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Wrapping Up Our Cruise . . .
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We woke up to blue skies and fairly calm waters this morning,
much different than yesterday morning. And with much less rocking and rolling.
And looking at Google Maps on my phone showed us closing in on Galveston,
After breakfast at the Windjammer Buffet this morning, I got a White Chocolate Mocha at the Café Latte-tudes and then we sat around and people-watched for a while.
Jan also picked up a couple of Chocolate Croissants for us to have for breakfast tomorrow morning before leaving the ship.
Then around 1pm we were back at the Windjammer for a light lunch, after which I came back to the room while Jan checked out some of the many areas around the ship.
Around 5pm we met up with our tablemates for one last meal together.
Jan and I both started out with Shrimp Cocktails,
before Jan got the Spaghetti Bolognese for the second time, saying it was really good.
I, as well as everyone else at the table, had the Autumn Turkey Dinner. Also really good.
Finishing up, Jan tried out the Black Forest Tart,
Looks like the cherry tried to make a break for it.
Since I like it before, I again got the Warm Apple Cobbler with Ice Cream.
Yumm!
Then toward the end of our meal, Santa Claus showed up for all the kids.
.
I was surprised to find out that Santa has an Indian accent.
Who knew?
And this is the last picture of our group, after which we exchanged numbers to keep in touch.
We had our 3 bags outside our door this evening, before the 10pm deadline, so we don’t have to worry about dragging them off the ship.
We have to be at our departure station at 8:10am tomorrow, which is why we didn’t want to have to worry about getting breakfast first.
Supposedly everyone has to be off the ship by 9am.
Then once I have a handle on the time after we retrieve our luggage, I’ll set up our Uber ride back to Santa Fe, and home.
Thought For The Day:
Some days I may seem cool as a cucumber, but inside I’m like a squirrel in traffic.
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
December 15, 2010
High Winds and Spicy Chicken . . .
Today started out with us trying to keep the coach tied to the ground, or at least it seemed that way. We had a 45-50 mph wind directly from the south. The only redeeming factor was the fact that it was hitting the coach head-on, and not from the side.
But that meant it was very hard to get the coach door open. I had to lean out and put all my weight to hold it open so Jan could get out. And then try not to let the door slam back on me.
Even the birds were hunkered down, and note the angle the bird feeder is hanging. One time I saw it almost horizontal.
Jan and I left the rig (or blew away from) about 1:15, first heading over to the Wendy’s in Dickinson for a lunch of Spicy Chicken Sandwiches. Then it was on up I-45 to Sam’s Club to pick up a prescription.
Next, we went right next door to Wal-Mart for more ‘stuff’. Everyone needs more ‘stuff’ at Christmas time.
Leaving there we stopped off at Brandi’s to pick up some more packages that had come in.
Then, next it was Wells Fargo to get a problem fixed with my new VISA debit card. They messed up the setup and although it would work as a VISA card and as a debit card, it would not work as an ATM card.
Next on our list was a visit to the storeroom, and finally the PO to drop off the last of the Christmas cards.
A busy afternoon.
But finally it was close to 5pm and time to head over to Seabrook to Mario’s to meet Chris and Linda. An extra bonus was Miss Piper showing up with her friend Porter.
After dinner, we got back to the rig about 6:30, and the first thing I had to do was get the satellite dish re-aimed. The high winds had moved the entire mount even though it was staked to the ground. The winds have slacked off so hopefully, it will hold for a while.
December 15, 2011
Thank you, Malcolm . . .
I headed out this morning a little after 11 to take another pass at the AT&T fiasco. My first stop was Fry’s Electronics to pick up a new DSL modem. AT&T Tech Support said that the problem was with the new modem they had just replaced, and wanted my client to buy the replacement.
When I asked if we could get our money back if that didn’t fix the problem. They said No. So I picked one up at Fry’s because I knew that after I showed AT&T that the modem wasn’t the problem, I could return it.
And, getting to the client’s house, I plugged in the new modem and No, that didn’t fix the problem.
Surprise!
So back on the phone to AT&T I went. And lo and behold, I found Malcolm. Malcolm may be the only person at AT&T with any skills or common sense.
More importantly, he actually listened to what I was saying. I had asked last week if this DSL account was still set up to use static IP’s. I was told they no longer had residential accounts with static IP’s.
Static IP’s date back to the days before home routers were common. IP addresses are those strings of numbers you occasionally see on the Internet like 192.168.1.254. Every computer on the Internet has a different unique number. It’s like your computer’s phone number.
If you wanted to have more than one computer on your DSL line before routers, each computer was given a static IP address from the phone company. I knew this account was originally set up with static IP’s, and I knew that could cause problems if they didn’t realize that.
But when I mentioned this again to Malcolm, he actually looked it up, and found it was a ‘legacy’ account and it was still set up for static IP’s. Once we knew this, AT&T configured things correctly on their end, and in 5 minutes I had Internet again.
Well, 5 minutes and 6 hours, anyway.
I’m really glad that’s done.
About 5pm this afternoon we picked up Dennis and Kathy Brophey and headed up to Seabrook to Tookie’s for dinner. They had seen my blog comments about it and wanted to give it a try.
And they both said they weren’t disappointed.
Really good, as usual.
Coming back to the park we got a tour of the cabinet modifications Dennis and Kathy made to their Revolution LE. Really nice.
But it’s given Jan ideas. And that always means more work for me.
Came across an article on Yahoo about a place in Cambridge MA that serves really hot food. The dish is called Pasta Plate from Hell and one diner said this about it, “Pain. I can’t breathe. I can’t talk,” he said. “It tastes good at first. Now I can’t taste anything,”
Sounds like my kind of place.
December 15, 2013
Jan’s Favorite Christmas Song . . .
Jan’s Favorite Christmas Song is ‘Mary, Did You Know” and she has just about every different version of it, but this version is her new favorite. Even better, the little girl’s name is Noelle. And her voice is amazing.
Noelle
R.I.P. James (Butterbean) Carpenter
Joyce Carpenter let us know this morning that her husband, and our friend and long-time blog reader, ‘Butterbean’ Carpenter was killed in a car accident this past Wednesday, Dec. 11th. We had been corresponding with him for several years, and finally got to meet him and Joyce in February 2012 when we got together at the Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, TX.
Our daughter Brandi even designated him Landon’s “Honorary Uncle”.
He will be missed.
Jan’s been putting out feed for the birds and they finally found it, especially the Monk Parakeets.
She’s even putting out carrots for the bunny rabbit that shows up at night.
In other animal news, I was going to throw away the box my new printer came in, but Mister had another idea.
Apparently, it’s his box now.
Want to check out New York City without paying for an expensive campground? Just park your RV on the street like these people do. I think your biggest problem might be coming back to your rig and finding it up on blocks and all your tires gone.
The tide was out today and that’s when all the seagulls show up to dine on the many tasty treats that are revealed.
Tomorrow’s going to be a movie day. We plan on having lunch at King Food and then catching the 1:30 showing of Ender’s Game. Then sometime in the next couple days we also plan to see Thor: The Dark World. Both of these have been out since the first part of November, while we were still on the gate, and we want to see them before they’re pushed out by the Christmas movies.
Today we spent a good while catching up on the new Fall shows we DVR’ed while we were still on the gate. So far we’ve caught up on Grimm, Once Upon A Time, Big Bang Theory, Two and A Half Men, and now we’re working on Agents of SHIELD. Next up are Nashville, Person of Interest, Sleepy Hollow, Once Upon A Time in Neverland, Castle, Mentalist, and Bones. Hopefully we’ll be caught by the time all the new episodes start back up.
Since I started out this blog with a song, I thought I end it with one too. This is Jase and Missy Robinson of the Duck Dynasty crew singing “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”. Missy has a great voice, and Jase is not too bad either.
Check it out.
Jase and Missy Robinson
December 15, 2014
“As God is My Witness . . .”
First up this morning, Donna Huffer and Bob Parker showed up for their goodbye hugs before they headed out for Rockport down south. Looks like we’ll catch up with them again in Tucson at the Escapade the first part of next March.
A little while after that, Jan and I left on our 85 mile Austin roadtrip about 10am, heading for the Gone With The Wind exhibit at the Harry Ransom Center located on the University of Texas campus. But our first stop was the big Buc-ee’s in Bastrop for breakfast kolaches, coffee, and a bathroom break. We got to the Harry Ransom Center a little before noon, and luckily found parking about a block away.
The exhibit which filled a number of rooms, and consisted mainly of photos, telegrams, and letters, to and from studio executives, actors, attorneys, and censors. You follow the story from the book’s publication in June of 1936 though the film’s debut in December 1939.
David O. Selznick bought the rights for $50,000, the most ever paid for film rights at that time, and spent the next 3 years trying to get the movie made. While he was trying to raise the money, he was also trying to find his ‘Scarlett’, which proved a much more daunting task than Selznick originally thought. Over 1400 actresses around the country were auditioned, both known and unknown. Some of the known were Tallulah Bankhead, Joan Crawford, Susan Hayward, Lana Turner, Norma Shearer, Miriam Hopkins, and Katherine Hepburn. The problem with many of these established actresses was their age. Scarlett is 16 at the beginning of the movie and 28 at the end, and a lot of these women were in the 30’s, and would have a problem playing a 16 year old girl.
But in the end, it all came down to 4 finalists: Paulette Goddard, Jean Arthur, Joan Bennett, and Vivian Leigh. Paulette Goddard was actually Selznick’s first choice, but Goddard was pretty openly living with Charlie Chaplin at the time, and Selznick was afraid of the bad publicity.
As it turns out, the eventual choice, Vivian Leigh, was a dark horse, last-minute candidate. Although Selznick had known about her for over a year, she was already signed to other projects and wasn’t available. Then in the last 48 hours, her other movie fell through, and she was available. So she got the role.
Strangely enough though, two complete unknowns were offered the part of Scarlett O’Hara earlier. Both girls, found in the auditions done around the country, turned the role down. One of them, Adele ‘Billie’ Longmire, from New Orleans, was offered the role in 1938, when she was 19. But her parents would not let her go to New York for a final screen-test and contract signing. Plus she objected to the long-term contract she was offered, as did the second girl.
Longmire went on to make a number of movies with the likes of Humphrey Bogart and William Holden, a lot of TV from The Long Ranger to I Love Lucy, and was well-known enough at the time to have been profiled on This Is Your Life in 1953.
One funny thing about the casting of Vivian Leigh, was that a number of Southern groups and associations were insisting that a southern girl be cast as Scarlett. One organization, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, was particularly insistent. But when Leigh, who was from England, was cast, they said that was OK, just as long as it wasn’t some ‘damn Yankee’.
Jan and I spent a lot of time reading through all the correspondence covering the walls, and two things stood out from this.
One was the fact that telegrams were apparently the email of the time. I counted as many as eight back-and-forth telegram conversations between Hollywood and New York in one day. Some of them less than one hour apart. This was when some guy on a bike would show up at your door with the telegram, you’d read it, write down your answer, and he would take it back to the office to be sent. And then the same on the other end.
Second was the content of some of the studio letters and telegrams. I’m sure you’ve read lately about the North Korean’s hacking Sony and releasing the the emails between studio executives, revealing the many ‘snarky’ conversations about actors, actresses, and other executives.
Well it was exactly the same back in the 1930’s. Actresses were called ‘mental midgets’, actors were ‘drunks’ and ‘lechers, and other executives were ‘liars’ and ‘adulterers’. And that was just the nice things they said.
People never change.
Another interesting part of the exhibit were the letters from the ‘Hays” board censors listing the things that should be taken out of the script. I had always heard there was a lot of controversy about the ‘Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn’ line, but I did not find anything in the letters about that iconic line. Instead there were a number of complaints about the childbirth scenes and the wounded soldiers, but I was surprised to find out that the censors had a problem with Scarlett’s ‘As God is my witness’ line and wanted it taken out. Obviously, they didn’t get their way.
The other part of the exhibit was a number of the actual dresses worn by Vivian Leigh in the movie.
Very elegant
This one was the dress that Scarlett wore for her first wedding at the age of 16.
I’m sorry, but this one is just ugly.
This one was a robe Scarlett wore while sitting out on the porch.
One thing unusual about this one was the colors. When looking at the dress on exhibit, you really can’t see much difference between the fur and the dress, just a little when the light is right. But the camera (no flash) sees the dark purple part of the robe completely different.
And, of course, no GWTW dress exhibit could be complete with the iconic ‘Curtains’ dress.
This dress, made by Scarlett and Mammy from the curtains left in Tara’s shambles, showcased Scarlett’s indomitable will as she wears it to plead with Rhett Butler for the $300 she needs to pay the taxes on Tara.
And, of course, you can’t talk about the GWTW ‘curtains’ dress without mentioning Carol Burnett’s version in ‘Went with the Wind’.
Carol thought it looked better with the curtain rod still attached.
Five things you probably didn’t know about Gone with the Wind:
1. Scarlett was originally named ‘Pansy’.
2. Tara was originally called Fountenoy Hall.
3. Margaret Mitchell, GWTW’s author, was a cousin by marriage to ‘Doc’ Holiday, the gunslinger (and sometimes dentist).
4. The original title of GWTW was “Tomorrow is Another Day”, the last line of the book.
5. Margaret Mitchell was hit and killed by a drunk driver in Atlanta in 1949 as she crossed Peachtree Street.
December 15, 2015
Found It!
and fixed it . . . I think.
It was really nice this morning to have absolutely nowhere to go. We’ve been on the go so much it seems lately that it was nice to just sit outside for a while with our coffee and pumpkin/cranberry bread, and contemplate doing nothing at all.
But of course, that never seems to last long, now does it?
Coming back in the rig, Jan got on the phone to firm up the last of our medical appointments for this coming February. Since we’re both Medicare, our appointments have to be one year and one day past last year’s. So this means that our dates are gradually creeping forward. So I guess if we RV long enough, we’ll end up seeing the doctors in April or May. So to avoid this, Jan keeps track of last year’s dates, and tries to schedule this year’s just one day later to help avoid too much creep.
Then I got on the phone with Thousand Trails to check out another membership that I’m thinking about buying. It’s a Platinum level, with 21 days in, park to park, with unlimited free days. Unfortunately it doesn’t add any more parks to what we already have. So I’ll probably keep looking around.
A little later in the afternoon, I got back on my shower leak problem. Since the carpet was damp again, I knew the leak was back, so I got the flashlight out and checked the bottom opening that I made last week. Looking around carefully I found a lot of wetness, but nothing to indicate where it was coming from. So my next step was to do something I had planned to do last week, but ran out of time. I turned the water on in the shower.
When I had looked at this problem in the past, the carpet seemed to be just as wet when we were gone for a few days and taking no showers as when we were taking two showers a day (1 each). I figured that this meant the leak was on the supply side to the shower and not on the output to the shower head.
I was wrong.
With the shower water running I got back down on my hands and knees to look in the bottom opening again. But even before I got all the way down, I could hear dripping, actually running water. But it wasn’t leaking down at the bottom. It was coming from higher up, by the faucet.
So getting back up (with a lot of creaking and joints popping, I uncovered the access hole I had cut directly behind the faucet itself. And this is what I saw.
Not just a drip, but an actual stream of water.
Looking at the volume of water leaking out, it was obvious that not all of this water was coming out on the rug. Otherwise we’d have been splashing around in the bedroom after every shower.
So it seems like most of this was just dripping down into the water bay right below, and then out onto the grass through the drain holes.
Turning off the shower water, I tried to turn the plastic fitting, hoping it was just loose, but it wouldn’t budge with my fingers.
I couldn’t just be that lucky this once.
About now it was time to head out for dinner and a Wal-Mart run up in La Grange so off we went.
Every time Jan and I make this trip up to La Grange I always thing about the time we visited the fabled Chicken Ranch, aka The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.
You can read about that in this blog from December 2014, as well as a number of other neat places to visit in this area.
I had been wanting to get my McRib fix before they go away, so we had supper at McDonald’s first.
Several little-known McRib fun facts:
1. Chicken McNuggets and the McRib were invented by the same European Chef. (Who knew that McD’s head of food development was a European Chef?)
2. The McRib was invented because when Chicken McNuggets first came out, McD’s could not buy enough chicken fast enough to meet the demand. It just didn’t exist. So the McRib was rolled out to take the ‘heat’ off McNuggets.
3. McRib’s come and go based on pork prices. They normally dip in the fall, which is when the McRib is pushed out again. Then over the next few months, McD’s enormous purchases of pork drives the price up, and the McRib is pulled off the market.
After our Wal-mart stop, and getting back home, I took another look at my leak problem. Turning the shower water back on, I used an inspection mirror to check the underside and back of the connector, but didn’t see any sign of a crack or break. But it kind of looked like the water was coming out of the back of the nut.
So turning the water back off, I used a pair of locking pliers to loosen the plastic nut and back it all the way off. Two things I noticed were that, unlike the other connections, this one had no Teflon tape on the threads, and it also looked like the washer inside the nut might be crushed or disfigured.
But tonight I wanted to see if I could maybe stop the leak, or at least slow it down substantially. So I wrapped the threads with Teflon tape and tightened the nut back on as tight as I could with my fingers using a rag over the nut. It can be risky to use pliers for this because it’s very easy to use too much force and split the nut. So hand-tighten only.
I then turned the water back on and watched for a few minutes, and saw no leak at all. But to be sure, I put a plastic bowl under the joint, and let the shower run for 45 minutes.
And this is what I had.
By dripping water into another bowl for comparison, I figured out that this is about six drops. Not bad, especially since none of us takes a 45 minute shower. Or at least not a hot one, anyway.
So I won’t declare this officially fixed, but at least it’s taken care of until I can try and get a new compression washer, or rebuild the connector.
Wrapping up, here’s a McD’s non-McRib fun fact.
McDonald’s is the largest toy distributor in the world, just due to the ones included in every Happy Meal.
December 15, 2016
Scams and Hodgepodges . . .
First off, I want to thank everyone for their kind words about my recent addition to Greg’s Musings, “The Dakota Access Pipeline – Pipeline Politics”
I’ve posted a cleaned-up PDF version over there that you’re welcome to pass around as you see fit.
Next up, “When did Global Cooling become Global Warming become Climate Change.”
And on the subject of climate, also called ‘Weather’, it’s going to a real roller coaster ride on the temperature scale over the next few days. Today it was 68°/53° and tomorrow it’s supposed to be 74°/64°
Then reaching the very top of the hill on Saturday, it’s going to hit 80°. But then comes the steep drop-off, all the way down to 33° Saturday night. Then Sunday it levels out a bit with 42°, before that final drop at the end down to 28°.
In other words, typical Texas winter weather.
I always wondered if Jan had a past before I met her (of course she was only 19), but I didn’t know she had ‘naked pics’ out there.. Why am I always the last to know?
Here’s an email we got.
Just another phishing scheme going around, but the first one I’ve been tempted to open, but in a sandbox environment, of course.
In addition, if you have a Yahoo. com email account you probably received an email recently concerning a data breach. Yahoo Data Breach
Over 1 Billion, yes, Billion with a B, Yahoo.com email accounts were hacked. But I’m not sure how worried they are about the hack since it happened back in 2013 and they’re just now getting around to telling us.
Wrapping up, also be aware of a new Amazon hack from an email subjected, “Your Amazon.com order cannot be shipped.”
Needless to say, it’s not from Amazon. They don’t even know if you’ve ordered anything. They just send out millions of emails and the Law of Large Numbers guarantees that hundreds of thousands of them have Amazon shipments in progress.
We had another big flare at the site last night, but with the wind, it was blowing horizontal.
I keep meaning to bring my Panasonic camera with me to get some better pics.
Jan made up a big batch of what I call Hodgepodge Beef Soup. Please don’t ask for the recipe because Jan has no idea what’s really in it. She just threw it together.
She started with 1-1/2 pounds of beef stew meat, some beans from some long-forgotten bean soup package, carrots, a large box of beef broth, some shell pasta, a container of Campbell’s Slow Cooker Tomato-Basil Bisque, a can of diced tomatoes, the obligatory can of Hot Habanero Rotel tomatoes, and some condiments here, with some spices there.
Really delicious. But maybe not repeatable.
December 15, 2017
New Friends and Mexican Breezes . . .
I spent most of the day working on a lot of online and paper catalog corrections at work today, keeping me busy enough that the day was over before I knew it. Nice day.
Gas prices are still drifting downward, with an 8 cent drop just in the last week, now at $1.93 a gallon.
My new HDMI cable came in today to replace the flakey one that connects between our Direct TV DVR and our Samsung TV.
I got the heavy-duty, gold-plated one so I hope it will last longer that the old one.
One of our readers commented that the Grimaldi’s in Tucson that I mentioned a couple of days ago was closed when they tried to visit recently.
Turns out they closed right after Thanksgiving because they lost their lease. Or as the article says, they failed to negotiate a new one. Which probably means that the landlord jacked up the rent more than they were willing to pay.
Which must have been a lot since the location was one of the most popular ones in Arizona. They say they will be reopening at the new location sometime late next year.
About 5:15 Jan and I drove over to the La Brisa Mexican Restaurant on 146 in Bacliff to meet up with blog reader’s Jan and Dale. They’re staying at an RV park down in La Marque and wanted to get together to meet.
We had a great time, great food, and hopefully we’ll be able to do it again soon.
Karma hasn’t had an update recently so here she is.
For a half-feral stray, she’s turned out to be a pretty good kitty.
December 15, 2018
OK, Who Squealed?
I spent some time this morning setting up a laptop for my client’s wife. Her old one, with a Pentium CPU and running Windows XP, is on its last legs. And I’m glad it’s finally dying since I’m getting tired trying to keep it running.
Jan and I headed out for lunch and more about 1:30. Originally we were going to have lunch at the Monterey’s Little Mexico up in Alvin, but right before we left Jan saw a TV ad for Pizza Hut. So that became our lunch destination. No, not Pizza Hut, but our all-time favorite pizza place, Grimaldi’s, and our local one at Baybrook Mall.
We first ate at a Grimaldi’s in 2009 when we were visiting New York City with our daughter Brandi, and our granddaughter Piper. We ate at both Grimaldi’s and Lombardi’s, the two places in NYC that claim to be the originators of pizza there in the first few years of the 1900’s. And we liked Grimaldi’s the best.
So we were very happy when we later found that Grimaldi’s had started to open locations around the country. And everyone we’ve tried around the country was just as good as the original.
One thing we learned early on at Grimaldi’s is that unless you have at least 6 people, never order the Large salad. Because the Small one will feed 4 people with a serving each, or two people with large servings.
This is how much is left in the serving bowl after we both had a serving. So we each had two. Unfortunately they don’t have a Tiny one. Small is the smallest they have.
For pizza we got a medium with Pepperoni, Mushrooms, Italian Sausage, Meatballs, and Jalapenos, pretty much our standard order.
Really good as always, and we had some to bring home. Afterwards we made a quick walk up into Baybrook Mall proper so Jan could pick up a couple of gift things at that Bath & Body Works.
Then it was on back up the road to the Wal-Mart for some groceries and some gift cards, the penultimate of the Christmas presents. Next up was a stop at my client’s to pick up a couple of packages that had come in today, before a final stop at the League City Kroger’s for the absolutely final, the ultimate of the Christmas gift cards.
For some reason, WalMart does not sell Amazon gift cards. I mean, why wouldn’t they sell products encouraging you to buy stuff from their biggest competitor? But luckily Kroger’s does.
OK. Who squealed?
In last night’s blog, I pointed out that it didn’t make a lot of sense that someone would go the trouble of getting a domain name and setting up a website area in order to sell their house, and then advertise it with a sign like this.
Well, this afternoon when we drove past, the sign was gone. But the website is still live with no indication that the place sold.
So I figure one of our readers called the phone number on the site and told the guy what I said. So, come on, fess up.
Who did it?
December 15, 2019
Semi–Well . . .
As I mentioned yesterday, Jan says that I don’t do nothing well. So I guess I did a lot less today, so maybe ‘semi-well’, anyway.
So, other than wandering around on the Internet and checking out some ideas for a change on my client’s website, along with dinner at Black Bear Diner about 3:30, was about it for the day.
Really nice!
Although it seems to have been a false alarm, I was concerned to see that our new Samsung 43” Smart TV, which was supposed to be delivered to my client’s office tomorrow, was out for delivery today via FedEx.
When no one is at the office.
And based on past experiences, I was not really reassured that they wouldn’t just leave it propped up against the front door. It’s certainly happened before.
But it was listed as being delivered by 8pm, and it’s now almost 9, so maybe I dodged a bullet. We’ll see tomorrow, I guess.
If some of you are Migraine sufferers like Jan is, you might interested in this article. It turns out that exposing yourself to green light seems to reduce the frequency and severity of migraine attacks.
A lot of people seem to have had good luck with it. And it’s cheap and you don’t need a prescription. Check it out.
You might also want to check out these Aculief Acupressure Clamps. They clamp onto the web between your thumb and forefinger, and are said to relieve/reduce migraine pain via acupuncture.
They’re not really expensive, and they have a money-back guarantee. I ordered Jan a set so we’ll let you know.
Also, if you’ve been thinking about getting an Amazon Echo Dot, check out this deal.
You can get a 3rd Gen Echo Dot for only 99 cents.
Well, actually it’s $8.98. But that’s still about 1/3 the normal price.
So what’s the catch?
You get the Dot for 99 cents when you sign up for a one month trial of Amazon Music Unlimited for $7.99. It will be set up for Auto-Renewal, but you can just cancel it at the end of the month.
However, Amazon Music Unlimited gives you access to over 50 million songs, ad-free, so you might decide you want to keep it.
So check it out.
December 15, 2020
Fish And Coffee . . .
Jan and I headed out for the afternoon about 1pm, stopping for lunch at Dickinson Seafood once again.
Blackened Catfish and Shrimp with Grilled Veggies, and a salad.
Delicious, and only $8.59 on the lunch menu. A great deal.
Then it was on up I-45 to the Home Depot for a storage bin and a 1/4” Push-On End Cap to seal off a leaking ice maker line that’s not used anymore.
Then after a quick WalMart stop, we headed back toward the rig, but couldn’t resist a Cowboy Coffee stop
for hot Sugar-Free Pumpkin Spice Lattes. Perfect on a cold winter day.
December 15, 2021
What A Country!
Sunday, December 5th
Catching up on our recent Branson visit.
Well, we made it to Branson this afternoon by about two o’clock pm. Nice, smooth trip up from Texarkana.
We first went by and picked up our tickets that we bought online from one of the many discount places. and then had a lunch special at Famous Dave’s, one of our favorite barbecue places.
By the time we were done it was three o’clock and we could check into the hotel.
We were going to be staying at the Twelve Oaks Inn right off the west end of the US 76 Loop, and convenient to everything.
Turned out to be a very nice privately owned place with nice rooms and friendly people.
After resting up for a couple of hours we headed out for the first show of our week in Branson, Yakov Smirnoff.
Unlike most other theaters, Yakov’s is not on the main Strip, but up north of town.
Besides seeing Yakov in Galveston this past July, we also saw him when we last visited Branson in November 2011, so we definitely wanted to see him again.
Having lived in the Soviet Union until he was 26 when he and his parents managed to get out. There he was an art teacher, as well as a ‘licensed’ comedian.
Yes, in Russia all comedians have to be licensed. And all their jokes have to be approved by a committee. No wonder he wanted out of there.
Besides talking about humor, laughter, and relationships, his act is overtly patriotic.
As Yakov says, “What A Country!”
A really great show!
December 15, 2022
Rebooting . . .
Jan and I were on the way up to the Spring area to meet up with long-time friends, Debi and Ed Hurlburt at the El Palenque Mexican Restaurant, a regular meet-up location for us. Really good.
But our first stop was at the CircleK right out on Hwy 6 for gas. A good deal at $1.39.
But a problem because all their pumps had hung up rebooting the credit card system and you had to pay inside so they could turn the pump on.
At least it’s not running Windows.
The run up to Spring today was probably the smoothest we’ve ever had on one of these trips, with no real slowdowns at all. And as it turned out, it was the same later when we headed home.
As before, Jan had the Rancho Grande, a Chicken Breast with 3 Shrimp, and all the usual accessories.
I got the Palenque Sample once again, with a little of everything.
The food was great, and the company was even better. Always is.
And we both had leftovers.
And as usual it was almost 3 hours before we finally said our goodbyes, already scheduled for next month, of course.
I mentioned a couple of blogs ago about some of our local Mexican restaurants moving away from the traditional Mexican décor to a more industrial look. But apparently El Palenque hasn’t gotten the message.
Coming home we made a quick stop at the El Dorado WalMart for a few things before getting home about 3:45pm.
Another very nice day.
December 15, 2022
I’m Rich, I’m rich!
Jan and I have been trying to schedule all of our upcoming Christmas stuff, starting with our monthly get-together with Debi and Ed Hurlburt next Thursday, this time at the Torchy’s Tacos up in Conroe.
Then moving on to Christmas, because of various work schedules, we’ll be doing our family Christmas get-together on Sunday, Christmas Eve this year. Which will push back our Annual Christmas Eve dinner at King Food to Saturday, Christmas Eve Eve.
Then the Thursday after Christmas we’ve got our Alvin Opry group get-together, at Saltgrass Steakhouse this time.
I got a letter from Social Security yesterday alerting me to the fact that my SS check will go up by a whole $47 per month next year. That’s a 3.2% raise
Yee Haw! I’m Rich, I’m rich.
Of course, it would have been a $57 raise, but Medicare went up about $10 too.
The Government Giveth. The Government Taketh Away.
This was a real problem for me all during my childhood.
And as Jan will tell you, it’s not a sure thing that I’ve outgrown this.
One More Day At Sea . . .
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Right-Click on The Link and Select ‘Open in New Tab’
First up, I don’t know what’s going on with the blog layout, but a couple of days ago, the side panels disappeared. They show up on the Preview, just not when I post it. I’ll be able to look into it when I get home.
Breakfast was at the Windjammer Buffer once again, and then we split up, with Jan doing some shopping and gambling (She won $22), while I did the All Access Ship Tour.
Our first stop was at the stage area of the Coral Theatre where they put on the shows, but I wasn’t able to get any good photos.
Next up was the laundry area, which is highly automated. They do it in separate batches of sheets, towels, etc. This guy is loading dirty sheets onto a conveyor belt that feeds into a washing machine about 10 feet in diameter.
Once it’s washed, it feeds into a large dryer. Then when the sheets come out they are fed into a pressing/folding machine.
This guy is taking the folded towels out of the machine and stacking them.
They also have a separate area for laundering/dry cleaning clothes.
Next up was the Galley Food Prep area. Here they’re laying the Fruit Plates like I’ve had several times.
In the Bakery area, they bake over 8000 pastries a day. And that doesn’t include all the rolls, bagels, and bread.
The Salad Prep area.
They have several a number of very large storage areas, some refrigerated,
some at room temperature,
and some at –20 degrees.
And of course, lots and lots of booze.
Next up was my favorite, the Engine Control Room. It’s called that even though it controls pretty much every system on the ship.
Then we walked I-95 that, though it zig-zags, runs the entire length of the ship,
Next up, and lastly, the Bridge. Turns out to be a lot larger than I had imagined.
Nice View!
This is one the two control panels on each side of the Bridge. These let them see what they’re doing when they’re docking the ship.
The area where all the signal flags are stored.
And this young lady is the First Officer, the second in command to the Captain.
A really fun and informative tour.
Later at dinner, Jan got the Avocado and Melon Salad,
while I got the French Onion Soup once again.
Then for her entrée, Jan got the Lemon-Butter Baked Cod,
while I went with the Lobster. Yuum!
For dessert, I got the Baked Alaska,
while Jan got the Strawberry Shortcake,
and we split the Red Velvet Cake. Decisions, decisions.
Tomorrow is our last full day of the cruise before we dock back in Galveston early Monday morning.
Thought for the Day:
Environmentalists changed the word “jungle” to “rain forest,” because no one would give them money to save a jungle.
And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™
December 14, 2010
Happy Wanderers and De-Virifying . . .
When I got up this morning, Jan said our son Chris had just called and we were meeting them about 11:30 for lunch. That meant we had to get a move on to get our walk in before we needed to leave.
After we got back, and while Jan was in the shower, a lady from the Happy Wanderers, the full-timing chapter of the American Coach Association that we belong to, called to check on our ACA membership numbers. She was trying to reconcile her database with the national chapters, and apparently our numbers weren’t correct. I told her that I would look them up and call her back.
About 11:15 we headed up to Kemah to Stomp’s Burger Joint to meet Chris and Linda for lunch. I’m glad we got there early because by 12 the place was full and people were waiting outside.
Getting back to the coach, I turned around and headed back out to run some errands
After stopping off at the bank to make a deposit, it was off to Fry’s Electronics to pick up some Christmas gifts. Unfortunately, I forgot the refund certificate that I was going to cash in, but I’ll do it another time.
Then it was on to Brandi’s to check our mail and pick up some packages that I knew had been delivered. Lowell was already home so we got to talk for a few minutes.
I got back about 3:30 and a nap seemed to be in order. Then about 5 pm Jan and I drove over to meet Bob and Maria Sutton at Spring Creek BBQ for dinner. Then they headed off to Bingo while I went back to the rig to work on the 4 computers that I’m trying to de-virify for clients.
When I picked Jan up at 10pm she said Maria had won the $750 grand prize for the night. Unfortunately, Jan didn’t win anything this time. But then Bob called right after we got home to say that Maria had stopped and bought a Lotto ScratchOff and won $100. Sounds like she should have been buying PowerBall or Mega Millions tickets, if she’s that lucky.
December 14, 2011
Washer Repair Day . . .
Today was the day.
I couldn’t put it off any longer. Or, at least Jan said I couldn’t.
It was time to tackle pulling the dryer out of its cabinet and checking out the dryer fan motor.
The first step was to remove the retaining strip at the base of the cabinet. It looked like this was the only thing holding the washer in place, and it was.
Kind of.
After removing the strip I found the washer still wouldn’t come out because the screws on the door hinges protruded just enough to block it.
So, off with the doors.
Then after placing my furniture dolly underneath, I started inching the washer out.
Once the washer was out of the way, Mister had to immediately investigate things.
It was obvious that the cabinet was built around the washer since both the dryer vent hose and the water drain hose were too short to allow the washer to come all the way out, and in fact pulled loose before the washer was halfway out.
I’ll have to add extensions to both before I reinstall the washer.
Jan’s now got that island counter in the middle of the kitchen she’s always wanted, at least until I’m ready to reinstall the washer.
Luckily, only four screws and the top comes off. And even better, the fan motor is right at the top.
And here’s the alleged culprit.
Looking closely it was easy to see what had happened. The circle with the tabs on it is actually a cooling fan for the motor underneath it. The motor bearings had worn enough to let the shaft with the fan on it drop down and start rubbing against one of the motor’s electrical connectors. This caused the noise I first heard for a week or so before the motor finally died.
A blog reader, Tom Van de Bussche, had already clued me in on where to get a new motor, so I was on the phone to Westland Sales in Clackamas, OR to get one in the mail to me.
As it turns out, it will be shipped out from their Elkhart, IN location. Sure wish it had died a month or so ago, I could have picked one up while we were there.
December 14, 2012
$2.69 a Gallon!
Today was pretty quiet. After an easy morning, I left the rig a little after 1:30pm and headed up to the Clear Lake area for a couple of client visits and a stop at Sam’s Club for a prescription.
Along the way I stopped for gas and was amazed. Yesterday Unleaded was $2.92 at the Wal-Mart up in Kemah.
Today it was $2.69. YES $2.69!
And Diesel is $3.39. Don’t know what is happening, but I hope it keeps up.
Next up was a stop at a couple of clients. One of them had a new Sony Vaio laptop that they couldn’t get to connect to their office WiFi system. It turned out that the problem was that it was locked into WEP encryption mode, but the office system that I set up uses the better, safer, WPA2 encryption.
Normally the WiFi software has a drop-down menu so you can select the one you want to use, or it will even set it automatically based on what your router is set for, but this one was different. I had to go into the adapter settings and enable the other encryptions.
And this was a brand-new laptop running Windows 7. Most people don’t use WEP anymore because it’s so easy to break. Why in the world it would default to WEP I can’t understand.
After checking in with the 2nd client I headed over to Sam’s to pick up a prescription and a case of bottled water. I was kind of dreading stopping by there because of Christmas shopping, and the fact that there’s a Wal-Mart right next door, compounding the problem, but it wasn’t bad at all.
As I tried to get on I-45S to go back to the rig, I ran into a lot of traffic around Baybrook Mall. And a lot of smoke. Turns out there was a car fire in the northbound lane, and a lot of rubberneckers on the southbound side.
I finally got back to the rig about 4:30 and then Jan and I headed right back up to the Kemah Chili’s for dinner. They have a great new soup, Southwest Chicken and Sausage, that I probably could eat every day.
Then heading home, we stopped off at a nearby Walgreen’s for a few things.
And that was about it. A pretty easy day.
December 14, 2013
Blasphemy . . .
Brandi sent over t his latest video of Landon singing Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer. Really Cute.
Landon Sings Rudolph
.
Landon’s black eye is due to an errant flying Lego at daycare.
Also we got this photo of Jan’s nephew, Jason and his beautiful family.
From left to right, that’s Laura, Avery Jane, Ella, Annisten, and Jason.
We always enjoy seeing them when we visit Jan’s sister, Debbie, in Illinois.
About noon we headed out for the afternoon. On the way we checked out the construction taking place on the new section of the RV park here
Don’t know when the new area is supposed to be open, but the 90 new spaces are really needed, since the present 81 spaces stay pretty much full all the time.
Our first stop was our favorite burger place around here, Stomp’s Burger Joint. But I may have called down the anger of the burger gods. I didn’t get a hamburger, one that looks like this.
Instead I ordered a hot dog. But not just any hot dog.
This was a Drunken Dog. A spicy jalapeno hot dog soaked in beer for 24 hours, then battered and deep fried, and garnished with spicy mustard, sauerkraut, diced onions, crispy bacon bits, and shredded cheddar cheese.
Delicious, and well worth irritating the burger gods.
And of course we had to have an order of Stomp’s Half and Half, onion rings and fries.
After lunch our next stop was to drop off some Christmas cards at the PO before heading down to the Victory Lakes Wal-Mart, a different one than last night, since I wanted to get another printer to replace the bad one from yesterday.
And even better, the same printer was $10 cheaper at this Wal-Mart than last night.
After finishing at Wal-Mart and stopping by a nearby Hallmark store, I came across this conundrum
What to Do, What to Do.
Next, after a quick stop at a Family Dollar for some Christmas wrap, we headed up to SR96 to get coffee and muffins from Buc-ee’s.
While we were there I got this shot of a boat ready for tonight’s Clear Lake Christmas Boat Parade.
We went last year and had a great time with the fireworks and the many decorated boats, but tonight’s weather is supposed to be cold and rainy. So we’ll just have to enjoy some pics from last year.
Speaking of boats, there’s a boat yard near the RV park that we pass by quite often, and it’s interesting to watch the boats come in looking much the worse for wear, and then in a few weeks looking brand-spanking new.
So over the next few weeks, I’ll try to document the changes.
Later in the evening I set up the new HP 2542 printer that I picked at Wal-Mart this afternoon and had no problems this time. So I’m now back in the printing business.
December 14, 2014
Fish Tales . . .
Jan and I had another nice, slow morning with our coffee and muffins. She read and I did computer stuff, and then I read some. That was pretty much it.
My new Transfer Switch is on its way and should be here Wednesday, but it may be a while until I have a chance to get it installed. But it’s not exactly like we’ll need it anytime soon.
About 3:30, we formed up a convoy of 3 vehicles here at the park and the 8 of us headed to Sealand Seafood in La Grange. We’ve eaten here several times in the past and it’s always been good. And tonight was no exception. You wouldn’t think that there would be an especially good seafood restaurant over a hundred miles from the Gulf Coast, but Sealand is.
Jan and I both had the 2 Catfish, 6 Shrimp, 6 Oysters Platter. The catfish is cornmeal-battered, and light and flakey. the large shrimp and oysters also lightly-battered, have a crunchy crust, and are moist and delicious. It really doesn’t get much better than this. And even better, we both brought half of it home for later.
And here’s our ragtag group. That’s Tom Christian on the left, then the shy one is his wife Lily, next is Donna Huffer and Bob Parker, Jan, of course, and lastly, our new friends, Judy and Ken Bennett.
Donna and Bob are leaving tomorrow for Rockport, and Judy and Ken are leaving for Medina Lake. And hopefully we’ll hear something from Galveston Bay RV Resort in the next day or two so we can firm up our plans too.
One thing I noticed yesterday when we drove up to Peter’s BBQ was that Hruska’s had diesel for $2.84, a nice drop from the previous low of $2.99 I’d seen a week or so ago down in Webster, and the $3.09 I saw last Wednesday right down the road from the park here.
But in La Grange this afternoon, I saw diesel for $2.69 at several stations right off of US-71. The last time I bought diesel just about a month ago I paid $3.39 a gallon at the Buc-ee’s in Madisonville, so this is a nice change. Hopefully, it will keep going down for a while.
As I mentioned yesterday, tomorrow we’re heading over to Austin to visit the Gone with the Wind exhibit at the University of Texas and have dinner while we’re there. Really looking forward to it.
December 14, 2015
Picchu and Pumpkin . . .
Well, today’s journey didn’t get canceled like yesterday’s trip to Galveston, so we headed out for Conroe 120 miles away about 9:30 to meet up with our friend Linda at the Chili’s there. Leaving the park, it was nice to see that the river was no longer running over the bridge leading into the park.
We made a potty stop at the Flying J just after we got onto I-45N, getting to the Chili’s right before noon. Linda showed up a little later, and after ordering, we got down to the serious business of catching up on each other’s lives.
Linda just recently returned from Peru where she was teaching English, and also investigating the possibility of opening her own bed and breakfast there. She spent most of her time near Calca, Peru, which is about 12,000 feet up in the Andes, though she’s visited places all over Peru, including Machu Picchu and many other ruins. Sounds like a lot of fun.
After we finished eating, Linda brought her laptop into the restaurant, and after hotspotting it to my phone for Wi-Fi access, I checked out and fixed a couple of problems for her.
After saying our goodbyes, Linda headed out for Fort Worth, and Jan and I drove across the Interstate to pick up a few things at Sam’s Club. Then it was back on the road for the 120 mile trip back to the Colorado River Thousand Trails park.
Out in Katy we detoured by Brandi and Lowell’s to pick up some Amazon packages that had come in during the last few days. Then it was back on the road for Columbus.
We made another stop at the Sealy Oasis at the Bernardo Rd Exit for some Dunkin’ Donuts’ coffee, and a pit stop. Then when Jan discovered that they also had Pumpkin Munchkins, DD’s version of donut holes.
And of course with Jan, it’s all pumpkin, all the time.
We finally got back to the rig a little before 6pm after a really nice day.
Tomorrow I want to get back looking for my shower leak. Hopefully I’ll be able to track it down now since the paneling is open.
December 14, 2016
Pipeline Politics . . .
Well, I guess Verizon was listening in last night to my complaint about how slow the Internet has suddenly become out here.
Because apparently they turned the SPEED knob all the way down to the SNAIL setting, actually more like to the SLOW SNAIL setting. Yesterday I could at least stream iHeartRadio through my Amazon Dot, but not tonight.
But since I couldn’t listen to the radio, I did buckle down and finish my thoughts on the whole Dakota Access Pipeline thing. Sorry it’s so long, but there was a lot to cover.
Let me know what you think, and I’ll try to post this in a cleaned-up version under Greg’s Musings tomorrow.
The Dakota Access Pipeline
As I said yesterday, I mentioned last week that I was going to do an article on what’s really going on with the whole Dakota Access Pipeline kerfuffle. But the research was taking a little longer than I had thought because there are so many different sides to it, more than just for or against.
I’ve read everything from the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post, through the right-wing and left-wing conspiracy blogs, down to individual bloggers in the area, and on both sides on the controversy.
In fact, going from article to article, it’s sometimes hard to tell they’re all talking about the same thing. But hopefully I’ve been able to lay it all out for you so that it makes sense.
So I started off with some of the main questions.
The Pipeline Runs Through Indian Land:
First off, and I think the most important fact that I discovered, is that the Dakota Access Pipeline DOES NOT run through Indian Reservation land, or even privately-owned Indian land. The pipeline comes no closer than two miles to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. At this point in the 1,172 mile pipeline, the land is either privately owned or Federal land.
It does not run through any ‘ancient Indian burial grounds’, ‘sacred lands’, or the like. In fact there already is a natural gas pipeline running through this same right of way. It’s one of the reasons this path was chosen. The route was even approved by the State of North Dakota, the State Historic Preservation Office, and a number of independent archaeologists. NO Indian cultural sites or artifacts were endangered.
The project which has been under construction for almost four years, will take crude from the Bakken Shale formation in North Dakota, through South Dakota and Iowa, to connect with already-existing pipelines in Illinois. The $3.8 billion dollar pipeline is 95% completed, lacking only this small section that will run 100 feet under the Missouri River.
So far two Federal Courts have rejected claims that the Standing Rock Sioux weren’t part of the planning. Both the pipeline developer, Energy Transfer Partners, and the Army Corps of Engineers tried to work with the tribe without success. In fact, over 50 other tribes were consulted along the pipeline’s right of way, and more than 140 adjustments were made to the route. And the Standing Rock Sioux is the only tribe that didn’t cooperate. They didn’t want any changes, they just wanted the pipeline terminated.
The Standing Rock Sioux’s Water Supply Is In Jeopardy:
Years ago, the Army Corp of Engineers and the Bureau of Land Reclamation relocated the tribe’s water intake 70 miles downriver from the pipeline river crossing site, so the tribe’s water supply is not in danger. Plus more than a dozen pipelines already cross under the river in this general area, and there’s never been a problem with any of them.
Stopping The Pipeline Will Help Stop Climate Change:
Stopping the Dakota Access Pipeline will not stop the oil from the Bakken Shale from flowing. It already is flowing. Well, not so much flowing, more like riding in 750 railroad tank cars a day. So what’s safer for the environment, long trains of oil tankers, or oil flowing underground?
Google ‘oil train accidents’ and see.
So If There Were No Problems, Then Why Did The Corps Of Engineers Deny The Final Permit?
Well, the only thing I can find is politics. At the height of the protests, Assistant Secretary of Civil Works Jo-Ellen Darcy, ordered the Corps of Engineers to withhold the final permit. But digging a little deeper, you find that the final permit had actually already been given. That’s why all the construction workers and equipment were on site. They were already working on the last segment. So actually the permit was withdrawn.
In fact all of the initial permits were in place 4 years ago when the construction actually started. Yes, there were some changes made along the way, but what company is going to risk billions of dollars only to find out that one permit is going to cancel the project years down the road.
This is kind of like you’re building a house, getting all the necessary permits and inspections as you go along. Then when you get the final occupancy inspection signed off and you start moving in, they come back and say, “Oops. Sorry. We’re canceling your occupancy permit.” And when you asked why, they say, “Well, we want you to build the house somewhere else.”
And that’s apparently what Assistant Secretary Darcy wants. She said she wants them to find a new route that will not cross the Missouri River. Now you look at this map and tell me if that’s possible.
The big ellipse is the Bakken area, the black lines are the pipeline already in place, and the red dot is where they plan on running the pipeline under the Missouri River. You’re either going to go under the Missouri River, or over the Missouri River. But you aren’t going to go around it.
There are over 50,000 miles of pipelines in the US. Probably every river, stream, crick, and soggy ditch has a pipeline under it.
What About The Mistreatment Of The Protesters?
Note I said ‘protestors’, not Indians. Apparently even the Standing Rock Sioux tribe are sick of the protesters, who far outnumber them.
First off I refer you to the Facebook page of Louisiana Sheriff Greg Champagne, President of the National Sheriff’s Association. He traveled to the area to see the situation for himself, and found the reality completely different than what he read in the newspapers and seen on TV. I’m going to excerpt some of his observations, but I encourage to read his entire article for yourself.
This past Thursday, October 27th, steps were taken the morning before I arrived which evicted protestors from private property directly in the path of the pipeline. This “northern” camp was erected just days before and the occupants had been warned repeatedly for several days that their presence there was unlawful and that eviction was imminent. These warnings went unheeded.
Despite the statements coming from the media and protesters that they were completely peaceful and prayerful, it has been a fact that more militant protestors (terrorists) have destroyed property and physically beaten employees of the company in recent weeks. I personally witnessed and photographed what I estimate to be at least a half of a million dollars in damage to bulldozers and excavators. I further learned that many protestors other than Native American groups have descended upon the area such as anarchists and eco-terrorists who are hell bent on committing violence and damage. The police presence in the area to protect farmers, ranchers and other private property interests have been costing the state of North Dakota millions of dollars.
… law enforcement evicted the trespassers form the north camp on private property about three miles north of the Cannonball River. While pleading with the trespassers for a peaceful move, law enforcement officers were met with Molotov cocktails and various missiles such as rocks and logs being thrown at them causing numerous injuries to the officers. The only discharge of a firearm occurred when a protestor fired at the line of officers. Miraculously, none were hit by the bullets. When the protestors were moved south of the bridge, two trucks used to blockade the roadway were set on fire by the protestors. This action now has very possibly jeopardized the integrity of that bridge. News accounts ironically then decried the use of defensive equipment such as “riot gear” and armored vehicles by law enforcement.
Many media sites reported only that “heavy handed” police tactics were used upon the protestors who were only praying and “peacefully” protesting. These same outlets failed to mention the shooting, Molotov cocktails, and extensive property and equipment damage produced by some of the protestors. The protestors even cut fences and attempted to induce a domesticated buffalo herd to stampede through the area. The owners of the herd, whom I spoke with personally indicated that at least of dozen of their buffalo were killed by protestors.
I saw several articles on Facebook talking about how the ‘peaceful protesters’ were being sprayed by fire hoses in freezing weather. These articles failed to mention that the fire hoses were being used to put out the burning vehicles that had been set on fire on the Blackwater Bridge dividing the area, and were only used against the ‘peaceful protesters’ when they tried to charge across the bridge.
There was also an article about the police using grenades and concussion ‘bomb’s against the ‘peaceful protesters’ and a young women being so severely injured that she might lose her arm. This story was really big in the news for a day or so and then quietly disappeared.
And the reason it disappeared was not only the fact that the police didn’t have grenades or anything of the sort, but also that the ‘peaceful protesters’ may have been doing a little ‘bombing’ of their own.
According to reports, about 3am, November 21st, two males and a female were observed by the North Dakota Highway Patrol using one of the barricades on Blackwater Bridge to hid some activity. When they were told to retreat, several protesters, still ‘peaceful’ of course, were seen rolling large metal cylinders toward the police lines. At this point an explosion was heard, and several people ran over and pulled an injured female out from under a vehicle and fled.
The ‘large metal cylinders’ turned out to be 1 lb. Propane cylinders, rigged up as IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices) and it seems like one of them went off early. If you want to learn how to make one of your very own, Google it.
The FBI supposedly confiscated the clothes from the young women at the hospital, and also the ‘shrapnel’ removed from her arm to compare it with the blood and tissue on one of the cylinders.
If they match up with the canister, she could be charged with attempted murder and domestic terrorism.
So much for ‘peaceful protesting’, I guess. Note all of this was taking place on either private land or Federal land. Not Indian land.
Now for the ‘fun’ part – The Conspiracy Theories.
So who’s behind all this, the Knights Templar, the Illuminati, or The Tri-Lateral Commission?
Take your pick. But the two big names that keep coming up are George Soros and Warren Buffett.
George Soros?
Well, he seems to have his fingers in a lot of chaotic pies. He supposedly backs Black Lives Matter and funded the whole Occupy Wall Street thing. It has been said that a lot of the pipeline protesters are being paid, and he’s the Daddy Warbucks behind the whole thing. Several North Dakota news outlets found Craigslist ads offering to pay for pipeline protesters.
And why is he doing this? That’s where it all gets a little fuzzy.
Apparently, just because he likes to stir up trouble.
OK, what’s up with Warren Buffett?
Well, this one, although still far-fetched, actually makes a little sense.
Warren Buffett owns BNSF (Burlington Northern Santa Fe) railroad, the 2nd largest freight railroad in the US, with only UP (Union Pacific) being bigger. But BNSF hauls more oil, you know, like the 750 cars a day I mentioned earlier, than the UP does. So every new pipeline that goes online means less money for him. And just to sweeten the pot, ole Warren is supposedly behind the Keystone XL cancellation as well.
Now, one last, well, not actually a conspiracy theory, but maybe just a theory theory that’s going around.
Why, out of over 50 tribes, are the Standing Rock Sioux so against the path of the pipeline when it’s not even going through their land?
Well, the theory is, because it’s not going through their land!
The Stand Rock tribe is broke. They received a $48 million settlement from the Federal Government in 2012, but spent it all. They had a $6 million deficit in their 2015 budget. So now the tribe is playing hardball.
Stay with me here. It’ll all make sense in a minute.
The pipeline took the path it did, following an already-existing pipeline, because that’s where the Corps of Engineers said it should go. It would be the least disturbance to the environment, and bypass the Indian lands completely.
But remember those 50 other tribes? Many of them got millions of dollars because the pipeline right of way went through their land. But because of the Corps of Engineers’ decision, the Standing Rock Sioux got left out. So the theory goes that when enough zeros show up on a check, suddenly they’ll be perfectly fine with the pipeline.
After all, the Standing Rock Tribal Chairman, Dave Archambault, owns a convenience store and gasoline station on the reservation and is happy to sell gas to both protesters and police alike.
Of course the more cynical among us might say that the entire problem with the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone XL Pipeline will be made moot sometime during the afternoon of January 20th.
December 14, 2017
It Was The . . .
Jan and I left the rig a little after 1pm heading up to the Clear Lake area.
Our first stop was King Food for our usual delicious meal of Hot & Sour Soup and Extra Spicy Chicken with Jalapenos in Hot Garlic Sauce. We’ve been eating here for so long that when we walked in this afternoon, the owner asked, “The usual?”
While we were eating, I got a text message from Amazon saying my new Echo Dot had been delivered to my client, so after we were done, we went by to pick it up.
Then it was on to Staples to make a return of some card stock we didn’t need and then it was on up the Interstate to the Wal-Mart for some gifts and supplies.
I had hoped to get home early enough to install the new awning, but didn’t quite make it. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of daylight to finish the job in one session. So now it’s put off until Saturday morning sometime. I hope.
Getting home I set up the the new Echo Dot and installed it in the bedroom. Besides the usual Alexa stuff, we’ll also be able to use it as an intercom between the Echo in the front of the coach and the Dot in the bedroom. It’s called Drop-In, and once it’s set up you just say, “Alexa, drop in on the bedroom” and you’re in communication.
I mentioned a couple of times in earlier blogs about the video/audio blackouts that I was experiencing on our Direct TV DVR/Samsung TV.
Since the blackouts weren’t recorded, but only seen on live TV, I pretty much eliminated a problem with the DVR. And I eliminated the HDMI cable between the DVR and TV by plugging and unplugging it, and wiggling it along the entire length with nary a glitch.
So I was narrowing it down to the TV itself. I did try swapping inputs but the problem still occurred. But before I looked into replacing the TV under our Wal-Mart extended warranty, for some reason I swapped out the HDMI cable with the longer one that connects my computer to the TV.
And after two days the problem had not reoccurred. And then when I swapped the original cable back in, it no longer worked at all. For about 30 seconds, and then it started to work again.
And again, shaking the cable and twisting it didn’t make any difference.
Then that evening when we came home the screen was pink with no audio. And once again, no amount of plugging, unplugging, twisting, shaking, wiggling, etc. made any difference to the picture.
So I swapped the long cable back and ordered a new one from Amazon which should be here tomorrow. So it was the cable.
What I still don’t understand is why the cable was acting like this. There are no active components, just wires. And if there’s a problem, it should be sensitive to any kind of vibration. But every now and then you come across something that makes you say WTH?
Then you just accept it and move on.
December 14, 2018
Jan Feels Better Now . . .
Today was Jan’s 2nd checkup after her left eye cataract surgery last Thursday. We left the rig a little before 8am for her 8:35am appointment up in Alvin. And it took a bit, but she feels better now.
As I mentioned yesterday, Jan was really unhappy with the remaining blurriness in her eye, and was afraid that the operation had gone awry. Not exactly the words she used, but I can’t use those words here.
Part of the problem was the number of our friends that were apparently seeing perfectly the next day. And Jan wasn’t. I told her she just needed to give it a little more time, and then get new lenses for her glasses once her eye had stabilized. And the doctor pretty much told her the same thing. And what he said explained what the problem really was.
The problem was not with her eye. He said her eye was doing fine, and would finally settle down in 2 or 3 weeks. He said her real problem, the blurriness, was actually being caused by her glasses.
Once the cataract was removed, the prescription in her left lens was about 10X more powerful than she now needed.
So, of course it was blurry. Just like wearing someone else’s glasses. But I don’t think she really believed this until we got back to the rig and did what the doctor suggested, and just removed the left lens from her glasses.
The doctor said that, of course it wouldn’t be perfect, but it would be much, much better. And that with the correct lenses in a month or so, she would have 20/20 vision in that eye. In fact, in both eyes, once she got the right eye done.
So Jan feels better now.
She’s got another checkup on January 9th which is when she should get her final prescription. Then we’ll just order a new lens, and get started on the right eye.
I spent most of the day at work going back and forth with UPS International trying to arrange the pickup of two 20# packages in Edmonton, AB, Canada, to be shipped back here to us. We do this fairly often, even from overseas, but this is the first time we’ve really had any problems. And it’s still not worked out.
I guess that’s what Monday’s are for.
For dinner Jan was in the mood for Chili’s ribs again, so we headed back over there around 4:30. Jan got the Full Rack this time so we could share,
along with my Grilled Chicken Caribbean Salad.
Jan gets the Honey-Chipotle sauce which has a nice little kick to it. Really good.
Finishing up, maybe it’s just me, but it sure seems like that if you’re going to go to all the trouble to get a domain name and a website to advertise your house for sale, you could put a little more effort into the sign announcing that fact.
But, again, maybe that’s just me.
December 14, 2019
Cart X 2 , , ,
Today was our first real day to just zone out and do nothing since we got back from New York. But as Jan says about me, ‘I don’t do nothing well.’ So after goofing off in the morning, I spent some time in the afternoon finishing up a project that I kind of started before we left on our trip.
Back in 2014 we bought this Chrome Kitchen Cart on Amazon.
It resides in the area where the slide occupies when it’s pulled in. So we roll it into the bathroom and bungee it in place when we travel. Since we’re always looking for more storage space, recently I checked online to see if a taller one was available, or maybe an extension for this one, but no luck.
But in looking the cart over, I pulled off the plastic caps that covered the top of the 4 support rods and found that they were hollow inside, and about 12” deep.
Grabbing a 7/16” dowel rod I had, I found it a perfect fit, and this gave me an idea, so I ordered a 2nd cart from Amazon, a great deal for only about $33.
But since it only came in a few days before we NYC’d, today was the first day I’ve had a chance to get back on it.
The included wheels screw into a threaded insert at the bottom of the rod. So I purchased a couple of hanger bolts like this, in the same 1/4” – 20 thread as the wheels.
Then I drilled a starter hole in the two dowel rods and screwed in the bolts, giving me this.
I only did this on two of the support rods, using long machine bolts for the other two, figuring this will lock everything in place, and also save me buying another dowel rod.
Screwing the dowels into the support rods gave me this.
And then putting it all together gave me this,
complete with our Moose On A Shelf.
And Jan’s really happy with all the new space, and that’s the important thing.
I’m still going through all our NYC photos, so stay tuned.
December 14, 2020
A Full Deck . . .
I took a dive into Privacy.com this morning to give it a try. For you latecomers, Privacy.com is a (free) service that allows you to create one-time credit cards, or cards locked to a particular account. You can also set weekly, monthly, yearly, or even overall total charges.
Starting out, I set up 5 cards for particular accounts, our two storage rooms, our EZ-Tag account, and our Acorn TV, and CBS All Access streaming services.
This took me about 10 minutes total. Then I went to each of the accounts and entered the card information and save it off.
Easy Peazy!
Then as a test, I created a one-time card and then immediately used it to buy something online. And it went through fine.
But when I tried to use that same number a few minutes later for another charge, it was declined. Just like it should be.
So far, I’m very impressed with Privacy.com, especially since I’m using the free version. This one lets me create 12 cards, of any type, per month. Then for $10 per month I can create 36 cards per month, plus I get a 1% cashback refund on purchases
So far I’m very impressed. But I’ll keep you informed.
Last up, a Miss Piper update.
When I told you about her graduating from college tomorrow, I forgot to mention that she’s graduating from the University of Houston, and she has a 4.0 GPA.
Way to Go, Miss Piper!
December 14, 2021
Katfish Kountry . . .
Jan and I were out the door this morning about 9:15, earlier than I like, but for a good cause. We were meeting friends Debi and Ed Hurlburt, up at Vernon’s Kountry Katfish in Conroe.
We used to eat here quite often when were regularly staying at the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails, but according to the blog we haven’t eaten there since January 2016. So it was good to get a chance to try it again.
Jan got the Combo Platter, with Fried Catfish, Fried Shrimp, and Fried Oysters, along Sweet Potato Fries and Fried Okra.
Plenty left to take home.
I went old-school and had the Small Catfish Plate, along with a cup of their Seafood Gumbo.
And as is usual in our previous get-togethers, we spent over 3 hours before we all headed home.
Always great to see Debi and Ed, and we’ve already scheduled for next month.
And, is there anything it can’t do?
Taking Viagra cuts the risk of Alzheimer’s by up to 69 percent
Taking Viagra slashes Alzheimer’s risk by two-thirds, research suggests.
Scientists claim the love drug may help boost brain health and cut levels of toxic proteins that trigger dementia.
Experts analyzed data on 7.2 million US adults and found regular users had a 69 percent lower chance of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s over the next six years.
Medics say the findings, published in the journal Nature Aging, suggest the little blue pill could soon be prescribed to tackle dementia.
They are planning a fresh study to test the benefits of sildenafil — the generic version of Viagra — in early Alzheimer’s patients
December 14, 2022
A Christmas Interview . . .
Our grandson Landon called me this evening to interview me for a class project. He wanted to know about my Christmases as a child, I.e.,
My all-time favorite gift – My Lionel .027 gauge Train Set when I was 10.
Other favorite gifts over the years –
A Winchester .22 Semi-Auto Rifle
Geniac Analog Computer Kit
Allstate Moped
How Christmas is different now from when I was a kid – When I was a kid Christmas was for me. Now Christmas is for Jan, our kids, and grandkids.
How was Christmas celebrated back then as opposed to now – It seemed more family-oriented back then. More decorations and lights in the towns and homes. Big department stores downtown with animated displays in the windows. And the Sears Wish Book Christmas Catalog.
Biggest change in Christmas decorations – LED Lights and Blow-up Yard Decorations.
What are your thoughts?
Earlier this evening my HP printer started printing out recipes for Christmas eats. Microwave Peanut Brittle, Chocolate Covered Cherries, and Saltine Toffee Cookies. But I wasn’t the one doing the printing.
Looks like going to have to password protect my printer WiFi. Never had a problem before though.
I do wonder though why they kept printing out recipes when nothing was happening on their end.
But they do look tasty.
Tomorrow we’re heading up to the Spring area for our monthly get-together with Debi and Ed Hurlburt at El Palenque Mexican Restaurant. On our way by about 9:45.
Really looking forward to it.
December 14, 2023
Rudy, Rudy, Rudy . . .
Lunch today was at the Rudy’s BBQ up in Webster, but on the way we made a P.O. stop to drop off this year’s Christmas cards.
Jan got the Loaded Baked Potato with Lean Brisket, as well as 8 oz. of Lean Brisket, or Dry and Chewy, as I call it. I got 8 oz. of Moist Brisket, with a lot of Outside Bark. Plus there’s a half link of their Jalapeno Cheddar Sausage down in there too.
Plus a pint of their Cream Corn. Jan doesn’t really like corn, but she loves Rudy’s.
And we’ve got plenty for dinner tomorrow night.
Nice!
Regular readers know how much I like weird facts. Well, really just anything weird, I guess.
But this is a good one.
The last surviving witness to Lincoln’s assassination lived long enough to share his story on TV
Samuel Seymour was 5 years old when he witnessed Lincoln’s shooting on April 14, 1865 at Ford’s Theater. And he was 95 years old when he appeared on “I’ve Got A Secret” in 1955.
Seymour was 5 years old when he went to see the play “Our American Cousin” with his nurse, Sarah Cook, and Mrs. Goldsboro, the wife of his father’s employer.
When Booth shot Lincoln, he pulled the trigger during the biggest laugh of the night so that it wouldn’t be heard. What caught Seymour’s attention was when Booth fell from the balcony after a scuffle with Henry Reed Rathbone.
Chaos erupted in the theater and Seymour was ushered out by his nurse. While they fled he overheard people screaming, “Lincoln’s shot! The President is dead!”
You can check out the segment here:
Other facts along these lines are these –
Cleopatra lived closer to the Moon Landing than the building of the Pyramids.
Oxford University in England is older than the Aztecs. Oxford was established in 1249 A.D., while the Aztecs first appeared around 1325 A.D.
or
The Wooly Mammoth was still around when the Pyramids were being built.
Finishing up, the latest is State Fair food has been announced.
We’ve had Deep Fried Twinkies, Deep Fried Sticks Of Butter (yes, really), and Deep Fried Bananas.
And now, Deep Fried Bacon-Wrapped Oreos.
You get the feeling that pretty much anything Deep Fried is going to be good. Or Country Fried.
Pretty much anything Country Fried is going to be good, too.
