Our RV Adventures

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I only went outside to dump our waste tanks and top off our fresh water tank. I wanted a full tank since we’ve got some mid-20 degree nights coming up this weekend, so I’ll probably disconnect us from shore water just to be sure.

* * * * *

Jan’s been jonsin’ for Clam Chowder so when we were at HEB the other day, she had me check out their Blount Clam Shack New England Clam Chowder. And since the first 3 ingredients were Cream, Clam Juice, and Clams, I picked up a couple of tubs, which we had for dinner tonight.

Really, really good. Actually as good as what we got last year at the Cousin’s Maine Lobster Food Truck at the now-defunct Three Acres Truck Park.

We’ll get it again.

Thought for the Day:

Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agree on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you’re being had. – Michael Crichton

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

January 14, 2012

Fajitas and Soup . . .

Jan and I left the rig about 11 this morning to meet Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at the Texas Tea Room for lunch. Landon was his usual lovable self and we had a great meal.

Landon with his daddy. Look at those beautiful blue eyes.

After a fun lunch with Landon et al, Jan and I headed over to Texas Art Supply so she could find a large set of crayons. Then it was on to Brandi’s to pick up our mail.

Then on the way home, we stopped off at Monterey’s Little Mexico again for more Chicken Tortilla Soup to eat with the leftover Beef Fajita Nachos we didn’t eat last night.

Getting home, the day was so nice that we spent some time outside. Jan fed the birds and then set out in the sun for a spell while I worked on a few things. First off I cleaned the battery terminals on the truck, and then plugged in my new power window unit just to be sure it worked before installing it sometime next week.

Next I worked on tracing the door lock wiring on my truck so I can fix the problem with the alarm not turning off when I unlock the door.

Later we came inside and caught up on some TV that we had recorded on our DVR. We were down to about 20% so it was about due.

All in all, a very nice day.

January 14, 2013

Cloudy, Cold, Wet, Damp, Flu – Blah . . .

We’re now into our 5th day of cold, rainy, miserable weather. Today’s high was 45 with a low tonight of 37. Then tomorrow it’s 40 and 35. And of course don’t forget the intermittent rain.

And even better, we’re looking at another week of this.

Blah!

I had appointments with several clients this morning, but that got cut short due to the flu.

Not me. Them.

But since it’s been about 10 days since I’ve seen them, and the incubation period for the flu is 1 to 4 days, I should be OK.

So far they’re the only ones I know with the flu, so I hope my luck holds.

I didn’t get the flu shot this year, and haven’t gotten one since the mid-60’s. I’ve had the shot twice and both times I got sick. The last time I had to be hospitalized for 10 days.

So now I depend on the kindness of strangers. I figure that if everyone else gets their flu shots like they’re supposed to, then I don’t need to get mine.

So, get your flu shot today.

My continued good health depends on it.

So after checking in with my healthy client, I headed over to the house to check the mail. I was hoping that the door switch to fix the washer had come in, and it had. Of course, I still have to pull the washer out of the wall to fix the ‘no-heat’ problem, but I’d rather only pull it out once to fix both problems.

Leaving the house my next stop was Fry’s Electronics to pick up a new computer for a client. Fry’s is starting to run out of Windows 7 machines, so I hope they hold out until Jan and I leave here next month.

Getting back to the rig, Jan and I headed back out about 4pm to first have dinner at Chili’s and then on to Kroger’s for some groceries. Then it was home for the night.

Tomorrow I play Splendide Repairman.

January 14, 2014

Never Again . . .

Another beautiful day in the neighborhood. Jan, Mister, and I sat outside and enjoyed our coffee. Well, Mister didn’t have coffee. He just enjoyed licking himself.

But we all had fun.

I took the day off from chores and worked on some computer things for a couple of clients. Still working on the laptop that was infected with the Conduit Search problem. I’ve got most of it cleaned out, but there’s still a ‘poison pill’ left in there somewhere. After Conduit Search is removed, everything works, but it keeps trying to come back. SuperAntiSpyware is blocking it, but warnings keep flashing up which gets to be annoying very quickly. But I’ll find it eventually.

Conduit Search is one of those programs that you usually infect yourself with. It normally gets installed because you didn’t check carefully when you installed another piece of software. You need to read all the fine print in the “Terms and Conditions”, and at the bottom of the install screen, usually a number of check boxes that if you don’t uncheck them, you get all sorts of junk along with the problem you wanted.

Conduit Search is not a virus per se but is usually referred to as a PUP (Potentially Unwanted Program), though I think the acronym should be Positively Unwanted Program.

Running the paid version of either SuperAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes should protect from this being installed on your system. Note I said the ‘paid’ versions, because the programs have to be actively running to do this, and only the paid versions allow this.

FWIW I run the paid versions of both. They don’t conflict.

For the record, these are the “protection programs” I run.

AVG Free Virus Protection
ZoneAlarm Firewall
SuperAntiSpyware – paid version
Malwarebytes Anti-Malware – paid version
CCleaner
Glary Utilities
Microsoft Security Essentials

If you have any questions about any of these let me know.

About 1 PM Jan and I headed out to have lunch at

King Food and then some errands. After lunch I made a client stop for a few minutes to update some software. I’ll be back here Saturday night to do some stuff that can’t be done in the daytime when they’re using the system.

We next decided to check out the Wal-Mart down in Texas City, and Jan said “Never again”. Traveling around so much, we’re used to finding Wal-Marts with different layouts, but this one looked like someone had just scattered the rows out at random. It was the screwiest layout I’ve ever seen.

As Jan says “Never again”.

January 14, 2015

Hot Stuff . . .

Jan and I headed out about 10am with our first stop Katz’s Deli in the Montrose area for lunch around 11:30. We always try to eat here when we’re in this part of town, and it never disappoints.

We always start out with some of their complementary pickles and coleslaw.

The kosher pickles are the kind that you bite into with a big ‘crunch’. Jan doesn’t really like pickles, but she really likes these. And the coleslaw is also unique, as it’s sliced rather than chopped, and has a very spicy, but a little sweet, dressing.

Jan had a Tuna Salad Sandwich with a cup of their Broccoli Cheese Soup, and I had a Rueben on Grilled Rye with a cup of their Corn Chowder.

Leaving Katz’s, our next destination was about 15 minutes away with a stop at iBurn.

Our son-in-law Lowell turned us on to this place, and has given me several items he got there for us,  but this was our first time to actually visit.

The place is ‘Hot Stuff’ heaven with row after row of bottles, bags, and boxes of the hottest concoctions you can imagine. I was like a kid in a candy store, believe me. And I came away with $30 of hot stuff. Yummm!

The next stop was at my client’s in Pasadena to deliver her new computer. But in trying to get it set up, I ran into a problem. She has an older keyboard she likes, and by older, I mean it has the big AT connector, the one that’s about the size of your thumb. But for her last couple of computers, we used a AT to PS2 adapter like this:

But computers these days no longer have PS2 Keyboard/Mouse connectors on them, so I needed another adapter, a PS2 to USB like this one:

But after checking a nearby Office Depot and a Best Buy, with no luck (they didn’t even know what I was talking about) Jan and I headed down to Clear Lake to the Fry’s Electronics, who of course had exactly what I needed.

Finally getting the computer set up and configured to her liking, and after I fixed a couple of problems on her laptop, Jan and I headed for home. We quickly decided to put our El Pollo Loco visit on hold due to how late it was, And after looking at the traffic delays on Sigalert , we decided to have dinner along the way and wait out the traffic. We looked for a Texas Roadhouse, but couldn’t find one along the way so we ended up at a Saltgrass Steakhouse.

Luckily for us, we got there just before the rush and were seated immediately. Our steaks and steak accessories were just as good as our last visit to the one in Conroe, and we had enough leftover to bring some home.

Our last stop was a nearby Kroger’s for a few things as well as gas for $0.79 a gallon (with my $1 a gallon Kroger’s Card discount).

Heading home, we found the traffic was gone, and we were able to do the speed limit all the way, getting home about 8:45.

Tomorrow afternoon is supposed to be sunny, so maybe I can get some stuff done outside. We can only hope.

January 14, 2016

Are You A Winner?

On the PowerBall front, as I thought, the prize made it up to $1.6 Billion right before the drawing last night, and yielded three winners. And the California winner didn’t even have to buy his ticket. His boss gave it to him.

A multi-millionaire, who owns 80 assisted living facilities in California, bought 18,000 PowerBall tickets and gave them to his employees, and one of those tickets was a winner.

I guess now it’s possible that the employee might be able to buy out his boss.

Quite a few blog readers emailed me about the odds of winning the top prize, and how that works. Here’s some info I posted here in a comment, and also in several forums online.

Actually, the odds of YOU having a winning number never changes, no matter how many people enter.

It’s always one in 292,201,338. This is based on the possible number combinations derived from the first five numbers 1 to 69, i.e, 11,238,513,  and the Power Ball number that goes from 1 to 26.

And so 11,238,513 x 26 different Power Balls gives you 292,201,338 chances.

But two things do change as people buy more tickets as the jackpot increases.

1. The pot IS more likely to be won by someone. The more tickets, the more combinations sold, the more likely a winner.

2. And the chances of there being more than one winner also increases.

I heard yesterday that over 85% (it was 90% at the time of the drawing) of the possible number combinations, i.e. the 292.2 million, had been sold. Thus there is an ~85% chance that someone will win. But for an individual, it’s still one in 292.2 million.

Statistics are funny things and often run against ‘common sense’. For example, if you flip a coin, and it comes up heads 10 times in a row, it is no more or no less likely to come up heads again, i.e. a 50% chance.

And just because you buy 10 tickets rather than one, it doesn’t noticeably increase your chances of winning. Yes, you are 10 times more likely to win, but that just means you have a 1 in 29.2 million chances of winning.

Later we headed out to have dinner down in Columbus at Los Cabos Mexican Restaurant, a place we really like.

Along the way, we found that diesel at the Colorado County Co-op had dropped another 5 cents a gallon, to $1.75. This past Sunday, it was $1.85, and then yesterday, it was $1.80. Ten cents in 5 days is a big drop.

As with previous visits, everything was delicious.

Coming back to the park, we made a stop at the hardware store in downtown Columbus, and then Brookshire Bros. for some supplies, before getting back home a little after 6pm.

January 14, 2017

We May Have To Move . . .

Now the Oil Patch picks up,

when we’ve only got a month left down here.

About 8am this morning, my Tab tablet chirped, and I was awake enough to check it out, hoping it was a gate job. But it was just a reminder to pay a bill. Bummer. Then a couple of minutes later, another chirp, now a text, and now a job.

And a job that looks to have a major effect on us.

The gate is north of Westhoff, a little over 40 miles from here, a little less than an hour away. But it does have a lot of plusses . . . steady employment. There’s a good possibility. that this gate could keep us BOTH working until we leave Feb. 15th.

But it was a scramble this morning. By the time we knew where and when, it was almost 8:30. And we were supposed to be at the gate by 10am. Yikes.

But we were showered, dressed, and out the door with enough time for a McDonald’s stop, and we got there at 9:59am. To find no one waiting for us. We had beat Todd, the shack, the generator, and the potty. In fact it was after 10:30 before they showed up. Well, not the potty.

Brownie points for us.

Today it’s only a one-person gate, at least today. Jan and I shared the Gate Guard job at the entrance right off the highway, working from 10am to 5pm. Then tomorrow, we turn around to night shift, with Jan working the shack at the entrance, and me working at the pad, about 5 miles in, and out of my truck.

So two paychecks.

This should hold for a week to two weeks. Then after a break for a few days, the frack will start, and with 4 holes should last until we’re scheduled to leave. But this will mean another shift change for us.

The job will drop back to just the shack with Jan and I on opposite shifts, days for her and nights for me. Not easy, but doable for two or three weeks.

So two paychecks.

That’s the plusses. Now the minuses.

The distance, of course, is one. It’s about twice as far as our farthest gate, with nearest big town, and Wal-Mart, being Cuero.

This is why we might move. There is a small RV park in Westhoff, that looks OK. It looks to be a worker’s camp, just like ours now. Not as nice, i.e. no Wi-Fi, or free laundry. In fact no laundry at all. So back to using our Splendide.

With 3 big free washers and dryers, and located 50 feet away, Jan had gotten used to using the park facilities, doing one or two loads and not five or six. But the park cost is less than 1/2 of what we’re paying here, so that’s a plus too.

Another minus is again, no Verizon phone service at the gate. Don’t know yet about the RV park location. I do have text and data, though. So it’s workable, I guess.

BUT the possibility of the move is probably going to be decided by whether or not we have Verizon phone service at the RV park. So we’ll see,

If we do move, it will be during the short downtime before the frack starts up.

The other minus is that although Jan is exempt, I will have to wear the full FRC regalia, including steel-toed boots, hardhat, and safety glasses. YUCK!

As least it’s cooler now.

Finishing up, I want to thank all of you for your RV park suggestions from yesterday. I’ll try to get them combined and compiled as soon as I can, but it may be a few days with all the job stuff that’s come up.

January 14, 2018

Crazy Chicken . . .

I really did plan to do the awning today., The weather was perfect, sunny and in the low 50’s with no wind.

Bu business intervened. I spent the morning and early afternoon mocking up website designs for a couple of possible new clients.

Separately, two people approached me recently to do sites for them, and I’ve found that it’s easier to get a sale by having something to show them to start with.

I’ll know more in the next couple of days.

A little after noon, Jan’s urologist called to see how she was doing, and also to say that based on some later test results that came back, he wants to put her on Keflex for the next four days until after the Lithotripsy on Thursday afternoon. Said he’d call it into Wal-Mart and we could pick it up. This is the second time he’s called to check up on Jan, and on a Sunday too. Very nice.

About 4pm Jan and I headed up to Clear Lake to have dinner and pick up the new script. We hadn’t been to El Pollo Loco for a while so that was our first stop.

We first discovered them in 2008 when they were only out in California, so it’s nice to see them heading east finally.

Jan and I have both been trying to cut down for our New Year’s Resolution so we’ve been watching our calories. And it’s amazing the difference between different items.

For instance, if you get the individual-size Chunky Guacamole it’s 220 calories. But if you get the same size with chips, it’s 980 calories. Or the Creamy Cilantro Dressing is 320 calories, but the Light Creamy Cilantro Dressing is 70 calories, a big difference. And it’s hard to taste difference

So by choosing carefully from the menu, all of this was only 820 calories.

That’s two pieces of their chicken, two sides of steamed broccoli, a small Tortilla Soup, and a Classic Chicken Salad. And I couldn’t finish all of the salad.

And besides coffee and an apple later, that was it for the day.

And it was really good.

January 14, 2019

I Was His First . . .

I’ve installed and set up Jetpack so the blog email function should be working now. If not, you might try re-subscribing using the using the requestor at the top right of the blog.

Wrapping up 2018

In yesterday’s blog, I covered our Christmas get-together at Brandi’s on Sunday the 23rd. And after seeing Brandi’s brisket, several readers ask for the recipe, so here it is. And it’s really pretty simple

10 pound brisket
1 bottle of Allegro Original Marinade

Put the brisket in a pan.
Cover it in the marinade.
Cover the pan
Cook it at 250° for 6 hours

Easy Peazy!
Though I might try it with the Hot & Spicy version of the Marinade.

For most of the last 40 years, we’ve eaten a family Christmas Eve dinner at our favorite King Food. But since we’d already had our family Christmas, it was just Jan and I this time.

Since I’ve already posted many pics of KF food, just know that our Hot & Sour Soup, Crispy Honey Garlic Chicken Wings, Chicken in Hot Garlic Sauce with Jalapenos, and Special Fried Rice, was as delicious as always.

Christmas Day we decided to head out to the movies to see Bohemian Rhapsody, the Queen biopic. We both really enjoyed it, though they did play fast and loose with some of the timeline.

But all in all, a really good movie.

As I said, Brandi’s brisket was delicious, but it was Christmas after all, and Jan had to get her Turkey and Dressing fix, so Thursday we were off to Cracker Barrel, meeting Miss Piper, for their really good T&D.

Sunday the 30th found us up in Sugarland, first eating dinner at the Floyd’s Cajun Seafood, starting with a dozen raw oysters,

along with Shrimp Gumbo, Grilled Catfish, and Grilled Veggies.

Then it was right down the road to the Smart Financial Centre to see Mannheim Steamroller.

And, unlike last year’s Trans-Siberian Orchestra concert, I didn’t have another attack of BPPV (Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo). And except for a couple of small attacks over the next few days, I’ve never had a reoccurrence of the problem. And I don’t know what caused it then, either.

We both really enjoyed the concert, but were surprised to find that it was a much smaller production than TSO.

In fact the touring company consists of only 6 musicians. The rest of the orchestra consists of about a dozen musicians hired locally at each stop. And I think the only equipment they travel with is a snow machine for that real Christmas spirit

And while the light show with Mannheim was nice,

it really didn’t compare with the light show put on by TSO. With multiple stages overhead,

enough lasers to take on the Deathstar,

gigantic flame pots, and enough speakers to make your fillings rattle, and you could feel the heat.

it was a totally awesome experience.

But as I said we also really liked Mannheim, with of a homey, intimate feel. They did mention that this performance was the last one of the season for them, starting back on November 9th, with a show almost every night.

But actually like many similar shows, there are two touring companies for Mannheim, a Red Unit and a Green Unit, that lets them cover more cities.

All in all, it was a great time.

New Year’s Eve found us at a wild party at a local restaurant. Well, actually we had an early dinner at the Saltgrass Steakhouse up in Webster. We both had our usual Wedge Salads and steaks, but, since it was New Year’s Eve, we splurged a bit and split a Pecan Pie Bread Pudding. Party Hearty.

January 14, 2020

Wings, Wings, and Steak . . .

Our only real activity today was Jan and I traveling over to Pearland this morning to have lunch with Bonnie, Jan’s long-time friend and a former coworker. She and Jan worked together about 30 years ago at the old Medical Center Del Oro Hospital, up in the Houston Medical Center area.

We took her to our favorite Saltgrass, the one in the Pearland area, which turned out to be her favorite too.

It was really good to see Bonnie again, and look forward to doing it again soon.

January 14, 2021

Then What’s The Point?

Jan and I headed up to the Webster area for another visit to Snooze, our favorite local breakfast-brunch place, well, as opposed to Denny’s, which is our favorite breakfast-dinner place.

Jan loves their version of Avocado Toast and says it’s the best around.

For my part, I got my usual Shrimp & Grits, with a side of Fruit.

Then it was on up to the Ace Hardware for a few things before finally heading back to the rig.

I had originally planned to get back under the rig to try and wrap up my oil leak problem. But it was still too wet back there, so I’ll see how it goes this weekend.

Elsewhere on the repair front, a few days before we made our New Year’s trip up to Fredericksburg and Kingsland in our new (to us) Jeep, the AC/Heater blower lost all speeds except HIGH.

Luckily this is pretty easy to diagnose since if the blower runs on HIGH, that means that it’s OK. And it’s highly unlikely that a problem with the speed selector switch would affect all 4 speeds. So that leaves the blower resistor pak. Which turns out to be an easy fix, at least in the Jeep.

It’s located right behind the glove box. Just open the door, pop the side latches and there it is.

Then it was just a matter of unplugging the cable, removing the resistor pak,

screwing down the new one, plugging the cable back in, and I was done.

Next up on the repair list is to replace the Jeep’s Driver’s Door Window Actuator Motor. It’s been getting noisier and noisier, and sometimes doesn’t want to completely unlock the door. So I found I could buy a new one for about $135, or get a used, tested, guaranteed one for $43.

Guess which one I got?

And it looks to be pretty easy to replace. At least according to YouTube.

January 14, 2022

Kingsland Get-Together . . .

Had a smooth trip up to Marble Falls. Had dinner with Chris and Linda over in Kingsland.

Brandi, Lowell, and Landon got in about 8:45pm

Piper and Derek will be in tomorrow.

Really looking forward to getting everyone together.

January 14, 2023

Great Wolf & Flyway . . .

Today was nice and easy, with lunch at Monterey’s Little Mexico, and that was it.

Nice and easy.

Some more info has been released about the Great Wolf Lodge going up in Webster. It will have 532 rooms and a 95,000 sq. ft. indoor water park, plus a smaller outdoor one.

It’s supposed to be open in mid to late 2024.

But big as it is, Great Wolf Lodge is just a small part of the Flyway at Clear Creek development adjacent to it.

That’s Great Wolf at the top-center-left of the above photo.

From the Internet:

The 80+-acre destination development will fuse the indoors with the outdoors with best-in-class dining and entertainment venues amid a walkable, inviting atmosphere with a boardwalk, event lawn, and unique amenities. Flyway takes patios to the next level, creating walkable spaces and allowing visitors to extend their stay and visit multiple venues. Visitors can purchase drinks from any establishment, stroll along the boardwalk, talk amid the trails, and enjoy the natural surroundings.

Looks like a lot going on.

Tomorrow’s probably going to be Denny’s for lunch and then HEB for the week’s stuff.

January 14, 2024

I HotWired It . . .

After draining a mug of Cinnamon Hazelnut coffee this morning I was outside looking at my water pump problem once again.

I had been thinking overnight about the possibility of the problem being with the pressure switch. So first I tried to adjust the pressure switch using a 5/64” Allen wrench.

But even though I turned it through a 180° arc, nothing changed.

So next up, I decided to cut to the chase, so pulling the two red wires that connect to the pump, I used a paperclip to short the two connectors together.

And ‘Voila’, I had a running pump.

So the problem is actually the pressure switch. But to double-check I turned off the shore water and had Jan turn on the water pump switch in the bathroom and then open the lavatory faucet, and we had water flowing.

Then I had her turn off the pump switch and the water stopped running.

So now I have a way to use the water pump while our shore water is turned off during the upcoming two nights of 25° weather.

But now how to fix it permanently.

I could, of course, just replace the pump, which I already have, or more cheaply, I could return the pump and just replace the pressure switch for $20.

But all that will wait until after the freeze.

We headed out about 1pm to first have lunch at Jason’s Deli for the first time in a good while.

Jan got her usual Ham Muffuletta and a cup of Broccoli Cheese Soup.

I normally would get the Southwest Chicken Chili, but Jason’s dropped it a while back, so I just got a bowl of the regular Chili.

Still good, though.

Along with the chili, I also got the Salad Bar.

Finishing up a really good meal, we headed right down the feeder for our weekly HEB visit.

And that was it for this weekend.

Now on to the Big Freeze.

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Today was my first day back to work on what is now a 2 day work week, Monday and Wednesday. And we got feed today.

It was Dr. Heimlich’s Birthday, and Jennifer, the Office Manager always makes Chili, really good Chili.

* * * * *

One of the reasons I was willing give the Bullseye Lithium Battery-Powered Tire Inflator a try is the good luck I’ve had with the Tacklife Lithium Battery-Powered Jump Starter I bought back in Nov. 2020.

Over the last 4 years I’ve probably used it on the truck or the Jeep 5 or 6 times, and it’s still at 83% battery level. This from charging it up originally charging it to 100% when I bought it, and not since then.

And I like it so much that I bought one for both Chris and Lowell for Christmas.

Unfortunately this one is no longer available on Amazon, but this one looks pretty good and has good ratings

Lithium Battery-Powered Jump Starter

* * * * *

I did make another forlorn McRib quest, both yesterday and today, yesterday checking out the one down the road in Dickinson after lunch yesterday, and then hitting the one on Bay Area up in Webster today on the way home.

The guy today told me, “Better Luck Next Year”.

* * * * *

Late last night, after I had posted the blog, SpaceX announced that they were pushing back today’s StarShip #7’s launch until Wednesday, January 15, with the same launch window starting at 4pm CST.

No reason has been given for the 2 push backs.

During its hour-long flight, the Ship vehicle is expected to attempt to deploy its 10 simulated Starlink satellites about 17 minutes after liftoff. At the 37-minute mark, the spacecraft is expected to relight one of its six Raptor engines in a relight demonstration similar to one performed on Flight 6.

And if you’re interested in seeing a launch in person:

If you live in South Texas or plan to drive to Starbase, you can try to watch the launch live in person, but you will have to find your own viewing site. SpaceX does not offer an official viewing location for its Starship test flights.

The Starship pad is visible from several public beaches near SpaceX’s Starbase site. These include South Padre Island, where you can find clear line-of-sight views of SpaceX’s Starship pad from Isla Blanca Park and its Cameron County Amphitheater. The nearby Port Isabel can also be a good viewing area, but be sure to scout potential sites in advance. Traffic can be heavy driving into both sites, so plan to arrive early. And don’t forget to pack snacks, folding chairs, bug spray and other essentials!

* * * * *

Looks like we’re scheduled for another Arctic Freeze this coming weekend, with a low Sunday night in the mid-20’s, which would be our lowest so far this winter.

Thought for the Day:

As they say, “Happiness is a belt-fed weapon” . . .  and a set of Hello Kitty Ear Muffs.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

January 13, 2011

Old Friends and A Good Time . . .

After yesterday’s busy day, it was nice that today was a little slower-paced.

Slower paced, but COLD.

At 10:30am it was still only 35 degrees, after going down to 30 overnight. I’m hoping it will warm back up soon so I can get back to my outside rig maintenance stuff.

About noon, I drove over to the RV Park office to pay the site rent, and told them we would be leaving in the next month or so. Also told them we’d be back next year.

Next I started making some phone calls.

Jan ordered a blouse from Roaman’s a couple of days ago for $39.84. Then today I was checking one of our bank accounts and noticed we had 4 pending charges for the blouse, not just one. When I called the company, I was told that the extra 3 charges would disappear in the next couple of days, leaving only the one. She could not, or would not explain why the 3 extra charges were there in the first place. She first tried to tell me that maybe I submitted the order 4 times rather than one. Then when I asked her if that was the case, why did I only get 1 email confirmation and not 4. Again, no answer.

I’ll see what happens in the next several days.

Next I called Penn Warranty Corp. to cancel our truck’s extended warranty. After paying them almost $1300.00 the last 3 years, they paid $37 on a $600 brake repair bill that was caused by a faulty brake caliper, not wear and tear. And this was the first claim I’ve ever had with them.

Finally I called AT&T to cancel the phone and Internet service I still had at the house. There actually hasn’t even been a phone hooked up there since Brandi moved in. They just use their cell phones. I just kept it for the email service. But I’m finally configured somewhere else now.

By this time it seemed like a nice time for a nap, especially since Jan was already asleep on the sofa.

After our naps, we left the rig about 5:20 heading up to Webster to Chuy’s, another of our favorite local Mexican places.

But this was a special occasion. Jan was meeting five of her former Medical Records co-workers for an evening of good food and the occasional margarita. OK, maybe more than occasionally.

Jan has done this every year since we’ve been on the road, and it’s always a good time to be had by all, and the occasional margarita, of course.

While Jan was having fun, and the occasional margarita, I, of course, was working.

I drove over to a nearby client’s office to update some software, and reprint some missing reports.

I picked up Jan about 8:30 and we headed back to the rig. She couldn’t stop talking about how much fun she had, and that she was already looking forward to next year.

That was about it for today.

See you back here tomorrow, same time, same channel…

January 13, 2014

Souped-Up Soup . . .

Sometimes Canada has us beat!

This morning started out what is hopefully, a nice long run of typical Houston winter days, sunny, with temps in the 60-70’s and night temps in the 40’s.

Just about perfect.

I got the coffee started and then Jan and I headed out for our walk around the park. I put Mister out on his leash and he just sits there and watches us go round and round the circle. When I say “Hi” as we go by, he meows back. He thinks it’s some sort of game.

Coming back to the rig, Jan fed the birds, while I fixed our coffee, and heated up the Buc-ee’s Cranberry Nut muffins we got yesterday. Then we sat outside and had our coffee and muffins while we enjoyed the sunshine. Mister has his own chair and normally sits right beside us. He thinks he’s “people’ too.

Next up was some more chores. The first one was to replace the CR1632 batteries in the 4 tire pressure sensors on the truck. One of them was dead and I’ve found that when one dies, the others aren’t far behind, so I always replace them all at once.

I’ll do the six on the rig right before we leave in February.

If you RV and you don’t have a TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitor System), you should. I use and recommend the TireTraker system, sold by Daryl Lawrence at Lawrence RV Accessories.

In fact I like it so much, that it’s on my list of 10 Things Every RV’er Needs from the seminars I used to give at rallies.

Then I checked my water pump to see how I’m going to mount a new check valve in the water line. The internal check valve in my Shurflo water pump has apparently weakened over the years, and when we’re on shore water with high pressure, water is forced back through the pump and into the water tank. Then the tank fills up and water starts running out the overflow, making a mess.

Since the pump works fine, it’s easier (and cheaper) to just add a new check valve in the line itself. It looks like I just need a couple of small stainless steel circle clamps to finish the install.

Then it was time to get dinner started. And in this case, dinner was going to be souped-up soup. Starting with the soup we made a couple of days ago, I added two more cans of Bush’s Chile Beans, a package of frozen Crinkle Cut Carrots, and some more Shredded Chicken.

One thing I really like when opening cans is using this One Touch Can Opener.

We’ve had this one since before we started RV’ing 6 years ago, and I think I replaced the batteries once since then. You just set it on the top of the can and press the button. And off it goes.

You don’t have to touch it again until it stops all by itself. It also cuts the lid on the outside of the crimp so there are no sharp edges, and the removed  lid can actually be put back on the can for short-term storage

As far as tomorrow, we’ll see what happens.

January 13, 2015

The Crazy Chicken . . .

Once again today, the weather was in the low 40’s, with no sun, and windy enough to not be very conducive to working outside on any projects. So I stayed inside and mostly goofed off.

Well, I did finish up with my client’s new computer. But, unfortunately I wasn’t able to get any data off her old hard drive.

I opened up the case and plugged in the frozen-overnight hard drive, and I was encouraged to not hear the ‘clicking’ sound after the drive spun up. But unfortunately, the computer could not see the drive at all.

Just to sure I didn’t have a problem with the way the drive was hooked up, I connected another old drive I had, and it worked with no problems. So then to double-check I hooked the bad drive up again, but still with no luck. So at this point, I just packed up the computer and got it ready to deliver tomorrow afternoon.

A little later, our friend Randy came by to ask for some help. He wanted help getting his big, old, heavy, CRT TV out of the overhead cabinet of his Monaco. Later, I drove my truck over to his site and we put the TV on the tailgate and drove it over to the dumpster and dropped it in.

The reason Randy didn’t need his old TV is a friend of his son’s gave him this one. For Free!

It’s a 65 inch Mitsubishi LCD and it sits on one side of the rig, across from the sofa on the other side. To me it would be like sitting on the front row at the movie theater, but Randy seems to be happy with it.

Did I mention it was free?

Tomorrow we’re going to deliver the new computer, along with making a couple of other stops. First we’re going to have lunch at Katz’s Deli in the Montrose area on Westheimer. Then I want to check out the iBurn store down on Bellaire to look over their stock of hot stuff.

I always need more hot stuff.

Then it’s off to Pasadena to deliver the computer. Coming home we’re going to go by one of the new El Pollo Loco locations that have just opened here in Houston and pick up some chicken and stuff to bring home.

We first encountered them a number of years ago out on the West Coast, and we’re really glad to find them spreading out eastward. There are two open here now, and a third one opens soon. And hopefully there are more in store for this area.

January 13, 2016

Hello Kitty. . .

Jan and I didn’t walk today, but we probably will tomorrow. After I posted the article about accuracy problems with FitBits, I got several comments and emails from readers who have also noticed problems with theirs.

So check out the free RunKeeper app before you spend the money on a FitBit.

Well, I heard back from American Coach and my screen door hinges are no longer available. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t seem like the hinges were ever available separately from the door. But the door company is out of business, so nothing’s available.

So I’ll give Colaw RV Salvage a call tomorrow and see what they might have in stock. They did have a lot of the parts for our blow-out repair last summer, so hopefully they’ll be able to help here too.

A little before 1pm Jan and I drove into Columbus to check out the weekday lunch buffet at Schobel’s. We had the Sunday buffet and really liked it, so time for another shot.

And although the number of meat selections, and the price, were a little less, everything was still delicious.

And if not all, it sure seems like almost all of the veggies are fresh. And with mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, corn, broccoli, and black-eyed peas, it was all good.

While on Sunday, they have six meats, the weekday buffet has three, with today’s Beef Tips and Gravy, Lasagna, and Fried Chicken. Since we also had it Sunday, I assume the Fried Chicken is available every day.

Coming home I made a stop at the hardware store to pick up some larger Scotchlok connectors to finish up a project.

I wanted to add a 12v socket to one of the cabinets in the kitchen so I can plug in a small inverter to run our Amazon Echo (review still coming) while we’re traveling. We want to use the Echo for music and news while we’re on the move.

To get power for the socket I used the Scotchlok’s to tap into the power feed for the lights over the sofa. And when I got everything wired up and packed back in the wall, it looked like this.

The digital voltmeter also taps into the light power feed and monitors the coach batteries. There are two more that I’ve installed up front over the dashboard. One monitors the AC voltage feeding the coach, whether from the generator or shore power,  and another one monitors the engine batteries.

Wrapping up, I definitely want to build one of these for next 4th of July.

January 13, 2017

First Time Since 2012 . . .

The last time we had breakfast at Barth’s was in 2012. We were following a Marathon drill rig that year and were at a site over near Whitsett, TX.

We were off for a couple of days because they were moving the rig to a new hole on the same pad. Back then they would bring in two 100 ton cranes and just drag the entire derrick 25 feet to the new spot. Now the rigs just walk to the new spot all by themselves.

Anyway, due to my vampirish tendencies (but not the blood-sucking part) I don’t do breakfast very often, but somehow Jan talked me into it this morning. And I must say it was worth braving the sun, even if my skin did sizzle a bit.

Jan and I both had omelets, hers cheese and mushroom, with a side of bacon, and mine double bacon and cheese with grits and a large OJ.

And of course, coffee.

Coming home we stopped off at HEB so I could pick up some Lotto tickets. Both PowerBall and MegaMillions are in the $120 – $130 million range so it’s time to get back in the pool.

Getting back to the rig, I went back to catching up on my sleep.

A long-time friend of ours has some property on a lake in east Texas and is thinking seriously about putting in an RV park. He’s thinking 50-70 sites, both back-ins and pull-thrus.

Concrete Pads 70 x 30 feet
Gravel Roads
Free Laundromat(s)
Bathroom/Shower(s)
Clubhouse(s)
Pavilion(s)
Fenced Pet Runs

I added

Good Wi-Fi
Wide Turns
Don’t put Big Rocks or Poles at corners
Just put Gravel across the corners

So now I’m throwing it out to the masses . . .  or the blog readers, anyway.

What would you like to see in a new RV park?’

So give me your ideas to pass on to him.

January 13, 2018

So That’s Why . . .

And now I know.

I had really planned to get outside and put up the new awning, I really did,.

But somehow it just didn’t happen. Apparently my get up and go not only didn’t . . . get up and go, it never even showed up in the first place. But there’s always tomorrow.

Maybe.

Finally about 2pm Jan and I headed into Clear Lake first for lunch and then some shopping.

Lunch was King Food for big bowls of our favorite Hot & Sour Soup and then an order of their Crispy Chicken Wings with Garlic Butter, our new favorite.

Then after a delicious, relaxing meal, we headed over to the Wal-Mart on El Dorado for some groceries. Jan still wasn’t quite feeling up to walking all over the store so she stayed in the truck with her Kindle while I did the shopping.

Finally checking out, I had all my groceries on the checkout conveyor belt when I reached into my back pocket for my billfold and found nothing,

Rut Roh!

In fact, when I reached into the pocket my hand went all the way out the bottom. And now I remembered that’s why I stopped wearing these pants a couple of years ago and bought new ones. I had grabbed these up since my others were in the wash.

What I don’t understand is why they were still hanging in the closet. I thought I had thrown them away.

Well, they’re in the garbage now!

After checking both Customer Services at Wal-Mart with no luck, I headed back out to the truck. Since I knew that I’d had it at King Food, I first put in a call to them, but got a busy signal.

Knowing they do a big take-out business, I tried it again a couple of minutes, again with no luck. So I started cancelling credit cards.

My first call was to PayPal to cancel that one, which is the main one that I use, since I get cash back on it. It only took me a couple of minutes to deactivate it using my phone.

Then, before I did another card, I again called King Food and found they had it. Someone had found it in the parking lot and turned it in. So we head back over to KF to pick it up. And I found all my money and my cards still intact.

Then it was back over to WM to see if I could salvage my groceries or if I would have to shop all over again. The first place I checked was at the Customer Service area, and there was my cart. Getting back in line, I checked out again and we headed home.

A little later I put in a call to PayPal to see if I could un-deactivate my card, but no luck. So they’re sending me a new one next week.

That was enough excitement for today.

January 13, 2019

Still Going . . . And Going . . . And Going!

Catching up on a few things that went on while the blog was off in la-la land, on Sunday the 23rd of December, we all got together at Brandi’s up in Katy for our family Christmas.

With Lowell’s parents coming down from Oklahoma, and Chris and Linda coming down from Kingsland, and the possibility of going-home bad weather, we decided to have our get-together on the 23rd.

Brandi always does a great job with the whole decorating thing.

Note the 3 stockings labeled K, M, and B. Their pets get their own stockings. K for Miss Kitty, the dog, M for Moshi the cat, and B for Baxter the dog.

Brandi decided to do a Texas Christmas this year, so she did a delicious brisket. The first one she’s done, and it came out great.

So a Christmas dinner plate looked like this. If that doesn’t scream ‘Texas’ I don’t know what does.

Everybody got presents except Jan. Or at least, she didn’t get anything from me. Because her gift was wandering around the country. It got to Houston, then left Houston for Dallas, and then disappeared. And by the time it was decided that it was gone for good, Amazon was sold out.

By the time they were back in stock, and Jan got it, it was January 4th. So Jan got her present a little late, but really love it. She had mentioned a while back that she would like a Fitbit. So she got this one.

Fitbit Charge HR

And in a favorite color too.

We passed another milestone in our RV life on the same day. January 6th  marks the beginning of our 12th year of Full-Timing, since it’s the day we picked up our 1999 American Eagle from Roman Holiday Motor Coaches in San Marcos, TX.

And we’re still having fun.

Following on my recent blog trauma, every time I called Godaddy I got one of two stories. Either my blog was ‘out of date’, or the server was ‘under mitigation’. But it took another week or so before they would even consider moving me to a new server. Why the reluctance, I don’t know.

And even then, they wanted me to do the move using their 1 Click Migration feature. But when I mentioned I had a lot of problems doing this when I upgraded from a regular WordPress site to a Managed WordPress one, I was told it would work fine.

It didn’t.

And it didn’t again when I tried it again two days later.

But when I finally got a hold of Tom, my first glimpse of light at the end of the tunnel, and with no train involved. He said with the size of my blog, with 10 years of posts, meant it would never work with a 1 Click move. He then started moving the blog manually, which took over an hour. But at the end, the blog was up and running on the new server with no problems. And none since then.

Since the Jetpack plug-in can’t be moved, until I get the Jetpack plug-in installed and configured, there won’t be any blogs emailed out. And it may bet that people will have to re-subscribe anyway.

I’ll let you know.

January 13, 2021

Sans DirecTV . . .

Today marked the last day of our DirecTV subscription, one that we’ve had since 1997. Supposedly sometime in the next two weeks or so I’ll get information about how to send back our receiver. Though why they would want back a 6 year old DVR that they no longer use, I have no idea.

I stop off yesterday to pick up a couple of Lottery tickets, for both PowerBall and MegaMillions. And as usual, I had trouble getting set for Annual Payments, rather than Lump Sum.

Texas apparently is one of the few states that make you decide ahead of time which way you want to receive your prize. Most others you get to decide after you win. And I must be about the only one who wants Annual Payments because it seems they never know how to print one out.

In this case, the upcoming MegaMillions is $750 Million with Annual Payments, but if you take the Lump Sum, you only get $550 Million. So you give up $200 Million to get it all at once.

And what exactly are you really going to do with $550 Million that you can’t do with the $25 Million a year for 30 years that you’re going to get with Annual Payments?

January 13, 2022

Scramblin’. . .

Jan and I were on our way up to the TGI Friday’s in the Almeda area to meet up with some of our old Alvin Opry friends for lunch.

Bob and Maria, the couple at the far end of the table and on the right, had been our friends since the mid-80’s, and the others since the late 90’s. So long-time friends.

We try to get together every month, and we’re already scheduled for February.

Jan and I both got versions of the Classic Combo Platter, with wings, potato skins, and Mozzarella sticks. Plus I added a side of Pork Pot-Stickers.

And we both had about half to bring home.

While we were eating I got a call from our daughter Brandi asking if I had heard the news. When I asked, “What news?” She said that they had heard from our motel in Kingsland that they had lost their water heater, so they would be closed this weekend.

I guess they heard first since they had booked directly while we booked through Booking.com. So I called the motel myself to confirm and was told that if the part came in tomorrow, they would be open this weekend. But he said don’t count on it, and he would recommend I cancel.

So I thanked him for his honesty and used the Booking.com app on my phone to cancel our reservation. Normally I would have had to pay the entire fee, but since it wasn’t my fault, that was waived.

Then we started scramblin’ to find new bookings, and ended up at the Motel 6 in Marble Falls, a place we’ve stayed before.

So we’ll be on our way by about 8:30 tomorrow morning, heading for Marble Falls now, instead of Kingsland.

I mentioned in yesterday’s blog that Karma has never been a box cat, pretty much just ignoring them. But for the first time, she at least got box-adjacent, laying on the open lid.

But maybe the problem was that she just never found the right box, until now.

When we looked around this evening, she had parked herself in the box itself and seemed very comfortable.

So it might be that she’s a box cat after all.

January 13, 2023

Titanic Redux . . .

Catching up on the Titanic/Olympic story as I promised.

As I said the other day, I went into this pretty skeptical about the whole story, but it’s hard to ignore after watching the movie several times.

To summarize, based on the movie, Titanic: The Shocking Truth, shown on Amazon Prime, the sinking of the Titanic was an insurance scam. And no one was supposed to die.

The White Star Lines set out to build 3 new ships, the Olympic, the Titanic, and the Britannic, designed to dominate the Trans-Atlantic routes between England and the United States.

The first two, the Olympic and Titanic, were built side by side in the Harland & Wolff Shipyards in Belfast, Ireland. But the Olympic, launched first and making its maiden voyage in June, 1911, seemed to be cursed. Captained by E.J Smith, in less than a year it collided with two other ships, as well as being run aground, and after temporary repairs in New York, it limped back to Southampton for more permanent repairs.

But the insurer, Lloyds of London, refused to pay the claims for the damages, blaming Captain Smith for the mishaps.

At this point the Titanic, being prepped for its maiden voyage in April 1912, and the Olympic were docked side by side in Southampton. And this is when the plan was hatched.

The Olympic was so damaged by its second collision that it was deemed unrepairable, at least from an economic standpoint. The loss of this $10 million (over $300 million in 2023) would have been a severe blow to the White Star Lines, and might have even taken them under.

So according to the movie, the plan was hatched to swap out the Olympic for the Titanic over a weekend. It seems that there were only a few things that identified each ship. The main one was the ship’s name, welded into the bow of the hull, along with a few other identifying marks.

And strangely, Captain E.J. Smith, blamed for all the damage to the Olympic, was now given command of the Titanic.

Does that make sense? Or could he be essentially blackmailed into the plan?

But the few small differences seemed to give away the switch-out. Things like the the fact that the Olympic had 16 portholes in one location, and the Titanic had 14. All this is shown and verified from photographs at the time.

But strangely, when the ‘Titanic’ sailed on its maiden voyage from Southampton, it had suddenly grown two extra portholes.

The idea was to sail the ‘Titanic’ out into the Atlantic Icefields, brush up against an iceberg, evacuate all the passengers and crew, and let the ship sink. Bolstering this theory, just a few days before the ship sailed, the insurance amount was increased from the fully-insured $10 million to $12.5 million.

There was another ship in on this, the Californian, which had sailed from Southampton a few days earlier, and stopped in the middle of the icefields and waited.

Waited for what?

This explains why, according to eyewitness reports, they didn’t even launch lifeboats for over 45 minutes, and were sending them out only half full. They were expecting to rendezvous with the Californian, who would take all the passengers to safety.

But a number of small errors cascaded into the tragedy that made its way into the history books.

What still sticks in my mind though, is a still shot from the 1986 French visit to the wreckage. Part of the ‘Titanic’ nameplate had fallen away, revealing some of the original letters welded into the hull underneath.

There’s no M or P in TITANIC, but there sure is in OLYMPIC.

I urge you to check it out for yourself.

Titanic: The Shocking Truth

January 13, 2024

Pump It Up . . .

I was outside by about 11am this morning, again working on my Water Pump problem. My first item was to check the inline fuse, which despite my hope, was fine. So now it was on to the pump itself.

The front red wire connector had the expected 12V on it, but the red wire connector right behind and above had no voltage on it. This wire comes from the back of the pump.

None of these voltages change when the pump activation switch is on or off.

At this point I started looking at the Water Pump Controller Module mounted above the pump.

This latching controller is what allows the pump to be turned on from multiple locations, in my case, 3 different switches, kitchen, bathroom, and the water bay. And according to the specs, it explains why only 2 of my 3 switches have an accompanying indicator light.

So now I’m wondering if the problem is with this controller switch.

But before I could explore any further I had to put everything back together so Jan could get her shower before we left for lunch.

More tomorrow.

We got to Texas Huddle about 30 minutes before the crowd hit. Being a sports bar, and today being the NFL wildcard playoff game between the Cleveland Browns and the Houston Texans, back the time we left the place was on a wait. (BTW the Texans won 45 to 14!)

Jan got the 5 piece Chicken Tenders with a side of Grilled Veggies.

And these are BIG chicken tenders, enough to share one with me, eat two, and still have two to take home for a meal later.

I got the Side Salad, with their house-made Jalapeno Ranch dressing,

and then moved on to my go-to order, the Peanut Butter & Jelly Bacon Cheeseburger.

Messy, But Delicious!

Though it normally comes with Grape or Strawberry Jelly, I always get the Flaming Raspberry, which is actually one of their Wing sauces.

And we didn’t get to see our favorite Juana until we left. Turns out she was having car trouble and got there late. But there’s always next time.

Tomorrow it’s back on the pump problem.