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More Unintended Consequences . . .

Today was a very nice do-nothing Tuesday, something we instituted a few months back. It’s nice to not have to go anywhere or do anything.

I’ve kept you updated on the Boeing Starliner debacle, and now there’s more.

It seems that they’re now whispering behind the scenes that if they have to bring the stranded astronauts home on a SpaceX Dreamliner, they will have to undock the Starliner from the ISS and essentially abandon it so they can dock the Dreamliner. That’s a $1.5 BILLION loss!

More Unintended Consequences.

It seems we need vultures. Or at least, India does.

How decline of Indian vultures led to 500,000 human deaths

Once upon a time, the vulture was an abundant and ubiquitous bird in India.

The scavenging birds hovered over sprawling landfills, looking for cattle carcasses. Sometimes they would alarm pilots by getting sucked into jet engines during airport take-offs.

But more than two decades ago, India’s vultures began dying because of a drug used to treat sick cows.

By the mid-1990s, the 50 million-strong vulture population had plummeted to near zero because of diclofenac, a cheap non-steroidal painkiller for cattle that is fatal to vultures. Birds that fed on carcasses of livestock treated with the drug suffered from kidney failure and died.

And that’s not all, according to a new peer-reviewed study. The unintentional decimation of these heavy, scavenging birds allowed deadly bacteria and infections to proliferate, leading to the deaths of about half a million people over five years, says the study published in the American Economic Association journal.

It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.

And speaking of Mother Nature –

Here’s a really good, but very scary video on what would happen to the US if the SuperVolcano under the Yellowstone region decided to blow its top.

Yikes!


July 30, 2009

Eastbound and down…

Today was a travel day.

After having breakfast at a local restaurant, we headed east toward Clinton, CT a little after noon.

We were only going about 130 miles, but it took us about 4 hours due to all the traffic on I-95.  A good part of the time we were only doing about 40 mph.

The only ‘highlight’ of the trip, if you can call it that, was the fact that it cost us $23.75 to cross the Tappan Zee bridge which spans the Hudson River about 25 miles above New York City.

And traffic across the bridge was very slow due to what a flashing sign said was police activity on the bridge. We could see police lights in the distance and a helicopter hovering overhead, but by the time we got to that part of the bridge everybody was gone.

Jan jokingly said “Maybe somebody jumped!”.  And it turns out she was right.  A 66 year old women from NJ  jumped from the bridge and was killed when she hit the pilings at the base of the bridge.

Apparently this happens enough that they have installed phones all along the bridge that connect directly with the Suicide Prevention Hotline.


July 30, 2010

EnterTRAINment Junction…

We’re presently parked at the Little Farm on the River RV Park in Rising Sun, IN, about 25 miles from Cincinnati, OH.

This park is in the middle of a working farm that runs right down to the Ohio River and we’re surrounded by corn and soybean fields

Little Farm 1

Little Farm 2

Little Farm 3

Little Farm 4

About 10:00 am we headed into Cincinnati. Strangely enough, although Ohio is just across the river, we have to go through Kentucky to get there. Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky all come together right here in this corner of the country.

Our first destination was Quaker Steak and Lube, a hot wing place we first ate at in Buffalo, NY last year on our way back from Newfoundland. When we were there the big promotion was their “Atomic Wings”. These rate about 150,000 on the Scoville Heat Scale (a jalapeno rates between 2500 and 8000) and you have to sign a release before they will serve them to you. Jan and I got a sample order (5 wings) and we both thought they were pretty hot, hotter than anything we’ve eaten before. Jan could only eat one.

This time they have a new deal. “Triple Atomic Wings” with a 500,000 rating. Unfortunately they don’t offer a sampler of the Triples, and I didn’t want a whole order of 10, so we didn’t get to try them.

But Jan and I both agreed that either we had both lost a lot of taste buds, or these “Atomic Wings” today weren’t as hot as the ones we had last year. But they were good. We also had some regular Hot Wings and some Buckeye BBQ, which rates at about 5000.

One thing I really like about Quaker Steak is that their chicken pieces are a good bit bigger than either Hooter’s or Buffalo Wild Wings.

After lunch we stopped off for gas and car wash before heading over to the main course for the day, EnterTRAINment Junction. Yes, it’s spelled correctly.

EnterTRAINment Junction is a trained-themed attraction that has a railroad museum, and what I was really there for, the world’s largest indoor model railroad.

With over 25,000 sq. ft., 90 trains with more than 1200 cars, 2 miles of track, and over 6000 handmade trees, it’s really something.

Train 1

Train 2

Train 3

Train 4

Train 5
Train 6

Train 7

I had a large HO layout when I was a kid, and if we weren’t living in the RV I might think about building another one. But in the meantime, I still like reading about them, and visiting large layouts when possible. Last year I visited the Model Railroad Museum near Lancaster, PA, but this one is much bigger.

As I said, my layout was HO, which at the time was the smallest scale at 1/87 real size. The trains we saw today were G scale, or 1/22.5

Now there are two smaller scales than HO  N scale, at 1/160, and Z scale at 1/220. A locomotive in Z scale is less than 2 inches long.

We also enjoyed the American Railroad Museum, which had a lot of interesting displays and artifacts. One thing that I found funny was that when the Union Pacific and Central Pacific work crews approached their meeting from opposite directions, they passed each other by and kept on going for another 100 miles. They were getting paid by the mile and didn’t want to stop. Finally the Government stepped in and declared Promontory, Utah the meeting point.

Leaving the Junction we headed back to the rig, but detoured through downtown Cincinnati to get some flavor of the city. It’s a very nice town with a lot of new big buildings going up.

I kept looking for the Flimm building, but never found it.

Getting back to the rig a little before 5 we decided it was nap time for an hour or so. Then about 6:30 we headed out for dinner at Skyline Chili, one of two chili-based restaurants in this area, the other being Goldstar Chili.

Everything is pretty much chili. Chili Dogs, chili burritos, salads with chili on them, and even chili spaghetti. And of course, all of it covered with grated cheese and onions.

And it was delicious. Hopefully, we’ll get to try Goldstar some other time.

Tomorrow we head north about 135 miles to Celina, OH for the night before getting into Elkhart, IN on Sunday.


July 30, 2013

Guards and Buffalos . . .

More on the Gate Guard front:

This morning, before I got up, Jan got a call from someone looking for Gate Guard Services. I wasn’t sure why they had called us, but after thinking about it for a while, I figured he had got our number from one of our rig’s Company Men as a Gate Guard Services contact.

All the Company Men we worked with had both Jan and mine’s phone numbers and email addresses in case they needed to call us at the gate. Curious, I gave the guy a callback and that’s what had happened. Another Company Man, apparently one that we had worked with last year, had given him our number.

In addition, earlier this morning, I got an email from Jerry and Rita Scarborough, who also work for Gate Guard Services, telling me that GGS has finally switched over to Direct Deposit for our paychecks. This will make it a lot easier for us since when I used Chase’s Online Deposit last year, I kept running into a problem because Chase has a limit on how much money you can deposit online in any one month.

Who ever heard of a bank that doesn’t want your money?

About 1pm Jan and I headed out for the afternoon. Our first stop was at the RV/MH Hall of Fame to check in with Al Hesselbart, the director there, and a long-time friend. After talking for a while we made a date to meet for dinner tomorrow night at King Wha, a great local Chinese restaurant.

Next up was a stop at the Sam’s Club over in Mishawaka, about 15 miles away to pick up Jan’s prescriptions and get some other Sam’s-type stuff. Since we wanted some other pharmacy items we went there first. When I went to pay for the prescriptions, I thought they were kind of high at $136.

So I pulled out my Pharmacy Discount Card. I think I’ve mentioned this before, but I picked one of these up from the payment counter at my doctor’s office last February. Figured it wouldn’t do much, but what the heck, it’s free.

Pharmacy Card

When I first used it at the Sam’s Club in Friendswood, I was surprised to find that it saved me about $50. Yeah! I was also told that I only had to enter the card into the system once and it would apply to all prescriptions from then on.

Kind of.

I showed the Pharmacy Tech my card and asked her to be sure it was still in the system and if it would save me anything today. She said these cards never made much difference but she would check. She went away for about 15 minutes and then came back with a big smile on her face.

I asked her if it made any difference and she said “You could say so”. So I asked, “How much?”. She just hit a few keys on the cash register and a new total came up.

My $136 total was now $50.  WOW!

The other thing I found out is that the card has to be re-entered each time we move our prescriptions to a new Sam’s Club or Wal-Mart. Which for us is pretty much every month. Note to self.

Leaving Sam’s, we went right next door to the Wal-Mart to get me some new socks since Sam’s didn’t have what I wanted.

Then, after a quick stop at a P.O. to mail a letter, we headed over to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. Usually, we get the regular wings, but this time since the Boneless Wings were on sale, we got those instead. We both got the Mango Habanero sauce on them, which is their third hottest sauce, behind ‘Wild’ and ‘Blazin’, which is the hottest. But I always get a small cup of the ‘Blazin’ sauce as an added hit.

I do this because I like the heat of the ‘Blazin’, but overall I also like the sweetness of the Mango Habanero, so I get the best of both worlds.

On the way back to the RV park, we first stopped off for a car wash, and then a quick stop at a Chase bank to get a roll of quarters. Jan wants to use the big washers here at the park laundromat to do some of our rugs while we’re here.


July 30, 2014

Stuff Every RV’er Should Have . . . Maybe

Since today was a rainy do-nothing day I thought I’d continue with a list I started on a post back in June. It’s a combination of things we like and use, and some of the items from the 10 Things Every RV’er Needs seminar that I used to give at RV rallies. We’ve found all of these either very useful, or very necessary, or both.

First up are things electrical.

1. A Three Light Outlet Tester is just plain necessary, for your home or your RV.  I’ve lost count of the times I’ve plugged into a 20 amp or 30 amp campground outlet and found an Open Neutral, an Open Ground, or a Reversed Open/Neutral. All of which under some conditions can get you shocked. Or keep the power from making it through your Electrical Management System (EMS) and into your rig. About $6.

3-Wire Receptacle Tester

2. The Kill-A-Watt is another must-have. With it, you can check the voltage of the outlet of course, but also the current draw in Amps of whatever you have plugged into it. And you can also check the frequency in Hz, the power consumed in Watts and KWH (Kilowatt Hours). I use it to set the frequency on the diesel generators when we gate guard, so our clocks run right. About $23.

P3 Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor

3. A Digital Volt Ohm Multimeter (VOM) is another must-have item. With it you can check battery voltages, fuses, pretty much anything electrical. About $9.

Digital Large Screen Multimeter

3a. Just a better VOM, this one with auto-ranging which means you don’t have to preset the voltage range before taking a measurement, I.e. 0 to 200 volts, or 0 to 20 volts. About $20.

INNOVA Auto-Ranging Digital Multimeter

4: These are the super bright LED strips that I came across recently due to Ed Hurlburt of the RV Tips area on Facebook. They’re bright white, and are the perfect replacement for your F15T8 fluorescent bulbs. Here’s my blog post on how I replaced my fluorescent tubes with these. About $9 per set of 2.

Super Bright COB White LED Lights

5. This is a temperature-controlled outlet that I use during the winter. I have a small cube heater that I put in our water bay during very cold weather. The heater plugs into this outlet which is plugged into the rig AC power. The heater is turned on, but only operates below 35° and then cuts off at 45°. About $14.

Cold Weather Thermo Cube Thermostatically Controlled Outlet – On at 35-Degrees/ Off at 45-Degrees

Hopefully this list will prove useful to you, so if you have any questions or comments, let me know.


July 30, 2015

A Delayed Rendezvous . . .

Well, just as we’re wrapping it up here, it cools off. Pretty much since we’ve been here, the temps have been in the mid to high 90’s, and staying in the mid to high 70’s at night. But today it was only 93 degrees, with 66 tonight. And that’s how it’s supposed to stay until we leave here on Sunday.

As I mentioned before, we had planned to make a last visit to Charles Vergos’ Rendezvous for some more of their fabulous ribs. But Jan woke up with a migraine this morning and just didn’t feel like making the hour and 45 minute trip into Memphis, and of course, back home.

But she did feel like making a 30 minute drive in the opposite direction to the Cracker Barrel in Corinth, MS. Thursday being Jan’s favorite Turkey and Dressing day, it was the perfect fix.

Jan of course got her T & D, while I went with the Cracker Barrel Sampler, something I’ve never had before.

Cracker Barrel Sampler

It comes with samples of Chicken and Dumplings, Sugar-Cured Ham, Meatloaf, and Mashed Potatoes, and then I added Turnip Greens and Fried Okra as my two sides.

I mean if you’re at a comfort food place, then you should have comfort food, right?

Everything was great, especially the Turnip Greens. Well, everything but the Meatloaf. Although it tasted good, it was dry and chewy, and in crumbles, like it was scrapped off the end of the pan. But all in all, it was a good meal.

They have plenty of parking here, so we’re thinking about stopping here for breakfast on our way to Alabama on Sunday. We checked it out and they’ve got plenty of parking in back. But we’ll see how busy they are when we get there.

One thing I noticed as soon as we came into Corinth is that they must be having a gas war here. Everywhere had unleaded at $2.19 or less. In fact we filled up the truck at $2.15. Nice!

Too bad they’re not having a diesel war too. It was still in the $2.40’s.

Not bad, but not as good as we saw last week over in the Memphis suburbs, where it was in the $2.26 area.

We’ll see how Jan feels in the next couple of days, to see if we’re going to try Rendezvous again.


July 30, 2016

Scratching the Itch . . .

Saturday’s usually a sleep-in day for me. Instead of getting up at 11am, I get up at noon. But I didn’t go to bed until almost 4am, so cut me some slack.

Of course, 15 minutes after I got up, and before I even had my coffee, a client called and needed help. He broke his computer.

By the time I first had my coffee, and got his computer working again, it was almost 2pm. So after snapping a photo of our electric meter, I headed down to the park office to settle up on our electric bill for the almost-month we’ve been here.

Turned out to be $195.12 for the month, which along with the $375 rent, totals $570.12 for our 28 day stay here.  That’s $20 a day.

Not too bad, I guess.

Later, around 7pm, after it had cooled off a bit, I went outside to stow things away for our travel tomorrow, and also to take another look at my AC blower problem that seemed to center on the resistor pak.

AC Blower Resister Pak 0

The pak gets hot in operation, so it actually sticks up into blower airflow to help keep it cool.

AC Blower Resister Pak 1

And after I got it out and unplugged it was quickly obvious what the problem was

AC Blower Resister Pak 2

There was a burnt pin on both the pak and the connector.

AC Blower Resister Pak 3

A little Googling said this was a fairly common problem. The long-term solution might be to replace both the plug and the pak, but I wanted to get it fixed now.

So a paperclip to the rescue.

AC Blower Resister Pak 4

I let it run for about 15 minutes, and although it got hot to the touch, it wasn’t hot enough to burn, so I deemed the repair a success.

For now.

Of course, I only have one speed now, high. But we pretty much only run it on high, anyway.

Finishing up, I stowed away the water and sewer hoses, as well as the chairs. So all we have to do tomorrow is unplug shore power, raise the levelers, and hit the road.

Tomorrow night we’ll be at Poche’s Fish N Camp near Breaux Bridge, LA.,  finally scratching the itch.


July 30, 2017

Smooth and Cool . . .

We took our time getting up and on the road this morning, not pulling out until about 10:30.

I think the spaces here at Capitol City RV Park here in Montgomery are some of the largest I’ve seen. At 85ft x 45ft, you could park a couple of RV’s in each site.

Capitol City RV Site

Though these are their ‘Premium’ sites, I was given a free upgrade when, noticing all the Auburn University stuff on the walls of the office, I told her I had gone to Auburn. Of course I didn’t tell her I had also gone to Auburn’s arch-rival, the University of Alabama too.

It took us about 10 minutes to get out on I-65N, heading towards Athens, AL, about 180 miles away.

Based on past trips through Birmingham, I was expecting the same really bad roads, especially coming into town from the south, but they’ve obviously been doing some work since we were through here last year. Nice and smooth.

And being Sunday, there was really no traffic to worry about, so we just cruised right through, with the only slowdowns being the many hills.

We pulled into the Northgate RV Park in Athens and were met by my cousin-in-law, Helen, at the park office. After getting in our hello’s and hugs, we got parked and set up about 2:45.

About 4pm Jan and I headed to have dinner at Catfish Cabin, our regular ‘first night here’ restaurant.

One of the best things about this place is that pretty much everything is homemade. From the salad dressings,

Catfish Cabin Salad

to the Hushpuppies,

Catfish Cabin Hushpuppies 2

it’s all made in-house.

And all of their catfish, shrimp, and oysters, are all fresh, and then breaded and prepared at the restaurant. The only thing bought pre-prepared are the stuffed crabs like on my Combination Platter.

Catfish Cabin Combination Platter 2

Jan always gets the Cabin Platter, because she really likes the whole catfish on it.

Catfish Cabin Cabin Platter 2

Really delicious as always.

One thing we’re enjoying up here is the cooler weather, with highs in the mid-80’s, and lows in the low-60’s, temps we haven’t seen since Rapid City, SD back in May.

Cool.

Tomorrow we’re making a daytrip back down to Birmingham to drive around, and then have dinner with our old friends Bill and Carol Alverson.

Bill and I both worked as broadcast engineers at WBIQ, Ch. 10, the local Alabama Public Television station back in the early 70’s, before we moved to Montgomery. We also both worked part-time at WENN, a black radio station in town, also as broadcast engineers.

So we’ll have a lot to catch up on.


July 30, 2018

A Lowball Offer . . .

We’re still waiting for the last two house offers to come in, hopefully in the next day or so.

I thought I might have another possible buyer today, but it didn’t work out. My client gave me an ad card for another local company that buys houses, so I gave them a call.

They sounded very interested and kept me on the phone for almost 30 minutes giving them info on the house, and finally setting up an appointment for Thursday afternoon at 2pm.

Then on my way home I got a text asking me to call back to discuss what they could pay for the house. I thought that’s what they would decide after they looked at the house on Thursday. But I gave them a call when I got home.

The young lady said that she had turned over my info to the property buyer, the guy who would be checking out the house on Thursday. She said he told her that he was presently paying $75,000 to $125,000 for houses in our area, and would that be a price range that I could live with?

I told her that since I had offers for $137,000, $139,000, and $140,000, what did she think? After she was quiet for about 10 seconds, she said, “Oh, I guess not.” Then she said that she would cancel the appointment.

Now I’m not sure what was going on, but I really doubt he’s bought any house in our subdivision for $125,000, much less $75,000. But at least they didn’t waste my time.

The high bidder sent me a copy of the contract we will be using if we go forward with the deal, already filled in, so I can look it over. I was glad to see it was the standard Texas Real Estate Commission 10 page form, and not some in-house version with a lot of possible gotchas.

It now looks like I got off easy on my GPS problem. As I mentioned the other day, the new power cord did not fix my problem of the unit constantly rebooting. So I started looking at replacement units on Amazon.

Googling had told me that sometimes the problem could be caused by a bad update, but I hadn’t updated recently so I didn’t think that was the cause. And anyway, to fix it, you have to save all your data off, do a factory reset, and then spend a couple of days downloading all the new updates, and then load your data back on. Seemed like a lot of trouble to go to, especially since I was kind of looking for an excuse to get a new one anyway.

But Friday, while I had the GPS plugged into my laptop to download the latest copy of my Favorites from the unit, I saw that a new update was available, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

And it fixed the problem!

It worked perfectly all the way up and back to Brandi’s on Saturday, and then again to and from work today.


July 30, 2019

TV Guide . . .

As was forecast it did rain off and on all day so the only thing I got done outside was to get my local digital antenna mounted and up in the air.

New Digital Antenna

Coming inside I switched the TV over to Off-Air and hit Scan. And in a few minutes, it had found 111 local channels. WOW.

That’s almost 3 times what it found before I put it up on the pole. Of course, about 80 of those are in languages we don’t understand.

One thing Jan was worried about was how to find out what was on the many channels since there’s not a guide like on our DirecTV. We did find one online that showed the local channels but it would be a real pain to have to check the computer every time you wanted to know what was on.

Then as I was looking at the TV remote I noticed a Guide button. So out of curiosity, I pressed it, and suddenly I had a channel guide.

And just like our DirecTV guide, it not only time and program name, but also gives a short synopsis of what the show is about.

Neat

But now my question is, where is this coming from? It has to be coming over the air, but who is putting it together, and what channel is it coming in on? It doesn’t show up when you scan through the channels, just when you use the Guide button.

It must be something standard around the country, since I assume it works everywhere since it’s on the remote. But so far Googling hasn’t turned up anything.

So I’ll keep looking.

As I mentioned yesterday I got an email from Panasonic saying they were repairing my camera, and then today I got another email saying it was done and they were shipping it out this afternoon. Very fast service.


July 30, 2021

Trip Prep . . .

Jan and I spent this evening starting to book stuff for our Christmas in Branson visit. First up were our tickets to Yakov Smirnoff’s show on December 5, the day we arrive in Branson. We had to do this one first because that’s his last show of the season.

Next up we got tickets to see SIX once again, on Monday at 8pm at the Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Theater. Again, we were kind of constrained by the times of their shows and the times we had open.

Next up was a Dinner Cruise on the Branson Belle, the riverboat that cruises Table Rock Lake. We had hoped to do the 8pm one, but they didn’t have any open during the week we’re going to be there, so it will be an early dinner, at 4pm on Tuesday, the 7th.

One thing I found is that it’s cheaper to book directly through the theater, and not through one of the online services like BransonShows.com or others. In fact we saved over $30 on the tickets for Yakov’s show alone.

And in other ticket-buying news, I went online this morning to the Houston Museum of Natural Science and got tickets to the Pompeii Exhibit there,

Pompeii Exhibit

and it’s going to be a family and friends excursion, with Jan and I, Brandi and Landon, and Landon’s BFF, Sophie.

And besides Pompeii, there’s also the Body Worlds exhibit,

Body Worlds

and Victoria, the T-Rex.

Victoria T-Rex

So we’ve got bodies encased in stone, bodies encased in plastic, and a T-Rex. Sounds like the perfect afternoon for a couple of almost-11 year old’s.

And us adults too, of course.

As we’ve done on past Museum visits, we’re going to meet up first at nearby Cleburne Cafeteria for lunch beforehand. A great place to eat.

We’re set for August 10th, just before Landon and Sophie start back to school the next week on the 16th.

Then the following Thursday, the 12th, we’re meeting Debi and Ed Hurlburt, and maybe Janice and Dave Evans, for lunch at Razzoo’s Cajun Café up in Spring. Then coming back south, I’ll drop Jan off at Brandi’s so she can dog-sit while Brandi, et al, spend the weekend at the lake.

So it’ll be just me and Karma for our weekend.


July 30, 2022

Sharing Is Caring . . .

Well, it turns out that one ticket in Illinois won the $1.337 Billion Mega Millions lottery last night

Our daughter Brandi, covering all her bases, messaged this to Jan’s sister/family in Illinois.

Brandi Lottery Message

Unfortunately, the luck of the Illinois bunch wasn’t any better than ours here in Texas.

However I did win $4 on my $20 ticket. Whoopee!

But I’m not sharing it.

However, I wasn’t able to even check my ticket until this evening, because every time I checked it during the day, the Texas Lottery app either wouldn’t respond or said it was too busy. Guess too many folks were checking their tickets.

Jan and I were on our way up to Webster a little before 1pm for lunch at Texas Huddle once again.

And like Angie at Denny’s, and Sylvia at Twin Peaks, Juana, who’s only waited on us twice before, brought us our correct drink order right off the bat, and also remembered what we also ordered.

After we both started with a side salad, Jan got her Mushroom Cheddar Bacon Burger (no bun) and a side of their Steamed Veggies.

Texas Huddle Mushroom Swiss Bacon Burger 20220730

I, of course, got the PB&J Bacon Cheeseburger, heavy on the PB&J.

Texas Huddle PB&J Burger 20220730

And as usual, I dusted the burger with some of my Carolina Reaper Volcanic Pepper Flakes, for that extra touch.

Then when the manager came to see how we were doing, she told me that some people order it with the Flaming Raspberry sauce that they have for their Chicken Wings, instead of the Grape Jelly, or in addition to it.

Next time for sure!


July 30, 2023

Was It Something We Said?

OK, everyone can stop sending us articles about what flamingos in front of your RV really mean.

Naughty secret revealed: Plastic pink flamingos in RV parks are not what they appear

Now what is the deal with the upside-down pineapples?

This past Monday, Charlie, our port-side neighbor here at the park, backed up to his camper and headed out. He’s been our neighbor for about 9 months, and when I talked to him early in the week, he didn’t mention that he was leaving. And he had to borrow a pickup, since he only had a small SUV.

And I gather that Rob our park owner didn’t know he was leaving either. Jan said later in the day he drove by the site and then stopped, backed up, and got out and checked the site. There was no problem with any rent owed since we’re coming up on the end of the month, which is paid in advance. But Charlie may have left while owing for his electric.

For instance, this coming Tuesday our August rent is due, but we’ll be paying our electric bill for July.

So I don’t know. Was it something we said?

Lunch today was at a local favorite, Gator’s. Always good.

Jan got her usual delicious Strawberry Walnut Salad with Grilled Chicken and Bleu Cheese Dressing,

while I tried something new there, their version of Shrimp and Grits.

I often have Snooze’s version, so I wanted to compare them. And it’s hard because it’s an apple vs. orange thing.

Both are delicious, but as I told Jan, I probably won’t get the Gator’s version again, and that’s because it’s just too much. The shrimp are very tasty and much larger than the Snooze ones. But they give you about 3X the amount of grits.

Too much for me. But still delicious.

Then it was on up to our HEB for our usual weekly HEB stuff.

And then home.


Our regular readers will remember my talking about our first summer here in Texas after we moved down here from Alabama in December 1978. During the month of July 79 we had 13 straight days of temps over 100° and another 5 or 6 other days over 100.

Then in July 2014 I posted this in the blog.

The weather, it’s a changin’.

You’ve probably heard about the Polar Vortex sweeping though the Mid-West over the next few days. The temps here are going from the mid-80’s to the high 60’s in the daytime, and into the low 50’s at night.

And in other news, Brisbane, Australia just recorded their lowest temperature in 103 years. And in the Antarctic, they’ve just recorded the most ice ever seen there.

Isn’t Global Warming wonderful?

And then a couple of weeks ago, Johannesburg, South Africa had their first snowfall in over a decade.

And according to a recent article in The Lancet, one of Britain’s most prestigious medical journals, recently published an article detailing a study of 854 cities in Europe showing ‘that cold-related deaths account for 10 times the number of deaths due to heat’.

Sounds like hotter is better than colder.

Isn’t This How Horror Movies Start?

A 46,000-year-old worm found in Siberian permafrost was brought back to life, and started having babies

 

 

 

 

 

 

No Grass Skirts . . .

Well, with a last drizzle all day that amounted to a little over 3/4 inch, it looks like our rain is over for the next week or so. We certainly need time to dry out, since we’ve had almost 8 inches in the last week or so.

Leaving the rig about 12:45 this afternoon, we had planned to have lunch at Schafer’s Coastal Bar & Grille over in Clear Lake Shores once again. But Beryl intervened.

They only had a small sign on the door saying they were closed that we didn’t notice. But when we stuck our heads in, they directed us to this across the street.

Now the last time we were here this was a gift/dress shop, so we were surprised to find it’s now an Outrigger’s ‘Hula’ Bar and Grill.

The menu was much like the late-lamented Outrigger’s that used to be under the Clear Lake Channel Bridge before it was consumed by the Hwy 146 redo.

Jan got the Shrimp Tacos,

while I got the Hamburger Sliders.

And we shared a basket of the Catfish Nuggets.

All really, really good.

While we were eating, I was looking around wondering where the kitchen was. I mean, this was just a small gift shop location. But then I watch a server walk through the front door carrying a big tray of food from outside.

And looking across the road, I saw what was happening. They had a ‘remote’ kitchen.

They’re using their catering trailer as the Hula Bar kitchen. Wonder what happens when it’s pouring down rain?

And besides, I think it’s false advertising to call a place a ‘Hula’ Bar, and not have any ‘Hula’ girls.

What’s up with that?

Heading back, we made our weekly Wal-Mart stop, followed by a gas fill-up, and then home.

Tomorrow we’re planning on having lunch at Yummy Yummy Chinese Buffet, assuming it’s open, I guess. Then it’s on to HEB.


Thought For The Day:

“The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised.” ― George F. Will


Your Retro-Preview Highlights –

2011 – Three Moose In One Day

2013 – Mackinac Bridge

2014 – The White Pass Yukon Railway

2017 – How Not To Pave A Road

2022 – My New Ears

2023 – Felica The Ferret

And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™


July 27, 2010

Illinois…

We’re presently staying with Jan’s sister, Debbie here in Vernon, IL. The nearest big(ger) town is Vandalia.

They don’t have very good cell / AirCard service at their house so posting will be intermittent for the next couple of days.


July 27, 2011

Three in One Day . . .

This morning, our last full day here in Jackson Hole, started at Bubba’s BBQ for breakfast. When Jan saw Blueberry Pancakes on the menu last night, it was a given that we’d be here again.

Then we headed about 25 miles north to Moose Junction. First we wanted to get our National Park Passports stamped at the Park Visitors Center and we also asked a Ranger about the best places to find more moose.

He told us that there had been one by the bridge we just crossed up the road, and also along Moose-Wilson Rd. So it looks like our idea of driving the Teton Park Road and the Moose-Wilson Road might work out.

We first turned north on the Teton Park Rd. that runs for 20 miles before it connects back with US-89 right before Moran Junction. We had some great views along the way, including these shots along Jenny Lake,

Teton Park Rd 1

Teton Park Rd 2

and this photo at our closest point to Grand Teton.

Grand Teton

Along here we also did the 4 mile Jenny Lake Rd. loop, another good spot for wildlife, as evidenced by this sign. Since we’ve seen all three, I guess we’ve really been lucky.

GTNP Wildlife Sign

Reaching the main highway we decided to drive the 4 miles back to Pilgrim Creek where we saw the moose yesterday. And we hit the jackpot again.

What were probably the same two moose were back, and much more visible than yesterday.

GTNP Moose 6

One of them was down in the water along the bank, munching on all the green goodies. Moose like willows and aspens, and both were in abundance here.

GTNP Moose 7

Because he wasn’t in the trees like yesterday we got some great shots.

GTNP Moose 8

Here you can see the 2nd moose further up in the trees.

GTNP Moose 9

GTNP Moose 10

After a few minutes, the moose moved on to where we couldn’t really see them anymore. Jan had noticed some people only about 30 feet from the moose and said “Those people are much too close.”

And then she said “I bet they’re getting some great pictures. I want to go over there.”

But luckily, the Ranger showed up a few minutes later and started yelling at people to get away.

We did move further along the creek where we could see the moose again. And in another episode of “Where’s Bullwinkle?”, this is what my camera showed at 1X.

GTNP Moose 11

And this is at 72X. Quite a difference.

GTNP Moose 12

After the moose finally disappeared into the brush, we headed back down US-89 and turned into Moose Junction again to this time take the Moose-Wilson Rd south back down to Jackson.

And as we came to the bridge the Ranger had mentioned before, we encountered a moose-jam.

He was back!

Moose Junction Moose 1

Moose Junction Moose 2

And this time only about 50 yards away, so we got some great photos.

Moose Junction Moose 3

Finally dragging Jan away from the moose, we drove back into Jackson and out the other side to Snow King Mountain Resort so we could take the Scenic Chairlift.

In the winter it’s a ski-lift to the top of Snow King Mountain so you can take one of the several runs down the mountain, but in the summer it’s just a great sightseeing trip.

It’s a 1500-foot climb to the 7800-foot top, and so steep you would be hard-pressed to walk straight up. However, there are a number of zigzag trails leading to the top for hikers and horseback rides from the nearby stables.

Snow King Mountain Ski-Lift 1

And the route up is lined with snow-making machines just waiting for the temperature to fall.

Snow King Mountain Snow Machine

Looking down at the ground under our feet, we saw a lot of shoes. Apparently losing them is almost a given.

Snow King Mountain Ski-Lift Shoe

For most of the trip, we were about 50 to 70 feet off the ground. What’s kind of funny is that Jan has a fear of heights. It is very difficult for her to stand at a railing and look down. She had problems at both Hoover Dam and Grand Canyon.

But she has absolutely no problem dangling from a ski-lift chair. Go figure!

Snow King Mountain Ski-Lift 2

Getting to the top we had great views of the mountains and out across the Park.

Snow King Mountain Top 1

Well worth the trip up.

Snow King Mountain Top 2

And the trip down was even better, with great views of Jackson and the Elk Refuge beyond. I was hoping to see one of the elk herds from up here, but no luck.

Snow King Mountain Ski-Lift 4

Snow King Mountain Ski-Lift 5

And we even have a memento of our trip to the top. Someone needs to show them something about color correction on their photos. Mine look better.

Snow King Mountain Ski-Lift

Leaving Snow King, we drove back into town to get gas for the trip home. One thing I’ve noticed here in Wyoming that I haven’t seen anywhere else is that the gas grades are different.

The price for unleaded was only $3.48, but instead of 87, 89, and 91 octane like everywhere else, the gas here in Wyoming all seems to be 85, 87, and 89 octane.

Anyone know why? My truck really doesn’t like 85 octane, especially at these high altitudes.

Next Jan wanted to shop at one of the gift shops on the main street.

And which one did she pick?  Well, the Moose on the Loose, of course.

Jan found a moose tee shirt she really liked, but when she went to pay for it, something strange happened. Both our Wells Fargo and Chase VISA debit cards were declined.  So I paid with cash.

I knew both accounts had plenty of money, and I had just used the Chase card to get gas a few minutes before, so after we left the store, I called Chase.

I got a nice young lady from India, not named Peggy luckily, who was very helpful. She said they log every transaction, even if they’re declined, and she showed the last one was the gas I had purchased. She didn’t show anything even coming through, much less declined after that.

She said the store was probably having trouble with their merchant account, which would explain why both cards were declined.

Leaving the Loose Moose, we drove back to Bubba’s for supper.

Yeah, we ate there last night, and this morning, so let’s make it three in a row.

And here’s a little secret. We’ll probably eat breakfast there tomorrow on our way out of town. So there.

This is the sign of a good BBQ place, cords of oak wood stacked up next to the separate building housing their smoker.

Bubba's Wood

And when I peeked in the door, they were unloading the beef briskets and taking them into the restaurant.

Bubba's Brisket

And you wonder why we keep eating here.

After dinner, we stopped off at a nearby Maverik for Cappuccinos before heading back to the room for the night.

Tomorrow we’ll probably leave here about 9 am for the 177-mile trip back to Cody.

And if Jan has her way, we’ll probably be making a quick stop at Pilgrim Creek for another moose sighting.

Hopefully, this will get it out of her system for a while.


July 27, 2013

Bridges and Parades . . .

Lucky for us the predicted all-night rain didn’t show up, so the grass under our rig had a chance to dry. And when it came time to back out of our site a little after 9am, we got out OK.

Before we left the Soo, we wanted to get some diesel, but taking the most direct way to the Interstate and our station took us up a steep hill with a traffic light at the bottom. If I could be sure that I could take the hill without stopping at the light, it wouldn’t be a problem. But if I got a red light it would be slow going up the hill, doable, but slow. Maybe that’s why the signs say ‘No Vehicles Over 5 Tons’. Could be.

So I had mapped out a new route that looked like it would work, and it did. The hill along that way was much shallower, and had no light at the bottom. The day was off to a good start.

And at the station, it just got better. Diesel had dropped 2 cents a gallon since yesterday. The pumps were no-limit pump and pay, and had the big nozzles for a fast fill. It just kept getting better.

After topping off our tank, we got hitched up and got on I-75S heading for Manistee, MI, and the Little River Casino about 220 miles away. But then things started to go a little awry.

The heavily overcast skies started leaking all over our windshield, and pretty much kept it up all the rest of the trip. It never came down hard, but it did keep the wipers busy.

50 miles down the road and $14 from my wallet, we crossed the Mackinac Bridge, a first time for us. And it took us a while because we did it at 20mph.

Mackinac Bridge 1

Mackinac Bridge 2

The speed limit on the bridge is 45 mph, but it’s also 20 mph for Loaded Trucks. And then there’s the sign that says “Truck/Buses No Passing”. I always wonder about signs like this. I’m definitely not a truck, and I’m not a bus. But I am bus-like, or maybe bus-lite?, so where do I stand?

Anyway, I ended up behind a “Loaded Truck”, and there was so much traffic passing us at 45 (or faster) that I would have had a real problem getting out and around him. So there I stayed.

One thing I thought was funny is that apparently some people don’t like to drive on the open grating on the bridge deck. The way it’s built, the inside lane is grating, but the outside is concrete. A number of cars stayed with us behind the 20mph truck all the way across, but as soon as both lanes were concrete, they zipped out and around, and were gone.

A couple of miles off the bridge we turned west on US-31 to take the scenic way down the lake. And it was really good that it was scenic because, between the rain, the numerous construction zones, the multiple small towns with 25mph speed limits, the parade, and the street fair, we had plenty of time to see it all.

We arrived at the Little River Casino about 4pm, and for a change, had no problem finding the RV park there. Believe it or not, they actually had signs leading us to it.

Since we’d been parked for a week with no sewer connection, before we parked at our site, we stopped off at the dump station. Our site is 50 amp and water, again with no sewer, but we’ll have it tomorrow in Elkhart.

We had leftovers for supper, but we’re going to head over to the casino tomorrow morning for the breakfast buffet before we leave. YUM.

Tomorrow we’ve got a 220-mile trip to Elkhart where we’ll be for a week, checking out all our favorite restaurants and places. We’re really looking forward to being back in Elkhart again.


July 27, 2014

What Has the Navy Not Been Telling Us . . .

US Navy X-Wing Fighter
So maybe it wasn’t so long, long ago and far, far away after all.


Saw something really interesting on a TV ad today for the new upcoming Amazon Fire Phone. You know how the Shazam app can listen to a song and tell you the name and the singer? Well, the Fire phone can do that for movies.

The ad shows two guys arguing over what movie they’re watching in an airport. A kid pops up behind them, takes a photo of the TV screen with his Fire phone, and the app tells him what the movie is.

WOW!


We had planned a nice do-nothing day today mainly because of all the really bad weather we were expecting. But the rain didn’t show up until about 8pm this evening, so it was still a very nice day.

For lunch, Jan fixed herself a Pimento Cheese and Tomato Sandwich, while I fixed myself a CBT. That’s a Cheese, Bacon, and Tomato. Then later for supper, Jan whipped up a big batch of her delicious Chicken Rice-A-Roni. She adds a lot of extra stuff to it and it’s really good. And we have enough left for another meal.

Our friends Chris and Charles Yust have been in Alaska for the last few months. A couple of days ago they posted an article on Facebook about the White Pass Yukon railway train. This past Wednesday, the 24th, the White Pass Yukon train derailed with a load of 360 passengers.

White Pass Yukon Derail 2

I’m not quite sure where the crash occurred. One article says it happened just inside Canada, and the other says just back inside Alaska. 19 passengers and 4 crew members were listed as injured.

We took this train back in September 2008 while we were visiting Skagway with our friends Al and Adrienne, on our way back from Fairbanks. I guess if it had to happen, it was better where it did happen rather than along here.

White Pass Yukon Railroad 2

______________________________________

I’m still trying to figure out this ad I saw on Amazon.

Expensive T-Shirts 2

Is the $1395 for a diamond-encrusted one or is this for a thousand of them. I went all through the different selections of sizes and colors and never got a price of $1395.

Finally, I saw these photos on Facebook of a vinyl wrap job on an RV. Here’s the before:

RV without Vinyl Wrap 2

And here’s the after:

RV with Vinyl Wrap 2
I’m not really crazy about the chosen color scheme, but I am interested in the vinyl wrap idea. I’ve seen it used on some of the RV upgrade shows and the cost seems to run about a third to half of what a good paint job would be, I.e. $5000 to $7000 for the vinyl.

Anyone out there have any experience with this?


July 27, 2016

WOW . . . 462 !

Jan and I were up and on the road by 11am this morning, making the 2 hour trip down to the Clear Lake area, to meet up with our son Chris, our DIL Linda, and our GD Piper.

Although it was pretty overcast and threatening rain most of the way, it stayed dry and cool with temps in the 80’s.

About 15 minutes out Jan called Chris to see if we were meeting at Chris’ or at whatever restaurant they had picked out. Which, to our pleasant surprise, turned out to be the new Grimaldi’s Pizzeria at Baybrook Mall.

Grimaldi's with Kids

Piper really knows Grimaldi’s since she and Brandi were with us in 2009 when we first ate at a Grimaldi’s, the original, and only one then, in the DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) area of Brooklyn, NY.

Grimaldi's 1

In fact the bridge runs almost directly overhead.

After our great meal, we went back over to Chris and Linda’s to pick up our mail, and also check out Piper’s new (to her) car.

A few weeks back she was making a U-turn and fell into a pothole, hitting something else, and pretty much ripping part of her front suspension completely off. All without even setting off the airbags.

So she now has a 2012 Nissan Xterra.

Piper's New SUV

She’s still enjoying her apartment in Galveston, close enough to her job at U.T.M.B. Hospital that she was able to ride her bike to work for the time she was between vehicles.

Piper in Hammock 2

After getting our goodbye hugs, it was on to the local Kroger’s for a few things, as well as gas for the truck at $1.89/gallon. Not bad.

Next up was a quick Target stop for a couple of more things, and then a pair of Cinnamon Dolce Lattes for the road from the Starbuck’s in the parking lot.

They’ve got the new Bay Area Blvd/I-45 underpass open now so it was a quick ramp onto I-45 north. Luckily we were running just ahead of the going-home traffic, so we didn’t hit any slowdowns until we were out on the Katy Freeway. And a quick dodge onto the HOV lane kept us moving along.

We checked in with Brandi, but didn’t stop for a couple of reasons. First she was under the weather and had come home a little early, and second, the Amazon stuff we were expecting today, apparently wasn’t coming in until tomorrow. So we rescheduled our get-together until Friday evening.

After a coffee-disposal stop at the Flying J in Brookshire, we got home about 5:45 to a noisy, upset Karma who repeatedly informed us that we were about an hour late in feeding her.

Now that we’re getting back on the road in a few days, we’ve both got a bad case of Hitch-Itch. In fact we’re already starting to map our travels for 2017.

Of course, after our upcoming two-plus week Alabama jaunt, our next up adventure will hopefully be another 3 month stint at gate guarding for the 5th year in a row.

Two weeks ago the US Rig Count was at 440. But today the count was at 462, another big jump. So if we’re lucky that will mean more gate guard jobs, or at least one for us.

Of course, I remember a couple of years ago when the rig count was around 2000, and God willing, we’re heading back in that direction again.


July 27, 2017

Life Is Prickly . . .

Yesterday afternoon when we got back from dinner, I noticed that I had some fluid leaking down from under the engine, but since it was getting dark I decided to wait until this morning to take a look at it.

Turned out to be the hydraulic fan motor that came loose about a month ago while we were in Pauls Valley, OK visiting our son-in-law Lowell’s parents.

Rig Fan Pump 2

The nuts on the two bolts that hold the hydraulic motor to the bracket had come loose, letting the motor just flail around. I was able to replace the bottom nut but cannot reach the top one. Spartan said to use a 7/16-14 nut, a serrated lock washer and two flat washers. Well, all the local hardware store had was a self-locking nut and no serrated washers that would fit.

But it looks like the self-locking nut didn’t stay locked, and although it wasn’t completely loose like last time, but it was loose enough to wiggle slightly. So using my cheater pipe I really tightened it back down.

Once we’re in Athens I’ll try to get the right nuts and washers. But what I really need to do is figure out how to replace the top nut too. It looks like I need a short guy with really long arms. Actually sounds like a chimp.

We really like this park, which is laid out around several fishing lakes. Very scenic.

Poche's Sunset 2

Poche's Sunset

Very nice, and it’s Passport American too.

We were pulling out of our site here at Poche’s Fish-N-Camp by 10am, but it took almost 15 minutes to get out of the park due to the really atrocious roads. They were just repaved a couple of years ago. But now they look like this.

Poche Road 1

Poche Road 2

Poche Road 3

The reason for this is that they just spread dirt over the old pavement, and then paved on top of that.  And the above is the result.

The dirt washes out underneath and then the pavement collapses, especially under heavy weights like RV’s.

And unfortunately this seems to be the same thing that they’re getting ready to do at the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails. When we left they were spreading dirt out on the roads, and we were told they were going to repave.

If so, I expect the newly paved roads at Lake Conroe to look exactly like the ones at Poche’s in a couple of years. If you don’t dig down to a firm base, lay down a gravel bed, and then pave over that, it will never hold up.

Our 240 mile trip was pretty uneventful, with only the usual mess going through Baton Rouge, and a few minutes of heavy rain as we crossed into Alabama. Our A/C’s kept the coach nice and cool, so I think I can declare the problem fixed, and my deflector vanes on the roof AC cover a success.

We pulled into Payne’s RV Park about 3pm, paid our $20 Passport America fee and got parked in our 50amp FHU site. Nice!

About 4pm we headed out to have dinner at Sonny’s BBQ, about 15 miles away.  We’ve been eating at Sonny’s for a long time. In fact as I reminded Jan, the Sonny’s BBQ in the Titusville, FL area was where we went a number of times while we were dating. So we’ve been eating at one for more than 50 years!

Scary thought.

As with our other long-time favorite places, we went with our usuals. Jan got the large sliced pork sandwich, with fries and BBQ beans,

Sonny's BBQ Jan

while I got my favorite Pork 3 Ways Platter with Ribs, Pulled Pork, Sliced Pork, BBQ Beans and Corn on the Cob. And I had leftovers.

Sonny's BBQ Greg

Kimberly, our server, took great care of us and never let my iced tea glass get empty.

Great Service.

Tomorrow’s a short travel day, only about 190 miles up to the Capitol City RV Park in Montgomery for a couple of days where we’ll catch up with friends we haven’t seen in a while.


July 27, 2019

More Light . . .

Back on my repair list, I spent the morning looking at my dead bedroom ceiling lights. As it turns out the two ceiling fixtures are the only ones left in the rig still using the original fluorescent bulbs. All the rest have been updated with these 12 volt LED strip lights.

LED Replacement Lights 1

They put out slightly more light than the fluorescent tubes, at 30,000 hours they last longer, and at $10 for 6, they’re a lot cheaper.

In this case, since both fixtures were dead I figured it was the power feeding them, so I first checked the fuse, again. I had checked before, but I wanted to start from scratch again.

With the fuse good, I next checked the wall switch, thinking it was now likely, but I had 12 volts entering and leaving the switch. So I pulled the cover off one of the fixtures, and had 12 volts there. And 12 volts at the other one too.

WTH?

I knew that both sets of bulbs were on their last legs, and it looks like they all gave up at the same time. I’ve got some more LED strips packed away so I’ll dig them out and put them in place.

LED Strip Light Upgrade 4

About 2pm I made a trip over to our storeroom, with a detour by Yummy Yummy’s for lunch, to see if I had pulled the dryer blower motor from the old Splendide before it was junked.  And I had.

Washer Dryer Blower Motor - New

It almost looks like it’s brand new. I’ll pull the washer back out tomorrow and put it in place.


July 27, 2020

Round And Round . . .

First up, an interesting animation about how the solar system really works. Yes, the planets orbit the Sun, but in turn, the Sun actually orbits the center of mass of the solar system, which is not the center of the Sun.

Neat!


July 27, 2021

‘Catch’ing Up . . .

Jan and I headed up to the Almeda area to have lunch at The Catch. Our friends, the Hurlburt’s, introduced us to the one up in Conroe last Saturday and we really liked it. So we were happy to find out there was a new one just up the road right off I-45 and Almeda-Genoa.

The Catch 20210727

Blackened Catfish and Shrimp with Green Beans and Hushpuppies. Just as delicious as Conroe, and a lot closer.

Next up was a stop at the office to pick up some Amazon stuff that had come in, and take care of some PayPal invoices that needed to be sent out. Then it was on the WalMart and the HEB down in our area before finally getting home around 4pm.

A few days ago I mentioned that one of our favorite Alvin Opry singers, who we’ve known since the late 90’s, was killed along with her father in a traffic accident while vacationing in Germany.

Leighan Cortes

Father and daughter, both Houston-area educators, killed on ‘trip of lifetime’ in Germany

Finally a local station has a little further information on the story, along with a link to a GoFundMe account.

Leighan, a school teacher, leaves behind a husband and six children. And according to the article, it’s going to take weeks to get them and their belongings back home. The GoFundMe account is up to a little over $18,000 out of the hoped-for $40,000.

Jan and I have contributed, so if you have a few spare bucks, I’m sure it would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Finally it appears that a new sequel to Ghostbusters is coming out this November. Delayed a year due to the WuFlu, it ignores the disastrous 2016 reboot, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife picks up 35 years later in the present day.

The original Ghostbusters team, and what happened in New York in 1984, are almost completely forgotten and faded away. But it seems that Egon’s grandchildren discover the original ECTO-1 hidden in an old barn just in time to battle supernatural occurrences.

There have been a couple of trailers released that really look good, and it looks like a number of old faces, and ghosts, will be back.

Check ‘em out.

I Ain’t Afraid Of No Ghost.


July 27, 2022

Try That With Your Real Ears . . .

I ended up not going into work today due to a reoccurrence of my BPPVertigo, bad enough that I didn’t want to try and drive. And the worst I’ve had in a couple of years.

Ended up mostly sleeping until the afternoon, until it mostly faded away. But as in the past, it leaves me kind of washed out.

But I should be pretty much back to normal tomorrow.

Hope so. I wouldn’t want to waste an off-day lying in bed.

I’ve had 4 or 5 people contact me for more information on my BeHear NOW Hearing Assistants.

BeHear NOW

I had originally bought them to see how much improvement they would give me, planning on returning them during the 30-day free trial before I looked at some of the more expensive ones. But this one works so well that I’m going to keep them.

They list for $249, but if you order them by August 1st and use the code ‘blowout80’ at checkout, there’s a $75 discount.

And no, I don’t get any kickback on these orders.

The last couple of weeks have been a real eye-opening experience for me, discovering all the things I can hear now that I couldn’t hear before.

Jan’s happy because she doesn’t have to keep telling me when the turn signal is still on, and that I don’t need the TV volume up nearly as high.

But sometimes it’s also nice to be able to turn them off.

Yesterday when we were having lunch at Snooze AM, it was getting close to the 2:30pm closing time, and they had the background music tuned to some kind of hip-hop/rap and turned up loud.

Irritatingly loud.

Enduring it for a minute or two, I reached up and turned my ears off. And the music faded off into the background.

Try that with your real ears.


July 27, 2023

Felicia . . .

Well, after a delicious lunch at Torchy’s Tacos once again, we on over to the other side of the Interstate to check out the frame selection at the Sam’s Club.

Jan had her usual Chicken Fajita Tacos,

while I got my usual Jalapeno Cheese Sausages.

Getting over to Sam’s, we found that unlike the last time we got new frames/lenses at Sam’s (2018), they had a really good selection of frames this time. And it only took me about 5 minutes to find a pair I liked. And Jan wasn’t too far behind me, quickly narrowing it down to 3 pair, and then one pair after she asked for our (me and the two clerks) pick.

So about an hour and several hundred $$$ later, we were on our way, with our glasses expected in the next 7 to 10 days. And as I had hoped upgrading our Sam’s membership for Regular to Plus saved us over $100 even after we paid the $56 upgrade cost.

Nice.

Then after a stop at Kroger’s for some Kroger’s-stuff, we were home by 3:30.

A delicious, productive day.

This is Felica. Felica the Ferret.

Back in 1971, she was a prime member of the startup team at The Main Ring particle accelerator at the NAL’s Meson Laboratory near Chicago, IL The 4.4 mile diameter ring was made up of 300 foot sections of stainless steel tubing about the size of a tennis ball.

But as they kept trying to start it up, the magnets kept shorting out. Turns out the problem was metal shavings left inside the tubes. But how to clean them out?

After trying a couple of different ideas that didn’t work, a British scientist suggested using a ferret to crawl through the tubes, since they’re used as hunters in England to flush rabbits out of their burrows. Turns out ferrets love to explore tubes and tunnels.

So they obtained Felica, equipped her with a harness, a long cord, and a diaper (don’t want to leave MORE debris) and sent her down the 300 foot tube to find her treats at the other end of the tube. Then they would use the cord to pull a cleaning fluid-soaked swab through the tube to clean it out.

I was interested in this article because I’ve seen it personally. Back in high school and college, I spent summers doing construction work for a company that did HVAC and plumbing. We often worked with an electrical contractor that used a ferret to also pull a strong cord through the large electrical conduits. Then the guy used the cord to pull a large bundle of wires through, doing it much faster than using a Jet Line since the ferret could do longer conduit runs and had no problem with bends in the conduit.

Later when the kids were younger we had a series of ferrets as pets. A lot of fun.