Our RV Adventures

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

Today was Jan’s mom’s birthday. Trudy would have been 104.

She lived with us for about 12 years from 1994 to 2006, and unlike many mother in law/son-in-law relationships, we got along great.

In fact, if Jan and I were arguing about something, she would always take my side. Much to Jan’s consternation, believe me. And this often just prolonged the argument.

Happy Birthday, Mom!

* * * * *

Today was also kind of interesting for a change.

One of my duties is to pay the monthly sales tax amounts to the state of Texas. And today we got a letter from the State saying that our December 2024 payment was late, and fining us a penalty of $50.00.

Knowing that I was never late on a payment, I went online and checked, finding that I had made the payment of $430.79 on Dec 6th and it settled on Dec 9th. So, not late since it’s always due on the 15th of the month.

So when we contacted them with a copy of the payment information, including the trace #, they then told us that they did not received the paperwork in time that was sent by mail.

Wait. What? What paperwork?

Turns out that along with the online payment, Jennifer has to send in a signed form, and that’s what they received late.

And when we questioned them further on this, they said that they not only received the signed form late, it did not have a postmark on the envelope on it either, which they said would have validated that we had mailed it out on time.

So, the U.S. Post Office not only delivered the letter two weeks late, but failed to postmark the envelope.

And this is our fault, how?

My question was, if we have to send in a form via mail, why don’t we just send them a check at the same time. Well, it turns out that they no longer accept checks, just payment online.

So I spent about an hour filling out a online form to request a waiver of the $50 penalty.

Your state government at work.

* * * * *

This Thursday we’ll be on our way up to the El Palenque Mexican Restaurant in Spring to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt for our monthly get-together. Looking forward to it.

* * * * *

Tomorrow I’m going to make another pass at my Jeep’s brake problem.

Stay Tuned.

Thought for the Day:

Be the kind of person that when you get up in the morning, the devil says, “Oh crap, they’re UP !!”

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

March 10, 2009

Lunch at Lulu’s…

Today, Jan and I had a late lunch at Lulu’s on Homeport.  Lulu is her brother’s name for her.  Her real name is Lucy Buffett.

And her brother is Jimmy Buffett, the singer/songwriter.

Lulu’s has become one of our favorite places at Gulf Shores.  It’s on the Intercoastal Waterway or Canal that divides Gulf Shores from the mainland.  Most people don’t realize that Gulf Shores is an island, but actually an artificial one, since the Canal is man-made.

Besides the great food, the view of the Canal is always entertaining.  There was a pod of dolphins playing in between the boats passing by.

In the background above, you can see the bridge that crosses the Canal to Gulf Shores.

We also got to watch a number of tugs, barges, and fishing boats traveling by.

After we left Lulu’s, Jan got a pedicure while I picked up some parts for another project.

By the time we got home we had a beautiful moonrise waiting for us.

Just another day in paradise…

March 10, 2012

Arizona Sunsets and Camp Chairs . . .

Jan and I didn’t get up until about 9:30 this morning. Not unusual for me, but very unusual for Jan as she’s normally up between 7 and 8. But we both had a lot of early mornings and long busy days to make up for, so sleeping in really hit the spot.

Around 11 we all started talking about our plans for the rest of the day. Jan wanted to do the Yuma Indoor Market Place, and Chris Yust decided to join us, and followed us down to Mi Fajita to have lunch.

We spent several hours walking up and down the long rows of everything from jewelry to custom golf clubs, and remote control helicopters to tools.

Jan and I bought a couple of new camp chairs to replace our 5-year-old bag chairs that recently bit the dust. And I found a new water filter that I was looking for, while Jan picked up some books from the used bookstore.

We finally headed home about 4pm, all pretty pooped. But Chris Yust and I still had work to do.

She wants me to get their website up and running to advertise the GMAC insurance and Good Sam products they sell, so we spent several hours going over the particulars of the new site.

Then about 6:30 everyone started getting hungry so we headed out to have dinner at La Fonda, a local Mexican restaurant that we wanted to try. But when we got there about 7:30, it was CLOSED.

What kind of Mexican restaurant closes on Saturday night? According to the sign on the door, their Saturday hours are 10am to 3pm.

Huh?  So we decided to take our business down the street to Burgers & Beer, a well-regarded local place.

The food was good, but the conversation was even better. We laughed and talked, teased the waitress, and then laughed some more. In fact it was almost 10pm before we got out of there.

But we sure had fun.

Tomorrow Jan and I will head for Tucson for a couple of weeks, with a stop-over at Sofia’s in Gila Bend for lunch along the way.

We’ve really enjoyed the hospitality of Daryl and Cheri Lawrence who let us park on their lot for a couple of days here in the Yuma Foothills. And hopefully, we’ll all meet up again in Celina, OH for the next rally this fall.

Earlier in the evening before we left for dinner, I did get this great Arizona sunset shot.

The perfect end to a great day.

March 10, 2013

No Bones About it . . .

Today is our last full day here at the Medina Lake Thousand Trails. We’ve been here for two weeks, and it’s time to move on.

Tomorrow we’ll make the 350 mile run to Balmorhea, TX where we’ll be for about a week. On the way we’ll stop off in Boerne, about 30 miles away, to fill up on diesel.

But today was a lunch and shopping day in San Antonio, and the lunch was really special.

In July 2009 we were visiting New York City, and while there, we flew our daughter Brandi, and our granddaughter Piper up to spend a week with us. And while we were there we checked out the two places that claim to be the inventor of New York’s pizza.

The first one we visited was Lombardi’s down in SoHo. Here’s Brandi and Piper there.

BTW Soho stands for South of Houston, which is a major street in the area. But they pronounce it HOW ston.

But if you ask them who the street is named for, they’ll tell you it’s named for Sam HU ston, of Texas fame. Those Yankees are strange sometimes.

We thought that Lombardi’s was really good . . . until we ate at Grimaldi’s. Grimaldi’s is located in the DUMBO area of NYC. DUMBO stands for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass and encompasses the area in Brooklyn between the Manhattan Bridge and the Brooklyn Bridge.

Grimaldi’s is really just a small neighborhood pizza place, and as you can tell from the photo below, not very big.

And Grimaldi’s pizza was fantastic, the best I’ve ever eaten. It’s a thin crust, but not cracker crispy like some. It’s still a little chewy, but with a slightly crispy bottom.

Delicious!

Well, about a week ago our friend Lynn Cross sent us an email detailing good places to eat in the Lakehills/San Antonio area . . . and she mentioned Grimaldi’s Pizzeria. A quick check of the website told me that this was the real deal.

Apparently a few years back they started expanding and now have a couple of dozen stores around the country, including 2 in Houston, and 2 in San Antonio. And they did it right. To keep the quality of the original, they duplicated everything, even the water.

It’s always said of New York City bagels and New York City pizza dough, that the secret’s in the water, the New York City water. So every store has a system that starts with distilled water and adds the correct amount of different chemicals and minerals until it is chemically exactly the same as New York City water.

The other secret is said to be the coal-fired handmade brick ovens. So it’s the same oven, built the same way, using the same bricks. And fired with the same Pennsylvania coal from the same mine. In every store.

And of course, they use the same flour and other ingredients. One unique thing about their pizzas is the cheese. Unlike most places that use shredded aged mozzarella, Grimaldi’s uses fresh sliced mozzarella which adds a different taste and texture to the pizza.

What it all boils down to is that the pizza we had Sunday in San Antonio was just as good as what we had in New York in 2009.

And since they have locations in AZ and Las Vegas, we’ll try to eat at those too.

The nice thing about the San Antonio location is that it’s a good bit bigger than the original in New York.

Because it has the same line of people outside waiting for a table.

But they do have these nifty pagers for you.

But the way to really tell you how good this pizza is, is because we had no pizza bones left over.

You know, pizza bones, those pieces of crust that you’ve sucked all the sauce and goodies off of. Those things.

Well, no bones about it, we had no bones left. The crust is so good that you want to eat every last bite of it.

Check out the link above, track one down and try it. You won’t be disappointed.

March 10, 2014

Sometimes it’s good to be a Guinea Pig . . .

This morning Jan fixed us some of the Chocolate Croissants that our daughter Brandi gave us for Christmas. They’re shipped frozen and come from Williams-Sonoma. You set them out for about 9 hours to defrost and rise, and then they’re in the oven for about 15 minutes.

They also have them in Butter flavor. And they go great with our coffee.

We’ve got a really nice site here at the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails. I was surprised to see how far apart the sites are. It’s nice to not be looking in our neighbor’s windows. Or them ours, I guess.

I called American Coach this morning and ordered two of the roll pins, coil pins, or shear pins, depending on what you call them. They were $2.45 each with $3 for First Class Postage. Not bad at all.

Of course getting them installed may be ‘fun’.

I also called Fantastic Vent about a new motor for our kitchen vent fan. The bearings are going out in it and you have to start it spinning by hand and then it rumbles and makes a lot of noise. And then it quits after about 30 minutes. The price turned out to be about $55 + $13 postage. Not as bad as I had imagined. The kit includes a new motor, a new fan blade, and a mounting bracket. I’ll order it in the next couple of days.

About 1:30pm Jan and I headed over to Livingston, TX to visit Dennis and Carol Hill at their lot at the Escapees Park there. He was looking for ‘guinea pigs’ to test out his new baby back ribs recipe. And having tasted his pulled pork, we were happy to volunteer.

Since we knew we wouldn’t be eating until after 5, we stopped at the Chick-Fil-A in Willis for a Spicy Chicken Sandwich. Jan’s blood sugar goes haywire if she goes too long without eating.

We arrived at Dennis and Carol’s about 3pm, and first off, got the full tour of their new Winnebago coach. The size of the basement bins and slideout trays was just amazing.

When we got there Dennis already had the smoker going for a couple of hours and the smell was fantastic. I’m surprised people weren’t showing up from all over the neighborhood.

And the finished product tasted even better than it smelled.

The baby back’s were moist and juicy, and didn’t even need sauce. And along with the beans, macaroni salad, and steamed asparagus, it made for a really great meal.

Sometimes it’s good to be a guinea pig. Or make pigs of ourselves.

One or the other.

Or both.

March 10, 2015

Poco and Omar . . .

After Jan attended a couple of  seminars, and I finished up my Gate Guarding seminar handouts and slides, we headed out for lunch. Jan and I have been hearing a lot of good things about Omar’s Highway Chef Restaurant at the TTT Truck Stop a few miles up the road, so we headed up that way for lunch.

This sign shows why we’re hearing such good things about the place.

My Club Sandwich on toasted Marble Rye was one of the best I’ve had in a long time. And their steak fries are really, really good – Crispy crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. Just great.

Jan had the Tuna Salad on Toasted Wheat which she said was great, as was the cup of homemade Broccoli Cheese Soup she had.

I  had a cup of their homemade Chili, also very good.

We’ll definitely go back, not only because it was good, but because we forgot to take the coupons for a free pie and a 20% discount that came with our Escapees Info Pack.

In our travels over the last 7 years we’ve encountered one other truck stop gourmet restaurant, and that was in Houlton, ME in 2009. Houlton is about 2 miles from the Canadian border, and is where we entered Canada on our way out to Newfoundland.

Not only did this truck stop have a gourmet chef, but also a gourmet pastry chef. Not only was the food delicious, but people came from all over to buy their cakes, pies, and pastries.

After lunch we spent some more time walking around the market and catching up with old friends, and making some new ones. All part of attending an RV rally.

Then about 6:30 Jan and I headed up Kolb Ave to have dinner at the new Poco & Mom’s on Tanque Verde. We’ve eaten at the original one on Kolb and 22nd for a number of years and always enjoyed it. It’s a small little hole-in-the-wall place with maybe 20 tables, but always busy, and with really good food.

But the new one is a full-size restaurant with a bar. There was a 15-20 minute wait when we got there a little after 7, but we were finally seated in the bar area. After looking at the menu, we quickly knew what we wanted. Because it’s pretty much what we always get – The Combo Plate.

With a Chile Relleno, a Shredded Beef Taco, and a Green Chile Chicken Enchilada, it’s hard to beat. We were even too full for their fresh hot homemade sopapillas, with warm honey.

After that delicious dinner, our next stop was a couple of blocks away at the FedEx Copy Store. I didn’t get my seminar confirmation in time for the Escapees to print my handouts, so Jan and I did it ourselves.

Only took about 20 minutes to make a hundred copies of the 3-page handout and then staple them together. With a hundred, I don’t know if I’m wildly overestimating the attendance, or wildly underestimating it.

We’ll have to see tomorrow.

March 10, 2016

Old Friends, New Rigs . . .

Although it rained a good bit overnight, it pretty much died out today, except for on-and-off drizzling. And that’s supposed to be it for the next 4 or 5 days. Or at least until we leave for Lake Conroe on Sunday.

After goofing off most of the morning, I went outside to check out the ‘under the rig’ access to see if I could install my slobber tube collection can, but no luck. If I had tried it, Jan would have had to hose the mud off me before I could come back inside the rig.

So maybe tomorrow.

About 3:30 we got a surprise phone call from our friend, Chris Yust of C and C RV Insurance, and she and Charles were coming our way. They had planned on staying at Happy Oaks RV Park, a Passport America park nearby. But when I checked the Passport America website, I found that the Colorado River Thousand Trails park where we’re staying is also a PPA park.

Which is kind of strange since there’s nothing posted at the office that mentions PPA. And as it turns out, Colorado River is also an Encore park. Who knew?

Chris and Charles got parked and set up in one of the two pull-through transient sites located at the entrance to the ‘A’ loop. They’re right out on the main road with 50 amps and water, but no sewer. Perfect for overnighters.

Chris and Charles showed up at our site a little later, and we all headed into Columbus to have dinner at Los Cabos Mexican Restaurant, our favorite local Mexican place.

Jan had her usual Fajita Beef Stuff Avocado,

while Charles and I both had the Relleno Combo, with a cheese-stuffed Relleno, a cheese enchilada, and a Chicken Taco al Carbon.

Chris also had a combo, but I missed what kind.

It’s always dicey when you take someone new to a restaurant you really like and have recommended, but Los Cabos came through as usual.

And also as usual, not having seen Chris and Charles in over a year, we had a lot of catching up to do. So much in fact, that after a couple of hours at the restaurant, we headed back to the park to check out their new to us Entegra Anthem. They’ve had it almost a year but it’s our first time to see it. Boy, is it a beautiful rig. And it seems like everything has a remote control, even the dishwasher!

I’m not sure why you would want to wash your dishes remotely, but you can.

March 10, 2017

Baaaaaa!

I had planned for us to get up about 6:30, but we ended up sleeping in for an extra hour.

So finally up at 7:30 we got ready to roll before we headed out for breakfast at around 8:30am. As we did last week before leaving for Lake Conroe, we had Schobel’s in Columbus, and once again Jan had her Veggie Omelet while I had the Chicken and Waffles.

Getting back to the rig, we were hitched up and rolling by 10:30 heading for Junction, TX about 250 miles away.

About an hour later, we made our usual Buc-ee’s stop at the Luling. Before going inside we filled up with 90 gallons of diesel at $2.19/gallons, the lowest in the area.

While we were filling up, we were watching the travelers right across from us walk their dogs, even little ones,

while others walked their . . .

sheep?

You never know what you’ll see in Texas. Guess they’re on their way to the rodeo in Houston.

Unlike our past San Antonio pass-throughs, today’s seem to take forever, whether from the obvious construction zones, or those ‘phantom’ slowdowns. You know, those several miles of creeping along, that suddenly just disappears when everyone just speeds up.

We got into Junction and the Pecan Valley RV Park at about 3:30 and were given a nice, long pull-through site.

They even furnish leveler pad blocks if you need them. A first for us.

As it turns out Pecan Valley RV Park is in an actual pecan grove.

They were trimming and pruning the trees, and then burning the branches, making for a great smoky smell in the air.

The Junction area is known for bad cell/data service, no matter who your carrier is. Which is why I thought that posting a blog last night was questionable.

So I was happy to see a very strong park Wi-Fi signal. BUT . . . There’s always a BUT, right?

The park uses the OpenDNS content filtering service, which restricts your access to sites that are on a blacklist, I guess like porn sites, movie download sites, and other like places. However it doesn’t explain why I could access the New York Times website, but not the Washington Post site. In fact about half the stories on Yahoo News were blocked.

And so was our OurRVAdventures.com and RV sites. Why I don’t know, but it kept me from posting the blog last night.

Tomorrow’s trip will be 310 miles to Van Horn and the Southern Star RV Park, where we stayed in 2015. And it has a really good steak place right next door.

March 10, 2018

Lou No More . . .

I spent most of the morning getting a handle on my next big project at work – bundling up the two website/shopping carts on our in-house Linux server and moving it all up to Godaddy in the cloud.

There seems to be two schools of thought on how to do it. The first is to do a complete Zen Cart installation on the new server and then copy all the MySQL files from the old server, and move them over.

The second is to zip up the entire website and move it over lock, stock, barrel, and database to the new server. Both have different pros and cons, so I’ve got a lot of research to do.

I’ve mentioned that I’m reading a book entitled Nomadland, about itinerant RV’ers traveling from job to job around the country. One of them, a guy named Don who travels in his 1990 Airstream with his Jack Russell terrier, Rizzo, was once a highly paid software executive making millions a year.

Retiring in 2002, he indulged his lifetime passion with fast cars and racing, ranking third overall in the U.S. Touring Car Championship pro series. But by 2008 he had lost it all. Between a divorce and the 2008 market crash taking his savings, he was broke. So he hit the road in 2010, joining the workcamper force.

I found his description of workcampers to be fascinating.

“Workcampers are modern mobile travelers who take temporary jobs around the U.S. in exchange for a free campsite—usually including power, water and sewer connections—and perhaps a stipend. You may think that workamping is a modern phenomenon, but we come from a long, long tradition. We followed the Roman legions, sharpening swords and repairing armor. We roamed the new cities of America, fixing clocks and machines, repairing cookware, building stone walls for a penny a foot and all the hard cider we could drink. We followed the emigration west in our wagons with our tools and skills, sharpening knives, fixing anything that was broken, helping clear the land, roof the cabin, plow the fields and bring in the harvest for a meal and pocket money, then moving on to the next job. Our forebears are the tinkers. We have upgraded the tinker’s wagon to a comfortable motor coach or fifth-wheel trailer. Mostly retired now, we have added to our repertoire the skills of a lifetime in business. We can help run your shop, handle the front or back of the house, drive your trucks and forklifts, pick and pack your goods for shipment, fix your machines, coddle your computers and networks, work your beet harvest, landscape your grounds or clean your bathrooms. We are the techno-tinkers.”

Really insightful.

About 2pm Jan and I headed into Webster to have lunch at our favorite King Food. Jan got the fan-favorite Chicken with Hot Garlic Sauce and Jalapenos lunch plate,

while I again went with the big bowl of Hot & Soup Soup.

One thing I really like at King Food are these roasted red pepper flakes. Most places, including Italian restaurants, have them in this form.

But King Food roasts them in a skillet with a little oil which gives them a smoky taste and a crunchy texture.

Really good, so I always add a few spoonfuls to my Hot & Sour.

After a great lunch, we drove over to Baywood Plaza on FM518 so I could get my hair cut at Lou’s Barber Shop. I’ve been going to Lou for more than 30 years, since he first opened there.

So I was very surprised to not find Lou there behind his chair, the first time that’s ever happened. When I ask the guy who was behind the chair if Lou was taking the day off, I was very surprised when he said that Lou had retired, and that he and his wife, Esthela, had bought the shop from him. And that the shop would soon be called Esthela’s Barber Shop.

Well, I guess I can live with going to a barber shop called Esthela’s. My only problem is that Lou apparently forgot to give my haircut records to the new guy.

March 10, 2019

GoDaddy’s Having A Problem Tonight . . .

And keeps truncating my posts.

So I’ll catch up tomorrow . . .  Hopefully.

So all you’re getting tonight is this photo of Miss Karma perched on Jan’s chair watching me through the windshield as I worked on the wipers.

I don’t think she approves.

March 10, 2020

All Alone Am I

STOP SELLING!

This is today’s basic economic lesson.

STOP SELLING!

I was on a financial forum the other night and one guy was complaining about how much money he had lost on his stocks. When I asked him why he sold his stock as it was going down, he fumbled a bit and said because the market was going down and everyone else was selling.

I said that really it was that everyone was selling, causing the market to go down. I reminded him that he didn’t lose any money until he actually SOLD his stock. Who cares if it went down 20%-30% if he hadn’t sold it?

He reiterated that, well, the market was going down and everyone else was selling. I then asked him, so did he think that the country was finished and the stock market was never going to come back up, even after this flu thing was over?

He said No.

So then I asked him did he need the cash from the stock sale right now?

He said No.

So I again asked him why did he sell when the market was going down?

He never replied to me.

So here’s your Financial Tip of the Day:

STOP SELLING!

You don’t lose money until you actually sell!

As for me, I’m buying stock in Charmin.

Risking the virus and death, I … wait for it … I ate lunch at a CHINESE restaurant this afternoon. So now I’ve decided to self-quarantine myself.

At least until I have to into work tomorrow morning.

March 10, 2021

And Now It’s ‘Jimmies?

Since we’ve got an extended daytrip tomorrow (Up to The Woodlands, back down to Katy, and then home), I stopped off at Costco to top off the Jeep tank and found gas up another 6¢ since Monday, and at $2.29, it’s up 84¢ since November 1st.

Like a lot of their customers, I have my Amazon account set up to use the Amazon Smile program. A part of every Amazon purchase goes to the charity of your choice, in my case, St.Jude Children’s Hospital.

A couple of days ago I received an email from Amazon saying that Amazon’s quarterly gift to St. Jude’s was $981,247.96.

And this is a grand total of all contributions.

AmazonSmile’s impact:

$11,035,205.12 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital*

$241,928,506.19 to all charities in the US

$266,896,659.48 to all charities worldwide

And even better, there’s no extra cost to you.

Jan and I have started watching another new show called Debris on NBC. With a distinct ‘X-Files’ feel, it follows two agents, one CIA and the other MI6, who are tasked with tracking down ‘debris’ falling to earth from a wrecked alien ship traveling through the solar system. And the ‘debris’ has very strange properties and effects on people. Two episodes so far, but very good.

And speaking of good, Jan and I are running into the problem of Too Much of A Good Thing, at least as far as TV is concerned. With all the channels available for streaming, and so many different programs, it’s getting harder and harder to keep up.

But I guess it’s a good problem to have.

First, it was Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben, and the Indian maiden on the Land O’ Lakes box, and now it’s Jimmies, though you may know them as Sprinkles

New England ice cream brand quietly drops name after cancel culture takes aim … Some say regional name for sprinkles has racist history

BTW the Indian maiden, and the Land O’ Lakes logo were designed by …wait for it … an Indian artist using his Indian daughter as a model.

But it’s racist, right?

March 10, 2022

‘Q and more . . .

After a quiet morning, we were off to Gator’s Bar & Grill a little before 1pm.

Jan got her usual Strawberry Walnut Salad,

while I got my favorite Baked Potato Soup, but this time I added a Side Salad.

We had planned to split one of their Keto Blueberry Muffins, as we often do. But this time it turns out we were too full.

Maybe next time.

Next up, we stopped off at our storeroom to go through things, and bag up a lot of the small, loose stuff. We wanted to make it easier for things to be moved when we switch storeroom companies in the near future.

We used these large Ziplock bags that even have carrying handles.

Large Ziplock Bags

Most everything else are in large and small bins so they won’t be hard to move.

Finishing up, we made an HEB stop for a few items, followed by Cowboy Coffee for Sugar-Free Hazelnut Lattes, Jan’s with Almond Milk, and mine with regular milk. Always great coffee.

And then after a PO stop, we were back at the rig by about 3:30pm.

If I didn’t stir people up enough with the Beans or No Beans controversy, how about the 26 best BBQ places in Memphis, TN?

26 Best BBQ Places in Memphis

And Jan and I have eaten at 3 of them, numbers 8, 5, and 2.

#8 Jim ‘N Nick’s Bar-B-Q

#5 Charles Vergos’ Rendezvous

and

#2 The BBQ Shop

And though it’s not actually in Memphis, TN, but in West Memphis, AR right across the Mississippi River, Ray’s World-Famous BBQ is at the top of a lot of people’s lists, including ours.

I’ll give you more details about our visits to all these in tomorrow’s blog.

March 10, 2023

Another Alvin Opry Night . . .

More tomorrow.

March 10, 2024

Clever Girl . . .

Lunch today was at our local Denny’s once again. And as with yesterday’s out-and-about, we noticed a distinct lack of traffic in our area. The only thing I could think of is that this is leading into Spring Break week and a lot of people have already left town.

Nice for us.

Then it was back across the Interstate for our weekly HEB visit, and then gas and home.

We’ve got another possible family get-together to look forward to.

New immersive Jurassic World exhibition opening in Katy expected to bring 500,000 visitors

Dinosaurs have returned to Texas, after a 65-million-year-long hiatus, in a larger-than-life production that is expected to bring thunderous receipts to the Houston area.

Jurassic World: The Exhibition opens a six-month run at Katy Mills Mall today. While it employs about 200 area residents, the exhibit is expected to sell more than half a million tickets, which start at $24 for visitors ages 3 to 15 and $31.99 for those 16 and older.

The set being used at Katy Mills debuted in Dallas in 2021, Baker said, and went to Denver, San Diego and Atlanta before coming to Houston. Transporting the set requires six containers, or 21 trucks, and building the robotic animatronic dinosaurs is a significant investment in the first place.

Shows are currently scheduled through October, and producers are expecting at least 500,000 visitors, although the show’s run could be extended if the demand persists.

So another date on our calendar?

Though they still haven’t announced a time yet, but the next Starship launch is scheduled for this coming Thursday, March 14th. Hopefully, this one, the 3rd, will be completely successful, unlike the first two.

Unfortunately, we’ll be leaving early that morning, on our way up to Fredericksburg to begin our Family Get-Together Weekend. So I may not get to see this one.

We’ll see.

Lunch today was at our fav Yummy Yummy Asian Buffet

Finishing up, it was HEB, HEB gas and then home.

I’ve mentioned before about Fannie Flagg being my baby-sitter when both our families lived down in Gulf Shores, AL in the 1950’s. Her parents had Snack Bar/Amusement Park right on the beach, and my parents had a big motel right down the road.

She’s about 4 years older than me, so she got stuck watching me whenever our parents got together.

Looking back, it’s amazing how many well-known movies she’s been in. Ones like Five Easy Pieces with Jack Nicholson and Karen Black, Stay Hungry with Beau Bridges and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Grease with John Travolta and Oliva Newton-John, and of course, Fried Green Tomatoes (which she wrote both the book and the screenplay for) with Kathy Bates and Jessica Tandy.

And of course a number of TV shows, including this one where she played the Amazon Doctor in the pilot for Lynda Carter’s pilot of Wonder Woman. I told Jan that there’s a reason why no one remembers Fannie in this.

It’s pretty obvious to me.

And in this vein, while we were eating at Yummy Yummy this afternoon a buxom young lady came wearing one of those skin-tight outfits that looked like it was sprayed on. And it was a thin coating, believe me.

I didn’t see her at first, until Jan alerted me to her presence. And then she told me I had her permission to look. And I did. And this not the first time she’s done something like this.

God, I love this woman!

Thought For The Day:

Are you afraid that, if only you could figure out just what the hell was going on, you’d wish you hadn’t?
Me, too.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

March 9, 2009

We’ve got satellite TV again…

Jan is ecstatic!

We’ve got satellite TV again.

The Direct TV receiver/DVR we had when we left TX last year died a few months later.  I bought a new cheapy one at a pawn shop in Arizona, but never set it up since we were heading to Alaska.

Alaska is so far north that you need a larger disk to pick up the satellites, plus where we were parked for 5 months in Fairbanks had a big mountain in the way, a problem since the satellite was so low on the horizon from up there.

Then when we got back to Houston, the park we were at on Dickinson Bayou was so windy, everyone’s dish kept getting blown over so I didn’t even try.

But it’s working now and Jan’s happy, and as you remember from a previous post, if Jan’s happy, yada, yada, yada.

In weather news, when we got up today it was foggy, and it stayed pretty foggy all day.

Here’s how it looked out the front of our coach this morning.

With more to come tomorrow.   Oh, boy!

March 9, 2011

Froggy Chairs and Dairy Queens . . .

When we got up this morning we had a nice surprise waiting for us from our daughter Brandi. New Landon Photos!

But the real surprise was how much he’d grown. In these two new photos, he’s almost 7 months, lying in his ‘Froggy Chair’. And note that he’s more hanging out of it than ‘in’ it.

And here he is in the same chair at two months. Quite a difference!

Brandi said he’s getting so tall, he’s growing out of a lot of his outfits.

We got up at 8:30 even though we didn’t want to, because I still had a lot of work to do on my seminar today. We were really overwhelmed by the attendance at yesterday’s seminar. As I said I thought we might have 20 or so. We had 117.

For today’s class, I had planned on giving everyone a CD containing the programs that I was going to talk about. But based on yesterday I was going to need a lot more CD’s. So I made 50 last night and then did another 30 this morning.

And at the same time, I was revamping my outline. I realized yesterday that I didn’t talk nearly as fast as I thought I did, so I knew I had to shorten the topics I planned on covering.

About 11 Jan and I took a break to walk over the the food vendor to get hot dogs for lunch. Turns out they were nicely grilled rather than boiled, and were delicious. We brought them back to the rig and had them with the last of Jan’s Twice-Baked Potato Casserole from the BBQ potluck on Saturday that Dennis Hill did for the parking crew.

Then it was back to making CD’s, and finally we were able to start printing the handouts. The class was called Do’s and Don’ts of Computer Security

Just to be on the safe side we printed up 120 handouts, and Jan finished stapling them together just fifteen minutes before the class started at 1pm. Talk about cutting it close!

The class went pretty well, and once again we had a lot of questions.

A LOT OF QUESTIONS!

But that was good. Everyone seemed to have a good time and enjoyed themselves. And once again Jan had to drag me out of the room so the next seminar could start.

We ended up with about 79 attendees, so we were almost perfect on the CD’s and a little high on the handouts, but I’d rather have too many than not enough.

At 2:30 Jan sat in on a panel discussion seminar entitled “How Not To Kill Your Spouse Living Together In A 400 sq.ft. RV” or maybe it was “Staying Married & Happy In An RV”, or something like that.

While Jan was learning to count to 10 before tasering me, I went shopping in the Vendor area. BTW I don’t think the ‘counting to 10’ thing is so she’ll calm down and reconsider tasering me, I think she just wants to give me a headstart to be fair about the whole thing.

Anyway, I went ahead and bought the new TireTraker Tire Pressure Monitoring System that I had my eye on.

Unlike my other system, the batteries in the tire sensors are replaceable, so they don’t have to be sent back to the factory for service every three or four years or so. I’ll let you know how it works.

We were supposed to have the Pizza Party at 6pm, but the pizza showed up at 5:30. So they had to get on the fairground PA system to let everyone know to come and get it early before it got cold.

It’s really amazing how well this was organized. All 300 or so people were fed in less than 15 minutes. Almost like magic.

And there were plenty of seconds (and thirds) for anyone who wanted it.

Finally about 8pm, we all decided we needed a Dairy Queen fix so off we went to our local hangout. We’ve been there so many times, they now recognize us when we come in the door.

Or at least the girls behind the counter ran and hid.

I’m not really sure what that’s all about.

Tomorrow will hopefully be a slightly less hectic day, although Jan had 8am front gate duty again, so no sleeping in.

March 9, 2012

Leaving Yuma . . . almost.

Today was the final wrap-up of this year’s rally, finishing up with coffee and donuts, and a lot of hugs and goodbyes. All the attendees were supposed to be off the fairgrounds by noon, so the exodus soon started, with some lining up at the dump station before heading home, or just back on the road.

But luckily for us, a number of people stayed around long enough to help us clean up the main hall by stacking the tables and chairs, and then sweeping the floor.

Then it was our turn to head back to the rig and pack things up to travel. Normally we hang around for a few days at the fairgrounds while they wrap things up with the rally. But there’s a horse show coming into the fairgrounds right after us today so we have to be gone by 5pm ourselves.

We all pulled out a little after 2pm and headed down the road . . . about 15 miles away to the Foothills area east of Yuma. We had been invited to spend a few days on Daryl and Cheri Lawrence’s RV lot while I helped them out with some website stuff, as well as helping out Charles and Chris Yust who are also parked here.

After I got our rig parked and hooked up, we all sat around in the shade and just had a great time talking. Then a little before 7, Chris Yust and Cheri Lawrence set out a great dinner with grilled halibut Chris caught in Alaska, grilled shrimp from Galveston Bay, with baked potatoes, salad, and French bread, along with cupcakes for dessert.

And here’s the cook, Chris, hard at work.

And when the food is laid out, the crowd closes in, kind of like a pack of hyenas surrounding a limping antelope. You just know it’s not going to be pretty.

Tomorrow, I’ll be working with Daryl and Chris on website stuff, and hopefully we’ll also be able to visit the Yuma Indoor Flea Market. We’ll see.

March 9, 2013

YAY! Jan’s Home . . .

After cleaning up the RV, sweeping up all the stripper glitter, and getting rid of all the liquor bottles and other evidence of the partying that went on while Jan was gone, I headed out for Gina’s about 11am. Along the way, I stopped off at the DQ in Startzville to pick up a couple of her favorite Strawberry Malts to take with me.

I got to Gina’s about 1pm, and after getting all of Jan’s stuff loaded up, we headed out for home. But since Jan hadn’t had lunch yet, we drove over to Milagro’s to have a late lunch of Shrimp Enchiladas for Jan and a Ground Beef Taco Salad for me. And it was the usual great meal we got here.

Then it was back on the road to Medina Lake. Then just after we crossed US281 at Spring Branch, we made a Starbuck’s stop for a couple of Cinnamon Dolce Lattes, our favorites.

Along the way, we passed this entrance to a high-end subdivision. Someone really wanted this road cut through solid rock and spent a lot of money doing it.

And from the road, you can see it winds all the way up the mountain that way.

$$$$$

Getting into Boerne, I made a couple of quick stops at RadioShack and Home Depot before getting back to the rig about 5pm. And boy, were the cats happy to see her.

And so were the deer. Jan went out pretty quickly and started putting out the food for them, and they came from everywhere. You’d think I hadn’t been feeding them while she was gone.

Jan’s sister Debbie sent over another snow-covered bird feeder photo.

Too much snow for my taste.

Tomorrow we drive over to San Antonio for some shopping before we head out for Balmorhea, TX on Monday morning.

March 9, 2014

Problem Found, Solution to Come . . .

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that while she was shopping at the Tractor Supply Store, she found her new favorite shirt.

And to see why it’s her favorite, you have to see this close-up. It’s called ‘Girls Just Want To Have Guns’.

After getting up about 11am (Hey, it was really 10, and I didn’t go to bed until after 2am.), I went through some more bins and started putting away some stuff getting us ready to move tomorrow.

We plan on leaving about 10am or so and making the 120 mile trip over to the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails for a two-week stay, and then we’ll come back here for two weeks.

About 3:45 we picked up Lynette and Gregg McHenry and headed up to Peter’s BBQ in Ellinger for an early dinner. This was our second visit since we’ve been here, and it was as good as before. Jan got a sliced brisket sandwich plate, and I got a double meat (brisket and ribs) plate. The plate part means you have access to their great sides bar. With about 10 different delicious vegetable selections and several desserts, it all makes for a great meal. We certainly plan another visit when we’re back in the area.

We got back to the rig about 5pm, and then, crossing my fingers, I cranked up the rig and tried to bring in the slide as a test, hoping that the greasing that I had done a few days ago would have solved the problem that I had bringing in the slide two weeks ago before we left Galveston Bay RV Resort. (that sentence ran longer than I thought).

But I still had the same problem. The slide would pull in normally on the front end, but not enough on the back end, causing the slide to try and pivot around the rear end. At this point, I again started sliding my 3’ ruler underneath the cabinet, and unlike last time, this time I kept hitting something under there. And it turned out to be this.

A piece of the Corian floor tile that had come loose and was jamming the cabinet end of the slide and keeping it from coming in. So now the problem was solved.

NOT!

Although it now moved easier, it still wanted to run crooked. About this time Gregg McHenry showed up and figured out that, hidden under the grease and gunk, the shear pin on that side of the drive was sheared. Apparently the gear was tight enough on the shaft that it would move that end of the slide a little before it started slipping.

By this time it was starting to get dark, and since we didn’t have enough time to knock the other half of the pin out, and then get everything lined up, and had no replacement shear pins anyway, we decided to just push the slide in manually, and worry about it at Lake Conroe. As far as the shear pins, I’ll stop at the Camping World that we pass by, and hopefully, pick some up.

March 9, 2015

BBQ and A Bucket . . .

After our coffee this morning, Jan and I walked over to the Market Building to look around some more. Then since it was getting close to lunch time, and Jan wanted to eat before the 11:30 seminar she was going to, we decided to have quesadillas from the food truck parked in front of the building, so Jan had a plain cheese one and I had a really good Chicken and Bacon one.

I was working on my own seminar, “Gate Guarding for Fun? and Profit” that will be held Wednesday at 11:30am in Old Pueblo Hall’s Seminar Room 1. I haven’t given this seminar since the rally back in September of 2012. And we’ve gate guarded twice more since them, and learned a lot more, too.

Jan came back to the rig for a while before heading back over to her next seminar.

When Jan got back about 2:30, we headed out on some errands, dropping a big bag of trash off as we left the fairgrounds. Sure hope they empty the dumpsters soon because the one we used was brimming over with trash.

Our main chore was to get the truck washed. We got it washed a day or so before we left Houston, but with about a thousand miles since we left, and a lot of rain and mud along the way, a wash was really needed.

The place we used, Octopus Car Wash, did a really nice job, especially the wheels and the fender wells, areas a lot of places don’t do very well.

Coming back toward the park, we stopped off at the new Dunkin’ Donuts to pick up a couple of dozen Munchkins (holes) to have for breakfast with our coffee over the next week or so

Getting back to the rig, I carried the shower bucket over to a nearby bathroom to empty it. A shower bucket is a kitty litter bucket we keep in the shower when we’re boondocking like this with no sewer connection. You’d be surprised how much water runs down the drain just waiting for the water to get warm in the shower. So we run it into the bucket until it’s warm, and then every 3 or 4 days I dump it out. Works for us, and keeps our grey water tank from filling up so fast.

A little after 5pm we drove over for dinner up at Brushfire BBQ. We’ve really liked this place in the past, but for some reason it just didn’t click with us tonight.

It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t as good as we remembered. Or maybe we just remembered it better than it really was.

March 9, 2016

I want one!

Well, as forecast for today, the weather was pretty much non-stop heavy rain, interspersed with bouts of even heavier rain. And it looks to be the same for the next couple of days.

We didn’t try to leave the park today, but if we had, it might have even been worse than back in December when the bridge coming into this park looked like this.

Some places in Texas have reported rainfalls of over 10” so I guess we’re pretty lucky so far.

With all the rain, I didn’t get a chance to try out my slobber tube collection can idea for our rig’s oil spraying problem, but this is what I came up with.

I plan on punching a couple of holes in the top of the can and use a piece of coat hanger to hold it in place and away from the oil pan and the engine.

Then I’ll slip a length of the heavy vinyl tubing up over the slobber tube shown below and let it rest in the bottom of the can.

I’ll have more photos when I finish it up.

For dinner tonight we had Baked Spaghetti from Crusty’s Pizza in Camp Verde, AZ, just south of the Verde Valley Thousand Trails. No, it wasn’t long-distance delivery or take-out, but just a vacuum-sealed bag from the freezer.

Before we left Verde Valley last July, we picked up several of their Baked Spaghetti Dinners to vacuum-seal and freeze for later. ‘

We had a couple of them while we were on the gate last year, and this is the last one.

And heated up, along with some cheese and grilled bread, it was a great meal, and a nice reminder of our time at Verde Valley.

I got an email from Passport America this evening, announcing a new program. Join now through April 30, 2016 and get 4 extra FREE months on your membership.

Just click on the ad above and follow the directions on how to enter my PPA membership number on your signup form. Don’t miss out on this great deal.

Jan and I have been members of Passport America since we first started RV’ing in 2008, and have probably saved thousands of dollars in those 8 years, using it at RV parks from Alaska to Quebec and Nova Scotia, and down to the Keys, and over California.

And when we stayed in the Keys in 2009, we were saving $45 a day at a $90 a day park, so just one day’s savings paid for our year’s membership. Check it out.

I came across this article the other day on recent advances on the rocket belt/jetpack front from a new company, Jetpack Aviation. Unlike most previous models, this one, the JB-9, uses small jet turbines.

But the big advance is in the duration of the flight. The best of the original versions, the RB 2000, could fly for only 30 seconds, but even the test flight shown in the video below flew for over a minute.

Even better, this new version is supposed to have a flight duration of 10 minutes, a top speed of over 120 mph, and an altitude ceiling of 10,000 feet.

And most importantly, a built-in parachute in case things go horribly wrong. Especially important if you’re a mile or so up. I want one!

OK, so now where’s my flying car?

March 9, 2017

One Last Time . . .

For one last time we were out the door at 8:15 for the two-hour drive down to Clear Lake for our last two Dr. appointments.

Mine at 10:30 was a redo with my GP to repeat some blood work that gave some anomalous results. There seems to be some disagreement between two different blood testing companies.

In Jan’s case, she had blood work done at her oncologist, and then 8 days later, the same blood work was done at our GP. Tested by two different companies, they show a couple of major discrepancies. Levels that were outside the norm on one were firmly in the middle of the normal range from the other lab.

It’s kind of like the saying “A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure.” So which lab do you base any treatments on?

Although my appointment was at 10:30, I didn’t get called in until after 11:15, which meant that when I got out at 12:15, we didn’t have time to have lunch one last time at King Food before Jan’s endocrinologist appointment at 1pm.

So our Plan B was the nearby Whataburger as soon as Jan was finished. Not a bad Plan B.

Then it was on over to our son Chris’ for goodbye hugs. And it was our good luck that Miss Piper was there too. So we got double hugs!

We were back on the road to Columbus by 2:45, managing to stay mostly ahead of the Houston going-home traffic. Along the way we called our friend and Colorado River park ranger, Barbara Spade, to meet us at the Los Cuco’s Mexican Restaurant in Columbus for dinner.

Since Jan and I had eaten about three hours earlier, we just shared a Fajita Mexicanas Platter for one. A great time, great food, and Barbara was nice enough to treat us.

It doesn’t get much better than that.

Heading home we made a quick stop at HEB for a couple of things before getting back to the coach about 6:30.

Tomorrow we have a 250-mile trip to Junction, TX, the first stop on our way to Tucson. Really getting the hitch itch.

There is a possibility that there will be no blog tomorrow night. Phone/Data service has always been very spotty there in the past, so we’ll see if there’s been any improvement.

March 9, 2018

Nailed It !

I went into work this morning still trying to figure out how to fix my SSL certificate problem. While I was off yesterday I spent a lot of time working my way through the server trying to locate the folder where the SSL certs were stored. And it was slow going continuing at work this morning.

But finally, a little after noon, I thought I had it worked out. So after figuring out how to stop the webserver, I started moving the new SSL files that I had downloaded from Godaddy into the SSL area on the server.

This was a two-step process, involving downloading the files to my PC, SSH’ing them to the Linux machine, moving them into the SSL area, and then renaming the old files from XXXX.crt to XXXX.crt.2017. Finishing up, I renamed the new files to the correct names.

Then crossing my fingers, I restarted the server.

And it failed.

But it gave me an error message that led me to what needed to be corrected. So then it was fix it, cross fingers, and restart.

And it failed . . .  again.

But did make it a little further and left me another error message.

So fix, cross, restart.

And it failed again. But this time, no error message.  ???

So I went back over things several times but I could find nothing wrong.

To be sure I hadn’t screwed something else up, I put all the 2017 files back in place and once again restarted.

And it worked. So I hadn’t screwed up with that.

So, making a list of questions,  I got on the phone with Godaddy and luckily got a Linux expert. After going over what I’d done, and what I had, he questioned a couple of the files that I had listed. He said something wasn’t right, and they shouldn’t be there, and would interfere with the initial setup of the new SSL files.

So I moved the files in question out of that folder, then cross, restart . . .

and it worked.

And when I went to the website, the Not Secure message was gone.

YAY!

The Godaddy guy and I tried to figure out why those files were in that folder. They couldn’t have been there last year when the 2017 SSL files were installed. And in fact the file dates showed they had been copied over in May 2017.

If I was just a little more paranoid, I’d might just think it was to sabotage anyone who came along after him. Of course, he died so it didn’t help.

Now that I’ve got root access to the server, I can get back to my original task which is to move the website off this in-house and up to Godaddy in the cloud.

For dinner tonight we had has become our usual Friday night meal at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, starting of course, with a dozen raw oysters. But since this batch was a little small, we actually got 14 instead of 12. Nice.

After dinner, we stopped by our son Chris’ for our mail and Sam’s Club for a prescription, and then it was back home for the night.

March 9, 2019

It Was Fun While It Lasted …

And Cheaper too!

The weather held off long enough for me to get one of my rig’s windshield wipers replaced, which involved replacing the hardware on the wiper arms themselves. But when I have to replace them next time, probably two years from now, it will only take me a couple of minutes per wiper, rather than the hour or so that it has taken in the past.

We headed out about 1pm with our first stop at Cheddars for lunch, our usual Key West Chicken & Shrimp for Jan, and the Veggie Plate with a bowl of Chicken Tortilla Soup for me.  Then it was a quick stop at my client’s for some Amazon stuff that came in after I left work yesterday.

After that it was right down the street to the HEB to pick up some of their Lola Savannah Texas Pecan Coffee, and a couple of things for Jan. Next up was a stop at WalMart and then Sam’s Club for a prescription and a fill-up for the truck.

Just a month or so ago, gas here was $1.74. Then last week it was $1.88. And today it was up to $2.05. Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Tomorrow morning we’re meeting some good friends for breakfast at the IHOP over in Seabrook. Now Jan and I are not really morning ‘breakfast’ people. We’re more early or late afternoon ‘breakfast’ people. So you can tell that they’re REALLY, REALLY good friends since we’re meeting them at 8:45 in the morning.

I mentioned earlier that our idea to extend our stays in Paris and London had fallen victim to scheduling and, well, more money than we really wanted to pay due to cancellation charges.

But as usual, we have a backup plan. We’re going to forget about staying extra days in Paris, and concentrate on a possible London extension for the 3 days. It then basically just depends on getting the flight home changed without paying United’s outrageous ticket change fees. So we’ll play it by ear once we’re there, maybe by getting ourselves bumped to a later flight.

We’ll see.

Several readers have asked about our cruise route, so here’s a map,

It’s 3 rivers, the Danube, the Main, and the Rhine, 5 countries, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, Germany, and The Netherlands, and 13 stops in 15 days.

Don’t forget to Spring Forward tonight/tomorrow morning.

March 9, 2020

Only The Lonely . . .

I spent today at work trying to recover a corrupted InDesign file. Last week I made a price change to our catalog, saved the file, and then tried to generate a PDF file from it, which is what we print the catalog from.

But now I just get an error message and then InDesign shuts down. And it does the same thing if I just try to print the file directly from InDesign instead of from a PDF.

I think I’ve figured out to fix the problem, but I’ll have to do it one page at a time, for a 133 page document. Fun!

Brandi set over a photograph of the finished version of Landon’s New York City Skyline puzzle.

This puzzle has almost 1500 pieces, smaller than 1/8”, and needs a special pair of tweezers to build.

And Landon did a great job on it.

March 9, 2021

Are The Seven Dwarfs Next?

Jan and I were on the road up to the Snooze in Webster a little before 1pm, for a tasty start to an errand day.

Jan got her usual Bravocado Toast, the reason we come here, at least for her.

Though I have occasionally veered off to Snooze’s Shrimp and Grits, I went with my usual 3 Egg Classic Breakfast, with Bacon, Fruit, and a Grilled English Muffin.

Then it was on up Bay Area Blvd. to make an office stop to pick up some Amazon stuff that came in yesterday after I left.

Then we made a stop at the big HEB down on 96 to pick up some things. Jan likes their fresh-made meals, so she wanted to pick up some extra to take up to Brandi’s in Katy for her house-sitting gig.

Next up was the always-necessary WalMart stop for a few more things, before heading home, with a stop at Cowboy Coffee for Cold, Blended Sugar-Free Hazelnut Cappuccinos with Almond Milk and Sugar-Free Whipped Cream.

Perfect for sitting out on the patio and listening to the wind chimes after we got home and put the groceries away.

First they came for Gone With The Wind, and now it’s Dumbo, Peter Pan, Animal House and Dr. Seuss.  And Pepe Le Pew has been cut from the new Space Jam 2 movie because he’s now designated a ‘stalker/rapist’.

Can Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs be far behind?

So when are the mandated Book Burnings scheduled to start?

I find it kind of entertaining to listen carefully to prescription drug ads on TV, where they list all the side effects. And it’s amazing how it often seems the side effects are as bad, or even worse than the disease that it’s treating.

Or the birth control method that says in fine print at the bottom of the screen that it’s 93% effective when used correctly and 86% effective with typical use.

There’s a name for the women who use this birth control method for any length of time.

Mothers.

Recently, the long-awaited trailer for the long-delayed new Top Gun movie with Tom Cruise reprising his role as Maverick.

And what could be better than this trailer?

How about the same trailer, done in Legos?

And even better, how about a comparison of the two trailers?

Really neat, but do you ever get the feeling that some people have too much time on their hands?

And here’s a really amazing video of an artist who paints 3D illusions on trees. Almost unbelievable.

March 9, 2022

No More Catching . . .

A few months back I mentioned that I had purchased this WiFi-Controlled Water Faucet Switch so that I could turn off/on the shore water without going outside. But it was only yesterday that I got around to getting it set up and installed.

B-Hyve Smart Faucet Switch

And it was probably the easiest setup of a WiFi/Internet device I’ve come across. But that did not extend to adding to my Alexa system.

I tried following their guide which didn’t work at all, so I tried a couple of other ways I’ve used in the past, finally getting it to where Alexa recognized the commands and says it had turned the switch on, but it didn’t work.

But I could still turn the switch on/off manually. So this morning I sent an email to the company’s tech support to ask for help.

What I got back was from ‘Matthew’, who said, “I do not have any access to any of the Alexa app information but I can help you out the best I can with getting your Alexa compatibility to show up in our app.”

So he knows less about it than I do, but he’s going to help?

I’ll let you know how it goes.

A couple of weeks ago when we were coming back from Spring after meeting up with our friends Debi and Ed, I glanced over at the location of The Catch just north of Almeda Mall, and thought I saw a For Lease sign on the storefront. And when I checked after we got home, I found that, unfortunately, I was right. According to Google, it is Permanently Closed.

It always seemed busy when we were there, but it was kind of hard to get there. You had to work at it.

I know they were looking for a location down in our area, so I hope this closing doesn’t put the kibosh on that.

March 9, 2023

See, Beans Do Belong . . .

After a lazy morning, Jan and I headed up to Webster to meet up with long-time friends, aka The Alvin Group, some of whom we’ve known since the mid-80’s.

We usually rotate around to different places, and this month was the Saltgrass Steakhouse once again.

Jan and I both got the Wedge Salad, but I got mine as my entrée while Jan got hers first before her steak.

Jan’s the 9 oz. Center Cut Filet, with the Green Beans, along with some creamy horseradish.

For my ‘salad’ course, I started everything off with a bowl of the Chicken Tortilla Soup before moving on to my Wedge Salad.

Really good, especially after I picked all the avocado out to give to Jan.

And here’s the motley group.

Then on the way home we WalMart’ed once again before getting back to the rig about 5:15.

And chalked up another nice day.

And now, just to stir up things, there’s this.

Texas red chili purists are wrong. Beans do belong in chili, and historically, they’ve always been there

An article in the Sept. 14, 1877 edition of the Fort Scott Daily Monitor penned by an anonymous writer visiting San Antonio from Kansas gives one of the earliest published descriptions of chili.

“Speaking of hot things, at San Antonio they have a dish called chili con carne,” the article reads. “It is of Mexican origin, and is composed of beef, peas, gravy and red pepper. It is awful seductive looking, and gives a fellow the idea that he has a soft thing on hash. They always have enough to go around, for no stranger, no matter how terrific a durned fool he is, ever calls for a second dish. He almost always calls for a big cistern full of water, and you can’t put the water in him fast enough with a steam engine hose.”

The historian wrote that bean’s were often called ‘peas’ back then.

So let the Bean Wars began.

Again.

March 9, 2024

Yesterday And Today . . .

Jan’s been on a peacock earring kick later, but these are some past ones, given to her by our son-in-law Lowell’s sister, Landon’s Aunt Sherry.

A real favorite of Jan’s.

Anne?

Last night’s Alvin Opry visit started out at our usual dinner stop, the Monterey’s Mexican Kitchen just up the road from the American Legion Hall where the Opry is held each month.

It was really nice to see a couple of performers that we know from the old Alvin Opry, Kevin Tippie,

and Liz Talley.

Kevin did a great job, as did Liz.

We had always known Liz as a singer, which she still is. But we didn’t know how good a drummer she was, while she was sitting in for Matt Reed, our usual drummer.

And she did a fantastic job with Jerry Lee Lewis’ Great Balls of Fire.

Good to see both of them again.

But we also saw a couple of newcomers to the Alvin Opry. First up was Ronnie Comas, who was up from the Victoria area, and did a great job, especially with Travis Tritt’s Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde.

But the second newcomer, Ella B, turned out to be a real star.

And a very talented fiddler.

Presently 14, she started on the violin at the age of 3, using the Suzuki method, and then started fiddling in 2016.

And she got the biggest hand of the night, with her rendition of Orange Blossom Special, which is played faster and faster.

You can check out her performance at another Opry here.

And by the end, her fingers were just a blur.

And she can sing too, doing a really good job fiddling and singing Hank William’s Jambalaya.

I told Jan it would have been a standing ovation, but most of the audience was too old to get up very fast. But the outburst of applause seemed to startle her.

A star in the making.

Then it was on to Jan’s heartthrob, John Mark Davis.

John Mark is the son of an Indian Chief (Chief Rufus Davis of the Adia Caddo Indians of Louisiana).

John Mark always puts on a great show, and last night was no exception. And he always ends the show with Running Bear, with the audience singing along, and giving the Indian war whoops.

And he also does a hilarious version of Please Mister Custer, I Don’t Wanna Go.

Always a great time.

Catching up with today, we started off with lunch at Los Ramirez Mexican, with Jan’s Pechuga Rellena,

a Cheese-covered Grilled Chicken Breast on a layer of Grilled Shrimp and Broccoli.

My choice is always the Beef Fajita Taco Salad, which starts out looking like this.

But by the time I added lettuce/tomato garnish from Jan’s plate (she doesn’t like it), and then topped it with their green sauce as a dressing, it looked like this.

Always delicious!

Tomorrow is back to our usual schedule, with lunch at Denny’s and then our weekly HEB stop.