Lunch today was at our local Pho Barr, first time in a while.
Normally we start out with an order of their Grilled Pork Spring Rolls, so we each have one, with a Peanut Sauce for each of us.
But something apparently got lost in translation since we got one of these for each of us.
More to take home.
Jan got the Grilled Chicken Vermicelli Bowl,
while I got the Pho Ga, which means it comes with sliced chicken breast that’s cooked in the Pho.
And with the large servings, we both had some to bring home.
Delicious!
Won’t stay away so long next time.
Getting home, even though it was drizzling a bit, I got my new Sewer Hose hooked up.
For the last 10 years or so, I used one of these Thetford Titan Hoses.
I bought the last one in January 2020, so this one lasted for over 4-1/2 years. Not bad for baking in the sun all the time.
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I’ve been looking at a new theme for this blog. The old one is broken, which is why you see the missing photos at the top of the blog. This theme, Brava, is no longer supported, and though I’ve tried to find the problem myself, I haven’t had much luck, due to some really convoluted programming.
I want a similar layout, with a rotation banner at the top, and 3 adjustable columns. I’ve found a couple that are interesting, but not one that really grabbed me so far. But I’m still looking.
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Not sure what’s happened to summer around here.
For the last week, we’ve had daytime temps in the mid-high 80’s and night temps in the mid-high 70’s. And today it barely made it into the 80’s.
And it looks to stay the same for at least the next week.
Hope it lasts.
Thought For The Day:
The path of inner peace begins with five words: I DON’T GIVE A DAMN
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2009 – Cajun Country – In Canada?
2010 – Jan Is Home And More Landon
2013 – They Run In Packs On The Gate
2016 – The Life of a Gate Guard Q&A
2017 – More Remote Controlling
2018 – I Work Cheap $20 vs $198
2023 – A Simple Solution?
And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™
August 29, 2009
Cajun Country…
Today Jan and I took a drive along the Acadian Coastal Highway.
I had not realized that this is the area that the French were driven out of in the late 1700’s after the British took over the area after the Treaty of Utrecht. This is where the Cajuns (Acadians) now in Louisiana came from.
It was really strange to see an auto repair shop called Thibodeaux’s, and a restaurant called Boudreaux’s.
Almost like home.
Anyway, the drive took us along the Atlantic Coast. For the last part of the drive we could see Prince Edward Island out to sea. We saw a lot of quaint buildings and villages.
The weather was pretty overcast, and then later it started raining, so I didn’t fool with getting any pictures.
As we were heading home, we stopped by a place we had been told about called Hudson Oddities. As a child, the owner, Audrey Hudson, was always bringing home stuff she had found on the beach.
So much so, that her mother once told her, “For the love of god, child, could you please stop bringing garbage home from the beach”. Not really taking this to heart, she decided to make a business out of junk from the beach.
One of the beach things she collected was bits of broken glass, that over the years had been smoothed and polished by the wind, waves, and sand, rounding off the sharp edges until they looked like this.
and turns them into jewelry that looks like this.
Just beautiful.
After this stop, we headed home, arriving just as the rain started coming down harder.
Tomorrow we plan to make a 2 day trip over to Prince Edward Island, driving the truck over, and staying one night in a bed and breakfast.
Hopefully the rain will let up. We’ll see.
August 29, 2010
Jan is home, YEAH !!!!!
I left Elkhart about 12:30 pm to pick Jan up at Chicago Midway from her 3 pm flight. By 3:30 we had her bag and were on our way home. A smooth trip both ways.
And it sure is great to have my sweetie back home.
Arriving at the RV park about 5:45 pm, about 15 minutes later we headed out for dinner with Mike and Elaine Loscher, and Jan and I at Mancino’s Pizza.
Whoops.
Mancino’s is not open on Sunday. Bummer!
So it was back over to Bob Evans right near the park. And we had a great time, great food, great conversation, and our always great waiter, Michael, who caterers to our every need, and still keeps a smile on his face.
Jan brought back a bunch of Landon photos so here goes.
Here’s new mom Brandi about 30 minutes after Landon was born.
Here’s Piper holding Landon with the proud parents looking on.
And here, too. I think this is another day.
And, of course, here’s Grandmother Jan with Landon.
And here’s Grandmother Sonja with her new grandson.
And another one of Miss Piper.
Jan took a lot of photos that I’m still going through, so more later.
And now for something completely different.
When we got back from Chicago this afternoon, I noticed a new rig parked back behind ours.
And I couldn’t help but notice the pair of really BIG girl panties hanging from the wipers.
After some debate, a bunch of us just had to find out what the story was behind the panties. And a big behind it would be, too.
But, amazingly, the gentleman in the rig had a perfectly rational explanation.
He said that like Prince Charming was looking for someone to fit the glass slipper, he was looking for someone to fill these panties.
OOOOKKKK !
That makes sense, but I’m not sure if me and three more of me TOGETHER could fill those.
But good luck with that. And let us know how it goes.
August 29, 2011
Coffee and Chores . . .
This morning started with our coffee, bagels, and Jan pretty much back to normal.
After working on client Internet stuff during the morning, after lunch I got back on my chore list.
Many of today’s things were rig-based, things I wanted to take care of before we travel on Wednesday.
First up was topping off oil and coolant levels, and then adding water to the coach batteries. (My engine batteries are sealed and maintenance-free.) As I started to do this, I decided to call Interstate Batteries to find out exactly how high I was supposed to fill my four U2400 6-volt coach batteries.
My batteries have a flange extending about 1-1/2 inches down from the top, and I had been told to fill the battery up to the bottom of the flange, but I’d heard different from other places, so I decided to go straight to the source.
And I got some information I didn’t expect. I was told by Interstate to fill the batteries to about 1/4” from the top of the fill opening. So I had to add a good bit of distilled water to each cell. In fact I didn’t have enough water to fill all 12 cells, so I’ll have to get some more tomorrow and finish up.
Next I got my socket set out and tightened up the passenger-side outside mirror. It had started to loosen up and was moving slightly from wind pressure as we drive.
About 4 pm our daughter Brandi called to check in and say hi. She said Landon’s got more teeth coming in and walking everywhere. We can’t wait to see him again in November.
Then I finished up recaulking the shower base. I started cleaning out all the old caulk over the last few days, It looks like the previous owner had recaulked it with one that was not mildew-resistant. So it was turning black underneath the clear caulking. So, after digging out all the old stuff, spraying it with bleach, and letting it dry, I recaulked it with a white, mildew-proof, silicone caulk. It turned out pretty good.
My last task for the day was to install a power line radio filter on my new radio to filter out any residual noise in the system.
Not sure what Mister was doing here. He knocked the trash can over and crawled into it, but It was completely empty so I don’t know what he was looking for. After a few minutes, he gave up and took a nap.
Tomorrow Jan and I are going into Terre Haute to pick up some groceries, see the new movie “The Help”, and eat dinner, probably at Buffalo Wild Wings. We need a hot wing fix.
August 29, 2012
More of the Same . . .
Today was pretty much yesterday, redux, with a couple of extras.
First off, Jan and I headed out a little before noon to have lunch at La Carreta, our favorite local Mexican restaurant. They have a great Chicken Tortilla Soup that I always try to have a couple of times while we’re in Celina.
Then after lunch, I dropped Jan off to have her nails done while I got the truck washed, I picked up Jan at the nail salon. There are only 3 places in Celina that do pedicures, and apparently, this drives the prices up. Jan said she was very surprised to find out that her pedicure was $40, twice what she’s ever paid before. Ouch.
Getting back to the rig, Jan took a nap before finally about 5pm, Ron and Brenda Spiedel, and Jan and I all headed out to have dinner at one of our gift certificate donors, Bella’s Italian Grille, an excellent Italian restaurant overlooking Grand Lake here in Celina.
After a delicious meal, and getting back to the fairgrounds, we all gathered around outside, joined by Mike and Elaine Loscher, and two newcomers, John and Kathy Huggins.
John and Kathy are hosts of the Living the RV Dream internet radio program and blog. They have a lot of interesting info on their website. Check it out.
Once again we stayed out until the bugs chased us in, rounding out another very nice day.
August 29, 2013
They Run In Packs . . .
First off, if you saw the blog yesterday where I talked about it being a slower day with only XXXX vehicles, the number should have been 95. I put the XXXX in as a placeholder until I verified the actual number and then forgot to update it. Sorry ‘bout that.
I finally got a chance this morning to drive back into the site and see how things are laid out.
This is the RR crossing that I mentioned yesterday. The first gate where the guys are standing is actually a cattle crossing gate. The train crossing is back by the Stop Sign.
I got a chance to talk with John and Rhonda, the couple that have that gate, and they said that from the time you can see the train coming over the slight hill until it passes the crossing, it’s only 28 seconds. Not a lot of time for a big truck to have to slow down for the hill and the crossing and then make a sharp left turn toward the wellheads before they clear the RR crossing.
Rhonda is in the orange vest and the two guys are pulling a 12” diameter flexible water hose underneath the cattle guard. This will bring water from the fracking pond down to the sites where the actual fracking will be done.
This is the manmade fracking pond, done by making a big hole, lining it with plastic, and then keeping it filled with water.
Despite all the hype, most fracking is done by injecting water, sand, and a small amount of detergent down the hole to put pressure on the oil-bearing shale rock formations to cause it to expand and crack open, releasing more oil. The oil in shale rock is not found in big pools, but is contained within the rock itself, holding it kind of like a sponge. Fracturing (or fracking) allows the oil to be released and recovered.
And as it turns out, there’s an awful lot of shale oil in Texas and elsewhere in the US. And the world, for that matter. In fact enough to dwarf what Saudi Arabia and the Middle East have.
This is the tank farm for the producing wells already in this area.
All of the operational wells here feed into these tanks and then are trucked out. But not for much longer. They are almost finished with a feeder pipeline that will connect the tanks with a main pipeline to take the crude directly to a refinery.
And this is us.
That’s the main highway right out in front of us, so hopefully we won’t have 6 flats like we did last year driving on all the bad backroads.
We set up the canopy in front of the rig this time due to the size of the site, and the fact that our new canopy is 13’ x 13’ instead of 10’ x 10’ like last year.
One thing different here from last year is the way the trucks come through the gate. It’s like they run in packs. We’ll get nothing for 15 minutes and then 9 vehicles will through, one right behind the other, like they plan it this way. Still haven’t figured out why it’s like this this year.
August 29, 2014
Now He Calls . . .
Our next-door neighbor pulled out about 8am this morning, on his way to his new gate. So hopefully we’ll be on our way soon. But it’s possible the holiday weekend may delay things. But we’re parked with full hookups, and it’s free while we wait. So we’re good.
After we got settled in yesterday, I went online to the Thousand Trails website to cancel our upcoming reservations. As a backup I had us booked into the Lake Conroe Thousand Trails park for two weeks starting tomorrow, the 30th, to be sure that we had somewhere to be over the Labor Day weekend. Always have a backup plan.
For dinner tonight, Jan heated up our leftover King Food from this past Wednesday. Chinese is one of those foods that just gets better when warmed up as leftovers.
About 6:30, while we were eating, Jamie of Gate Guard Services called with a gate for us . . . in Shreveport, LA, about 450 miles away.
Now he calls.
The gate starts Monday, so we could get there in time. But Jan and I figured that since we’re here, we’ll stay and see what we get. I was curious about our security guard licenses, since we’re only licensed in Texas, but Jamie said we didn’t need anything for Louisiana. If he’d only called yesterday morning, we be there now.
One thing new here at the Whitsett yard is the Verizon signal here now. When we were here last year, it was 3G. Now I’ve got 4 bars of 4G, and it looks like they’ve got the XLTE upgrade since Speedtest.net gives 35Mps down and 20 up. Nice.
Hope it holds up wherever we end up on a gate.
August 29, 2015
Settled In . . .
Well, we did a rousing 26 vehicles in the gate today, but 8 of them were part of the Coil Tubing crew. And now, based on all the noise coming from the pad, they’re actually getting some work done.
When I got groceries on Friday I picked up another 35’ of water hose so we could connect directly up to the well. But after hooking it all up this afternoon, when I went to take my shower this evening, (when I got off at 6pm) the water pressure was so low I had to turn the pump on. I’ll check it out tomorrow and put my test gauge on it, but the pressure sure looked OK when I opened the faucet. Maybe the hose kinked or something.
Our tabletop AC is still working great. Even though our temps are staying in the low 90’s, the cool air is certainly welcome. The only occasional problem is when a wind gust will turn the hot air coming out the back, around to the front for a few seconds. But all in all, it’s great.
This past week the long-range weather forecast showed thunderstorms coming up this Wednesday and Thursday, but now they’ve gone away, and hopefully they’ll stay away. With day’s in the low 90’s and nights in the 60’s, you couldn’t ask for much better weather for August in Texas. Just hope it holds.
Now that we’ve settled in here, I need to go back and take a look at my water heater problem. It stopped working on electric after we moved a while back. American Coach says there’s supposed to be a circuit breaker for it on the panel, but it’s not there.
And the access panel to the rear of the unit that’s underneath the dresser in the bathroom does not come off like it’s supposed to. And until I get that off, I can’t really troubleshoot the unit.
So that’s where I’ll start tomorrow.
August 29, 2016
The Life of a Gate Guard . . .
Our friend Barbara Spade, who’s a Ranger at Colorado River Thousand Trails, sent me a list of questions about Gate Guarding.
And this made me realize that we’ve added a lot of new readers since I last talked about the job in any detail, so I thought I’d answer her questions here for everyone.
So first, some background.
Oil and drilling companies pay people to sit at the entrance (the gate) to their work areas. This can be a drilling site, like where we are now, or a frack job, a workover rig, a coil tubing job, or a completion. It might even be a production area with a lot of big storage tanks where tankers come to pick up the crude and take it to the refinery.
We don’t work directly for the oil companies, but for a contractor who deals with them. There are 15-20 gate guard companies, including the one we work for, Gate Guard Services.
We’ve worked for them for 5 years, 3 or 4 months a year, and always for the same supervisor, Jamie Hime. The first two years we were in the Whitsett/Pleasanton area about 60 miles south of San Antonio, and the last three years we’ve been in the east Texas area, either near Bryan/College Station, or up near Carthage.
We like it up here much better. There are real trees and grass.
The gate guard companies like and use RV’ers because we bring our own housing with us. They supply us with ‘full hookups’ so for us it’s just like we’re at an RV park.
As far as pay, this year we’re making $125 a day, the same as we made our first year in 2012. The other 3 years we made $150 a day.
Now as far as Barbara’s questions, which are in bold type.
What is the canopy for? Chairs?
One of us is always outside on this gate, 24/7 so the canopy gives us shade and keeps us dry in the rain. I just realized I haven’t taken a photo of this gate, so here’s one from our very first gate 5 years ago.
I assumed that there was like an office trailer where you work and it would be something like our gate shack here.
All of our gates have been like this one, with us sitting outside. We have alarms that tell us when a vehicle is entering or leaving, so on some not as busy gates the guards stay in their rigs and then come out when a vehicle approaches. We’ve never had one this slow.
There are some gates where you work out of a trailer or guard shack. Which means you have to park your RV at a regular RV park.
You check in delivery trucks?
We check in and out every vehicle. It could be a semi bringing in diesel for the rig’s big generators, a flatbed bringing in equipment, a worker coming on shift, or a salesperson.
We get the person’s name, company, tag number and the time they came in. When they leave we just note the time. We have been on gates where the person had to actually sign in and out. These are a pain.
Is there an actual gate like we are supposed to have here or do you just keep a log of who comes in and goes out?
Yes. Sometimes there is an actual gate, like there is here. But it always stays open. In some cases there’s no actual gate, but just a cattle guard. We have both gates and cattle guards here.
I assume it is a 24 hr. per day job so one of you has to be working.
This is a 24-hour gate so one of us is always out here, although we have been on 16-18 hour gates. The pay is the same.
Jan is the AM person and you are the PM person?
Some couples do work 12 hr. shifts, but Jan and I split it up. She works from 7am to 1pm. Then I work from 1pm to 6pm. Jan then works from 6pm to 11pm, and then I work from 11pm to 7am. Strange, but it works for us.
There are no hookups so you have a generator running all the time? Water comes from a tank on wheels and there is a permanent honey wagon?
Gate Guard Services furnishes us two support trailers as shown here.
The closest one, the big green one, is a septic tank system on a trailer. It is pumped out as needed, which is not often. We’ve only had to have ours pumped out once in 5 years.
The second trailer holds a 11.5kw diesel generator, a 250-gallon diesel tank, and a 500-gallon water tank, The generator runs 24/7, only being shut down every two weeks for an oil and filter change. The diesel tank and the water tank are refilled at the same time.
What about cell and internet reception? TV?
This is the same as when we’re at Colorado River. We have a Winegard Dome for DirecTV and a Verizon AirCard for Internet.
If you need groceries one works the gate while the other shops?
I usually do the shopping once a week. Right now it’s a 30-minute drive into Bryan/College Station.
What if one of you fell and broke your leg?
Well, hopefully they wouldn’t just shoot us. In an emergency, we would tell the Company Man what had happened and head to the hospital, or wait for the ambulance. I would also let Jamie know what had happened.
Could you both leave to go to the hospital?
Yes. Logging vehicles in and out is not a life-and-death situation. Even in normal operation we occasionally miss someone who comes through while we’re taking a bathroom break. Some drivers will wait for you to reappear. Some won’t.
A funny thing about logging vehicles is that the logs are almost never used. By anybody for any reason. Our first year, following a Marathon drill rig, I had to turn in the logs every night at the office. But not since then.
We still have logs from 4 years ago. I think twice someone has wanted to look at the logs to see if something was really delivered. But that’s it.
Early on, I asked a Company Man (the big boss) what the logs were really for, since nothing was ever done with them. He smiled and said it’s so if something bad happens, we know how many bodies to look for.
When I noted that we were parked only about 200 feet from the drill rig, and that if the rig went up, we, and the logs, probably would too, he smiled again and said, “Well, it’s not a perfect system.”
August 29, 2017
Cabin Fever . . .
We haven’t left the rig since last Friday so about 12:30 we drove over to Willis to first have lunch at Whataburger and then pick up a few things at the nearby Kroger’s.
But Whataburger was not to be, as it was closed. Didn’t see any reason for it, since the next-door Popeye’s, Sonic, McDonald’s, and Chick-fil-A. The only other place that was closed was the Burger King down the road.
So Chick-fil-A for lunch it was. And a very busy place it was. But not really busier than I’ve seen Chick-fil-A’s at other times. And they brought our food to our table in about 5 minutes.
It’s easy to see why Chick-fil-A has the highest-grossing locations in the US. At around $4.4 million average per store, they rank over $1 million ahead of 2nd place McDonald’s. And Chick-fil-A is only open 6 days a week.
Because of this, the last time Chick-fil-A released 100 new franchises, they had 24,000 applications. And if you’re lucky enough to be chosen for a franchise, the only cost is $1000.00, not the $1 million+ that a McDonald’s would cost.
Coming back to the Kroger’s we found it pretty much normal with only a few shortages. They had large stacks of bottled water everywhere, but the bread shelves were kind of bare, although they were restocking while we were there. The only other things in short supply were rotisserie chickens, and for some strange reason, cat food. Dog food was fine.
As we were heading home, we were passed by a long line of power company bucket trucks . . . from Kansas. Looks like a lot of much-needed help is coming in.
Later in the afternoon, I started working on my slide remote control. For some reason, American Coach put the rig control panel in the overhead directly over the dining room table, which makes it a long reach to run the slide in and out.
So I decided to use another of the Wireless 4 Channel Remote Control Unit from yesterday’s AC remote control.
When I removed the slide control panel I was happy to see that it had a nice long wire harness to make it easy to connect up to.
My next task was to find 12VDC to run the board so I first pulled out the Inverter control board thinking I’d find something there, but the only wiring was the connection to the inverter.
So I popped off the cover on the power panel and found what I needed.
Now it was just a matter of wiring it all up using a couple of saddle taps and spade lugs.
And here’s the finished product.
Not sure what’s in store for tomorrow, but it looks like the rain has pretty much stopped in this area, and we actually saw a brief glance of the sun this afternoon.
August 29, 2018
No Heart Attacks . . .
Well, after hearing back from the Rainbow Plantation Escapees Park in Summerdale, AL we’re all set for our October Florida trip.
Spent most of today at my client’s getting a new AC installed in the Shipping Dept. The old unit was in a through-the-wall mount about 8 feet above the floor, and over a workbench that couldn’t be moved.
But it was simple. We just removed the mounting screws and pushed it out and onto the ground, Easy Peazy!
But the new one was another story. At 12,000 Btu, it was bigger and at 88# it was heavier than the old one. So what you had was two old guys trying to get this unit up over our heads and into the wall opening. But we finally did it, and no heart attacks, either.
Then when we tried to plug it in, we discovered that the original unit was so old that it used the 6-15P 230VAC receptacle and plug.
But the new unit had the newer plug, a 230VAC 5-20P one.
RUT ROH!
By now it was getting to be my time to head home so I stopped off at Home Depot to pick up the parts to build up an adapter since no one seemed to carry one locally. And this is what I came up with. Should work with no problems.
August 29, 2019
Switching Gears . . .
I spent a little time this morning correcting a dozen or so addresses that our mailing company said were not valid. Don’t know why they had a problem since it was pretty easy to fix them. Things like 6O6 as an address, rather than 606, or W 7793 rather than W7793. But I got them corrected and sent them over to the company.
The Ad cards should be hitting the customer’s offices by the end of next week.
Later I dug out my SwitchBot Hub
to get it set up for my Mr. Coffee remote switch. Right now I can only control the coffee pot switch locally, within Bluetooth range. That of course, takes care of my timer scheduling problem. But the Hub will let me control the switch from anywhere I have Internet service.
Jan and I have switched gears. Over the last 18 months, we lost a total of about 120 pounds, pretty much just by watching our calories. But we’d both like to lose some more.
But it seems to have become much harder in the last few months. Like our bodies are desperately clinging to the last extra fat. And apparently this is not unknown. Your body seems to readjust to the ‘new’ normal and won’t let go.
So we’ve both switched over the Keto plan, complete with Chaffles. Keto is basically a repackaging of the old original Atkins plan, with high protein, high fat, and no/low carbs. So pretty much no bread, tortilla chips, etc.
Following that, when we had dinner at Floyd’s Cajun Seafood this afternoon, with Jan getting the Grilled Catfish with Grilled Veggies,
while I forgoed . . . ah, forwent(?) my usual gumbo and got the Steak and Grill Shrimp with Green Beans.
So we’ll see how it goes.
August 29, 2020
A Change Of Plans . . .
And A Lost Weekend.
Up until about 10:12 this morning, I was supposed to take Jan up to Brandi’s this coming Thursday so she could dog/cat sit while Brandi et al. are out of town. But then this morning the plan changed and I’ll be taking her up there tomorrow morning and then getting her back next Sunday.
I had hoped to get a chance to work on the rig light problem tomorrow, but it looks like that’s put off until Tuesday.
Jan and I headed out about 1pm with our first stop at our local fav Los Ramirez Mexican Restaurant. And as with most of our places, we both have our favorites.
Jan’s was the Pechuga Rellena,
while I had the Beef Fajita Taco Salad.
Delicious as always.
Then it was on up to the Sam’s Club in Webster to pick up a prescription, and a stop at a new place for us, Five Bel°w. It turned out to be a higher-priced version of Dollar General, but with a lot less inventory. Apparently it’s really oriented toward tweens and teens, but Jan wanted to check it out anyway. And she did find some stuff she wanted.
She is young at heart, after all.
Then it was on down to the HEB in our area before finally making our way home about 5pm.
August 29, 2021
I Flirted . . .
After coffee outside, and before I came back in, I turned the shore water back on for just long enough to top off the rig’s 100-gallon water tank. That way we can just turn the pump on and off when we need it, which will limit the leakage from the water heater until I can get it replaced.
And actually, I don’t think this little bit of water will really hurt anything, since it’s just dripping down into the bay underneath. And that bay is just filled with sealed plastic bins. So it shouldn’t be a problem.
Back inside, I spent the morning looking at YouTube videos on RV Water Heater changeouts. And as I thought there’s nothing really difficult about it.
Just disconnect the power, water, and gas, remove the 16 screws on the door flange, and then start working it out. Then, reverse the process.
So next I started looking at the best place to buy the new unit. And I found a wide variation in pricing, from $980 from Camping World, $780 from WalMart Online, down to $700 on eBay for a new one, or $590 for a new, slightly bent one on eBay too, but that’s non-returnable.
So the best option, once again, is Amazon, at $641 with free shipping, but not Prime however. But it would be here in about a week.
But while I was looking for new water heaters, I flirted with a couple of other ideas. One, was to just replace the leaky tank with a new tank. Which would only cost about $200. But there’s the time needed to pull out the water heater, disassemble it, install the new tank, put it all back together, and then reinstall the unit in the RV. A lot of extra time. And I’d still essentially have a 21-year-old unit, just with a new tank.
So, never mind.
I also flirted with the idea of a tankless unit, but I couldn’t find one that was electric, and not propane. There’s no one around here that will deliver propane to our rig to keep it in propane.
I actually was expecting to find RV tankless electric units since I know that new high-end rigs don’t even have gas anymore. Just all-electric and a big, honking bunch of house batteries.
I now suspect that the RV’s may be using the smaller home units that work just fine since they don’t have to supply several bathrooms at one time.
So, never mind.
Wrapping up.
In other news, Hugo quit.
At least that’s what Angie said was the reason that, instead our usual looking Denny’s Ultimate Omelet that normally looks like this.
But instead, we got this dinky offering.
Angie said that Hugo, our usual cook had quit, and the new guy they hired last worked in a pizza place.
Angie said she was not impressed.
And neither were we.
August 29, 2022
More Torchy’s . . .
Tomorrow we’re having lunch at a long-time favorite, Torchy’s Tacos, though it’s been a while since we’ve been to one. And we’ve never been to the fairly new one down here in Webster that opened a while back.
Then while Jan gets her toesies done, I’m going to make a Costco run for a couple of things, along with an office stop. After that it’s on to our weekly WalMart run, then the Post Office and home.
August 29, 2023
A Simple Solution?
I mentioned in yesterday’s blog about our Sharp Microwave/Convection Oven that suddenly stopped working. And then it started again.
I don’t like problems that pop up and then fix themselves. They tend to pop up again. And again.
And it did show up again this morning.
But after thinking about it for a bit, I tried something, and it worked.
I mentioned a while back about repairing the control panel bezel, and also about the many interlocks to protect you from the ‘deadly microwaves’. So, noticing that the bezel seemed to be a little loose, I put a bowl of water in the MW while pressing against the bezel, I pressed Start.
And it worked.
So grabbing my roll of Gorilla Tape, I used it to tighten the control panel down until there was no movement whatsoever. And so for right now, it works.
Now to wait for the next problem.
While I was going through some past blogs today, I came across this Thought For The Day: from January 2017.
“There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers.” – President Ronald Reagan
And here’s what I said back then. And with all the news about illegal aliens being bused up north to the complaints of the Sanctuary Cities, it still works.
Now for more of Greg’s Musings – Stirring Up Trouble Since 1948.
Several readers asked me about the Ronald Reagan quote that was my Thought for the Day a few days ago. It goes like this:
“There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers.” – President Ronald Reagan
They wondered what he meant by it.
He was saying that often there is a simple solution to a problem, but the solution may not be easy to implement for various reasons, maybe either political or societal.
Here’s an example.
One of the prime issues of the past election was immigration – Build the Wall, Sanctuary Cities, Round’em up, etc.
And one of the main memes of this was, even if you do build the wall, how are we ever going to deport the 10 million, 12 million, 20 million, or 40 million (take your pick) illegals that are already here?
And here’s the Simple Solution I came up with a few years ago.
1. Mandate the use of E-Verify for all jobs.
The E-Verify system is already in place and many companies already use it. But it’s voluntary. Make it mandatory through the IRS reporting system. You would have to give the E-Verify transaction number for each employee you paid and reported wages for.
2. Then if an employer is caught hiring illegals –
a. $ 1,000 fine per illegal for the first offense.
b. $ 50,000 fine per illegal for the second offense.
c. $100,000 and 5 years in jail per illegal for the third offense.
3. Next mandate the use of E-Verify for all housing, sales, and rentals.
4. Then if a seller/renter is caught dealing with illegals –
a. $ 1,000 fine per illegal for the first offense.
b. $ 50,000 fine per illegal for the second offense.
c. $100,000 and 5 years in jail per illegal for the third offense.
Many/most rental agencies already run background/credit checks on prospective tenants. Just add E-Verify.
5. Then with nowhere to work and nowhere to live, the vast majority will leave on their own, or in other words, self-deport.
Think self-deportation won’t work? It already has.
Back around 2007 or so, Arizona passed a new strict immigration law. And although much of it was later struck down by the US Supreme, while it was in effect, illegal immigrants were literally ‘streaming’ out of Arizona. Check this article from CBS News in 2010.
Illegal Immigrants Leaving Arizona Over New Law
Yes, some of them went to other, less strict states, but many went back to Mexico.
Ironically, the Arizona law that was mostly struck down by SCOTUS was modeled on the US immigration laws that were not being enforced, mostly just substituting State of Arizona for United States Government.
And the reason the Arizona law was overturned was that SCOTUS said that states do not have the right to enforce immigration laws, only the Federal Government.
But if the Federal Government isn’t enforcing them . . . ?
E-Verify is quick and simple to use. And free. (Well, except for your tax dollars)
Each employer/rental agency, etc., is given an ID and a password to the system. They just log in, enter the person’s name and SS# and a few other bits of information. Within a few seconds, they get verification of the person’s identity and a transaction number for the person that is entered into the paperwork showing that E-Verify had been checked. If it turns out later that the person really was illegal, the employer is off the hook as long as E-Verify has been checked.
So that’s the stick, now the carrot.
Although you would probably want to set a deadline, maybe three years for them to all leave, set it up so that the quicker they leave, the better chance they have to be allowed to come back legally. When they pass through US Customs on the way out of US, they would register at the border and get pushed to the top of the list for a green card.
So First Out, First Back In.
Now there are a few additional things might want to implement, like maybe bounties for turning in employers/renters/illegals who are violating the law.
Despite some of the bad historical connotations of this, it’s already done a lot. Whistleblowers can receive rewards for reporting government theft and corruption. And individual citizens can get bounties from the IRS for turning in tax cheats.
And I don’t know if it’s still done, but a number of years ago, employees could receive a reward if they turned in their employer, anonymously of course, for using bootleg computer software in their business.
So there’s certainly both the legal and moral precedent for it.
So here’s my quick, cheap, simple solution to most of the illegal immigrant problem.
But due to political and societal pressures from both sides, how easy would it be to implement it?
And while we’re on this subject, here’s a few thought questions.
How many are too many immigrants, illegal or otherwise?
At what point do you lose your country?
If you don’t enforce your borders, do you really have a country?
Discuss among yourselves.
Wrapping up, what ever happened to the fabled ‘Melting Pot’ that we all heard about?
It seems like we do less and less to integrate immigrants (legal) into our society. Back when I was growing up, you had to be able to pass a test on American History given in ENGLISH to become a US citizen.
Now I’ve read that New York City prints up ballots in over 100 languages. What’s up with that?
And remember when every January you’d see the public service announcements on TV about how every ‘alien’ (that’s the term they used) must register at the PO by January 31st. What happened to that?
In fact Mork and Mindy did a great episode with Mork down at the PO trying to register as an ‘alien’.
So let me know your thoughts on all this.
