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Pumpkins, Pumpkins, Pumpkins . . .

Today started off great and then got better. Unlike yesterday, which started off great and then went downhill fast.

First off, it went down into the low 60’s last night, which meant it was cool enough this morning to sit outside and drink our coffee on the patio. The first time in a year or so.

Really nice!

And it looks like we’ll be able to do it again tomorrow morning, too.

* * * * * * *

We headed out about 12:30 with our first stop at our storage room to pick up our small suitcases. I guess the last time we used them was during our New York City trip in December 2019, but we only found Jan’s, so mine must be in our storeroom here at the rig. I’ll check tomorrow.

* * * * * * *

Then it was on up the Interstate to have lunch at Kelley’s Country Cookin’ once again.

Jan, of course, got her usual Fiesta Chicken, covered in Mushrooms, Onions, and Cheese.

And she had half to bring home.

I got a big bowl of the Vegetable Beef Soup, which is just full of big chunks of Beef.

Really, really good.

Jan, as usual this time of year, was wearing one of her many Halloween T-Shirts.

And of course, Jan’s Earrings of the Day.

* * * * * * *

Then it was on up to Webster to stop off at the office to pick up a package of Jan’s that had come in this morning. We had it sent there because we weren’t sure if it would come in before we left on our trip. And we didn’t want it lying out in front of the rig all the time we were gone.

* * * * * * *

After that, we drove back over toward the Clear Lake Shores because Jan wanted some photos of this house with all the pumpkins.

There’s about 300 feet of pumpkins along the roadway, and in every tree in the yard.

It’s just pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins.

My question was, where do they keep all these the rest of the year?

Finishing up, it was back over to our area for our HEB stuff and then home.

Like I said, a much nicer finish than yesterday.

* * * * * * *

Tomorrow we’ll probably just do Gator’s for lunch, and that’s it.

Thought For The Day:

Sacrificing History –

Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2008 – More Scenes From Our Alaska Travels

2012 – Wakefield, Pizza, and Mt. Vernon

2017 – Powerball and Poultry

2018 – Unicorns and Rainbows

2020 – Making Up For Yesterday

2021 – Wings Over Houston Wrap-Up

2022- Super Heavy

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

October 11, 2008

More Scenes From Our Alaska Travels

October 11, 2009

Lazy Day Sunday…

Today started out with a late breakfast at Cracker Barrel.

At least this time we beat the lunch rush.

After Cracker Barrel, we drove over to Menards. Menards is a chain we’ve encountered before here in the Midwest. It’s kind of a cross between a Home Depot and a Tractor Supply Store, with a little Walmart thrown in.

Jan was looking for some storage containers, and I was looking for a drain-cleaning brush.

I found my brush, but Jan’s still looking for the right-size container.

October 11, 2010

Monkey Butt . . .

Jan left about 7 am, driving Brandi’s car to pick her and Landon up for a doctor’s appointment. She did this so I wouldn’t have to get up so early to drive her over there.

Thanks, Sweetie!

I left at 10 to head back over to my client in Pearland for several hours. In the meantime, Jan and Brandi ate lunch downtown after her appointment and then came home, where I picked her up about 3 pm.

But before heading back to the rig, we stopped off at Spec’s to pick up a couple of bottles of wine for our dinner invitation tonight. It’s called Monkey Bay, and it’s from New Zealand. We just call it Monkey Butt.

It’s funnier after 3 or 4 glasses.

A little before 6, we headed up to Pasadena for dinner with our friend Barbara Cutsinger. She had invited us over to dinner, and while I was there, she wanted me to look at a problem with her laptop.

We had a great time and a great meal. We always enjoy getting together with her.

We got home a little before 10, and that was it for a long day.

I thought I was supposed to be retired. This is too much like work.

October 11, 2011

Bagels and Pizza . . .

Today was a travel day, so I was up at 7:30, got the coffee started, and then went outside to pack away the satellite stuff and stow the chairs.

By the time I came back inside, it was 8 am, and time to wake my sweetie.

After coffee and cinnamon bagels, we finished packing up inside just in time to spend some time with Amy and her family when they came over to say goodbye. We really feel like we’ve found a second home here and look forward to coming back for a visit next year.

Amy’s family will all be spending the winter in Florida, so they’ll get some extra time together this winter.

Jan and I are jealous.

Finally, about 10:30, we were hitched up and heading out of Smith’s Campground on our way back to Elkhart, IN, for a couple of weeks before we started making our way back to Houston for the winter.

The trip was pretty smooth except for a couple of times when the map and my GPS routing didn’t agree, so we ended up trundling through a couple of neighborhoods to get back on track, with no real problems.

We got into Elkhart Campground about 3:30 and got set up in our usual site. By 4 pm, we were heading out to our favorite local pizza place, Mancino’s. Since we didn’t stop for lunch, we were pretty hungry, and the pizza and garlic breadsticks really hit the spot.

Finally getting home, I got the satellite set up, and we were in for the night.

October 11, 2012

Wakefield, Pizza, and Mt. Vernon . . .

You may remember the new moose that Jan bought a couple of weeks ago.

Turns out that Mister likes it too.

About noon, we all headed out, first to visit Wakefield, the George Washington’s Birthplace National Monument, located about 10 miles south of where we’re parked.

This is a replica house, built in the 1930’s, on the foundation of what was thought at the time to be Washington’s birthplace. But it turns out that this was the second house built in this area.

Further excavations in the 1970’s found the actual foundations of Washington’s birth house about 100 yards southeast of the house above.

You can see them outlined in white below.

We were told the rooms are furnished with pieces of furniture from the era, although Jan and I wondered about this because the dining room chairs shown below are identical down to the fabric of the ones we had in our sticks & bricks. So who knows?

The canopy bed below is one of only two pieces in the house that actually belonged to the Washington family.

This is the outside kitchen located about 15 yards away from the main house. This was done for safety reasons because of the fire danger.

And this was the weaving room. Unfortunately, it was locked, and we could only look through the window.

This is the view of Pope’s Creek and the nearby Potomac River. Like the view from the porch at Mt. Vernon, it’s humbling to look out at this scene and know that George Washington once stood here and looked out at this same view.

One thing we noticed is that there are squirrels everywhere here. And they’re pretty fearless, sitting right in front of you and staring right back at you.

Leaving Wakefield, we headed south about 10 miles down to Montross to check out Angelo’s Pizza, a place recommended by several of our blog readers. And boy was it good!

My pizza was some of the best pizza I’ve ever eaten. And Jan loved hers too.

I had the Combo Baked Spaghetti with sausage, pepperoni, mushrooms, and meatballs.

Delicious!

And we had some great baklava for dessert. We agreed we wanted to come back.

Coming back to the park, I was hoping to pick up an Amazon package from the office, but they were already closed, so that’s for tomorrow.

Tomorrow, we’re looking forward to visiting Stratford Hall, Robert E. Lee’s birthplace. As it turns out, there are a lot of ‘birthplaces’ around here. James Monroe’s is right down the road, but it’s already closed for the season. So maybe next year.

October 11, 2014

They Roam in Packs . . .

Well, the frack equipment really started moving in today, with our vehicle count jumping up to 224 for the 24 hours, roughly one vehicle every 6 minutes or so. Now that doesn’t seem too bad, and it wouldn’t be, except it doesn’t work like that.

Because, like I’ve said before, they roam in packs. I will have nothing for 15 minutes, and then suddenly I’ve got ten trucks lined up trying to get in. And of course, this is the perfect time for six trucks to try and leave, all on our little one-lane road, and all at the same time.

Then the opposing sides play ‘chicken’, trying to decide who’s going to have to back up or pull off to the side. But pulling off to the side was very risky today because of all the rain we had this morning, turning the road shoulders to muck.

But we’d finally get it all worked out, and then 15 minutes later, do it all again. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.

The way the rain started this morning was kind of weird. It had been nice all night, short-sleeved weather, about 74°, and then a few minutes after 5 am, it suddenly got very cold, almost a 10° drop. No wind, just cold.

Then, after about 10 more minutes, the winds really kicked up, with some very strong gusts. Finally, after about another 30 minutes, it started raining. And kept at it pretty much all day. Yuck!

One thing I’ve noticed about rain in this area is the way the roads handle it. Down south of San Antonio, where we gate guarded the last two years, the oil lease roads are all made from caliche, a form of limestone. It makes a very hard road, very strong, as it gets packed down.

But let it rain, and the surface turns to . . . well, one guy described it as ‘slicker ‘n snot’. Crude, but very descriptive. It’s almost like trying to walk on ice. And then after it gets in your boot treads and it dries, you have to chip it out with a screwdriver because it’s hardened like concrete. No fun.

But the roads up here are obviously made differently, and don’t seem to have the ‘snot’ problem. That’s a good thing.

When Jan retired at the end of November 2007, she took off her watch and didn’t put it back on for 5 years, and that was when we started gate guarding in 2012. So now it gets used about 3 months a year.

But when she pulled it out this year, of course, the battery was dead. It took a while to find the right one, but I finally found one and installed it the other day. And the watch ran great . . . for about two days. I pulled the new battery out and put in the 2nd one in the pack, with no luck. Bummer.

Then I thought about the ‘magic fluid’, Strike Hold. I was first introduced to this stuff at an RV rally in Goshen, IN, this past year, when I saw a guy put his hands in a vat of it with a lit bulb, unscrew it, and then screw it back in.

I had to have some of this.

Turns out that it was developed for the US military to clean weapons and keep them lubricated without attracting dirt. And it’s also really good at cleaning electrical contacts and circuits.

A couple of months ago, I pulled out our Kindle Fire and found it would not charge. Googling, I found it was a known problem with the power connection in the Kindle, and Amazon would replace your Kindle under warranty. Well, my Fire was almost two years old, so that was out. Then I thought about Strike Hold, and thought I’d give it a try. Didn’t have anything to lose.

I stood the Fire on its end and sprayed a couple of squirts of Strike Hold down in the connector and let it sit overnight. Next morning, I plugged in the charger cable, and presto, it started charging.

So I decided to give it a try on Jan’s watch. I popped the back off, removed the battery, and thoroughly soaked the insides with Strike Hold. After letting it sit for about an hour, I turned it over to let it drain.

Then, after a couple of more hours, I put the battery back in and the back on, and presto, it started working again.

Like I said, Strike Hold, The Magic Fluid. Give it a try for what ails you.

October 11, 2015

Dang Cold Mule . . .

Well, I think I’ve figured out that my ‘lazy’ Mule isn’t ‘lazy’ after all. He’s just cold.

After last night’s blog post, I was thinking about what was causing one of my Mighty Mule Driveway Alarms not to work at night, when it worked perfectly in the daytime, especially now that I moved it a little closer to us. Then, in one of those ‘Doh’ moments, I realized what the problem had to be.

It was cold.

Up until recently, our nighttime temps have been the 70’s, with dips into the high 60’s. But in the last week or two, the temps have started dropping into the 50’s, at least for a few hours. So yesterday I had Jan start noting the time it stopped working and then started up again. And last night was a great test. Especially with tonight as a comparison.

Last night’s low was in the low 50’s, and the 82° day temp started dropping fast as soon as the sun went down. When I came out at 11 pm, Jan said it hadn’t been working for a while, and it never worked all night for me.

But about 9:30 this morning, Jan said it suddenly started working again, and it was fine all day. Now, at 8 am this morning, the temperature here was 55°, but by 10 am it was 75. So somewhere in there, the unit warmed up enough to start working again.

The real proof, however, is that tonight, at midnight, it’s still working. Because the temperature is 72 degrees right now. It’s supposed to go down to between 65 and 68 degrees later tonight, so I’ll see if it drops out in that range.

Of course, at the same time, my other Mule is still working fine, hot or cold. So tomorrow I’ll call the company to see about getting a replacement transmitter.

I recounted last week how much trouble I had checking out at a Shreveport Wal-Mart using my new ‘chipped’ VISA debit card. BTW, when you use your ‘chipped’ card in one of the new readers, it’s called ‘dipping’. Chips and Dip, get it?

No? I didn’t think much of it, either.

Anyway, apparently, I’m not the only one having problems with these cards and readers. Check it out here. Chip Card Problems

I’m just glad to see that the Carthage Wal-Mart still hasn’t started using the new readers, even though they have them installed.

Wrapping up, once again today, we did 55 vehicles coming in the gate. It’ll be interesting to see if this is the norm from now on, or just a weekend thing.

We’ll see. Either way, it was nice.

October 11, 2016

Strike-Hold Strikes Again . . .

Last week, I mentioned having a problem with the rig’s rear right turn signal. Of course, I figured it was probably the bulb, especially since in the 8 years we’ve owned our rig, we’ve never had any outside bulbs burn out. So it was about time.

But when I removed the lens and pulled the bulb, it looked fine. But just in case, I tested it with my ohmmeter. Yep, still good.

So today I pulled out the big gun, the wonder fluid, Strike-Hold, fixer of all things electrical. And a lot of other stuff too.

I’ve used Strike-Hold to resurrect a Kindle PaperWhite that would no longer charge, and a number of other devices, so I had big hopes this time too. And once again it came through. I turned on the emergency flashers and went outside. After a quick spray of S-H in the socket, I plugged the bulb in, and it was now working. Done.

Since I was on an electrical bent, next up, I replaced the truck battery with the new one I got at Sam’s Club yesterday. Since I had already sprayed all the terminals and hold-down screws with PB Blaster yesterday, everything came loose pretty quickly.

So I had the old one out and the new one in in only about 15 minutes. And after spraying the terminals with Battery Terminal Protectant, I was done.

The only hitch was one of those little things that just strike me as stupid. There are three nuts on the battery and the mount. One on the negative terminal, one on the positive terminal, and one on the hold-down bolt.

And all three are a different size. An 8mm, a 9mm, and a 10mm. So what, they can’t standardize? It takes 3 different sockets to take the battery out?

Tomorrow I’ll take the old battery back to Sam’s and get my $18 core charge back.

I mentioned yesterday that a prospective new website client, Asian BBQ & Grill, was interested in my setting up an online ordering system for take-out orders.

Since I had never done this before, and didn’t really know anything about it, I told him, of course, I could do it with no problem. LOL.

It wouldn’t be the first time over the years I’ve done this, and so far I’ve always come through. Once, I took a consulting job to reprogram the CNC computer system in a machine shop. CNC stands for Computer Numerical Control and is the programming language that runs routers, lathes, milling machines, and others.

This was on a Thursday, and since it was a 3-day weekend coming up, I told him I’d be back on Tuesday. Then, on my way home, I stopped off at Barnes and Noble and picked up 4 books on CNC programming, from beginner to advanced. By Tuesday, I was an expert, at least in book learning. But I was able to complete the job ahead of schedule, and the client was happy.

Jan says I like to ride that ragged edge. So true.

But with a little research last night on ordering systems, I came up with this one. And you can give it a try for yourself.

www.pronto-ny.com

It’s a dummy version that lets you order from an Italian restaurant. When you’re done and check out, you will get an email confirmation. It also saves your name, email, and phone number, so the next time you order, it knows who you are. Looks like it will do the job.

Check it out.

For dinner tonight, Jan fixed salads and homemade pizzas. The pizzas were done on flour tortillas, with pepperoni, sliced mushrooms, and pizza cheese. And then it was all melted together in the microwave.

But the salads are a little new for us. Last week, we came across these ‘salad kits’ at the store and decided to give them a try.

Turns out they’re really good. The Sweet Kale Chopped Salad Kit has broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, kale, and chicory, topped with all-natural, dried cranberries, roasted pumpkin seeds, and a really delicious poppyseed dressing.

Then Jan adds cukes, cherry tomatoes, and croutons, and it looks like this.

Really good. They also have several other Kits that look very tasty too.

For dessert, earlier in the day, Jan cooked up one of her delicious Sopapilla Cheesecakes. Really quick and easy, and a great dessert.

Things may be looking up in the search for a new gate position. Earlier today, I had emailed an application into SiteWatch, and about 7:30 this evening I got an email back from Cole saying he’d contact me tomorrow.

Hopefully, we’ll hear something before we have to move to Colorado River on Thursday.

October 11, 2017

Powerball and Poultry . . .

Again, getting down to Clear Lake, I hit the ground running . . . and printing this morning. The CD/DVD labels had come in, as well as a new Black Ink cartridge for my old HP 2542 printer

Rather than throw away/give away my old HP printer, I took it into work to repurpose it as a product label printer for the many produced-in-house products we have. Besides the DVD’s, they buy many products in bulk and then repackage and label them under their own brand.

Since the old IT guy didn’t like to mess with this, they were way behind on labels, so I spent the entire day catching up. Really wasn’t difficult since once you make up a basic label for that brand name, it’s just fill in the product and save it off, ready to print more as needed.

Getting home a few minutes after 5 pm, Jan and I turned right around and headed back out to meet Debi and Ed Hurlburt at China Delight for dinner.

Jan and I both tried something different tonight. While I got the Black Pepper Beef,

Jan got the Volcano Chicken. (which I didn’t get a photo of)

Really good, but not very spicy. Even the small red peppers weren’t hot at all.

Both ours were supposed to be really, really hot and spicy. But their idea of ‘hot and spicy is apparently completely different than ours. So I added some of my Volcanic Pepper Flakes to spice it up a bit. Or a lot, depending on your taste buds.

Coming home, I made a stop to get a few Powerball lottery tickets. Since tonight’s drawing is up to $128 Million, I thought it was worth gambling a few bucks.

This Update Just In: I didn’t win. But you already knew that, didn’t you?

More Unintended Consequences:

Chicago’s Soda Tax, which went into effect August 2nd, has, as I predicted, already crashed and burned, and as of today, has been repealed by the City Council, effective December 1st.

But Chicago’s Soda Tax has been through so many iterations, they actually had trouble figuring out which version they were repealing. The first version taxed the distributors, who then passed it on to the buyer. But that resulted in a tax on a tax at the retail level, which is illegal under Illinois law.

Their next try was to add the tax at the cash register, like sales tax. But the Federal Government quickly told them that they couldn’t tax any food product bought with Federal nutrition benefits, so that took 870,000 people out of the taxing loop, collapsing the expected revenues.

Plus, as businesses tried to frantically reprogram their cash register systems to separate out the purchasers buying with bennies, many of them crashed and burned, leaving customers unable to check out at all.

In addition, many people lost their jobs as bottlers cut back due to greatly lessened demand, and a number of convenience stores near the city limits went under due to people going outside the city to buy soda and, of course, while there, buy gas and other stuff they needed.

Philadelphia, another city that started taxing sodas in January, really jumped the gun and set up a massive pre-K education system that was to be funded by the soda tax money that was just going to roll in.

But now, 10 months later, they’ve collected less than 25% of the monies expected, leaving them scrambling to find other funds from an already tight budget to keep the program running. This, because they signed long-term leases for buildings and signed teachers to contracts that they’re now stuck with.

Seems like they forgot the whole thing about numerical calculations with unborn poultry.

October 11, 2018

Unicorns and Rainbows . . .

I went out this morning to try and get our DirecTV satellite set up. I knew it was going to be touch ‘n go due to the tall trees directly behind our rig. I spent about 15 minutes walking around the rig, using the Sat Finder app to try and find a gap in the trees that would let me get a shot at the DirecTV satellite located at 101°

Finally, I found one spot at the front edge of our site, almost out in the road, that looked like it might work.

So I got the dome in position and went inside to see how it was going to work. And though I’m only getting about 75% signal level, it is working, so Jan’s happy with it.

About 2 pm, we headed up to Edgewater again. Then, around 5 pm, we drove up to New Smyrna Beach to have dinner at Beef O’ Brady’s. However, Jan and I had eaten at one in Terra Haute, IN in 2011, and we weren’t impressed. But this evening was a new ballgame.

Jan got a Mushroom Cheddar Burger with Grilled Onions,

while I got the Amarillo Firecracker Burger with Fried Jalapenos, Bacon, and Monterey Jack Cheese.

Really, really good, and worth going back for.

Tomorrow we’re driving down to West Palm Beach to catch up with our long-time friend, Charlee. Jan and Charlee worked together at M.D. Anderson Cancer Hospital back in the early 80’s before she moved out to Florida. We last got together with her and her husband, Bill, back in 2009, so it will be good to catch up.

We’ll spend the night before coming back on Saturday afternoon. Really looking forward to it.

Now on to Landon’s latest artwork. Or maybe I should say “Fartwork”.

Brandi asked him to draw her a picture of a Unicorn. So 8-year-old boys being 8-year-old boys, Landon drew a Unicorn and an Ogre having a farting contest.

It’s kind of hard to read the speech bubbles, but the Ogre says, “I have the most powerful fart in the world,” and the Unicorn goes, “Oh yeah, I have a rainbow missile!!”

But it is a really good drawing of a Unicorn.

October 11, 2019

A Great Time at the Alvin Opry . . .

But we didn’t get home until almost 11 pm, so no blog today.

October 11, 2020

Making Up For Yesterday . . .

As I mentioned yesterday, the drilling and tapping for the Helicoil installation in the rig’s oil filter adapter mount went very easy, too easy, I suspected. And I was right.

Today, more than made up for it.

After chamfering the edges of the holes, I started trying to screw in the first Helicoil, which took me several minutes to get it started, but it did screw in fairly easily until it bottomed out. But then the problem started.

I couldn’t get the tool back out of the hole. I could wiggle it, but it just wouldn’t come loose. And there shouldn’t have been anything to hold it; it should have just pulled back.

But I wiggled it back and forth, pulled and pushed on it, and even rapped on it with a pair of pliers. And finally, after about 10 minutes, it dropped free.

So then it was on to the next one. Which went exactly the same way. Hard to get started, and a lot of trouble getting it loose again. In fact, it took me even longer to get it loose this time.

And the 3rd one went south very quickly. First off, when I tried to stick the coil on the tool, I found that the slit in the end of the tool had closed up enough that the tang of the coil would not fit down in it. So I had to pry it open a bit with a screwdriver.

Next, I got it started with the usual difficulty, but 30 minutes later, I still had not gotten the tool to come loose. So I started banging on it with a rubber mallet, finally getting it loose, only to find that the tool was bent.

At that point, I gave it up for the day, and after I got cleaned up, Jan and I headed out for dinner once again at Denny’s.

Jan and I both had the Ultimate Omelet, with bacon, sausage, ham, peppers, onions, and mushrooms, along with fruit and an English Muffin. Really, really good.

Coming home, I stopped off at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts to get a new Helicoil kit, this one with a new type of tool.

The coil threads onto the tool, and it has a shank that will let it be locked into my tapping tool. So it should be easier next time. But we’ll see how it goes, maybe tomorrow.

October 11, 2021

Wings Over Houston Wrap-Up

Finishing up with Saturday’s Wings Over Houston Airshow, after the F-22 demo flight, the Raptor teamed up with a P-51 Mustang for a Heritage Flight showcasing a plane from the days of the US Air Force’s beginnings to one from the present day.

Next up was an amazing demo of the C-17 Globemaster III Military Transport. Directly replacing the C-141 Starlifter, the C-17 combines the short-field takeoff/landing capabilities of the prop-driven C-130 and the speed and much of the tonnage weight of the C-5.

In addition to the maneuverability shown, the short landing was amazing. As soon as the wheels touched down, the engines went into full reverse, bringing the craft to what can only be described as a ‘screeching’ halt.

It just stopped.

And then started backing up down the runway, for several 100 yards.

Finally, finishing up the day, the big act was in the air, the USAF Thunderbirds.

One thing about most of these photos is that it was a real “Point and Shoot’ session. I had planned to use my S21 Ultra phone, and I mostly did. Except for two problems.

About an hour into the flying, my phone started giving me Overheating warnings and shutting off the camera. I suspect this was due to the fact that I was running the screen at full brightness and that I was using it out in the bright sun.

And anyway, even with full brightness, I still couldn’t really see what I was shooting at. The sun was just too bright. So while my S21 cooled off in Jan’s purse, I used her S5 for a while.

Of course, I still couldn’t see what I was pointing at, so I was surprised when I got home and took a look at the results.

And after about 30 minutes of cooldown, I was able to again use the S21, with no further problems, since I didn’t fool with using it at full brightness, since it didn’t help anyway.

But overall I was really happy with the outcome.

October 11, 2022

Super Heavy . . .

and Holy Crap!

Today was Torchy’s Tacos for lunch. And that was about it for out and about for today.

As it stands right now, we’re expecting three big launches within the next month or so

First up, on Friday, Oct 28th, is the first launch of SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy Booster for the first time in 3 years. This time, its main cargo is a classified military payload.

But what makes this really special is not really the launch, but the landing.

This 2018 video of both boosters landing side by side looks like something out of a sci-fi movie.

Falcon Heavy Landing

Next, with a date uncertain, is the first orbital launch of SpaceX’s Super Heavy Starship.

The Starship is the prototype for Musk’s Mars Rocket. And at 16 million pounds of thrust, it’s more than twice as powerful as NASA’s Saturn 5 moon rocket. And it’s completely reusable!

Here you can see the comparative size of the three rockets.

Then wrapping up this October/November threesome is NASA’s SLS (Space Launch System) Artemis rocket. The one that they’ve been working on since 2011. Five years longer than it took NASA to develop the Saturn 5, the rocket it’s supposed to replace.

And at 8.8 million pounds of thrust, it’s only slightly more powerful than the Saturn V’s 7.5 million pounds. It’s also completely NON-reusable. Plus, at a cost of $4.1 billion per launch, it’s almost 2000 times more expensive than Starship’s $2 MILLION per launch.

Congress is supposedly asking a lot of questions about the entire program.

Holy Crap! is what I thought after Alexa’s response to me this morning.

Jan and I are always careful to thank her for doing something for us. Like turning on the table light, or the computer light. And then she will respond with things like, “Any time . . . literally”. Or “Absolutely”.

Or sometimes she even sings, “You’re so very very welcome.”

I mean, you always want to be polite to our future robot overlords, right?

But this morning, when I asked her to turn on the sofa light, I neglected to thank her.

And then after a few seconds of quiet, she said, “Aren’t you going to thank me?”

Yikes!

October 11, 2023

So Now It’s Karma’s Fault?

We had almost 1.5″ of rain this morning, along with increasing our chances of rain on Saturday for the Wings Over Houston AirShow.

The chances have gone from 0% all the way up to 1%. So hopefully we won’t get rained out. LOL

According to this U.K. study –

Cats and Dogs Must Go Vegan to Change the Weather

If all the world’s dogs went vegan, it would save more greenhouse gas emissions than those produced by the UK, according to research advocating the environmental benefits of plant-based pets.

The study estimated cats and dogs consume about 9% of all land animals killed for food – about 7 billion animals annually – as well as billions of fish and aquatic animals. Plant-based diets lower greenhouse gas emissions and require less land and water.

The research at the University of Winchester calculated that if all the world’s dogs went vegan, it would free up a larger land mass than Mexico and more freshwater than all the renewable freshwater in Denmark, and would feed about 450 million additional people – more than the entire EU population.

If all the world’s cats went vegan, it would save more emissions than those produced by New Zealand, land larger than Germany, freshwater exceeding all renewable freshwater in Jordan, and would feed about 70 million additional people – more than the entire UK population, according to the study published in the Plos One scientific journal.

Karma’s not going to be happy about this.

Plus, the British Veterinary Association and Blue Cross have previously advised against feeding animals a vegan diet.

Don’t forget about tomorrow’s Falcon Heavy – 16 Psyche launch at 9:16 am CDT, and of course, the Ring of Fire Annular Eclipse Saturday morning around 12 Noon. ”

October 11, 2024

Mt. Washington. . .

Jan and I have family and friends in the hurricane-affected area in both North Carolina and Florida, so we were anxious to hear how everyone did.

Though we still haven’t heard from one of Jan’s old friends, everyone else came through OK with little or no damage.

Great to hear.

Came across this photo from today atop Mt. Washington in New Hampshire.

A lot different from when we were there in August 2009. I think that’s this Gift Shop in the background of the snow pic.

Notice it’s chained down so it doesn’t blow away.

Supper tonight was leftover spaghetti and garlic bread from yesterday, and Jan says we have enough for a 3rd meal. Delicious

Tomorrow looks to be a busy one, with Jan and me getting haircuts at 11, then Jan getting her toeies done at noon, followed by lunch at King’s Bierhaus German right next door. Then we’ll finish up with our weekly Wal-Mart visit

Busy, busy, busy.

October 11, 2025

Maybe I Should Wait?

First off, I want to thank all our readers for their recommendations for new cell plans. After looking over all the data, right now I’m looking seriously at Consumer Cellular.

They have two lines with Unlimited Talk, Text, and Data for 50+ Seniors (we certainly qualify for that) for $60/month. And if I were to join AARP for $15/year, I could save an additional $5/month, so $60 savings per year. Ted Danson told me so.

The biggest difference would be moving from the Verizon cell network to AT&T/T-Mobile. Apparently, CC uses both networks, switching back and forth depending on the best service in that spot.

As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve been with Verizon since 1992, starting with a Motorola Bag Phone like this.

We actually got it for our daughter Brandi, who was a ride supervisor at the late, lamented AstroWorld Amusement Park, part of Six Flags, and right across the street from the AstroDome.

When she was working late, she would be coming home after midnight, and after a couple of incidents where it seemed like she was being followed, we got her the phone. And since it was always used in the car, we didn’t even get the battery that would let it function when not plugged into the car’s 12V.

So we’ve been with Verizon ever since.

But I’m probably not going to do anything until we get back from our AL/FL trip the first part of November.

* * * * * * *

I mentioned yesterday that I was lusting after the new Samsung Z Fold 7, and then I see this.

The Samsung Z Trifold

It’s basically a Fold 7 with an extra fold, getting you a phone that’s almost as large as a tablet.

It’s rumored to be out at the end of November.

So maybe now I should wait?

* * * * * * *

Jan got her toes done up in Halloween mode this afternoon, all orange and glittery.

While she was getting glittered, I drove back over to the nearest Take5 oil change location to get a pre-trip oil change. Only took about 30 minutes waiting before I was on my way.

Then it was back over to Los Rameriz Mexican for lunch, and then home.

* * * * * * *

Tomorrow’s set to be Yummy Yummy for lunch and then HEB and gas afterward.

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Well, It Started Off Good . . .

But it went downhill fast on the way home.

We had a nice smooth trip up to Conroe to meet up with Debi & Ed Hurlburt at China Delight.

The food was good, but the company was even better. And as usual, the two and a half hours flew by.

But heading home about 2 pm, it was a whole ‘nuther story.

Heading south on I-45, and then getting on the Hardy Toll Rd. went fine, as did merging onto the 610 loop and heading south.

But about that time, Maggie, our Garmin GPS, started trying to route us off of the 610 loop. Unfortunately, I didn’t listen in time. By the time I did, and had fought my way across 5 lanes of traffic to finally be able to exit, we had already been stuck in traffic for almost an hour.

Maggie took off on a new route, finally getting us on US90, and then onto I-45S. But because a lot of other people were doing the same thing, it still took a while.

But when we eventually got home at 5:30 pm, about two hours later than normal, we found that the traffic was still shut down on 610.

Good job, Maggie. I’ll listen to you earlier next time.

Oh, why do we call her Maggie? Well, our first GPS was called Margaret, after the naggy little girl in Dennis the Menace. So when we got this Garmin in 2011, she became Maggie.

* * * * * * *

Tomorrow we’re having lunch at Kelley’s Country Cookin’ once again. But on the way, we’re making a storage room stop to pick up our small suitcases to take on our trip. Then after lunch, we’re heading back over to the Clear Lake Shores area so Jan can get some photos of a house’s Halloween decorations.

After that, it’s HEB for our HEB stuff.

Thought For The Day:

If you think I’m too sarcastic, you should hear what I don’t say.

Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2008 – More Photos From Our Time In Alaska

2011 – With a Name like Smucker’s

2014 – Twenty Questions

2015 – Dang Lazy Mule

2016 – Lemon Grass and Dragon Sauce

2018 – Pelicans and Dolphins and Cranes, Oh My

2021 – Wings Over Houston Recap

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

Alaska 2008

More Photos From Our Time In Alaska

October 10, 2009

Brrrr !!!!

Today the rain is finally gone, and the sun is out.

But it’s cold. And tonight it’s supposed to go down to freezing tonight.

Brrrrr !!!

Today was just a late lunch at our new favorite Mexican place, El Camino Real.

Jan had a combo plate, and I had the Pork Chili Verde. Really hot, just like I like it.

After that, it was Wal-Mart / Sam’s Club more ‘stuff’ time. Then it was back to the coach.

After putting stuff away, it seemed a good time for a nap.

Later for supper, we had Famous Dave’s BBQ leftovers.

Just another day in Paradise

October 10, 2010

Back to Chili’s again. . .

As has been usual lately, we started out the morning having coffee and just lazing around the coach, enjoying the great weather.

Brandi sent over this photo of Lowell getting some daddy time.

Then about 4 pm we headed up to Webster to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at Alpine Brauhaus, a German restaurant we always enjoyed, but it’s moved since the last time we ate there.

And apparently they changed their hours. They now close at 4 pm on Sunday.

Bummer!

We then decided to head across the parking lot to Chili’s, a chain we used to eat at 2 or 3 times a month, but then about 2 years ago they dropped our favorite dish, and now we haven’t been there in over a year.

Jan and I loved their Grilled Chicken Caribbean Salad with Honey-Lime Dressing, but after eating it for years, they suddenly discontinued it.

Bummer again!

So we were very happy to find that they brought it back, almost. It’s a little different. It’s now called just the Caribbean Salad, but you can get it with grilled chicken or grilled shrimp. They’ve also added Dried Cherries and dropped the Pico de Gallo.

But it’s still good, so we’ll be going back a lot more often now.

We also got some good Landon photos while we were there.

Here’s Landon sleeping peacefully.

And here’s Jan annoying him with a frog. Well, I guess he is smiling.

BTW the red spot on his forehead is a birthmark, of a type that usually fades away in 18-24 months.

I left Chili’s before everyone else to do some work at a client’s office while Jan drove Brandi’s car back to the rig.

She’s picking up Brandi early to drive her to a doctor’s appointment, since I need the truck to visit another client tomorrow morning.

I got back to the rig about 8:30 and did some website work for a couple of clients.

Tomorrow will be another busy day.

October 10, 2011

With a Name like Smucker’s . . .

Today’s our last day at Smith’s Campground here in Loudonville, and we’re really going to miss it. Amy and her family have really made us feel welcome.

After lunch at 11 that included some delicious pumpkin bread, Amy, Kim, and Scott Smith came by to get a tour of our rigs and chat for a while. Then about 12:45, Jan and I headed over to Kidron, OH.

Along the way, we passed this really neat fall pumpkin patch, just the perfect accent for our trip through the Ohio countryside.

Our destination in the small town of Kidron was Lehman’s Hardware. Originally selling products used by the Amish, it has become known as THE source for non-electric appliances.

While originally over 90% of their business was Amish, now, since Lehman’s has become a tourist spot, it’s less than 10%.

And recently, another source of business has been supplying props for movies such as World of the Worlds and two of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.

One interesting thing was how expensive old-looking new stuff can be. A stove like this gas model, a modern stove dressed up in an old cabinet is over $7000.00.

They even have a whole room with nothing but different types of oil lamps and fuel.

After about an hour wandering up and down every aisle, we headed up the road about 8 miles to Orrville, OH, and the Smucker’s store and factory.

Unfortunately, they don’t have a factory tour of any type, but they do have a neat store.

I had assumed that Smucker’s was owned by some other big corporation, but I was surprised to learn that Smucker’s is a really big corporation that owns a lot of other companies.

Companies like the following: JIF, Pillsbury, Martha White Flour, White Lily Flour, Robin Hood Flour, Crisco, Knott’s Berry Farm, Borden, Carnation, Hungry Jack, and Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee (but not the coffee shops), are just some of their brands.

Leaving Smucker’s, we headed back toward home, but stopped off at Jake’s Steakhouse for dinner.

It was recommended by a lady at the Smucker’s store, and we thought we would give it a try.

And it turned out to be really good. Jan had the Sirloin steak, and I had the Soup and Salad Bar. All really good. And we were very well taken care of by our waitress, Mouse.

And yes, Mouse is her real name. When we asked, she said that when she was born, she just squeaked instead of crying, and her doctor called her a little mouse. So, her parents, both hippies, decided to name her Mouse.

And showing the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree, Mouse named her daughter, Ocean, apparently because Mouse’s husband was a surfer, and Mouse herself used to be a Shrimp Boat Captain in Tarpon Springs, FL.

You learn the strangest things talking to your waitress.

Tomorrow we head out for Elkhart.

October 10, 2013

Not Much . . .

has been happening on the gate the last few days. It’s been really quiet. We’re only getting about 50-60 vehicles a day through here, and the weather’s been very nice too.

Our days are pretty much in the high 80’s / low 90’s and hopefully will stay there for a while. And while we have had nights down into the high 40’s, recently they’ve been in the 60’s which is nice.

On the Landon front, he’s started playing soccer, and Brandi and Lowell just got his first scouting report.

Seems like they’re pretty proud.

Also, Landon got his haircut the other day and has now decided he’s too big to sit in the Firetruck chair and now wants to sit in the ‘big boy’ chair.

That’s about it for now from the suburbs of beautiful Whitsett, TX.

October 10, 2014

Twenty Questions . . .

We were busy today, but not quite yesterday busy. We only had 166 vs. yesterday’s 199 vehicles coming in, so not too bad. But of course, a good percentage go back out too, so it does keep you on your feet a lot.

After getting a lot of confusing info from everyone about what’s what on all our pad sites, I took some time this afternoon to drive around back there to see for myself.

For some reason, they keep adding names to sites and changing names too. I found we have 6 different pad sites with 10 different names, apparently depending on who’s working the site at that time. Seems like sometimes they just make up their own names for a site, but forget to tell us.

The rig across from us has had 4 different names since we’ve been here. The rig name/number has stayed the same, but the pad name keeps changing. I think this is because each new drill hole has a different name, but this wasn’t the way they did it the last time we worked a drill rig. Before, it was always the pad name plus 1H, 2H, etc., i.e., Mercury #1H, or Mercury #3H.

I came back out and drew up a map to help Jan and me keep things straight, as a lot of these trucks come with very vague directions to where they’re supposed to go. And with some, it’s kind of a game of Twenty Questions, apparently, to see if I can guess where they need to go.

So after getting their name, company, and tag number, it goes like this.

Me: “OK, Bobby, where are you going this morning?”

Bobby: “Ahhhhhh, let’s see.” Now he starts pawing through his papers like it’s just occurred to him that he needs to know this.

Bobby: “Ahhh, Mid-Texas?” Note the question mark.

Me: “Nope, try again.”

After 10 or 15 seconds of noisy paper pawing, I finally suggest, “How about MD TEXAS?”

Bobby: “Yeah, that’s it.”

OK, we’ve narrowed it down to one of 6 pads

Me: “OK, Bobby, you got anything else for me?”

Bobby: “Ahhhhh, Still-Water?”

Me: “OK, we’ve got it down to 4 sites now. What else ya got?”

More loud paper fumbling,

Bobby: “They’re fracking?”

OK, now we’re down to 2 sites.

Me: You got a company name?”

Bobby: “Go Frac?”

Bingo. We have a winner.

And if he’d just pulled in and said, “I got sand for Go Frac,” he’d have been on his way 5 minutes ago.

I’m sure most of you have heard of Amazon Prime, with free Two Day Shipping. And of course, for a little bit more, you can get it tomorrow.

And in some areas, they’re even doing Same Day Delivery. But now they’ve taken the next step.

Amazon: Yesterday Shipping

Believe me, I can’t wait. There’s been some times I could have really used this.

October 10, 2015

Dang Lazy Mule . . .

Or Our Budding Bandido.

I could get used to this. Yesterday and the day before, we had 72 vehicles coming in the gate. Today we had 55. And with the temp finally making it to 83° with sunny skies, it was just about perfect.
We were told yesterday that all the cleanup and completion work here should take about two months. So if that holds true, and it may not, then that would mean we would be here until we’re ready to leave on the 22nd of November.

We hope.

We’ve also heard that when things get going here, they might be working a 12-hour day.

We hope.

But then, when I asked one of the company men this afternoon if they would be taking the day off on the Monday Columbus Day holiday, he laughed and said, “Hell, we’re lucky we get Thanksgiving and Christmas off.”

So I’m not putting a big bet on a 12-hour day.

This is probably the best gate we’ve had. Close to town, good cell/Internet service, nice surroundings, friendly owner, and not an overabundance of traffic. Wish they were all like this.

I mentioned recently about my WordPress login page now requiring me to ‘Prove my Humanity’ by adding two numbers together and then entering the total on the screen along with my login name and password. I figured this was to cut down on automated scripts trying to hack your password and get into the site.

Why I don’t know. Of course, there’s no credit card data or anything like that. I guess they could do some sort of malware injection through one of the blog posts, but GoDaddy monitors that kind of thing pretty closely. And if they did manage to hack into the site, I could immediately regain control by calling GoDaddy and giving them my secret password.

But it’s highly unlikely that they could guess my password anyway, as it’s 10 characters of gobbledygook, letters, numbers, uppercase, lower case, and symbols. So good luck with that.

But with all that, it’s not slowing down hacking attempts either. I mean, you’re talking about an automated script, written to hack into WordPress sites. So, how hard is it to program your script to add the two numbers together and type it in the little box along with your name and password attempt?

It’s a computer. It can add two numbers. That’s what computers do. Compute.

And you can see from a few days ago how well it’s working.

The attempts started a couple of minutes after 9 am and continued until a little after 10:30.

Each one of these attempts means three failed logins, and then that IP address is locked out for 4 hours. Here are the lockout settings I’m using.

Then, after a second 4-hour lockout, that IP address is locked out for 48 hours. So these attempts are coming from a lot of different IP addresses, and mostly from Eastern Europe. Go figure.

Landon, Lowell, and Brandi went down to Friendswood to visit Chris, Linda, and Miss Piper today, and Landon, our budding Bandido, got what I imagine was his first motorcycle ride from his Uncle Chris.

And of course, every biker needs his blue dragon along for support.

Looks like he really enjoyed it too.

I guess, anticipating the possibility of a 12-hour shift, I now have a 12-hour Mule. Or maybe it’s just lazy. But whatever the problem, the second Mighty Mule Driveway Alarm system I installed to catch vehicles leaving the pad, just won’t work at night.

It works fine in the daytime, especially now that I moved it closer the other day, but sometime during the night, it just quits.

It’s hard to tell exactly when it quits, because we don’t get a lot of traffic at night. But at some point, I just notice it’s not working. But the other one coming into us just keeps chugging along.

Tomorrow I’m going to try moving it closer again to see if that helps. Otherwise, I’ll try swapping the transmitters. If nothing works, I’ll call the company.

Dang Mule.

On a final note, I had a number of blog readers, including Jan, wondering about the ‘Jewish vampire’ reference in yesterday’s blog.

I seem to remember it from one of those comedy vampire movies back in the late 70’s – early 80’s. In my mind, I see Richard Benjamin confronting a vampire, and triumphantly holding out a cross to ward the vampire off. The vampire laughs, calls him a ‘putz’ in a Jewish accent, and begins to hit him with the cross. Benjamin realizes his mistake and starts frantically reaching into his shirt, before finally pulling out a ‘Star of David’ just in time to save the damsel in distress.

October 10, 2016

Lemongrass and Dragon Sauce . . .

This morning, I started checking out other gate guard companies to see about getting another gate, hopefully before we have to move over to the Colorado River Thousand Trails this Thursday

I also filled out and printed out our absentee ballot forms so we can send them off tomorrow.

About 2 pm, Jan and I headed out for lunch and some shopping, with our first stop at Asian BBQ and Grill in Conroe. As seems to happen when we go to our favorite places, we generally get our favorite dishes. And this afternoon was no different.

We started out with a couple of their Shrimp Spring Rolls, with the Spicy Hot Peanut Sauce

They put a big dab of Chili Sauce into the Peanut Sauce and then top it with freshly crushed peanuts. Really Good!

Jan got her Lemongrass Chicken Bowl with rice noodles, bean sprouts, carrots, and cucumbers,

while I got the Grilled Pork Bowl with a Shrimp Skewer,

which has the same veggies as Jan’s dish.

And of course, you can’t eat at Asian BBQ without getting a big bowl of their Dragon Sauce.

While we were there, I talked to the owner about doing a website for him. We had talked before we went on the gate, so I wanted to follow up with him again. And this time I mocked up a sample page for him, using some of the photos I’ve taken for the blog over past visits.

I think it looks pretty good for about 30 minutes work. I’m going to check back in with him on Wednesday.

He’s interested in me setting up an online takeout ordering system for him. It’s not something I’ve done before, but of course I told him it wouldn’t be a problem. Not the first time I’ve promised something I haven’t done before.

So far, I’ve always come through.

Next up was a quick stop by Sam’s Club to get a new battery for the truck. The old one is about 5 years old, and it’s starting to fade. I’ll put it in tomorrow and then take the old one back to get my $18 core charge back.

Last, was a groceries stop at the Super Kroger’s over in Willis, as well as a Cinnamon Dolce Latte from their Starbucks for on the way home.

Tomorrow I’ll start actually making calls to gate guard companies, specifically Guard 1 and SiteWatch, both of whom offered us gates after Jamie of Gate Guard Services called us with our Blue Moon Gate.

Wrapping up, both of my recent repairs seem to be holding. The water pump repair on our Splendide Washer/Dryer combo is still working with no problems, and hopefully will continue that way.

And although we’ve only used it a few times since I remounted the control panel, our microwave is also still working. But I’m not sure we’ve given it a long enough test yet. We did make two bags of popcorn last night, which required two 3.5-minute cooking periods. In the past, we might have seen a problem with the second one. So we’ll just have to wait and see.

October 10, 2017

The King Is Dead . . .

Long Live The King.

It was nice to sleep in and not have to travel down to Clear Lake, but then there’s tomorrow.

The weather really cooled off today, with a high of 77 and going down to 56 tonight. And 79/59 tomorrow. Very Nice.

I was reading an article this morning about a new hot pepper, hotter even than the fabled Carolina Reaper.

It’s called Dragon’s Breath, and it was developed by a guy in England not to eat, but to be used as a topical anesthetic for people who are allergic to regular anesthetics.

And at almost 2.5 million Scoville units, it’s almost a million units more than the Carolina Reaper.

Once the Ghost Pepper became the first pepper to cross the 1 million unit line, the newer peppers, i.e., 7 Pot, the Scorpions, the Reaper, etc., all crept up a couple of hundred thousand units at a time.

Until the Dragon’s Breath, that is.

But before I could even finish researching the new king, the Dragon’s Breath, a new, hotter king came along: the Pepper X.

And the old king was deposed with another large jump, all the way up to almost 3.25 million Scoville units.

These peppers are in a range that they can kill people and have. Ruptured esophagi, anaphylactic shock, suffocation, etc. But if you want to try some of these peppers, at your own risk, of course, check out the The iBurn Store here in Houston

Although I’ve got some Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper flakes, recently the 3rd hottest, and just used them the other day at the Asian BBQ & Grill, I’ve never tried the Carolina Reaper, and I probably won’t. And that goes for the Dragon’s Breath and Pepper X as well.

A man’s got to know his limitations.

October 10, 2018

Pelicans and Dolphins and Cranes, Oh My. . .

For everyone who has emailed their concern about our proximity to Hurricane Michael, we’re fine. In fact, except for some overcast skies, rain sprinkles, and brisk winds, we’ve seen no sign of Michael.

Of course, the same can not be said for the people a couple of hundred miles to our west. Our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in the storm’s path.

First to catch up on last night’s visit to the Dixie Crossroads restaurant in Titusville, a long-time favorite of ours since the 80’s. We had been disappointed to hear that since the place had changed hands a while back, the quality had gone down, even to the point of no longer serving the free basket of corn fritters that came with the meal.

So we were very happy to see a basket of them on our table.

And the food and the service pretty much held up for the rest of the meal. Jan had a salad,

and the Fried Mullet with Garlic Butter Steamed Veggies.

One funny thing is that Dixie Crossroads is known for their Mullet. And when I was growing up in South Alabama, mullet was the go-to fish for any fish fry. Though they won’t normally bite a hook, they’re pretty easy to catch a lot pretty quickly with a cast net.

But when we moved out to Texas in late 1978 and tried to order mullet, we found that they considered it a trash fish, good only for cutting up as bait. Different strokes, I guess.

But they’re missing out on some good eatin’.

As for me, I started off with a cup of Clam Chowder,

and the Shrimp & Oysters with Cheese Grits.

I made the mistake of giving Jan a taste of my chowder and almost didn’t get my spoon back. She said that’s what she’s getting next time.

Everything was really good, so maybe they’re back on track, but the prices were a good bit higher than we just paid for similar meals in Gulf Shores and Breaux Bridge.

But still good.

Now to today.

About 11 am, Jan and I headed into Titusville and the Wal-Mart there to try and get our South Dakota Driver’s License Renewal / Vision Statement / New Glasses problem straightened out once and for all.

We fell behind the power curve when our long-time mailbox service, My Dakota Address, shut down without notice around the end of July. After having started refusing everyone’s mail a week or so earlier.

So with all their ex-customers scrambling to get a new South Dakota address, the remaining services were overwhelmed, which put us into the middle of September to get a new address.

Then I could start putting in the paperwork to renew my South Dakota Driver’s License. Part of the Renewal By Mail is to have your eyes checked by an Optometrist for the vision part of the renewal, who then fills out an SD DMV form that I submitted to SD with my renewal papers.

But apparently, the optometrist checked off something that SD didn’t like, so it all started back over again. Then my new glasses, promised to come in before we left for Florida, didn’t. And neither did Jan’s.

However, they did come in Wednesday after we left, and we got the call while we were sitting in Crazy Bout Crawfish in Breaux Bridge, LA, having dinner after the first travel day of our trip.

Luckily, I was able to have my client’s office manager pick them up that afternoon and get them in the mail to us the next day. I had her send them to a friend’s address here in Florida since we would be on the road.

So now, after calls between South Dakota, Webster, TX, and the Walmart here, we may have it straightened out. But I’m not holding my breath.

I guess I’ll know more tomorrow when I talk to SD again.

A little later, we took a nature tour of the area. I say, nature tour, because we saw Manatees,

Pelicans,

and Dolphins riding the bow wave of a passing boat.

And if that wasn’t enough, how about a quartet of Sandhill Cranes just strolling through the neighborhood?

Jan was giddy.

Later, after a drive up to New Smyrna Beach and a drive back down out on said beach, we ended up at Dustin’s BBQ in Edgewater.

If you didn’t know better, when you walk in, you would think you’re in a Sonny’s BBQ. The layout is similar, as is the menu. And that’s because the owner used to work for Sonny’s, and then went out and started his own chain with six locations in Florida.

Jan had the Endless Salad Bar and a BBQ Grilled Chicken Breast, while I had the house special, Baby Back Ribs with Cajun Garlic Shrimp, Fried Okra, and Cheese Grits.

All really good, and hopefully we’ll get to go back before we leave.

Dustin done did Sonny proud.

And tomorrow we’ll do it all over again.

October 10, 2019

More Oil Filter Info . . .

Today was a nice stay-at-home day. In fact, the only time I left the rig was to walk the garbage down to the dumpster.

The only thing new was that I did raise the bed to take a look at my oil filter mount from up above. I ty-wrapped my phone to a long dowel rod and stuck it down by the filter to try and get a look at the filter adapter base.

And although it’s kind of hard to see under the crud, it sure looks like there’s a separation seam between the two parts.

Tomorrow night we’re attending the Alvin Opry up in, where else, Alvin. We’ll probably have dinner at our usual Monterey’s for a bowl of their great Chicken Tortilla Soup.

Also meeting up with our friend, Maria Sutton. Really looking forward to it.

October 10, 2020

Easy! Or Too Easy?

We’re coming into Jan’s favorite time of the year – HalloThanksMas.

So Jan has Halloween shirts, Thanksgiving shirts, and Christmas shirts. But now she’s got one ordered that covers all of her holidays, plus one of her favorite animals.

But she’s also got this one coming that’s a little more definitive.

I was outside and under the rig about 1 pm, and for a change, everything went quickly. Since I cut 6″ off my drill extension, I had no problem manipulating the drill and bit into position. I was a little concerned about how to keep the bit lined up with the old hole, but it seemed to align itself with no problems. I did wear my safety goggles since aluminum bits were raining down, but I was lying off to the side anyway.

It only took about 10 minutes to drill all four holes, but I did notice that the two that were already stripped out drilled out much easier.

Then I started tapping the new threads in, using the 12″ tap handle extension that I also got for this job. And I was very happy that I had gotten one with built-in ratcheting. Made it a lot easier both cutting in and backing out. I just kept turning it until it bottomed out and stopped. I did spray both the hole and the tap with cutting oil.

So was it Easy? Or too easy? With all the trouble I’ve had getting to this point, it’s kind of worrisome that this part ended up being so easy.

I would have continued on by screwing in the Helicoils, the next step, but I noticed that I had little pieces of aluminum flashing sticking out around each hole left over from the tapping. So, before I installed the Helicoils, I wanted to chamfer, or bevel, down the lip of the hole.

But I didn’t have a polishing stone to do that, so I called it an afternoon. So after getting cleaned up, Jan and I were off to have a late lunch at our local favorite, Los Ramirez Mexican Restaurant.

As we got parked, I noticed this Art Car in the parking lot, a really neat paint job.

Nice!

Jan got her usual Pechuga Rellena, a grilled chicken breast on top of a bed of grilled shrimp and broccoli, with half an avocado.

And I got my fav, the Beef Fajita Taco Salad. Now it starts out like this.

But wait, there’s more!

Jan doesn’t care for the lettuce/tomato garnish that comes on her dish, so she gives it to me, and then I top it all off with a big dollop of their Green Sauce, ending up like this.

And of course, a heavy sprinkling of my Carolina Reaper pepper flakes.

Delicious!

Finishing up, I went right across the street to the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts to get a chamfer stone for tomorrow’s work session. I only wanted one, but I ended up with a set of 10, which was all they had. But it was only $7.99, so not too bad.

I’ll use the big one on the middle left.

Coming home, we made a quick pass by the Santa Fe P.O. to see if our South Dakota Absentee Ballots had shown up yet.

We’re still waiting.

October 10, 2021

Wings Over Houston Recap . . .

Jan and I headed up to Ellington Field and the Wings Over Houston Airshow about 10:30, and by 11:30, we were in our parking spot in Prime View parking. Unfortunately, even though the gates only opened at 10 and the flying didn’t start until 1 pm, our Prime View parking spot was a lot further away from the gate than I had hoped.

But we finally made it to our assigned seats in the Prime View area. And unlike a lot of attendees who brought their own snacks,

we just decided to graze at the many vendors’ booths. Though I did gaze longingly at the Shipley Donuts box.

In fact, a little bit later, Jan headed over to pick up some lunch for us, and also visit the Porta-Potties while she was out and about, coming back with a large hot dog for her and a large sausage dog for me, as well as chips for both of us.

The first plane we saw was a C-5M transport, not part of the airshow, but doing a training mission out over the Gulf.

Next up was the Tora, Tora, Tora display, depicting the bombing at Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos of it since it was my turn for a food run, as well as it was my turn for the potty run.

So I was standing in what seemed to be the longest line at the food area, the one for funnel cakes, when the Tora thing started up, about 15 minutes early according to the schedule. So I missed it.

But it looked like this,

And even from about 300 yards away, you could feel the heat.

When I finally got close enough to actually see the food booth, I found that the funnel cakes were $15.00. Yikes!

But with all that time spent waiting in line, I went for it anyway.

Probably what they had in mind.

But I did get to see some flames from the depiction of the Doolittle Raid on Japan in April 1942, our reply to Pearl Harbor.

Though the real attack was with 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers, the show was with a little bit of everything, including a B-17.

Next up was the CF Snowbirds, Canada’s military demonstration team.

The F-22 Raptor was the next in the air, showing off some fantastic moves.

I think the most amazing one was when the F-22 came by level, pulled a tight climb straight up to about 10,000 ft., and then just hung there, stationary in midair, supported only by its engine thrust.

And then throttling back, it dropped down backward, staying perfectly vertical, to about 5000 ft., where it nosed over level and accelerated out of sight.

Wow!

That’s about it for tonight. I’ll finish up the rest tomorrow.

October 10, 2022

Creeping Up On Us?

I had two more hints about Verizon’s 5G service in our area. This morning at work up in Webster, I noticed 5G on my phone, and when I tested it, I got 195 Mbps. And as before, 5G almost immediately disappeared.

Then, coming home this afternoon, while I was at the stoplight at FM646 and FM1764, I again noticed 5G. And when I tested again, I got 116 Mbps. Again, it disappeared.

But on a hunch, I tested it at 4G and got 56 Mbps, much faster than before.

So maybe 5G is slowly creeping up on us. It’s about time.

A few days ago, I ordered a set of these Suction Cup Shower Handles.

We’ve got a set of these in our rig shower, and they’re a big help. So I wanted to get a ‘travel’ set for our upcoming trips. Though we request a Handicap Accessible Shower when we travel, some of these leave a lot to be desired.

On our Alabama trip this past June, at one hotel, their ‘Handicap Accessible Shower’ was one of those roll-in models, very nice, but not a handhold in sight.

No towel/washcloth bar, no soap dish, no nothing.

These handles stick like crazy to any smooth surface and are sized to fit in those standard 4″ ceramic shower tiles. But just pop up the handles and pull up on the little tab on the suction cup, and they come right off.

Tomorrow’s going to be Torchy’s Tacos for lunch, and then who knows?

October 10, 2023

16 Psyche . . .

Apparently, so as not to overshadow my recent birthday, SpaceX postponed the upcoming Falcon Heavy – 16 Psyche launch from Oct. 5 to this Thursday, Oct. 12 at 9:16 am CDT.

After traveling an estimated 2.2 billion miles (3.5 billion kilometers), the spacecraft will arrive at the asteroid 16 Psyche, which is located at the far edge of the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, in 2029.

Once the spacecraft is in place, mission scientists will study the metal asteroid, which is different from the rock- and ice-dominated bodies studied in situ in the past, to learn more about how the rocky planets of the solar system (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) formed.

Discovered in 1852, Psyche is considered one of the most fascinating objects in the main asteroid belt, and scientists have only been able to study it at a distance. Scientists think the asteroid is composed of the exposed core of a planetesimal, a small body that formed during planet formation as gas and dust around a star collapsed in dense patches.

The Falcon Heavy vehicle features the twin boosters strapped to the side of a standard Falcon launch vehicle, allowing for heavier payloads into more extreme orbits.

My favorite part of a Falcon Heavy launch is getting to see the two boosters come back and land at the Cape. It’s not possible with every Falcon Heavy launch, but it will be for this one.

Looking forward to it, even if I will have to get up early.

Thursday will also be our monthly Alvin Opry Group get-together, though it’s been moved from T-Bone Tom’s to Texas Roadhouse.

Looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Also, everything still looks to be a Go for the Wings Over Houston AirShow this Saturday, with a high of 80°, no clouds, and a 0% chance of rain.

Yay!

October 10, 2024

Not Bad. Not Bad At All . . .

Jan and I were on our way up to The Woodlands area to meet up with Ed & Debi Hurlburt for a return visit at Adriatic Cafe and Italian Grille. We liked it so much last month that we wanted a return visit.

And one of the great things about this place is that as soon as you sit down, they greet you with a big basket of their delicious hot garlic bread knots.

First up were nice salads with homemade Bleu Cheese dressing.

Then Jan and I moved on to their ‘Spaghetti The Works’, with meat sauce, sliced mushrooms, Italian sausage, and a meatball

This was Jan’s first time getting the Spaghetti,and she didn’t want the sausage, so I asked for it to be added to mine. So they brought me a large plate just filled with sausage, so when I dumped it on my plate, it looks like all I got was sausage.

But there is spaghetti, sauce, meatballs, etc., under there too.

Between the bread and the salad, Jan and I both had a lot of leftovers to bring home. And wanting to stretch out our take-home, we asked for a separate order of spaghetti and sauce to go.

After our 2+ hour get-together, Jan and I were on our way home by about 2 pm, getting back to the rig about 3:30.

A really nice day with great friends.

With this being my longest time sitting in one place for over an hour, I was a little leery about how I would feel. I had even primed Jan that she might have to drive home. But as it turned out, I didn’t have a problem.

I was expecting to be really stiff and sore when we got to the restaurant, but it wasn’t bad at all.

October 10, 2025

LCP . . .

I had my appointment with Verizon this afternoon, but didn’t get a lot of help. The ‘Tech’ that took my case didn’t seem to know as much about the problem as I had learned from Google. His only remedy was to send it off for 2-3 weeks. Nope.

And I also had no luck getting a better plan. I kept mentioning that Ted Danson said I could get 2 lines for $30/line per month. And I’m paying a lot more than that. But he wouldn’t take the hint.

His only answer was either bundling a bunch of our streaming services, like Netflix, Disney+, etc., into our plan, or getting our kids/grandkids to bundle on our plan.

So, though we’ve been with Verizon since 1992, I’m now looking for a new carrier, probably starting with Consumer Cellular.

Any of our readers have any recommendations?

The only plus out of the visit was that I got to play with a Z Fold 7 for a few minutes.

It’s amazing how thin the Fold 7 is, with a screen like a standard phone on the left, but then you open it up to the double-size screen on the inside.

* * * * * * *

When I was cleaning my Ruger LCP carry piece a couple of days ago, I found that the battery in the LaserMax Laser Sight had died.

Finding I didn’t have another 1/3N Lithium battery, I ordered a 4-pack from Amazon, which came in yesterday.

So it was just a matter of removing two small screws and popping off the side, revealing the battery.

Note above that I removed the magazine and the round in the chamber.

And a few seconds later, I had this.

Good for another few years.

* * * * * * *

Tomorrow, Jan’s getting her toeies done. After dropping her off, I’m heading back over to the nearby Take5 to get the Jeep’s oil changed. Then it’s lunch (To Be Decided), and then Wal-Mart and home.