Our RV Adventures

We still didn’t make it to the movie in Beeville once again, but mostly because we didn’t try.

I had a feeling I might get called in on this gate again, and I was right. And about 3:30 the text came in. It did help that they moved the shift time back from 5 to 5 to 5:30 to 5:30. This was done to better match up with the frack’s shift change.

A lot of guards around here seem to be leery of working a frack gate because they’re supposed to be really busy. This is the second ‘frack’ gate I’ve worked with SiteWatch and so far I’m not impressed.

I don’t know if these are smaller fracks or what. But the 4 to 6 sand trucks a hour is not much. And using the iPad it just takes about 15 seconds to log them in if they’re already in the system, and maybe 30 to 45 seconds if they’re not. And since they usually all come in together, you’re looking at most 5 minutes to get them all in.

It’s kind of like Crocodile Dundee, when he said, “That’s not a knife. This is a knife.â€

Six sand trucks does not a frack make. A frack is sand trucks lined up as far as the eye can see down the road. 40 to 60 trucks an hour for hours at a time.

That’s a frack.

We have a staging pad turnoff about 75 yards before the gate where the sand trucks are supposed to wait to be called into the pad. But last night as things were starting up, the truck drivers didn’t know that they were supposed to wait so they’d come on up to the gate. Then I’d have to make them back up until they could make the turn, and then wait on the pad.

But it looks like I’ve got them all trained now, since I haven’t had the problem tonight so far.

Jan fixed up another batch of her Hot & Spicy Chicken Vegetable Soup this morning so I had some before I left for work, and bought a mug of it with me on the gate to heat up for a late night meal.

You can find her basic recipe here – Jan’s Chicken Vegetable Soup. But she spices ours up by using Hot Habanero Rotel Diced Tomatoes rather than the Crushed Tomatoes listed, plus a lot of hot seasonings for that added kick.

Handy Tip of the Day:

If you ever wonder if your remote control is working, just hold down a button and point it at your digital camera.

Digital cameras see much farther down into the infrared part of the spectrum, the area where remotes live, so they show up bright and clear. This is also why your digital camera can take such good pictures in dim light.

This will only work with in the same room, point it at the TV, type of remotes. It will not work with those remotes like the ones with the Dish receivers that will work from another room. Those work on RF (radio frequencies), not infrared light.

I noticed recently that HP is now offering an Instant Ink option for their Wi-Fi enabled printers. When it gets low, it just orders more ink for you. And then a few days your ink order shows up on your doorstep. Well and good, but what I want to know is, what else is it ordering.

Pay-per-view porn? Escort Services? Extra paper so it can print out filthy pictures? What?

I wanna know what my printer is doing behind my back.

After once shooting a cigarette from the mouth of newly crowned German Kaiser Wilhelm II, Annie Oakley later said it she hadn’t been quite as good a shot, she could have prevented the first World War.

gsfgsfgsf

Well, we tried to see the movie Passengers down in Beeville this afternoon. After making a Wal-Mart run, we picked up our Amazon orders at the Lone Star Real Estate Office, and then dropped the groceries off at the rig.

Then, turning right around, we were about 5 minutes away from the rig when I got a text from Todd to see if I wanted to pick up a gate where a guard had called in sick. Of course I said, “Yeah†and we turned right back around.

Turns out to be a gate I’ve been to a couple of times before, but unfortunately it’s one of the two with no cell service, but OK data service and text. And getting to the gate a little before 5pm I found that the phone situation had not improved one bit.

Our friend Barbara of Barbara and Tom Westerfield fame suggested that I try Tango, an app that lets you make calls over your Wi-Fi signal. So I gave it a try and installed it on my phone.

And it works . . . kind of . . . sometimes.

For some reason, which works out OK, I can only call Jan, and not any of my other contacts. It reads them all in and displays them, but when I tried to call my friend Nick Russell, nothing happens. It doesn’t even try.

And then every now and then, it won’t call Jan either. It does try, though. But it just never actually dials.

On another note, I did heard from Molly Pinner, the seminar planner for the upcoming Escapade this March in Tucson, and Jan and I will be giving our Gate Guarding for Fun? and Profit seminar this time.

I don’t have the schedule time yet, but I’ll let you know.

Some of you may not yet have seen the new LG ‘Wallpaper’ OLED TV that was debuted at the recent CES (Consumer Electronics Show)

It’s 0.1†(2.57mm) thick, flexible, and sticks to the wall with magnets. The OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) screen produces one the best images in the industry. And you can pre-order the 65†version for only $8000.

Of course, next year it will only be $800, but it’s worth it to be the first in your neighborhood, or RV park.

Right?

1836 was the last (and only) year that the United States was debt free.

dfasdfasdf