Snow and BBQ . . .
One year ago today we were in Bend OR staying at the Bend/Sunriver Thousand Trails park for two weeks. And it was SNOWING!
With the weather starting to tickle the 90’s here in the Houston area, it’s starting to sound good.
With another busy day planned, Jan and I headed out about 11am to first have lunch at the Cheddar’s up in Webster. We figured that by getting there early we’d beat the crowd and we were right. But by the time we left less than a hour later, they were on a wait.
Our next stop was at my client’s office to pick up an Amazon package that came in yesterday, and to tell my client that his office parking lot becomes an overflow parking lot for the restaurant right down the street. That’s what keeps setting off the Wyze camera’s motion detection alarm in the early evenings.
The camera is mounted in the lattice work along the roof edge of building and it’s pretty invisible from any distance if you don’t already know it’s there.
Don’t know how we’re going to handle this, possibly by not turning on the alarm until after the restaurant. We’ll have to figure it out.
The Amazon package I picked up while I was there was a sunshade for my Garmin GPS.
Seems like no matter which direction the sun is, the glare is always on the GPS screen, so I ordered this.
It’s a quick setup, only taking a couple of minutes to snap it on and add the extension hood. It’s not specific to Garmin, but is more based on the size of the unit. But it fit mine perfectly.
Our next stop was a local electronics place for some more Remote Dump project parts. I was looking for a couple of mini DPDT toggle switches and a couple of momentary SPST switches to mount on the control box to be able to manually control the valves from the water bay.
I did find the two DPDT switches,
but I didn’t find any momentary switches that I liked, so when we got home I ordered a couple of these from on eBay.
Hopefully next weekend I can start putting it all together.
Finally heading back down towards Santa Fe, we made a Lowe’s stop so I could return the outlet box I got last week that turned out to be too small for the dump valve controller. Then it was right next door to WalMart to return the storage room lock we got that turned out to be too large for the slide lock, and then get another one, this time a combination lock that’s a little smaller.
Then it was back to the rig to continue sorting and packing stuff to take over to the storeroom in the next few days.
Tomorrow we’re driving up to Katy to have a Mother’s Day get-together with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon. Unfortunately Chris and Linda will be up in Kingsland prepping for their move next month, so they’ll be missed.
The Headline of the Day: Indiana woman who may have killed 10 people, accused of serving victim’s remains at BBQ
Shades of Fried Green Tomatoes or Alfred Hitchcock.
Thought for the Day:
Alexa and OK Google Don’t Get Along.
Here’s what OK Google says about Alexa.
And here’s what Alexa says about OK Google.
That’s Not A Name I Can Respond To!
asdfadsf
Walking Away . . .
Since we had a lot to do today, we started early, well, 10am is early for us, first heading over to Denny’s for breakfast.
It’s been a good while since we’ve eaten at a Denny’s, probably late last year up in Conroe. It’s always pretty good, but for some reason it seems we usually end up at IHOP.
Jan got an Veggie Omelet with fruit, and a English muffin,
while I got two eggs over easy, bacon, grits, and an English muffin.
One thing about today’s visit was how good the coffee was. Bold, smooth, but not burnt or bitter. Almost as good as mine.
Guess that’s why I had three cups.
Next we headed down to Dickinson and the Extra Space Storage location to sign up for our storeroom. And that’s when things started to fall apart.
When I called the office the other day, I got routed to corporate headquarters in Salt Lake. And I was assured by ‘Jean’ that they did not require insurance on the contents if we rented a unit.
But when the clerk started to process the paperwork, I was informed that they required me to have $3000 of insurance on my contents at a cost of $16.50 per month. This with unit rent on $23 per month. A 70% increase.
When I told her that I had been told by corporate that I didn’t have to purchase insurance, I was told that she had worked for Extra Space for 7 years, and corporate was wrong, and that every unit had to have insurance, no exceptions ever.
So I said I needed to check this out again and we left. And when I called corporate again, this time ‘Amber’ told me that yes they did require insurance, but that the manager could waive it.
At this point, Jan suggested that I call Challenger Storage up in Webster, where we previously had a storage unit, and see what they had. And as it turned out, they did have a 5 x 5 unit available for only $20 per month, no insurance, and no setup fee. The only possible downside was that it was not climate controlled. But we didn’t really see that as a problem.
So we were heading up to Webster and Challenger, when Jan, noting that ESS was a lot closer, suggested that I give them another call. So I did and told them that I just wanted to let them know that I had found another unit that didn’t require insurance, and that I wouldn’t be needing theirs.
With that, things suddenly changed. Apparently now, exceptions could be made. Turns out that she was ‘just getting ready to call me’ to tell me that they suddenly could rent me a space without insurance.
So a few minutes later we were at ESS doing the paperwork. And the first thing I noticed was that a place that always requires insurance, no exceptions, actually had a form in the computer for the customer refusing insurance.
I wonder how they got that typed in so fast.
Sometimes it pays to be willing to walk away.
Our storeroom is about what you’d think, four walls and a concrete floor. While we were there we dropped off a few things like our winter heaters and some other stuff.
Our next stop was WalMart to buy some storage bins and a padlock for the door. So coming home we stopped back off at ESS to put the lock on the door and found it wouldn’t fit. I got a really heavy Master lock with a long shackle. But between t he length and the thickness of the shackle it wouldn’t fit into the slide lock. So it’s back to WalMart tomorrow.
Hope someone doesn’t steal our three heaters overnight.
The Headline of the Day: New law: Kansas cops can’t have sex during traffic stops.
So, do you still get the ticket?
Thought for the Day:
Some call it multi-tasking. I call it doing something else while I try to remember what I was doing in the first place.
ghdgh
