1,000 Foot Ore Freighter, Soo Locks, MI

1,000 Foot Ore Freighter, Soo Locks, MI

Near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia

Near Peggys Cove, Nova Scotia

Colorful Truck Sales, Weed, CA

Colorful Truck Sales, Weed, CA

Hollywood Sign

Hollywood Sign

Mackinac Bridge, MI

Mackinac Bridge, MI

Pelicans, Grays Harbor, WA

Pelicans, Grays Harbor, WA

Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park

Grand Prismatic Spring, Yellowstone National Park

The Good News Is . . .

Fall supposedly moved through here sometime last night/this morning, bringing with it about .5” of rain. Which also cooled things down a little.

And it looks like later in the week we’re looking at nighttime temps back down in the 60’s. Nice!

I took a few minutes today to got back over my Post-Op Info Sheet to see if we’d missed anything.

So it looks like they will be taking out my incision staples at my two-week follow-up this coming Monday. Also, that as of today, I can drive again.

Which means I will be driving us to our Anniversary dinner this coming Saturday.

I am looking forward to getting my staples out, if only for safety reasons.

When I reach back and touch them, they seem so rough that I’m kind of afraid that when I’m in bed, and though I always wear a T-shirt, that I’ll hang one or two on the sheet and essentially unzip myself, letting important stuff fall out.

Not a good thing.

For dinner tonight Jan fixed up a batch of her world-famous Nachos, one of our regular gate-guarding meals back in the day.

Still Delicious!

The Good News Is . . .

My Butt Hurts. My Butt hurts when I sit in place for more than about 30 minutes at a time.

And why is this Good News, you might ask?

Well, before my recent surgery, I didn’t have a lot of feeling in my Butt.

Now I do.

It’s a Good Thing!


Thought For The Day:

Remember, Just Because It’s A Conspiracy Theory Doesn’t Mean It’s Not True.


And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


September 23, 2008

More Photos From Our Time In Alaska This Time Of The Year.


September 23, 2009

Muffins and Cappuccino…

The Landing Campground is right along the old Erie Canal, and is very popular with seasonal campers. The many old trees make it a very scenic place to park.

The Landing

The Landing

We left The Landing about 11 am for the 160-mile trip to the Niagara Falls area.

About 2 pm we stopped at a Tim Hortons for muffins and cappuccino.  We arrived at Sleepy Hollow Lake Campground about 3pm and got settled in.

After a nap Jan fixed a great meal of the leftovers Joannie sent home with us yesterday.

Tomorrow we’re going to start touring the Niagara Falls area. We’ll be here until Saturday so we’ve got plenty of time.


September 23, 2010

Rig Cleaning Day. . .

Brandi sent this photo out and said Landon was smiling. He does look pretty happy. Sleepy, but happy.

I think it’s probably because he just filled his diaper and he knows someone’s going to have to clean it up.

Smiling Landon

Today was Rig Cleaning Day.

Jan’s sister Debbie and her husband, Jim, will be here on Sunday to spend a week. So Jan went into cleaning mode.

We did find out one interesting fact, however.  Beer makes a great tile floor cleaner.

We had a bottle of Alaskan beer we had brought back from there as a souvenir. Unfortunately, our souvenir bottle broke on the tile floor in the kitchen. In cleaning up the broken glass and wiping up the spilled beer, we found it did a great job in cleaning the floor.

Who knew?

We left for Ryan’s, one of our favorite buffet places, about 4:45 pm. Jan and both love their fried chicken, and decided tonight was the night for some. We also hoped to see Helen, a waitress there that we’ve known for about 10 years. We actually followed her down to this Ryan’s in Texas City. We used to go to the one in Webster TX, but when it closed, Helen moved to one in Texas City, and so did we.

But, unfortunately, we picked one of the two nights she wasn’t there this week. We’ll have to try again.

We got back to the rig about 6:15 and got ready for a great night of new TV shows.


September 23, 2012

Rabbit Hash . . .

Picking up where we left off yesterday,  this next aircraft is the Convair B-36.

The B-36 was the largest mass-produced piston engine aircraft ever made and had the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built. It was also the only combat aircraft propelled by both piston and jet engines.

B-36 Bomber

The B-36 was slow and could not refuel in midair, but could stay aloft as long as 40 hours. It was so big it even had 6 bunks and a crew dining area.

Moreover, its phenomenal cruising altitude for a piston-driven aircraft, 50,000 ft. put it out of range of all piston fighters, early jet interceptors, and ground fire.

The photo below shows the relative size of the WWII B-29 and the B-36.

B36 B29

It was operational from 1949 to 1959 when it was finally replaced by the B-52, which debuted in 1955.

This is the A-7D Corsair II ground attack plane. I used to work on these when I was a DOD contractor.

A7D Corsair II

And this is the A-37D Dragonfly. Built by Cessna (yes, Cessna) it was originally the T-37 light trainer, but was outfitted as a combat aircraft during the Vietnam War. Another aircraft I worked on.

A37 Dragonfly

This is the Canberra B-57B light bomber. I worked on these at Otis AFB on Cape Cod during the early 70’s, although I was working on the RB-57 reconnaissance versions and the EB-57 electronic countermeasures version.

B-57B

The Canberra was actually a British design built under license by the US. Designed at the end of WWII it was originally slated to have piston-driven prop engines which accounts for the mid-wing nacelles. But it was switched over to jets before it went operational.

It’s also the only plane I ever worked on that had Buick (yes, Buick!) jet engines. Until I saw these, I never even knew Buick made jet engines.

B-57B engine

This is the B-58A Hustler, the first US jet bomber to cruise at supersonic speeds, in this case, over 1300 mph.

B-58Ba

The B-2 Stealth Bomber.

B-2 Stealth Bomber

This is the fabled U-2 spy plane,

U-2 b

U-2 Spy Plane

which was replaced by the SR-71 Blackbird spy plane.

The SR-71 still holds the records for both altitude (over 85,000 ft.) and speed (almost 2200 mph) for an air-breathing engine (i.e. not a rocket). It is, however, rumored that the Blackbird was easily capable of exceeding these public records when needed.

I got to work on one of these one time when I was at Otis AFB.

SR71b

The museum also had a great collection of missiles and rockets, from the Jupiter to the Minuteman, and more.

Museum Missiles

If you like planes, this is a museum for you. Check it out.

Dayton Air Museum Overview

Now catching up on today.

Mister spent the morning laying out in front of the rig catching some rays. This is one lazy cat.

Mister Catching Some Rays

About 2pm we all headed out on our last day of touristy things, in this case, about 30 miles south down into Kentucky, to visit Rabbit Hash, KY.

Hey, I didn’t make up the name.

It’s said that you have to be going to Rabbit Hash, because you’re not going to stumble on it by accident.

The whole place consists of two stores, the Rabbit Hash General Store,

Rabbit Hash General Store

Rabbit Hash General Store 2

Rabbit Hash General Store 3

the Rabbit Hash Mercantile, and

Rabbit Hash General Store 6

Rabbit Hash General Store 9

Rabbit Hash General Store 7

The Scalded Hog, the local BBQ joint.

The Scalded Hog

It’s apparently a popular destination for weekend bikers, since there were about 50 bikes parked around town.

Rabbit Hash General Store 4

While we were there, I saw this sign and said it described us.

I said I’m Old, you’re Odd. Who’s Otherwise?

Jan wouldn’t answer.

Rabbit Hash General Store 8

They did have a lot of flowers in planters and baskets around town. Very nice.

Rabbit Hash Flower

Rabbit Hash is a neat little town. Kind of reminds me of Chicken, Alaska.

Finally heading home, we passed a number of barns with quilt patterns painted on them.

And we had the bonus of two deer at the first one.

Barn Quilt 1

Barn Quilt 2

Barn Quilt 3

Getting back to the park area, we decided to have dinner again at Sherman House Restaurant & Inn, the great German restaurant we ate at last week.

Tomorrow morning we’re heading out for a two-day trip to the Thousand Trails Park in Hersey, PA. We’ll overnite about halfway at a Cabela’s in Wheeling, WV.


September 23, 2014

Spiders and Snakes . . .

Well, I think Fall may officially be here. Yesterday was 89 and 69, while today was sunny and 82, and tonight it’s supposed to be 56°. Looks like it‘s heater time here on the gate.

Then it seems to be mid-to-high-80’s and mid-60’s as far as the eye can see. Or at least for the 10 days they’re willing to take a shot at forecasting.

And maybe the cooler weather will take out the last of the few mosquitos we’ve had. They really haven’t been bad, considering the scummy pond right behind the rig. That’s probably due to the dragonflies, frogs, spiders and snakes that live back there.

As I figured they did not skid the rig today. In fact, as of right now (1am Wed) they’re still drilling, So if they plan to skid tomorrow as they now say, they’d better finish up soon because there’s a lot of prep work to do before they can skid it.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens tomorrow.

They apparently had a traffic jam up front today, with rigs lined up all along the 1/4 mile out to the highway. They were bringing a lot of stuff into the first rig, and there was no room for everyone. The other gate guards started sending some of them down here to park and wait until they got called, but there’s no room down here, except on the pads. And the pads didn’t want them either. So they would head back up front. There are four rigs along this road. We have two, and there are two more upfront. It can get crowded when everyone’s busy.

Piper ended up back in the hospital for a while yesterday. She started having a LOT of pain in her wrist, so Linda took her to the Emergency Room. The doctor looked at it and told her there was nothing wrong, it looked OK and was going to send her home. But Piper stood her ground, and said something’s wrong, and insisted on an X-Ray. At first, they said No, but Piper put her foot down and they finally gave in. Then a little bit later, the radiologist came out and said it looks like you’ve got an infection in there. Guess they didn’t get it all cleaned out after the accident.

Anyway, Piper ended up in the hospital getting IV antibiotics for a while.

They should learn you don’t outstubborn Miss Piper. She’s a White.

Piper is working toward being a Nurse Practitioner, by going the EMT, EMT2, Paramedic, Nurse, Nurse Practitioner route, working as she goes. Sounds like she knows her stuff.

Landon playing T-Ball this year, and yesterday was his first game.

Landon at T-Ball

Looks like he’s got the look and style down. I especially like the sunglasses and the red shoes.

Jan and I had originally hoped to get the day off tomorrow, but it looks like it’s not going to happen. The two downsides to gate guarding in this area is no place to receive mail and packages, and most importantly, there are no relief guards here either.

Down in the Whitsett area where we were for the previous two years, there were a number of people who did nothing but relief guarding and they were always booked up.


September 23, 2015

I LIKE It!

I can only figure that Amazon must be blog readers, since after I complained that my order which was placed last Saturday night, and came in on Tuesday, the one I placed this Saturday night, actually an hour or so earlier, was scheduled to come in on Wednesday, today.

But then last night, Tuesday, I got a text message saying it had been delivered, a day early. Hmm! I wonder if a drone was involved.

And tonight when I came out at 11pm to relieve Jan, Billy, our landowner’s son had made his part of the delivery process (He’s nice enough to let us use his home address for our Amazon stuff). So the first thing I did was to tear into the box because I wanted to play with my toy. Well, I should say ‘toys’ because I also got another Mighty Mule Driveway Alarm system, but I’ve already played with that toy.

No, this one was my new KJL Cree LED 900 lumens Flashlight .

Flashlight 900 lumens

At 900 lumens, it’s 3 times as powerful as the CREE UltraFire we use now. And I was looking forward to being able to really light up some of these very dirty, almost unreadable tags that come through here, especially on the big trucks. So I quickly got it out of the box and inserted the 3 AAA batteries I had waiting for it.

And all I can say is WOW!  On tight focus, this thing will light up trees over 100 yards away. It wasn’t that long ago that to get this kind of power you’d need one of those big handheld spotlights that plugs into your cigarette lighter, and guys down south use for ‘jacklighting’ deer.

So, I LIKE it. Now I just need an incoming truck to try it out on.

Speaking of lights, we have a clock mounted on the canopy frame right in front of us, but it’s hard to read at night without using a flashlight. So I got one of those 12v LED auto accent lights and hung it over the clock. And it works great

Clock Light

I’ve got it plugged into a 12v power supply that’s on the table behind me, so no batteries to worry about.

The road dust problem has been getting worse and worse since we’d had no rain to speak of in the last week or so, so our Company Man sent the water truck by for us.

Water Truck

This will knock it down for a few days at least.

Tomorrow is Mister’s 10 day checkup for his diabetes problem.  The twice-a-day insulin shots I’ve been giving seem to be helping him a lot, but we’ll know more tomorrow after his exam.


September 23, 2016

Well, That’s Better . . .

Today was pretty nice, with temps in the low 90’s, partly cloudy, and a nice breeze.

Even better, it was combined with a fairly slow day with only 39 vehicles coming through. The low traffic count was probably helped by the fact that all the sales critters know that Pete, the Company Man, is back from his two weeks off.

Unlike Billy the CM who was here for the last two weeks, Pete only allows sales calls on Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. But Billy just lets them all come in, anytime.

This makes our job easier too, since we don’t have to screen them out. And they will lie to you.

So, all in all, a very nice day.

Coming home from groceries yesterday I stopped to take a photo of what could possibly/hopefully be our new home in the next month or so.

Our New Home

It’s just a mile and a quarter back down the road toward B/CS from here and looks like it’s got plenty of room for a pad on the left side there. You want to be on that side if possible so you’re on the driver’s side as they enter, though we have been on the right side a few times.

But we really don’t know what’s going to happen yet. Historically this oil company apparently doesn’t use gate guards, and like last year’s gate near Carthage, we’re actually here because the landowner wanted us. So we don’t know if we’ll be asked to move with the rig or not.

The last time we followed a rig, was our first year down in the Whitsett area about 60 miles south of San Antonio. We followed a Marathon/H&P rig for almost 4 months until we left in August.

And of course, we have no idea what’s going to happen here after the rig moves out. Completion, workover, coil tubing, fracking right away, we don’t know yet. As far as we’re concerned, all we want to do is be on a gate until the first part of December. So we’ll have to see how it goes.

As usual.

My new TP-LINK N900 2.4GHz or 5GHz Dual Band PCI Express Adapter showed up in the mail today, but too late for me to install it before I went on the gate at 1pm.

TP-Link Wi-Fi Card

So it had to wait until I got up about 10pm.

As you want to do anytime you remove a card and replace it with another one, before I started, I right-clicked on Computer on the desktop, selected Properties at the bottom, and then Device Manager at the top.

Then I clicked on the Network Adapters entry and found the Wireless LAN Card listing. Then I right-clicked on it and selected Uninstall Drivers, but told it to leave the old drivers on the computer, just in case.

I do this because there’s always a possibility that the new card is dead, or just bad. If I haven’t deleted the old drivers then I can just pop the old card back in the computer and I’m back in business.

But if I’ve deleted the drivers, then I’ll have to either dig up the 3-year-old Driver CD (Yeah, right!) or download the old driver from the Net. But of course, I’ll have to use another computer to do this, because I now don’t have a working Wi-Fi card.

So plan ahead.

Now I could shut down the computer and replace the card. In this case, after removing the old Wi-Fi card, I installed the new one in a different slot to allow more clearance for the little antennas, since the new card has three instead of one.

Putting everything back together, I powered it up and inserted the supplied little Drivers mini CD in the drive. And a couple of minutes later I had the display window that showed me the Wi-Fi sources that it could see.

The first thing I noticed was that I could now see a lot more signals. And looking closer the DC Wireless_2 signal that I wanted to connect to, now had 4 bars instead of just 2.

Well, that’s better.

So as happens a lot of time in this kind of stuff, it was a combination of two problems – I just needed a better antenna and a new Wi-Fi board.

One thing I’ve noticed about this Wi-Fi access point is that like a lot of ‘company’ sites, it has Content Blocking. These services keep a blacklist of unacceptable sites that you are blocked from visiting.

So . . . no porn for you on company time.

But the algorithms they use to select the sites for blacklisting lead to some funny problems. Like not being able to access a breast cancer site because it has . . . you know. . . breasts on it. Or not being able to visit the Smithsonian Museum site because the home page is promoting a new exhibit of those evil guns.

But closer to home, the other night I was on a political forum site and was directed by  a link to an article about the BREXIT posted on the BBC.com site in England, and I got this:

BBC Blocking

So what’s the problem with the British Broadcasting Corporation, too many rig workers streaming reruns of Downton Abbey? Or what?

And the other strange thing is that they have disabled, but not ‘officially’ blocked Facebook.com. When you go to Facebook.com, you get this:

Facebook Blocking

So what, now they’re against funny cat videos too?

For some reason, they’ve just blocked Facebook’s DNS address, which is that string of numbers you sometimes see online like this:

192.168.112.0

Every website, every server, and every computer, even yours, has a separate, unique address on the Internet. It’s how everything knows where to go, like a phone number.

In this case, for Facebook the DNS address is 173.252.89.132, or at least one of them is. Most big sites have multiple DNS addresses for redundancy.

So why they’re doing it this way, I don’t know. Maybe to keep the complaints down, so they can say, we’re not ‘blocking’ it so it must be your problem.

Tomorrow I’ll spend some time fooling with the Yagi antenna, seeing if I can find that elusive 5 bar signal sweet spot.

And on a final note, tomorrow is also Blue Moon BBQ Saturday.

It oughta be an official holiday.


September 23, 2017

They’re Right !

Well, I did leave the rig today after all. I took a bag of garbage about 50 yards down the road to drop it in.

I did try to flag down the park lady who was mowing the grass, but she was too far away. I’m still trying to pay for our stay here, but no luck so far.

I  did finally did flag her down a little later and told her I had a check already made out for what I thought was the right amount, 11 days x $14.50 = $159.50, but she said she’d check it out and let me know. If she’s not in any hurry, neither am I.

I came across a website recently that’s a big help for me, though it might not be something you need. It’s called www.uptimerobot.com.

It lets you monitor up to 50 websites, checking every 5 minutes to see if the sites are up. If one goes down, you get an email telling you. Then you get another one when it comes back up, which also tells you how long the site was down. Handy for yelling at your ISP about website downtime.

Even better it’s free. And if you need to monitor more than 50 sites, or want your sites checked every minute instead of every five, it’s only $5 per month.

Check it out!

Several readers commented on yesterday’s blog about how much Jan’s 2nd-grade photo looks like Landon, and these are people who have only seen Landon in photos on the blog. And they’re right.

Previously a number of readers have commented on how much Landon and I look alike at that age. And now this.

Blog reader (and friend) Tricia said this.

“I always thought that Landon looked like you, but I after seeing that picture of Jan, I see some resemblance there too.  It’s funny how he can look like both of you, since you don’t look anything like each other!

Genetics is an amazing thing.

For example scientists recently announced that according to genetic DNA studies, all blue-eyed people (including me) are due to a genetic mutation in a single common ancestor, dating back to about 6000 years ago.


September 23, 2018

Got’er Done . . .

The weather decided to cooperate this afternoon, so about 1pm I went outside to finish up my battery install.

Since I would be shutting off all the 12v power to the coach, I wanted to have everything prepped for the change-out as quickly as possible. This is because the 12v not only runs the lights, etc., but it also powers the A/C thermostats. So shutting off the 12v shuts off the A/C’s too.

Luckily it wasn’t really hot this afternoon, so after shutting off the house battery disconnect right by the door,

Rig Battery Disconnects

I disconnected the battery cables and pulled the old batteries out. Which turned off to be easier said than done. These 6v batteries weigh almost 70# each and it was hard to get them dragged sideways so I could then lift them out. And then I did it again for the second one.

So now I was ready to install the new ones, right? Nope.

These new batteries are wider than the old ones, and so the spacers molded into the plastic tray bottom to hold them secure were in the wrong place and needed to be removed.

Battery Tray Separator 1

So using my Multipurpose Oscillating Tool, I sliced off both spacers off flush with the bottom of the tray and I was good to go.

Battery Tray Separator 2

So now I had to brute-force the first new one into place, a little easier at about 56#. Once in place I hooked up the cables, including the ones to add the second battery, and turned the rig 12v back on and got the AC’s running again, much to Jan’s appreciation, even though it was only about 15 minutes.

Rig New Battery 1

Now all I had to do was struggle the last battery into place and hook up the cables paralleling it with the first one.

Rig New Battery 2

And after tightening down all the connections and spraying everything with Strike-Hold, I was finally done.

Since the original hold-down frame for the old batteries no longer fits, I’ll have to come up with something else to lock them down.

So one chore checked off the list, and a whole bunch still to go.


September 23, 2019

Still Raining . . .

Since we’re going to be seeing Downton Abbey tomorrow afternoon, I had planned on using Thursday afternoon to crawl under the rig and connect everything back up so I can crank up and raise the levelers.

Then I’ll have to see if I can get back underneath and take it all apart again, hoping that I can reach the adapter with my hand and tried to turn the shaft or push in the pin to release it.

I hadn’t done it before because of all the rain we had last week. Although it’s dry under the rig of course, but I would have to lay down in the muddy grass to get under there. So I was hoping that it would have dried out by then, But no such luck, as it poured down again today, maybe harder than it did last week, at least around here.

So that’s all on hold for now.

On the way home today I stopped by Costco to gas up and found the price at $2.07, 10 cents higher than it was last week, I guess due to the attack on the Saudi Arabian oil processing plant. But from what I hear they’re pretty much back online so it should be going back down soon. Especially with the end of summer.

Jan and I have been going over things we want to do when we’re in NYC this December. We already did a lot of the ‘touristy’ things when we were there with Brandi and Piper in 2009.

Brandi and Piper in NYC

Things like the Empire State Building, Ellis Island, Statue of Liberty, SOHO, Harlem, Chinatown, Times Square, etc.

One of the things we’re looking at is a nighttime Hudson River dinner cruise like this.

Bateaux NYC Dinner Cruise

Bateaux NYC Dinner Cruise Inside

We’re also looking at another bus tour to complement the one we did in 2009, but we’re still checking those out.

In addition, we also want to see a Broadway play, but again haven’t narrowed it down yet, We did see Phantom of the Opera the last time and really enjoyed it.


September 23, 2020

Pumpkin Spice? Really?

I had hoped to be able to work tomorrow on installing the Helicoils on my oil filter adapter mount and then reinstalling the filter head with new bolts and gaskets.

But my gaskets are apparently wandering around in FedEx Limbo, even though the bolts came in. And they were both ordered at the same time from the same company. And with all the rain I would have to crawl through a mudhole to even get under the rig to start with. So maybe this weekend.

It’s About Time!

NYC’s MTA board to formally ban pooping in subways and buses

And Then There’s This:

At Least They’re Only Selling It In Canada . . . For Now.

Pumpkin Spice Mac N Cheese

Kraft Pumpkin Spice Mac N Cheese

Not Just No, But Hell No!


September 23, 2021

Do The Time Warp Again . . .

About 10:30 Jan and I headed north to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt at the Golden Corral up in Conroe, our first time back at a GC since we moved down here in October 2017. And it was just as good as we remembered.

Great Fried Chicken, Mashed Potatoes, Veggies, and of course, the fantastic desserts. Jan was only disappointed that it was not yet pumpkin pie season at GC.

Ed and Debi recently recovered from a bout with CoVid a few weeks after getting their first vaccine shot, and a few days before their second one was scheduled.

They both received the Regeneron Monoclonal Antibodies treatment and they said it really seemed to help.

We had a great time seeing Debi and Ed again, and it’s good to see that they’re pretty much recovered.

Coming home about 2:30 we made a detour over to the Trader Joe’s in the Montrose area so Jan could pick up some stuff that Jan had seen on YouTube.

Having never been there, I just put the address into the GPS and off we went. So we were very surprised when we got close and saw this.

Alabama Theater Sign

Turns out that the Trader Joe’s is living in the old Alabama theater, a place we haven’t been to since the early 80’s.

Built in 1939 in the Art Deco style it was the nicest theater in Texas for a while, but like many downtown movie houses, it had started to go downhill. And by the early 80’s its claim to fame was hosting the Friday and Saturday Midnight Showings of Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Rocky Horror Picture Show

We took the kids (Chris was about 13 and Brandi was about 8) up there to one of the shows several times. Pretty much at the end of its lifetime, it had the pretty seedy atmosphere for the show.

In fact a couple of years later, the theater closed and it became a book store. Until 2013 when it became a Trader Joe’s.

Alabama Theater

It was nice to see that they retained a lot of the beautiful Art Deco-style touches.

Very nice!


September 23, 2022

Two Amazon Firsts . . .

We had two Amazon returns this week, kind of unusual for us since we don’t return a lot of things.

The first was one I’d heard about before, the Returnless Refund.

I mentioned the new Halloween shirt that Jan had ordered last week.

Broomstick Shirt

Well, we should have listened more to the reviews that said the shirts run small. Jan said hers was a little snug so I ordered her one size larger and then tried to return the first one.

But maybe because it was a clothing item, they immediately returned my money and told me to keep the shirt.

Nice.

The second first was a set of reading glasses for Jan. When they came in, she didn’t think they were strong enough so I ordered the next strength up. And then went to set up a return on the originals, expecting to be told to drop it off at a nearby UPS store. But instead, I was directed to leave it at an Amazon locker location, in this case, a locker outside a CircleK/Valero convenience store near the office.

Getting there I found them outside the store, and using the pin number they gave me, I punched it into the keypad. A little door on the left side popped open and I inserted the package and closed the door. Then the screen beeped and said, “Thank You, Greg White.”

Amazon Lockers

Isn’t Technology Wonderful?

Tomorrow looks to be Denny’s for Ultimate Omelets and WalMart.


September 23, 2023

No Toes In The Photo, Please . . .

An Amazon driver showed up today a little before noon, and since Jan saw him drive up and stop, she went out to get the packages. He walked up, laid the packages at her feet and said he needed to take a photo.

And then he asked her to step back because toes weren’t allowed in the photos.

WTH?

What’s wrong with toes? Especially Jan’s, which are pink and pretty.

Lunch today was Dickinson Seafood once again. And it’s a really great deal.

For $14 you get a very nice salad,

with their made-in-house dressings,

Blackened Catfish and Shrimp with Double Veggies, since we don’t get the Dirty Rice.

All this, and the drink is included.

Then it was on up to Wal-Mart for our weekly stuff.

While we were there, I wanted to check out something I’d noticed the other day when we came in a different way.

Tucked away off in a far corner was this.

Looks like it’s two different types of chargers. And it looks like at least one doesn’t work, because this car is not using the charger directly behind it, but the one to its right.

And anyone want to take a guess what’s inside that enclosure right behind the chargers?

Anyone? Anyone?

I’ll give you a hint.

It runs on Diesel.

Coming home we stopped off at Joe’s Hwy 6 Automotive to pick up the Jeep after its repair. I still have to replace the Cooling Fan Relay which I’ll get to after the A/C Fan Motor replacement on Wednesday. Then on Thursday, I’ll once again attempt to get my Texas Driver’s License, hoping I have all the necessary documentation now.

But we’ll see.

Tomorrow it’s lunch at Gator’s and then our weekly HEB stuff, finishing up with a P.O. stop.

 

*0

 

Doing Better Every Day . . .

Just Got Busy, Goofed Off, and didn’t end up doing a full blog today.

Come Back Tomorrow.


Thought for the Day:

“Flammable, inflammable & nonflammable… Why are there three?

Don’t you think that two ought to serve the purpose? I mean, either the thing flams or it doesn’t it, right!” — George Carlin


And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™


September 22, 2009

Road Trip…

Today we made a 400 mile round trip in our toad down to South Hadley, MA to visit our friend Joannie, pick up our guns that we had left in her care while we were in Canada, and also mail we had sent to her while we were on the road.

We headed out about 10 am and stopped at a breakfast place in Sylvan Beach before we left the area.

About 10 miles down the road we got on the I-90 toll road and headed toward MA. After a stop at a rest area along the way for coffee, we arrived at Joannie’s house a little after 2pm.

We had a great time visiting with Joannie, and she served us a GREAT meal.

We hit the road a little after 6 pm and got back to the rig about 9:30 pm.

A long day, but a good visit.

Tomorrow we’ve got a 160 mile trip to move over toward Niagara Falls.


September 22, 2010

A Jumperoo and more Spicy Chicken. . .

Still fighting off this cold, but I think it’s on its last legs.

Hopefully.

After another lupper of Extra, Extra, Extra, Extra Spicy Chicken at King Food trying to burn my cold out, we drove over to Brandi’s for a little Landon time.

At least Jan got some Landon time, I stayed on the other side of the room. It probably wouldn’t have been a problem, since both Brandi and Lowell have had this crud, and I think I caught it from Lowell, anyway.

But why take chances?

Here’s a shot of Landon in his Rainforest Jumperoo. It beeps, roars, blinks, lights up, twirls, whirls, and rotates.

And he just wanted to fall asleep, poor thing.

Landon in Chair 1

While we were at Brandi’s, we picked up a box of books from Amazon that had come in for Jan.

And, of course, after we got home, Mister commandeered the box for his own. He loves boxes,  He doesn’t always quite fit in them, but he does love them.

Mister in Box 3

We got back to the rig about 5:30 and just took it easy for the rest of the evening.


September 22, 2011

The Things I Do . . .

This morning Jan came with me, so we decided to have breakfast at the next one, which was The Fountain, a nice little family diner on the downtown Celina square, just to the south. The food was very good, inexpensive, and plentiful.

About 1:30 Jan and I headed back out. But our first stop was at La Carreta again for a quick lunch of their great Chicken Tortilla Soup. Some of the best we’ve eaten.

Finally getting home about 5pm, we headed back out for dinner. We ended up going to Big Bamboo’s Dockside Grill.

This place is right down the road from Bella’s Italian Grill, where we ate last night, And like Bella’s it’s right on the lake with a great view.

And the food is great too. Mostly sandwiches, and dinners like Jerk Chicken, Shrimp Scampi, and Fried Catfish. All really good, and not really expensive either. Dick, the owner, and our waitress, Stephanie, were really fun, and we had a great time.

And even better, part way through our meal, the Geeks on Tour, Jim and Chris Guld, along John and Jean Watson, showed up and pulled up a table right next to ours, and the hilarity ensued.

Jan is attending a Computer Boot Camp given by the Geeks for 6 hours each of the next two days, and she’s really looking forward to it.


September 22, 2012

All Planes, all the time . . .

We headed out on our Dayton day trip about 9:30, but our first stop was at the McDonald’s in Harrison, right inside the Ohio line. And after a quick breakfast, we were back on the road for the rest of our 85 mile trip.

Our first stop was the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park, located in and around buildings that housed the Wright Brothers and their businesses.

Dayton National Aviation Heritage Museum

Most people know about their bicycle shop, but less well-known is the fact they were also in the printing business, printing newspapers, flyers, pamphlets, and other items. And in addition to running two companies, they were also designing the first airplane at the same time.

As their businesses expanded, they moved to bigger buildings but always in this same small area of Dayton.

One of the first things you see inside the Museum is a replica of the Wright’s 1902 Flyer, the first successful powered heavier-than-air craft.

1902 Wright Flyer

While we were there we also saw this replica of the Wright’s Bicycle Shop, where they repaired bicycles and built new ones.

Wright's Bike Shop

Although Jan and I enjoyed it here, we both agreed that we liked the Wright Brothers’ museum at Kitty Hawk, NC better.

Next we headed about 10 miles away to visit The National Museum of the United States Air Force.

National Air Museum

Like visiting the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, it’s hard to know where to start. They had pretty much one of everything, including some that I’ve never seen in person before.

There are planes everywhere you look, in front, behind, overhead, etc..

Wright Pat Overview

From the Red Baron’s Fokker Triplane,

Red Baron Frokker

to the Kettering ‘Bug’, essentially a 1917 version of the cruise missile.

Kettering Bug

And this Kellett K3 Autogyro.

Kellett K3 AutoGyro

This is the last remaining Seversky P-35, the forerunner to the P-47. It was the Army Air Corps first production, singe-seat, all-metal pursuit plane with retractable landing gear and an enclosed cockpit.

It also has the unique property of being the only plane flown by both the U.S. and the Japanese during World War II. The Japanese government bought 20 of these from the US in 1938 and used them throughout the war.

Seversky P-35

I can only figure that the pilot of this B-24 Liberator either married a redhead or got a ‘Dear John’ letter from one.

B24 Stawberry Bitch

This is the ME 163B Komet, a WWII German rocket-powered interceptor designed to climb rapidly and bring down the Allied bomber formations. It was hampered by its short range and vulnerability to being shot down while landing.

Me 163B Komet

The is the ME 262A, the first jet aircraft used in combat.

Me 262

This is the P-61C Black Widow night fighter, the first US plane designed specially for that purpose. The radar in its nose allowed it to track and shoot down enemy aircraft in total darkness.

p-61C Black Widow

This is one that I’ve never seen in person before. It’s the F-82G Twin Mustang, similar to the P-38 Lightning, in that it has two fuselages joined by a common wing. It was the last propeller-driven fighter aircraft acquired by the US.

P-82G

And this is the B-29 ‘Bockscar, only the second plane to drop an atomic bomb in wartime, in this case, on Nagasaki, Japan.

B-29 Bock's Car

And this is a replica of the ‘Fat Man’ bomb that was dropped. It derives its explosive power from the plutonium, unlike the ‘Little Boy’ bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima three days earlier, which was powered by Uranium 235.

Fat Man 3

We’ve now seen both WWII atomic bombers, this one, along with the ‘Enola Gay’ at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.

This wraps up today’s blog. I’ll continue our tour in tomorrow’s post.


September 22, 2014

Are We, or Are We Not . . .

412 Rig in Day

Fracking.

Well, we may be fracking. Or we may not be fracking.

We certainly got a good bit busier, with 96 vehicles in today, up from yesterday’s 70, and Saturday’s 60. But nothing like the 300+ we had for two days in a row at last year’s frac gate when they started up.

We’ve been told that there are three wells in the back that are ready to frac, but no one seems to know when they’re supposed to start, just RSN (Real Soon Now). But then this afternoon one of the vacuum trucks that had been running in and out all afternoon, came in and then back out about 5 minutes later.

When I asked why, they said that they were fracking on the back pad, and they couldn’t get in.

So we don’t know. If this is how fracking is done up here, we’ll take it. No 300 vehicle days would be nice.

Don’t know what’s going on with the rig in front of us. They’re supposed to skid the rig to the new hole on Wednesday, but they’re not finished drilling yet. There’s a full rack of drill pipe on the derrick, so they obviously planned to drill more, but the rig’s been quiet all day with no drilling going on. Looks like they broke something again.

After all, remember, It’s A Yugo.

I’m still getting login attempts on the blog, but less of them since I upped the lockout requirements. Now after two failed retries, they’re locked out for 4 hours, and after two lockouts, they’re locked out for 48 hours.

They’re trying a lot of different login names, still with no luck, of course. I mentioned the other day that I use a VERY strong password, made up of just random garbage, so they’re not going to guess it, and throwing a dictionary attack at it simply won’t work either.

Lockout Stats

But as you can see, they keep trying.

The food fairy showed up again. The same one that brought the Red Beans and Rice with Sausage yesterday, dropped off Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas today. Again, homemade, and really, really good. We could get used to this.

I forgot to mention yesterday’s and today’s dessert that Jan made to go with our gifts. It was a delicious Peach Dump Cake. She made a big pan of it the other day, so we’ll be able to eat on it for several days. Really good with whipped cream on top.


September 22, 2015

It’s On . . .

Jan and I have a couple to gate sit for us this Sunday from 1pm to 7pm, so Jan’s all giddy again. They live right up the road in Marshall, TX about 30 miles away, so it won’t be a long trip for them. And this way we’ll get to celebrate our 48th Wedding Anniversary only a day early.

One thing nice about having the window AC outside here with us is that we don’t have to use our mister anymore. No, not Mister the cat, but this.

Ocean Breeze Misting System

Ocean Breeze Misting System

It’s a home version of the overhead misting systems you see at amusement parks and restaurants with outdoor waiting areas. We mounted a couple of the spray nozzles in front of a 20” box fan and it would drop the 100° air coming into the fan down to about 80° coming out. So it did the job.

The only problem, besides the occasional nozzle clog, was that after a while you were just . . . damp. And anything around you got damp too. In fact Jan started reading her paperback books and her Kindle inside a zip-lock bag just to keep things somewhat dry. So this is a big, and drier, improvement.

Unfortunately for our possible long-term stay here, our frack is running wide open tonight, and very loud. Loud enough that it’s pretty much impossible to talk over it. And this is what it looks like from here, about 500 yards away.

Frack At Night

Of course, if they keep true to form, they’ll break something before the shift is over and things will come to a grinding halt. We hope.

Looks like tonight is going to be another chilly one, with the temperature already down to 62° at midnight, so I’m wearing one of my long-sleeve FRC shirts, and may end up with a windbreaker on too before the night is over.


September 22, 2016

Just No Pleasing Us . . .

It went down to 67 degrees here last night, cool enough that with the slight wind, I went inside and grabbed my windbreaker. But it sure was nice.

According to The Weather Channel we’ve got one more day of low 90’s, Friday, and then Saturday the front moves through with temps in the 80’s and thunderstorms. With pretty much the same Sunday, on Monday, it’s more rain, with 78 and 60.

Then it settles down to Sunny with mid-80’s and mid-60’s as far as the eye can see. Of course The Weather Channel said this once before and then changed its mind and we got summer and high 90’s back.

Of course in a couple of months, we’ll be wearing two pairs of sweats and a pair of jeans, two long-sleeved shirts, a hoodie, and a windbreaker, while we’re huddled around 3 heaters and wondering where summer went.

There’s just no pleasing us.

As is usual for a Thursday, I headed into B/CS for Wal-Mart and lunch. I first went to the pharmacy to pick up Jan’s three prescriptions that I had called in yesterday, but found one of them not ready because it had come in this morning . . . the product, not my order.

They said it would be about 30 minutes, so I headed out to get the groceries. At some point here I had planned to get a haircut, but I guess since it wasn’t on the list, I forgot about it. When I got home, I told her to put it on next week’s list.

I can’t wait too much longer because I’m starting to get into ponytail territory here, or at least one of those little short ones that turns up at the end about a couple of inches past the rubber band.

Finishing up with the groceries, I picked up the now-ready prescriptions, and headed across the parking lot to get our Chick-fil-a lunch.

They have a new app that lets you submit your order and pay online and then pick it up at the designated store. But I’m not sure it’s needed, at least for me.

I walked in the door, right up to the counter, where there were 5 cashiers working(you never see this at McD’s), placed my order, and swiped my card. A minute or so later I had my two large lemonades in a nice cardboard carrier, and turned to get straws and napkins. By the time I turned back around, I heard my name called and was handed my bag of stuff. And my Spicy Chicken Deluxe Sandwich was a special order to add bacon. BTW you’ve gotta try their bacon, on anything. It’s thick cut, fried very crisp, and really flavorful.

Hmm! I wonder if you can just order bacon?

Anyway I was back out the door in less than seven minutes. Take that, McD’s.

One thing interesting about their new app is all the changes and additions to your food that it allows you that aren’t shown on the menu board at the store. But one thing annoying about the app is that it won’t let you peruse the menu if the store is closed. What’s up with that?

It should let you at least look at the menu, but just not order. Or even pre-do your order and then submit it when you’re ready.

As I mentioned yesterday, before I went into CFA, I did try the Open Signal program to see what I got in B/CS. And it showed me the tower I was connected to just a few blocks away on the other side of the Hwy 6 main drag.

I then ran a speed test and found I had 12 Mbps down and 5 up, with a 49 ms ping. My signal strength was – 92 dBm and 90%. A good strong signal. I also wrote down the actual lat/long coordinates to double-check that it wasn’t showing the tower was in Missouri like it does from here.

So this just reinforces my thought that there is something screwy about the tower I’m connected to here. And reinforcing that reinforcement, is the fact later this afternoon while I was outside on the gate, I picked up my phone to make a call and noticed that it was again showing 3G data.

Now normally here I show 2 bars of 4G data, but as I noticed the other day when I was in Open Signal and this happened, my 3G signal was much stronger than my 4G one. In fact I was showing 5 bars of 3G!

But before I could run SpeedTest.net, or the one in OS, my phone jumped back to 2 bars of 4G again.

And FWIW I have another app, Network Signal Info, that is also supposed to show me the lat/long and distance of a tower. But when I try it here, it will not give me any values, but instead says, ‘Cell has wrong values’. Like I said, just screwy.

At least my new desktop Wi-Fi card to supposed to be here tomorrow. So maybe that will fix my Internet problems. But somehow I kinda doubt it.

I was reading through the manual for our new TV last night and discovered a couple of things. One is that there is an Amplify command on the Sound Settings menu. And it certainly seems to work.

The manual says that it “. . . increases the overall intensity of high-frequency sounds for a better listening experience. It is designed for hearing-impaired listeners.”

Well, except for the part where it calls me ‘deaf’, I like it.

And I’m not deaf. I just have a loud A/C right over my head.

I also found out that we have PIP (Picture in Picture) but I don’t think it will do anything for us, since it only has selections for Air or Cable inputs. So there is no way to do PIP from the DirecTV DVR. Bummer!

Another thing I found that I haven’t tried yet is a setting under the Sound Effects Menu called ‘DTS TruDialog’. It says, it “Increases voice intensity to make dialog clearer”, so it will be interesting to see what difference this one makes.

But whatever it does, it looks like based on ‘Amplify’ alone, that I won’t have to buy a sound bar.


September 22, 2017

Never mind . . .

Today was really nice, the first time I’ve been able to sleep in for about a week. What with Clear Lake trips, moving to a new park, and other stuff, it’s just been go, go, go.

In fact, we never left the rig at all today, and maybe not tomorrow either.

I mentioned yesterday how nice this park, Hillcrest RV Park, is. But I do have a small gripe. The Verizon signal is pretty weak. I was hoping for better since there’s a cell tower right down the road, but apparently it’s not a Verizon tower. Oh Well.

They do have park WiFi here, but since I haven’t been able to find anyone to pay, I haven’t been able to get the code.

I really like my new printer, a HP 4650 Wireless Printer.

HP 4650 Printer 2

It’s well worth the $70 cost, with edge-to-edge printing, an auto document feeder, and automatic two-sided printing.  It’s also much faster, but for a different reason than you might think. It is marginally faster, 9.5ppm vs. 8.5ppm, compared to my old printer, but that’s not the real difference.

The way most people judge a printer’s speed is how soon the page comes out when they hit the PRINT button, because they usually only print 1 or 2 pages at a time. So the fact that their printer can crank out 9.5 ppm really means nothing.

No, the real speed issue for most people is what’s known as TTFP, or Time To First Page. In other words, how soon that first page comes out. And in this case the TTFP for the 4650 is over twice as fast as my old printer. So that’s the real difference.

A while back we came across this old photo of Jan. She thinks it was in the 1st or 2nd grade. It’s about the size of a postage stamp and was rolled up in a tight scroll. So flattening it out and scanning it, I had this.

Jan !st or 2nd Grade

But after about a hour or so with Paint Shop Pro (a Photoshop clone) I had this.

Jan !st or 2nd Grade

Not bad. She’s was a cutie even back then.

If you were worried about tomorrow’s prediction of the end of the world, David Meade, the Biblical Numerologist who announced that The End Is Nigh, says,

Obamanation-Emily-Litella-Never-mind

Apparently the End Is Still Nigh, not just as Nigh as was predicted. But it’s still coming, he said.

You can count on it.


September 22, 2018

Rainy Days And Saturdays . . .

always get me down. And keep me from getting much done outside, too.

In between rain bands this afternoon I started prepping to install my new house batteries.

It rained pretty much all night and most of the morning, before slacking off in the early afternoon. So I first started with the new ones, getting them set up by installing the bolt-type connectors.

New Deka Rig Batteries

This was necessary since the rig uses the bolt-on connections rather than conventional automotive posts. Next up I ‘staked’ the posts and the terminals together using a screwdriver and a tap from a hammer.

I learned this trick when I was 10 years old, and watching/helping/learning from the mechanic working on the Jimmy (GMC) 6-71 diesel engines in my father’s shrimp boats in Gulf Shores, AL

New Deka Rig Batteries2

It locks the two together and helps give them a better connection.

Next I disconnected the outside two Interstate 6-volt batteries and removed them, leaving the other two still connected, making it quicker and easier to swap out the old and new ones when the time comes.

Old Rig Batteries

But that time didn’t come this afternoon because the heavy rain showed up again and brought things to a halt. So maybe tomorrow.

About 4:30 Jan and I headed out for a late lunch at Denny’s, and then a stopover at WalMart for a few things before heading back home.

I did make a stop by the PO and found our new (renewed) passports had come in. And in only about 3 weeks. Not bad.

So now we’re all set for next April and another 10 years.

Right now the rain is supposed to slack off tomorrow afternoon so maybe I can finish up with the batteries, and a few other chores as well.

Or maybe not. We’ll see.


September 22, 2019

Our Future Robot Overlords . . .

Last night we watched the last of the four episodes of Maigret on Ovation, and it was just as good as the first three. It’s really sad to see a quality series like this not continue.

Rowan Atkinson is great in the part, especially if you’ve only seen him as Black Adder or Mr. Bean, both of which are hilarious.

One thing I didn’t mention the other day is that Budapest, Hungary was the stand-in for 1950’s Paris, with another location in Hungary for shots of the French countryside.

And since we were just in Budapest back in May, we were always on the lookout for locations we might recognize. And we did think we saw the steps at the Fisherman’s Bastion a couple times.

Fisherman's Bastion Steps

I’m pretty sure that Ovation will be showing the four episodes a number of times, so you’ve still got a chance to catch them.

Don’t miss out.

I’m constantly amazed at how much more interactive that Alexa is becoming. When I ask her to do something, she’ll say ‘OK’ and then I’ll always say, “Thank you.”

I mean, I’m always careful to be polite to our future robot overlords.

Then a couple of months ago, she started answering me back with, “You’re Welcome”, “Sure”, “Any Time”, or “No Problem”.

Neat!

But a couple of weeks ago she started adding little things like, “Have a nice Friday”, or “Hope you have a nice weekend.” Then last week during the heavy rains we had, she said, “Try to stay dry out there.”

Then yesterday morning she upped her game when she said, “Enjoy the nice weather today, now that all the rain has gone.”

Spooky!

This afternoon I booked Jan and me tickets for the Tuesday afternoon 2pm showing of Jan’s long-time favorite, “Downton Abbey”. It’s been a while since we’ve been to this theater in Webster and it turns out that they’ve made a lot of upgrades. Like all of the 18 screens are now Reserved Seating, and have these very nice electric recliners, complete with cup holders and footrests.

cinemark_luxurylounger

I think the biggest problem might be for us to stay awake.


September 22, 2020

Is It Actually Already Over ?

We stayed in today, mainly due to the many reports of flooding around the Houston area due to the passing through of Tropical Storm Beta. Though in our case we saw none of the forecasted 50 mph winds, and not a lot of the heavy rains.

But a lot of other areas around here did get a lot of rain, with streets so flooded you could only see the tops of the cars.

I finished putting together our absentee ballot request letter to send off to South Dakota tomorrow. Hopefully they’ll get back to us pretty soon. I do like that SD has a website that lets you track your request so you can be sure they received it and that it’s being processed.

Nice.


September 22, 2022

Brushfire and Otterbox . . .

Since Jan wanted to get her toesies done this afternoon, we decided it would be a good excuse (like we really need one) to eat at Torchy’s Tacos once again.

Like most places we go to, we have our standard favorites, with Jan getting the Brushfire,

Torchy's Tacos Jan's

with Jamaican Jerked Chicken. While I got my favorite Jalapeno Cheese Sausage Dogs.

Torchy's Tacos Greg 20220922

Then since we still had time before Jan’s nail appointment, we drove over to the Verizon store at Baybrook Mall to get some help with Jan’s new Galaxy S8+.

In May 2021, when I upgraded to my Galaxy S21 Ultra, Jan inherited my S8+ that I had since I got it in Las Vegas in April 2017. But when the S8+ died, or well the screen died, she went back to my old Galaxy S5.

But recently she said it was running slower and slower, and she really wanted a larger screen. So I found a brand-new S8+, still in the box, on eBay for $200. A great buy.

So when it came in the other day, my plan was to use the Samsung Smart Switch app to transfer all the data from the old S5 to the new S8+, and change out the SIM card to the new phone. But when I tried to SIM card changeout last night, I found that while the S5 used a microSIM card, the S8+ now uses a smaller nanoSIM card. So I wanted to stop by the Verizon store to get a nanoSIM card, and since it would be a new one, they would also have to switch over the phone number.

And unlike most visits to a Verizon store, I was waited on immediately, and was done and out in less than 15 minutes. Nice.

Then while Jan was in the nail salon, I worked on finishing the phone setup. I was pretty much done by the time she came out, and she really liked the wallpaper I loaded for her.

S8  Flamingo Screen

I’ve still got a few more things to finish over the next couple of days.

Then when I got home I installed the phone into the new Otterbox case that I ordered last week.

Otterbox S8

I’ve used these Otterbox cases for years and they’re the best around. They really protect your phone.

Getting home we checked out the result of all the cement trucks coming and going in the park this morning. When they finished erecting the garage a couple of weeks ago, it looked like this.

Petticoat Junction New Garage Front

But after a week of putting up forms, and this morning’s cement trucks, it now looks like this.

Petticoat Junction Garage Finsihed Up

The whole new addition is really coming along.


September 22, 2023

After Thinking It Over . . .

I’ve decided to just replace the fan motor in our Coleman Mach 15 A/C unit. It’s only 8 years old, and a new one would cost over $1000. But the fan motor is only about $125,

and while I’m in there I’m also going to replace the motor capacitor, and that’s another $10.

The only ‘complication’ is getting up on the roof, which Jan is not happy about for me. But if I plan ahead, I should only have to do it once. The actual replacement should take less than an hour.

Here’s just one of many YouTube how-to videos.

The motor won’t be here until Sunday, and Jan’s got a doctor’s appointment on Monday. Plus Tuesday we’re getting together with a long-time friend up in Houston.

So Wednesday it is.

And I told my client I would be out on Wednesday, and then possibly Friday too, just to recover from Wednesday.

I’ll keep you updated.

On the Texas Driver’s License front, I got a couple of really good suggestions from our faithful readers.

Thanks a lot.