson trip Jan and I were joking about whether or not we’d come back with the WuFlu. I mean, we’d be elbow to elbow with strangers in 1000-2000 seat theaters.
What better way to catch it?
Then Jan mentioned that since we started taking our Quercetin/Zinc/D3 regimen in May 2020, we haven’t even had the sniffles, much less a cold. Which makes sense since Zinc is a standard, well-known treatment for colds. And since the common cold is a Coronavirus, it makes sense.
And even though we’ve been around people who came down with CoVid a few days later, we’ve never come down with it either.
Of course, they say the incubation period for the WuFlu is 2-14 days, I guess we’ve got a few days to go before we’re in the clear.
December 17, 2022
The Great Galveston Light Quest . . .
For breakfast this morning, along with our coffee, we enjoyed some of the delicious home-made cinnamon rolls that my client’s wife gave us on Friday. Really, really good.
Jan and I were on our way south about 3:45 this afternoon on our Great Galveston Light Quest. But our first stop was at our favorite Sunflower Cafe for a late lunch.
We both had the Cuban Sandwich with fries and Cole Slaw, and a side of their Tomato Basil Soup, Jan’s a cup and mine a bowl.
Having never ordered a bowl of soup at Sunflower, I did not realize that their bowls were birdbath-size. Note that the bowl is only slightly smaller than the plate. And even Jan’s cup was a pretty good size, so we both had 1/2 a sandwich, some fries, and soup to bring home for Monday night.
Plus –
Pumpkin and Cream Cheese muffins and cookies from their great in-house bakery.
By the time we were finished eating it was getting dark and we headed out on our Light Quest. And we found a number of really beautiful homes decked out in their Christmas plumage.
This home is not in Galveston, but on FM1764 on the way home.
One problem with taking nighttime photos like this with my Samsung S21 Ultra’s camera is that the lowlight sensitivity is so good that it makes the photos look a lot brighter than what you see with the naked eye.
We’re still not sure how low our Christmas weekend temps will end up. Right now we’re looking at 23° on Thursday night, and 28° on Friday. Anything after that is kind of unsure.
I am going top off our 100 gallon water tank so we can disconnect the shore water hose so it won’t freeze.
December 17, 2023
The Worm Is Back . . .
Or has turned. Your choice.
Lunch today was Ultimate Omelets at Denny’s, our typical Sunday meal.
And once again, Hugo, the cook, did GOOD!
It’s amazing how much filling Hugo can stuff inside 3 eggs.
After getting our fill, we did our weekly HEB stop for more stuff, then gas, and home.
Another nice weekend.
When I started working for NASA in 1978, this was the official logo.
Known as the ‘Worm’, it lasted from 1975 to 1992.
Previously, the logo from NASA’s beginning in 1958 to being replaced by the Worm, was this one.
Known as the ‘Meatball’, it had both its boosters and its critics. Especially when compared to the simplicity of the Worm.
Then in 1992, the new NASA Administrator, Dan Goldin, apparently never a Worm fan, brought the Meatball back. But the Worm never really went away. And since 2020 the Worm and the Meatball both share the spotlight.
How NASA Learned to Love 4 Squirmy Letters
Personally, I’ve always been a Worm fan, even to the NASA hat I have.
And on the subject of NASA.
Forty-five years ago today, December 17, 1978, Jan, myself, our 10-year-old son Chris, and our 5 year old daughter Brandi arrived in Houston, TX for the next big adventure in our lives.
For the previous two years I was the Chief Electronics Engineer over Alabama and Georgia for Storer Cable TV in Montgomery, AL, at the time one of the largest cable TV companies in the country. Later, in the mid 90’s, it was sold off and split up between Comcast and TCI.
Although I occasionally helped troubleshoot problems out in the field, the ‘Electronics’ part of my title meant that I maintained all of the headend electronics equipment, but especially the satellite system.
At that time there was only one satellite downlinking TV channels for cable systems. RCA Satcom 1 only had 12 channels to start with, though it later went to dual polarization, with 24 channels.
Among the original 12 were HBO, TBS, WGN, MSG (Madison Square Gardens), ETWN (Eternal Word), PTL (Praise The Lord), and a few others that I’ve long forgotten. It was only after the second 12 channels were added that the whole satellite thing really took off.
At that time you didn’t receive satellite channels on some dinky little 18” DirecTV dish. No, it required a 10 meter (33 feet) antenna like one of these.
And at the time the entire installation was over $100,000.
In addition to the satellite receiver installation, there was also a microwave system that linked the satellite installation up in Prattville about 15 miles to the northwest, with the offices in Montgomery. It was enough to keep me entertained. But I always had another dream.
My father worked for Boeing on the Apollo program at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, and Jan’s father worked for Rocketdyne at Cape Kennedy. So when I was offered a job working on the Space Shuttle Program at Johnson Space Center in Houston, I jumped on it.
Although I accepted the job in October, I told them I didn’t want to start until the Christmas vacation time frame to make it easier for Chris and Brandi to switch schools.
One thing nice about the move was that they moved us. So while the movers were packing us up on Thursday and Friday, I was wrapping up things at Storer, with Friday the 15th of December being my last day. And later that afternoon we were on our way to Houston, with Jan and I driving our two cars, and my parents in theirs.
After spending the night along the way we finally got into Houston very early on Sunday morning, the 17th. It took a lot longer than it does now because large parts of I-10 were still under construction. But the reason for all the rush was the fact that I was supposed to start work at NASA the next day, the 18th.
Luckily for us, my job with the DOD, moving around to different airbases in the late 60’s – early 70’s, gave us a lot of experience coming into a town and quickly finding a place to rent. And by later that afternoon Jan and my mother had found us a house in the old part of Heritage Park.
While we could have stayed in the hotel for a couple of more days and taken our time, we had another reason to rush. The moving van with all our furniture was due the next day, and if they couldn’t deliver it as scheduled, then it would have to go into storage. And WE would have to pay the unloading, storage, and reloading fees.
So that’s how we all became Texans. As they say, “We weren’t born here, but we got here as quickly as we could.”
