Our RV Adventures

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I’ve been seeing ads on TV for this Bullseye Battery-Powered Tire Inflator, so I thought I’d give it a try.

Bullseye Tire Inflator

I’ve got this big Sears 150psi unit that I used to handle the rig’s 23” tires,

but since we’re not traveling anymore, I don’t need it for that. And it’s a real pain in the butt to drag out of the back of the truck when I just need to add some air to the truck or Jeep tires.

So I thought I’d give this one a try.

I’ll let you know.

* * * * *

Just a reminder that SpaceX’s Starship #7 is scheduled to launch from Boca Chica tomorrow, with the launch window opening at 4pm CST.

* * * * *

Saw this online, a guy after my own heart,

I would use it to hold my Volcanic Pepper Flakes since I always want them close at hand.

* * * * *

For the 3rd year in a row, and 4th time in 8 years, our Texas-based HEB has been rated the #1 Grocery Store in the U.S, beating out Costco and Aldi.

H-E-B beat out Market Basket who took the No. 2 spot and Costco followed at No. 3. WinCo Foods earned the No. 4 position and Aldi clinched the No. 5 spot, the release shared. The RPI survey took input from roughly 11,000 customers based on quality, price, operations, speed, convenience, digital, promotions and rewards.

* * * * *

Tonight we watched the last two episodes of the 10 episode Season of Landman, which stars Billy Bob Thornton and Demi Moore. It’s a really great show about the west Texas oilpatch, and we’re already looking forward to Season 2.

* * * * *

Tomorrow, I’m going back into work, and Jan’s coming in with me, since our office manager Jennifer is fixing chili for Dr. Heimlich’s birthday.

Thought For The Day:

First, the Impossible Burger and now this.

Innovative New Process Converts Vegetables Into Meat By Feeding Them To Cows

Isn’t Modern Science Wonderful!

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

January 12, 2011

It was the cat’s fault . . .

Well, it got down to about 30 degrees here at the rig last night, a little warmer than the 25 or so up in Houston. Being right on the water keeps us a little warmer.

Then tonight I saw a news story online that over 70% of the US was covered in snow, and it was snowing 49 of 50 states, including HAWAII!  Only Florida was snow-free.

About 10:30am a client called and said he had lost Internet to his computer last night and it still wasn’t working. He’d tried all the normal things like rebooting, etc., with no luck. He said his wife’s computer in her home office was working fine. I told him I’d be over a little later to check it out.

Then our son Chris called a little before 11 to lock in our dinner plans for tonight. We’re going to our favorite local Italian place, Mario’s Pizza, up in Seabrook.

After I got off the phone with Chris, I called my Doctor to schedule my yearly checkup for the last week in January. I also made an appointment for Jan since her old doctor had moved away, and she wasn’t enamored of his replacement in the group practice.

A couple of minutes after I got off the phone, I heard some indelicate words coming from the bathroom. Turns out Jan had dropped one of her opal earrings down the lavatory drain. Telling her not to run the water, I got my strap wrench and took apart the upper and lower fittings and pulled the pipe down.

They don’t give you a lot of clearance, but after putting a bowl under the trap, I was able to splash enough water out to retrieve the earring.

When I started working, Mister was hanging right over my shoulder watching my every move. But he finally got bored and retired to the bedroom. Apparently he just couldn’t watch anymore.

A little while later Jan and I headed up to Clear Lake to check out my client’s Internet problem and run some other errands. It took me about 5 minutes to figure out what happened. It turns out…

It was the cat’s fault.

This one to be specific. And no, this is not Mister. He does kind of look like him, but he only weighs about half of Mister’s 23 pounds.

He looks perfectly innocent, doesn’t he?

But apparently he walked across the power switch on a plug strip that powered a router that fed the Internet into his owner’s computer. At least he was the only one in the house who could fit behind the desk where the power strip was, so he gets the blame.

Leaving the cat to finish his nap, Jan and I headed over to Sam’s Club to pick up a prescription. Then next it was down the feeder to Baybrook Mall.

First Jan had an opal ring she wanted to get resized. You might have noticed a pattern here with Jan and opals. Opal is her birthstone and she’s really got a thing for them.

And this ring has a history.

If you watch the TV show ‘Pawn Stars’, about the pawn shop on the Strip in Las Vegas, you know where this ring came from.

Jan bought it last March when we were in Vegas.

And if you watch the show, you’ll recognize Chumlee, one of the stars. He’s the one who sold it to her.

Next, we went next door to Sears where I was looking for an Sears Air Compressor like this one.

I wanted one that would handle both the toad tires, and our 22.5″ coach tires that are inflated to 110#. No small order.

But according to several guys on the RV.net forums, this one will do the job. I’ll see when I try it out in a day or so.

Of course, I could use the air compressor built into the coach, but that entails dragging out the hose and then cranking up the diesel. It’s a pain in the butt just to put a few pounds of air in a truck tire. So we’ll see how this one does.

Then we headed toward home, first stopping at the Kroger’s to get gas, and then Wal-Mart for more ‘stuff’.

One of the things I wanted to get was a new water filter, like this one.

I always start off the year’s travels with a new filter. I’ve also got one under the sink that feeds the drinking fountain and the ice maker, but I have to get it later at Home Depot.

We got back to the rig about 4pm with only about 45 minutes before we had to leave to meet Chris, Linda, and Piper at the Mario’s Pizza in Seabrook.

Then our friend Maria called a few minutes later wanting to know if Jan wanted to go Bingo-ing tonight, but Jan begged off.

Boy, are we popular.

And on that note, more tomorrow…

January 12, 2012

How Many Have You Done?

or Rockin’ and Rollin’.

Today was a lot like Tuesday, but without the rain or occasional tornado. But what we had was 40 mph winds with gusts to over 60, which really kept the rig rockin’ and rollin’. And the offshore wind, combined with a low tide, turned our beautiful water view into a mudflat all the way out to the channel.

I didn’t have any clients scheduled today so it became a DIY chore day around the rig. My first thought was to install my new power window motor system, but I was afraid my tools would blow away.

So I started in on my list, first repairing the retaining latch on one of the pull-out pantries. The screw had pulled out, and although I had fixed it once before, there just wasn’t enough wood left to hold. So I moved it to a new location and was able to use bigger screws. Coming back to Houston in November the pantry slid open as we drove and a bottle of expensive Mexican vanilla fell out and broke. Don’t want that to happen again.

Next up was to install a retaining bolt on our dining room table. Unlike some I’ve seen, there is no latch on our table and occasionally it will slide out while we travel. So I drilled a hole through the slide and inserted a bolt. This will keep the table in place, but the bolt can be easily removed if we need to put the table extension in place.

Last up were our folding closet doors. In damp weather they stick and bind, and are hard to open and close. So the other day I bought a rotary sanding pad at Home Depot that chucks in my drill to use in sanding down the bottom and top of the door opening where it binds.

After finishing the sanding, I rubbed the surfaces with an old piece of candle for lubrication. This works well and isn’t greasy so it won’t get on the clothes.

Then after all this hard work, it was time for a nap, which lasted until it was time to head up to Webster to meet Chris, Linda, and Piper for supper at Cheddar’s.

And yeah, we just went there last night with Brandi, Lowell, and Landon, but we all like the place, and it wasn’t like we had to order the same thing we got last night.

Piper cut her hair and it really looks great. It’s the first time we’ve seen her with the new style.

One thing great about having dinner with Piper is that I don’t have to keep picking things up that she’s thrown on the floor like I do with Landon. She’s a little neater.

On another note, I came across a website today that listed the 10 most scenic drives in the United States.

Top Ten Scenic Drives in the United States

1.  Anchorage AK to Seward AK

2.  Highway 1 from Monterey CA to Morro Bay CA

3.  Beartooth Highway north of Cody WY

4.  St. George UT to Zion National Park

5.  Custer Scenic Highway in the Black Hills of South Dakota

6.  North Shore Drive from Duluth MN to Grand Portage along Lake Superior

7.  Houma LA along the Gulf Coast to Breaux Bridge LA

8.  Route 100 from Wilmington VT to Stowe VT along the Green Mountains

9.  Blue Ridge Parkway in the Smokey Mountains

10. Jekyll Island GA north through the Low Country to Savannah GA

I was happy to see that we’ve done 6 of them.

1, 2, 3, 5, 7, & 9.

7, the Louisiana drive, we did in the mid 90’s, before we started RV’ing, coming back to Houston after a weekend in New Orleans. All the rest we’ve done since the beginning of 2008.

8 and 10, we’ve been in the area, but didn’t take the drive specifically.

So it looks like we’ve got 4 more to go.

How many have you done?

Or do you think they’ve left one off the list?

January 12, 2013

Go Texans . . .

Since we were gone a good part of the day, and spent the afternoon and early evening Landon sitting, it will be tomorrow before I will post my blog on “Bullets and ‘High Capacity’ Magazines.

After a cloudy, rainy morning, Jan and I headed up to Brandi and Lowell’s about 3 pm. We were going to be watching Landon for the afternoon and evening so Brandi and Lowell could get some time to themselves. While we were there we were also going to do some laundry, since our washer is on the fritz until the parts come in.

We got Landon’s car seat installed in the truck (not an easy task, believe me) and we all headed out. Our first stop was right outside the subdivision at Barcenas Mexican Restaurant.

Since it is so close to the house, we’ve eaten here for years, but don’t get to as much now.

But when we do get here, it’s always good. Jan had their delicious Ground Beef Taco Salad, and I had a big bowl of their Mexican Chicken Soup.

Landon had a Corn Dog and Fries, and a lot of chips and queso.

After dinner, we headed back through the subdivision and out the other side to Sam’s to pick up some things and let Landon pick out a book.

Our next stop was right down the road at Baybrook Mall. We got a stroller and just walked around the mall, letting Landon take in the sights. Right before we left we got him an ice cream and sat down for a while and just people watched.

After getting back to Brandi’s, we spent some time playing with Landon and some of his Christmas toys.

We finally got home about 9pm after a really fun day, but a really tiring day. Although Landon was an angel, chasing after a two year old will really wear you out.

Tomorrow afternoon the Houston Texans play the New England Patriots for a spot in the Super Bowl,

Go Texans!

January 12, 2014

I Miss Ashtrays . . .

Jan and I decided to have breakfast this morning at the Sunflower Café down in Galveston so we headed out a little after 9 to get a jump on the crowds, but we were questioning the effectiveness of this when we got there and found the waiting room full. But we were seated immediately. Turns out there was a couple of big groups who were waiting, so lucky us.

The only problem was that we got seated right by the bakery area. But the Force was with us, and our willpower was strong, so we made it through breakfast and out the door without succumbing to temptation.

Jan had a Belgian Waffle with Bacon and Eggs, while I tried something new. I had Carne Guisada with Eggs, which consisted of chunks of tender pork slow simmered in green Chile sauce, covering scrambled eggs, and resting on a thick tortilla, along with refried beans and ranch potatoes.

Really, really good. Though Jan said her waffle wasn’t as warm as she would have liked.

I really miss ashtrays, at least in restaurants, not because I smoke, or plan to start, but because there’s no place to put your trash.

With an ashtray, you have somewhere to put your trash. Like your empty sugar paks, creamer containers, napkin wrappers, straw wrappers, used lemon slices, etc. Otherwise the stuff just lays on the table, getting in the way, and looking messy.

That’s one thing I like about Texas Roadhouse, the small galvanized bucket on the table for your peanut shells. You also have a place for your trash.

Leaving the Sunflower, we drove along the Seawall for a while, and the first thing we noticed was that the parking spots along the Seawall were almost completely empty.. Normally on a beautiful sunny day like today, the parking spaces would have been full with people walking on the beach with their kids, and patronizing the many businesses along the way. But no longer.

Back in August 2013 the city of Galveston started charging for the previously free parking spots. And visitors immediately stayed away in droves.

So much so, that according to this article, Seawall parking, the city lost $300,000 last year, instead of making $390,000. They say that it was because they started late in the season, but looking at the numbers, they will have to make up $690,000 next year. Plus what the local businesses say they’re losing.

Nobody ever plans for ‘Unintended Consequences.”

Heading back home, we stopped off at Buc-ee’s for a couple of Cranberry Muffins for later, before a quick visit to Kroger’s for a few things, and then home.

Lowell sent over another photo of Landon at yesterday’s train show.

January 12, 2015

Apparently Facebook doesn’t like the word . . .

Readers of this past Saturday’s blog post saw the photos of the burned-out Newmar Kountry Star that we saw while we were checking out the Marina Bay Lake Cove RV Resort down in Dickinson.

Blog readers who check out the comments also know, that amazingly, the owners, Mike and Vanette Miedl, are blog readers.

The fire happened December 17th, and was a refrigerator fire. At least Mike saw flames coming out from under his Norcold. To me, that’s a dead giveaway.

Here are the blog comments in case you didn’t catch them.

Hey Greg. Imagine my surprise this morning. The burnt Kountry Star was ours. Burnt Dec 17th. Guess they are a little slow to get it cleaned up as they are arguing with Norcold over fire cause. I saw flames coming from under the fridge when we woke up. I believe the fridge was the cause, but of course there is contention. I mean, I was there but evidently eye witness account doesn’t mean a lot to the people trying to protect their company. By the way. The satellite dish was 15′ in front of the RV on a raised platform. (trailer)

Mike and Vanette

So sorry to hear about this.

It’s amazing sometimes how small the RV community is. I speculated to Jan that this might be a refrigerator fire.

Glad y’all made it out OK.

Was there anyone parked on either side of you at the time?

Do you mind if I pass this info on to our readers in a future blog post?

Let us know how you’re doing.

Hi Greg,
Yes there was a 5er next to us. It sustained damage to the side, and the clear cover over the shower and air conditioner cover. No one on the other side. Yes, you can pass on any info. Best part was we had decided to replace our Norcold as soon as we got to Waco. (About 2 wks.) We looked at refers at Home Depot and found one Mike likes but needed a carpenter to drop make the size just over an inch bigger. So, that’s what happens.

I had planned a number of outside chores today since the weather was supposed to be 55 degrees and partly sunny.

They lied.

It never got over 45 and not a ray of sunshine was to be seen. But I wanted to at least get the truck AC repaired, so I bundled up, broke out my trusty soldering iron, and had at it.

First off, I cut the insulation where the wire was already broken and pulled it back.

This didn’t give me a lot to work with, but I found the plug endcap could be pulled off, leaving me more wire to work with.

It’s hard to see here, but I stripped the two ends back about an !/8”, and then tinned them with solder.

My next two photos didn’t turn out very well, but I took a 1” long piece of 14 gauge jumper wire, stripped and tinned the ends, and then slid a piece of heat shrink tubing over it. Then I soldered the ends of the jumper wire between the two broken ends and then used a heat gun to shrink the tubing on both ends.

Putting the endcap back on left me with this. .

Then using my ohmmeter I confirmed the circuit was working fine. Once I try it out for a few days, I’ll wrap the entire thing in electrical tape to seal it up

It’s not pretty, but it works.

Later Jan and I headed into Columbus for dinner and Wal-Mart. Going by the Colorado County Fuel Co-op where we got diesel a couple of weeks ago for $2.59, I was happy to see it is now $2.49. Nice.

Our dinner stop was the Los Cabos Mexican Grill, where we’ve eaten a number of times and always enjoyed it. And tonight was no exception.

I had the Plato Loco, which had a Beef Fajita Taco, a Tamale, a Beef Enchilada, and a Cheese Enchilada.

Jan had the Pollo Relleno, which was a Chicken Breast stuffed with Shrimp, Tomatoes, Cilantro, and Onions, and covered with a Butter Wine Sauce made with Shrimp, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Jalapeños and Onions.

As usual, everything was seasoned perfectly, and really delicious.

Coming home, we stopped off at Wal-Mart for a few things, including a stack of DVD’s. Then as soon as we got home, I ran the Recovery Disk Creation Software, and made the 5 DVD backup set for the new computer I’m setting up for a client.

Tomorrow I’ll see how the ‘freezer trick’ works on the old hard drive.

* * * * *

Apparently Facebook doesn’t like the word . . .

Butt!

As in yesterday’s blog title – Pucker Butt

As in the Pucker Butt Pepper Company, developer of the Carolina Reaper, the hottest pepper in the world.

As usual last night (actually very early this morning), after I made the latest post to the blog, I also posted it to Jan’s Facebook page. Then about 15 minutes later it was gone. It still showed up on Jan’s personal page, but it had disappeared from her Timeline. So I posted it to Facebook again. And again, about 15 minutes later it was gone.

So I  guess these Facebook recipe pages better not post any recipes for a Boston Butt Pork Roast.

Of course I guess it could be the word ‘pucker’, so be careful around Valentine’s Day when you ask someone to ‘pucker up’.

January 12, 2016

Triscuits and Cream Cheese . . .

As I said a couple of blogs ago, when the new PowerBall was posted at $1.3 Billion, I figured it will go a lot higher, probably $1.6 to $1.7 Billion. And it’s on its way, as this morning it was already up to $1.5 Billion.

Keep buying those tickets so the prize will be higher when I win tomorrow night. I can always use an extra couple of hundred million dollars.

Here’s an interesting PDF about the downside of winning the lottery. Like you’re 20 times more likely to be killed, and 120 times more likely to be killed by a relative,

Congratulations, You Won The Lottery!

Check it out.

There’s a lot of other things being written online about what to do if you win, and how to handle the money.

Here’s one suggestion.

If you win the lottery big tomorrow night… sure, give some money to your family members. But then find that one family member you really don’t like and give them 10 million dollars.

Then, tell the rest of the family that you gave them 10 million dollars.

Then hide.

Jan and I did another split walk this morning, for the same 1.52 miles as yesterday. And did it 6 seconds faster, at 27:32 min/mile. So it looks like we’re holding our own so far.

I’m always impressed by how accurate the Runkeeper app is as we walk. I mean we’re talking hundreds of a mile. Much more accurate than pedometers or Fitbit-type devices, at least according to this article.

Science Says FitBit Is a Joke

They say that that smartphone apps are within 5-6 %, but the others can be over 20% incorrect. One thing that tells me about the accuracy about the Runkeeper app is the repeatability.

If we walk the same route, we get the same distance, down to a hundredth of a mile. And if I add a short walk over to the dumpster, it records that small addition.

And Runkeeper’s free.  Even better.

Jan and I are continuing to binge watch our shows that we recorded while we were on the gate. We finished up with Once Upon A Time and are now about halfway through Marvel: Agents of Shield. And talk about a lot of twists and turns!

For dinner tonight we just make a couple of apps, queso Blanco, and hot jelly cream cheese dip.

I started out by chopping up a block of Velveeta Jalapeno White Cheddar,

and then with a can of Rotel Hot Habanero Tomatoes and a can of Wolf Brand Spicy Hot Chili (no beans), melted it all in the microwave for 5 minutes.

Poured into a couple of bowls, and along with a big bag of Calidad Tortilla Chips, really good.

For the other dish, Jan spooned Hot Pepper Peach Jam over a block of Cream Cheese, and along with a box of Cracked Black Pepper and Olive Oil Triscuits, it rounded out a really good meal.

I called American Coach this afternoon to see if they had my rig screen door hinges in stock. The first thing they said was the screen door itself was no longer available, but that they would check about the hinges and email me when they had some news. But nothing so far today.

Tomorrow I’ll probably call Colaw RV Salvage near Carthage, MO to see if they have any. I know in the past that they have several American Eagles in stock, so I may luck out. We’ll see.

For now I may go ahead and remove the door to take a closer look at the hinges to see if they can be repaired in any way. But then I’ve also got a couple of projects in progress, so it may get pushed down in the queue.

January 12, 2017

Not This Time . . .

Except for fighting a squirrely iPad last night, it wasn’t a bad shift. Steady, but not too busy, either.

I’m not sure what the problem was, but you would enter a person into the frack site once and then they would sometimes show up four times in the personnel list.

It’s possible that some of the problems might be caused by the fact that due to the bad phone service in this area, we can sync and upload the data. The program is definitely running slower, sometimes taking 3 or 4 taps before it recognizes a button click.

I was up about 12:15 and we were out the door to first have lunch at Barth’s, and then some HEB shopping.

Today being Thursday, it was our first time to have the Fried Pork Chop/Meatloaf lunch buffet. So now we’ve done all seven days/menus.

Jan, not being a big pork chop fan, had one of their delicious Cheeseburgers, but after a bite of my meatloaf, she might have regretted her choice a bit.

She said she really liked the meatloaf, so maybe next time. And she also missed out on the mashed potatoes and gravy.

The pork chops were great, really chicken-fried, since they use the same batter as on their chicken-fried steak and chicken-fried chicken. Really good.

Normally I make my Escapade reservations earlier, by kept waiting to hear about whether or not we would be doing our gate guard seminar. I don’t know why, because we’re going to go anyway, but it fell by the wayside.

So now if I book into the Escapade I can only get a boondock site, i.e., no hookups whatsoever. Not something we want to do for a week or so. And even boondocking, the cost is still $335. But if we just do a walk-in it’s only $170.

So now we’re booked into the Voyager RV park right down the road for the duration of the rally at a lot less money. Win-Win.

I never got a text from Todd this afternoon, so it looks like the other guy finally showed up, so not this time. Now just waiting for the next gate.

I mentioned a week or so ago about using Sam’s Club new Scan & Go feature. You just scan each product as you put it in your cart, and then when you’re finished shopping just click the Check Out button and you’re done. A receipt is displayed on your phone, you show it to the greeter and you’re out the door.

I was hoping that Wal-Mart would come out with the same idea, and today I heard they had. So I went right to the Google PlayStore to download it. But the first thing I noticed was that the program only averaged 2.8 stars, while the Sam’s version was 4.5. So what’s the difference?

Well, a little reading explained everything. The Wal-Mart Scan and Go app only works in one Wal-Mart location in Rogers, AZ.

Bummer!

Not very useful yet, hence the 2.8 stars. Hopefully it will be rolled out nationwide at some point.

January 12, 2018

Yum! Yum!

When I got to work this morning, it looked like snow flurries in my office. They had replaced the sheetrock ceiling and the lights in my office yesterday without covering my desk with plastic sheeting.

Why they didn’t, I don’t know, since there was a UNOPENED roll of sheeting right outside the door. So I ended up with a flurry of white dust in my keyboard, printer, and chair.

At least they didn’t turn off the power again.

On the way home about 3pm, I stopped off at Sundowner Canvas to drop off the big awning I took down yesterday, and pick up the other rear window one, this one on my side of the bedroom.

Hopefully I’ll get a chance to put it up this weekend. Two down, two to go.

Getting home Jan and I turned right back around and headed  into the Clear Lake area to have dinner at one of our favs, Floyd’s Cajun Seafood.

We started off with a dozen raw oysters, and with plenty of Chile sauce and horseradish mixed as a dip.

Yum!

This time Jan went with the Grilled Catfish and Mixed Veggies.

Normally these veggies are just steamed, but Jan asked them to throw them on the grill as well. Really delicious, and her new favorite.

I went with a big bowl of their Shrimp Gumbo.

And yes, I like a lot of filé in my gumbo. And then I rounded it out with a 1/2 dozen hot Boiled Shrimp. Really good and spicy.

Not sure exactly what’s on the menu for this weekend, or even tomorrow, for that matter.

But it’s usually fun,

January 12, 2019

So Far, So Good . . . So Far

The blog has been up for over 24 hours with nary a bobble, so I’m hoping the problem is fixed once and for all. But I’ve still got my fingers crossed.

I do want to thank everyone for the many comments, suggestions, and patience. In a way I did enjoy the ‘vacation’ for doing a daily blog, but I also missed doing it.

Strange.

Over the next few days I’ll try to play catch-up on all our comings and goings over the last almost 3 weeks.

To recap, the blog started going up and doing early on the morning of December 23rd. Sometimes it would be up for a few minutes and then down for 30 minutes, then up for 15 minutes and down for 5.

It was completely random.

When I called that day I was told it was a ‘server’ problem and they were working on it. OK, so no problem. When I called back on the 24th, same answer. However I did learn something that explains a lot in past calls.

Apparently Godaddy techs look at the servers through some sort of internal connection and not from the ‘outside’ world like everyone else does. So when I would call they would say the blog was working fine when my monitoring service, UptimeRobot, said it was down. Usually I would tell the tech to either look at it on his phone, or use ShotSherpa.com to view the site, and then I’d get an, “Oh. You’re right.”

I didn’t even try calling on the 25th. Pretty much any tech who was so low on the totem pole that he got stuck working on Christmas, wouldn’t be worth talking to.

But on the 26th, my ‘problem’ was no longer a server issue. Suddenly my blog was ‘out of date’, and that was causing the problem. However they couldn’t explain how my blog was going ‘in’ and ‘out of date’ every few minutes.

And they also couldn’t explain why when they were looking at it on their internal line, it also worked fine. But they were just sure that outdated themes, plugins, and widgets were the problem.

Yeah, right.

Finally I got a tech who did enough research to track down the real problem’ the server was ‘under mitigation’. This apparently means that the server is under some sort of DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack.

This means that some sort of ‘bot’ network, or ‘botnet’ was attacking the server with 10’s of thousands, or even 100’s of thousands of rogue computers, so overloading the server that it just can’t respond to access requests. And since this is a ‘shared’ server with 100’s or even 1000’s of websites on it, the attack on one site takes them all down.

That’s about it for today. I’ll continue on with the rest of this saga tomorrow.

Just a note. As it stands right now there are no blog posts being emailed out. Due to the server move, I’ll have to set that up all over again.

January 12, 2020

Well, I Got It Off, Anyway . . .

It was supposed to be sunny and warmer today, but we never really got the sunny part which really cut back on the warmer. So it was almost 2pm before it felt comfortable enough to get outside and under the rig.

The first problem I ran into was getting the oil filter off. I think the repair place in Luling got a little over zealous in putting the filter back on after they replaced the oil cooler gasket.

You’re supposed to tighten the filter down by hand and use the band strap wench to turn it another 3/4 turn. But it was tighter than that. Cummins could make it a lot easier to get these filters on and off if the bottom was fluted like a lot of car filters.

Once I had the filter off, I removed the 4 bolts holding the oil filter adapter on the oil cooler. And like before I had to use the old oil filter to break the adapter loose. After emptying it of oil, I screwed it back on and then whale away on it with a rubber mallet until it broke loose.

Luckily it came loose clean from the oil cooler end, I assume because there was oil on that part so the Permatex Ultra Black Seal didn’t stick. But it certainly did on the adapter end. In fact the gasket was pretty much glued to the adapter.

The reddish part is the gasket and the black is the sealer.

I picked at it with my finger for a while but didn’t make a lot of headway. Since the adapter is aluminum I didn’t want to use a steel scraper, but I tried a couple of plastic scrapers I had, but one wasn’t stiff enough and the other one wasn’t sharp enough. I thought I used to have a set like this,

but apparently I looked in all the wrong places because I couldn’t find them. So I’ll pick up another set at Harbor Freight in the next couple of days. Luckily they’re cheap.

As of right now it’ll probably Thursday before I’ll have a chance to get back on this.

January 12, 2021

On The Cusp . . .

Jan and I decided to make another visit to the Toasted Yolk, a new breakfast/brunch place nearby.

Jan wanted to try their Greek Chicken Salad, with feta cheese and Kalamata olives, and chicken, of course.

‘

She said it was good, but not really ‘have-again’ good, so she’ll probably go back to her Avocado Salad next time.

For myself I went back to the same Double-Decker Omelet I had last time, with ham, bacon, sausage, and a lot more.

Still really good.

Then it was right across the Interstate to get a few things at WalMart before getting back home about 3:30pm.

Jan and I are still waiting to see if our Holland American Alaskan Cruise is a go or not. Originally scheduled for late August – early September, 2020, it was cancelled, so we rescheduled for 18 May 2021.

And as it stands right, Holland American has cancelled all cruises so far up to the middle of May, so we’re right on the cusp of a decision. We’re supposed to make our final payment on February 17th, so hopefully we’ll know before then.

Personally I kind of think that they will probably cancel further cruises for the year, but we’ll see.

I called National General Insurance today to cancel the Collision/Comprehensive coverage on our Dodge Dakota truck and Jeep SUV. It doesn’t make sense to have this coverage on 17 and 18 year old vehicles. I’m probably paying more per year in premiums than they would pay if the vehicle was totaled.

Of course, I kept full coverage on the RV, just in case. And it looks like it will save me almost $1000/year. Nice.

I also put in a call to Dakota Post to tell them to send out our $1200 Stimulus Check when it comes in. Which should be pretty soon since it was mailed out on January 6th.

January 12, 2022

The Next Few Days . . .

We’ve got a busy next few days coming up.

Tomorrow we’re meeting some of our old Alvin Opry friends up at the TGI Friday’s near Almeda Mall.

Really looking forward to it.

Then Friday morning we’re heading up to Kingsland to join Brandi, Lowell, and Landon at Chris and Linda’s. And Piper and Derek will be joining us from over in Austin. Since we couldn’t all get together at Christmas since Linda and Piper had to work, this is our makeup get-together.

Coming home this afternoon, I stopped off at a UPS store to drop off a couple of Amazon returns. And they make it really easy now. Just hand them the items, no box or packing, let them scan the QR code Amazon gives you, they hand you a receipt, and you’re done.

And by the time I got home, they had credited my account with both returns.

Nice.

Several readers commented on Karma’s Box-Adjacent experience. And Chris Yust reminded us of all the times our late, very-lamented Mister tried to fit into various boxes.

“If it fits, I sits.”

“If I can’t sees you, you can’t sees me.”

January 12, 2023

Peanut and Lobster . . .

The Alvin Opry get-together this month was at the Red Lobster up in Webster, and I was beginning to wonder is this month’s get-together was going to run into next month’s.

Really, really slow service, which I figure probably had something to do with the fact that they weren’t very busy at all. Especially compared to Saltgrass Steakhouse that we passed on the way which was jam-packed with a full parking lot.

Now you’d think that not being very busy would be quicker service.

You would be wrong. We had been there for an hour and still didn’t have our food. Stuff just came dribbling out.

Won’t go back.

Getting back to yesterday’s big event. Since we wanted to eat before Jeff Dunham’s ‘Still Not Canceled’ show, we got to the Longhorn Steakhouse in Webster about 3:30 and had a really good meal, starting with their salads.

Then Jan got the Flo’s Filet with a Baked Potato,

while I got my usual Ribeye, this time with a Sweet Potato.

Really good meal, and great service too.

Heading up I-45 to the NRG park arena, getting a great parking spot only about 25 yards from the Arena entrance. We did have about a 45 minute wait until they opened the doors a little before 6pm.

And after a bathroom stop, we were in our seats by about 6:15.

We didn’t find out about the show until tickets had already been on sale for a while, so these were the best seats I could get. But with the big screen we could see fine.

The show was supposed to start at 7, but didn’t kick off until 7:30, probably to allow all the people lined up at the Merchandise Kiosk, and the booze ones as well, to allow them to get to their seats.

The show started off with Walter as President Biden, and had the entire 8000 attendees roaring with laughter.

BTW most of these photos are from the Internet since we weren’t supposed to take photos during the show, though I did sneak a couple.

Next up was Bubba J, ‘Drinking and Thinking’, leading us to a new character, URL, pronounced Earl.

A typical Gen Z’er, he lives in his parent’s basement, has no job, and is always texting on his phone.

Next was Achmed the Dead Terrorist, who is trying to be even more terrifying by invoking the CoVid virus.

Somehow during Achmed’s visit, Jeff started playing Harry Nilsson’s song “Can’t Live Without You” from his phone into the mic, and suddenly the arena lit up with about 8000 cellphone flashlights waving to the music.

Wrapping up was everyone’s favorite Woozie, Peanut, along with Jose, Jalapeno On A Stick.

The guy next to my right was laughing so hard during this last part that he seemed to be having trouble breathing, either that or he was having an asthma attack, or maybe both, I guess.

One of the things that makes Jeff Dunham so great is that he manages to seem actually surprised, and even embarrassed by some of the things his ‘companions’ come up with.

Peanut was ragging on him about the fact that when he was already working clubs as an adult of 23, Aubrey, his wife, was 5 years old. And Peanut accused him of stalking her at the Ball Pit at McDonald’s.

So he’s 18 years older than her.

A really great show. Hope we can see him again sometime.

Finally, in one of those weird coincidences, sitting two seats to our left in an arena of 8000 seats, was a couple who was having dinner at the Webster Longhorn Steakhouse at the same time as we were, and we recognized each other.

January 12, 2024

More Huddling . . .

I got a chance yesterday to talk with Rob, our park’s owner, for a few minutes, and he confirmed what I thought was going to happen. Looks like he is going to raise the road to the level of the new sites, and I guess that will happen soon since he also said he hopes to have the new sites open by Feb. 1st.

Unfortunately he got a phone call before I could ask him how he plans to adjust our sites to the level of the new road. But I figure he’s just going to cut access ramps from our sites into the roadway. And he also said that eventually, he will raise our sites up to the same level. Told him to give me a little notice so I can get the rig running so we can temporarily move to the other side.

But as I always say, we’ll see.

My new standby Shurflo RV Water Pump came in today, so as soon as I get caffeinated tomorrow morning I’ll be outside looking at the problem. Hopefully I’ll find it’s just the fuse, but I’m not counting on it. Which is why I’ve got the backup pump.

Tomorrow looks to be lunch at Texas Huddle once again. And I’ll probably get their PB&J Burger just to compare with the Sonic version I had the other day.

But I’m pretty sure I know which one’s going to win.

For you Resident Alien fans, Season 3 starts February 14th. It’s been so long since Season 2 ended, I was afraid it had just faded away, so I was glad to hear this.

So set your DVR.

Remember, to access our blog links,
Right-Click on The Link and Select ‘Open in New Tab’

First up today was Jan getting her toeies done at Noon, which takes about an hour. Then it was on back over to HEB for our weekly HEB stuff.

Normally we do Wal-Mart on Saturday and HEB on Sunday, but somehow this weekend went off the rails.

We ended up doing Wal-Mart yesterday after our haircut appointments fell through. Then today, we used HEB to kill time before getting to BoomerJack’s around 2pm. This, so we be there at the start of long-time server friend Juana shift.

Jan got the Chicken Tenders,

while I got the 10 Wings with Mango Habanero Sauce, and a Side Salad.

And we both had enough to bring some home for next week.

When we got there a few minutes after 2, we got seated immediately and the place was only about half full. But the time we left an hour later the place was full and there was a line out the door.

Coming home we made a futile swing by McDonald’s to pick up some McRib’s to have for dinner next week, but found they were gone for this year.

Sob!

Jan and I just finished watching the 7th and 8th episodes of Landman, starring Billy Bob Thornton. Hopefully we’ll be able to wrap up the last two of the 10 episodes in Season 1 tomorrow night.

Set in the west Texas Odessa/Midland oilpatch, it’s a real inside look at how it all works. Written by Taylor Sheridan of Yellowstone fame, it brings back a lot of memories for Jan and I during our six years of oilfield gate-guarding

During that time, we worked drill sites, workover sites, fracks, and pipelines, pretty much the whole gambit of the industry, though our experience was all in south and east Texas.

Tomorrow, since we’ve got all our weekend shopping out of the way, we’re just looking at lunch at Los Ramirez Mexican and then gas for the Jeep.

Nice.

Thought For The Day:

If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by. – The Art of War: Sun Tzu
In Other Words, Patience, Grasshopper.

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

January 11, 2011

Yo-Yo’s and Geniuses . . .

Today was a really busy day in contrast to yesterday’s lay-about the rig day.

It started off when I left the rig about 10am heading for a client’s up in Clear Lake. I was there until about  2:30, and then it was off to another client in Pearland to drop off a computer that I had taken home to work on a particularly pesky Trojan Virus. I hadn’t run into this one before so it took a little while to figure out how to get rid of it. I also spent some time talking to Bill and June about RV’ing since they have a 5th wheel and travel a good bit.

Then it was time to head back down south to the rig. And I got back just in time to get Jan and head back up to Nassau Bay to pick up our granddaughter Piper and her friend Helena.

Tonight is Bingo night and they’re both going with Jan and Maria to play tonight. Then it was back down to Dickinson to meet Maria at Garcia’s Mexican Grill in Dickinson for supper.

With all this back and forth, sometimes I feel like a yo-yo.

BTW did you know the yo-yo has been around since 500 B.C. in Greece and was made of terra cotta clay?

And when it was first patented in the U.S. in 1866 it was called a ‘bandalore’.

If I don’t tell you this stuff, who will?

After we finished dinner, and Maria, Jan, Piper, and Helena headed down to La Marque for Bingo, I headed back up to Clear Lake to another client’s office to do some updates and cleanups that can’t really be done during the day.

About 9:30 it was time to head down to La Marque to pick everyone up. And unfortunately, nobody won anything but Maria, and she only won $25. Wheeee!

And then it was back up to Nassau Bay to drop off Piper and Helena,  After that we finally headed back down to the RV park on Dickinson Bayou.

Told you I was a yo-yo.

January 11, 2012

Cheese and Books . . .

Jan and I headed out about 12:30 for another afternoon of errands and work stuff. But our first stop was for lunch at King Food, before heading over to Half-Price Books.

Jan had a large bag of books she wanted to sell, and a list of books she was looking for. And as usual, we got zilch for our books. I carried in a big canvas bag that must have weighed 25 pounds, and we walked out with 8 whole dollars.

Whoopee!

Our next stop was my client’s office. While Jan read in the truck, I finished setting up the second new computer for them. I’ll go back over sometime later this week and get everything installed.

A little before 4pm we drove down to meet Brandi at Landon’s pediatrician’s office. Landon had a doctor’s appointment, and since Lowell couldn’t get free from work, Brandi wanted Jan along, so between the two of them could keep Landon in hand and still pay attention to what the Doctor was saying.

Afterward, we all headed over to Brandi’s for a while, waiting until it was time to meet Lowell at Cheddar’s for dinner.

While we were there, Landon got his first chance to use his new Gyro Bowl, in this case, full of orange sections. As I thought he spent as much time playing with it as eating from it. He was fascinated by how it swiveled as he turned it.

After a fun meal, we finally all headed to our respective homes.

Tomorrow’s kind of up in the air. I may just work around the rig unless something comes up.

We’ll have to see.

January 11, 2013

Ban Assault Hammers !

I had a number of comments over the last several days, both on the blog and by email, concerning my Thought for the Day this past Wednesday.

Thought for the Day:

John Kennedy was killed with a 5 shot bolt action rifle.

Bobby Kennedy was killed with a .22 Iver Johnson Cadet revolver.

George Wallace was wounded with a 5 shot Charter Arms .38spl revolver.

Gerald Ford was attacked with a 7 shot 1911 semi auto.

Ronald Reagan and Jim Brady were shot with an RG-14 .22 revolver.

So of course, we need to ban “Assault Weapons” and high capacity magazines.

When I was a kid living on a river in south Alabama, one of my favorite pastimes was to take a long stick and poke a water moccasin nest and watch them come boiling out at me.

So here goes.

First off, there is no such thing as an “Assault Weapon”.

I repeat, there is no such thing as an “Assault Weapon”.

It is a made-up term, made up by politicians to try and ban a very popular type of weapon.

Below is a photo illustrating the difference between a legal and an “illegal” weapon under the 1994 Assault Weapons Ban.

Without reading the list below, other than the larger magazine, can you tell which is which?

According to the 1994 Ban, an “Assault Weapon” is a ‘SEMI’-automatic firearm with the ability to accept a detachable magazine, and two or more of the following features:

1. a folding or telescoping stock

(Yep, this makes it much more dangerous)

2. a pistol grip that protrudes conspicuously beneath the action of the weapon

(Ditto)

3. a bayonet mount

(Seriously, is this really a problem? Bayonet deaths?)

4. a flash suppressor or threaded barrel designed to accommodate a flash suppressor

(So having threads on the end of your barrel makes it a killing machine?)

5. a grenade launcher

(Darn. I was looking for a way to use up that case of grenades I have tucked away.)

So the above definition is what the politicians have decided constitutes an “Assault Weapon”.

Note the definition says it’s a SEMI-automatic weapon. This is not a machine gun, not a FULLY-automatic weapon.

Again, an “Assault Weapon” is not a fully-automatic ‘machine gun.

A semi-automatic, whether a piston or a rifle, means one pull of the trigger fires one round, just like a revolver.

A fully-automatic means one pull of the trigger keeps firing until the magazine is empty, or you release the trigger.

Since 1986 the only fully-automatic weapons allowed to be owned by civilians are those manufactured or imported before May 19, 1986, the enactment date of the Firearm Owners Protection Act of 1986.

Part of the confusion (some people say it’s deliberate) comes from the fact that there is a real definition for an “Assault Rifle”.

Here’s an online definition of an “Assault Rifle.

An assault rifle is a selective fire (selectable among either fully automatic, burst-capable, or, sometimes, semi-automatic modes of operation) rifle that uses an intermediate cartridge and a detachable magazine. It should be distinguished from the US legal term assault weapons.^[1]

Note the last sentence. Also note that an assault rifle is capable of FULLY-automatic fire.

Here’s Jan at The Gun Store in Las Vegas firing a fully-automatic .45 cal. Thompson Submachine Gun, obviously pre-1986.

According to the ATF, since 1938 there have been TWO deaths in the U.S from legally-owned ‘machine guns’.

Most hunting rifles sold in the U.S. are semi-automatics.

Most handguns sold in the U.S. are semi-automatics.

Although the term “semi-automatic handgun” is usually applied to pistols, I guess in reality a revolver is a “semi-auto” too, from the ‘one trigger pull for one round fired’ point of view. You just run out of rounds quicker.

Wrapping up, this picture, based on FBI crime stats.

Just a note. The 323 murders listed are from ALL rifles, not just ‘scary-looking’ ones.

Finally, under the heading of “Why dig a shallow hole, when you can dig a really deep one”, tune in tomorrow for “Bullets and ‘High-Capacity’ Magazines.

(now ducking for cover!)

January 11, 2014

See, I’m Not Crazy . . .

As Sheldon says, “My Mother had me tested”

I was up about 8:30 this morning, heading out about 9:30 to pick up our son Chris. On the way I stopped at Jack in the Box for a couple of Supreme Croissants for us to eat on the way. We were on our way into Houston to meet up with Lowell and Landon at the George R. Brown Convention Center for the Great Train Expo model railroad show.

The first shock was that it cost $20 to park at a lot about 6 blocks from the GRB. At least we got a lot of exercise for our money. But it only cost $10 each to get in, and Landon was free.

The show was pretty crowded with every aisle pretty much filled to capacity.

Landon was fascinated with all the different layouts and themes. And actually, so was his PaPa.

He demanded to be picked up so he could see everything. This rocky ledge, complete with a waterfall, was great.

These blocks of Styrofoam show how many of these hills and mountains start out before being carved into shape.

The scenery detail was really good.

Sometimes even the circus comes to town.

And of course, what’s a countryside without a farm. complete with a irrigation ditch.

This one even has an RV campground.  I mean, isn’t it a law that all RV parks must be located next to railroad tracks?

This is a Lionel 027 gauge layout like the one I started out with.

This photo shows the comparative size of the major different scales. The Z Scale boxcar in the foreground is less than 2 inches long. And, not shown here is an even smaller scale, known as T Scale. A T Scale boxcar would be less than 1 inch long!

At some point, you’ll have to start using a magnifying glass to operate your train, if things get any smaller.

The part about not being crazy came about from my inquiries about the Lionel train set I received when I was 11. I was never able to find the exact train in any of the old Lionel catalogs. In fact a few years ago, one guy told me I must have imagined it. He hinted that I must be crazy.

But based on something I read recently online, and was finally able to confirm with a vendor today, I figured out what was going on. Large Lionel retailers like Sears and Roebuck in my case, were able to order train sets to their own specifications. This is apparently where my train set came from.

So I’m not crazy.
Well, at least I didn’t imagine it.

My train set originally cost about $50. After talking to the vendor, and based on the present-day cost of this Santa Fe F3 engine like I had, my train set would be worth over $1500 if I still had it.

Damn!

Notice that steam locomotive below my F3. It now sells for $1450.00.

This was the part that Landon was waiting for –  the Thomas the Tank Engine ride

While he and Lowell were waiting in line for the train ride, I went shopping and found this neat Glow-in-the-Dark Thomas the Tank Engine T-shirt for him.

After about two hours it was time to start heading home,  but we didn’t manage to get past the food trucks parked across the street at Discovery Green.

They were having an arts & crafts festival, and a lot of people were out and about on this beautiful day.

Lowell and Landon got Cupcake Pops, and Chris and I got wraps from another truck. I also got a couple of cupcakes to take home for Jan and me later.

Running into the usual I-45 construction, it took almost an hour to get back to Chris’ and then another 30 minutes to get back to the rig.

A little later Jan and I headed up to Kemah to have dinner at Hooter’s. We haven’t been for a while, and were happy to see that, probably due to the competition from places like Twin Peaks, Bonedaddy’s, and Buffalo Wild Wings, they’ve added a lot of new menu items, including even hotter sauces. Yumm!

By the time we got back home, the sun was going down and I got some good shots of the park here. This is the view out in front of our rig.

Later, about 8 PM, I fixed us Hazelnut Cappuccino K-Cups and we had the Red Velvet and Carrot Cake cupcakes I brought home this afternoon.

A really nice way to end a great day.

January 11, 2015

Pucker Butt . . .

Mostly today Jan and I just waited out the continuing nasty, wet, cold weather. But it now looks like the next four days should be pretty decent, as in no rain and temps in the high 40’s / low 50’s. That should be good enough to get some stuff done outside.

Later in the day, after doing some web work, I started setting up my client’s new computer. When I was finished with the basic startup stuff, I connected with our rig Wi-Fi network and started to download 964 MB of upgrades and updates. Luckily I have an unlimited 3G Verizon air card, and there’s a good 3G signal here at the park so it only took a little over an hour to get them all pulled down and installed.

Next up I wanted to create the Recovery DVD’s, which according the program, would require 6 DVD’s. Unfortunately, as it turned out, I only had 3, so I’ll have to get some more tomorrow. The program doesn’t allow you to start and stop the DVD writing process so I’ll just wait until tomorrow when I have enough to finish the job in one sweep.

I also took some time to check out the client’s old computer as far as the hard drive goes. It certainly is bad, as with the side of the computer off, you can hear the drive spin up and then start ‘clicking’ and not initializing as it should. I won’t try the ‘freezer trick’ until everything else is set up on the new machine. But the fact that it is spinning, and not completely dead, is encouraging. But we’ll see.

In the afternoon, wanting a snack, I got a chance to try another of my Christmas gifts, the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Caramel Candy, that my son-in-law Lowell got for me at iBurn.

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion peppers were acknowledged as the hottest pepper in the world until recently when it was surpassed by the Carolina Reaper.

While both the Scorpion and the Reaper look pretty much the same, with an average rating of 1.2 million Scoville units, the Scorpion is about 60 times hotter than a Habanero, while the Reaper is about 80 times hotter. I found it funny that the Carolina Reaper was developed in South Carolina by Ed Currie, owner of the Pucker Butt Pepper Co, the perfect name for a hot pepper company.

As far as the hotness of the candy, it was hotter than the Mango Habanero sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings, but not quite as hot as their Blazin’ sauce.

All in all, very good.

January 11, 2016

The Siren Call . . .

Jan and I were back walking this morning, since she was feeling back to normal after her migraine travails. And even though we’d been sidelined for a couple of days, we did bump our distance up to 1.52 miles.

By adding a couple of loops and swirls along the way, that gave us the additional distance without really modifying our basic route. We’ll probably hold at this distance until we’re back at Lake Conroe after next Sunday.

Since we didn’t bump into anyone we knew, we were able to keep a good, steady pace at 27:38 min/mile. Not bad for old folks.

We did however split up the walk like we did the other day, by doing the top loop, about a mile, and then stopping for our coffee and breakfast bread. Then about 30 minutes later we completed the bottom loop. It was a perfect day for the walk, with a partly sunny sky and 50°, and couldn’t be much better.

Jan and I headed up to La Grange about 3:30 this afternoon, planning on having a light dinner at Sonic, and then a trip to Wal-Mart..But as we came up SR71, we were lured by the siren call of the local Whataburger. It was almost like the truck was steering itself. And we just ate the Columbus Whataburger a few days ago.

But while the last visit we stayed with our tried-and-true burgers, this time we went off in a different direction. Jan had been wanting to try their Buffalo Ranch Chicken Strip Sandwich.

When she was almost done, I asked her how it was, and she said, “Good.” So I then ask, “Just Good, or Have Again Good?” She took another bite and said, “Have Again Good.” So there you have it, Jan’s Seal of Approval.

For my part I went with a repeat meal for me. one that I last had on the gate, their Apple and Cranberry Salad.

Topped with their really good, spicy Honey-Pepper Vinaigrette, it was a great meal. Of course I also had a large order of fries with it, just to be sure I was eating a well-balanced meal.

And with our last visit to the Whataburger in Columbus, there was absolutely no problem with my order. So beware of the Carthage Whataburger, I guess. Or just get it plain.

When I talked about the Bath & Body Works Touch Free SmartSoap Automatic Hand Soap Dispenser a few days ago,

Several blog readers mentioned that they had refilled different models of these soap dispensers, but I’m not sure how it would work with these cartridges.

There is a small hole, but you’d probably have to use a hypodermic or something like it, to put soap back in the cartridge.

Another reader mentioned that he had pried the lid off and refilled it that way, but I’m not sure how that would work. Right now it looks like that prying the lid off would break it.  So I’ll wait to see about doing that after the cartridge is empty.

One thing I did notice is that, although these soap cartridges are being sold online for about $15, according to the barcode price label, the retail cost is only $8.00. So that makes it not quite so important, at least to my bank account.

And besides, hacking the circuit would be a large part of the fun. I mentioned that I was going to try to modify the mechanism so that it doesn’t put out as much soap. Since I figure that it might be difficult to change the amount of time that soap is pumped out, I going to see if I change the circuit so that it only runs when my hand is in front of the sensor.

But I’ll have to wait until the first cartridge is empty before I explore further.

January 11, 2017

The One Day At A Time Gate. . .

About 2:30 this afternoon, I got a text from Todd, our SiteWatch supervisor, wanting to know if we had plans this afternoon. I told him it sounded like I do now.

So same gate, same time. I told him that they made a TV show about this gate a while back. It was called One Day At A Time.

At least I got the call a little earlier today. As far as tomorrow, who knows? I just take it On . . . well, you know.

So far it looks like I’ve solved the program with my dashcam. I first noticed it a few weeks ago when we were almost sideswiped on a day trip to San Antonio. Later when I checked the camera I found that it had stopped recording about 5 minutes before the incident.

Looking over the video files, I noticed other gaps where it started and stopped. And this got me thinking about how recently the dashcam screen would come on at random times and after a few minutes go back off.

Wondering if this might have anything to do with my problem, on my next drive I noted the time the display came back on and then went off again. And checking later confirmed my suspicions. The video files stopped at the time the display came on and resumed when it went off. So that’s what’s happening, but what’s causing it?

My next step was to email the company’s Tech Support, and after laying out the symptoms, mentioned that I was using a SanDisk memory card. The return email said that SOME cameras have trouble with SOME SanDisk cards and to maybe try another brand. So I did.

And now after about a week and a half, the problem has not returned. But the card itself seems to be fine and works perfectly as a standard SD in my computer. Plus I have SanDisk cards in my camera, my phone, and my tablet, all with no problems. So who knows?

As I mentioned, we’ll be leaving this year’s gate-guarding stint on February 15th, when we’ll head back to the Colorado River Thousand Trails for two weeks while we get our medical stuff taken care of for this year. Then it’s on to the Lake Conroe TT for a week, and then back to Colorado River for a few days before we head out for Tucson and the Escapade Rally.

So today I once again fought my way through the Thousand Trails’ website and made the prerequisite reservations. And as usual, every time I finished making a reservation and then booking it, I got an error message telling me that there was a problem (at least it wasn’t blue, or green) and my reservation could not be completed.

But, also as usual, when I would go to Current Reservations and check, it would show that the reservation was made, and I would also get an email confirming it.

Earlier this evening we had a Sun Coast fuel (diesel) tank truck come up to the gate looking for pad X29 where a new drill rig was going up. Told him that we were a frack and not a drill site, and I hadn’t heard of a pad X29 around here. Then I ask to see his directions.

The directions are printed on a long strip much like a Wal-Mart receipt, and have a pad name and the directions to get there, as well as a contact number for any problems. And as it turned out, he had followed the directions perfectly. They led him right to us. But we weren’t where he was supposed to be. So I suggested he call his contact number to see if they could straighten him out.

Well, his ‘contact’ number turned out to be some lady’s house who was very irate that she had been getting calls at all hours of the day and night for the last two days, asking for directions.

He said “She told me where to go, all right. But I don’t think I want to take a tanker full of fuel there.”

January 11, 2018

Seen Better Days . . .

I was really nice to just get up this morning and not really have anything that we really needed to do.

I did want to take the big awning down but it was overcast and looking like rain when I got up, and it was supposed to rain all day, so I wasn’t too hopeful.

I called my client to let them know that I would be in the office tomorrow since Jan’s lithotripsy has been moved to next Wednesday. Then I called the hospital to double-check our arrival time for that. Originally we were told to arrive at 9:30 for the 11:30 procedure. But now that the procedure is scheduled for 12:30, I wanted to be sure that our arrival time would be pushed back to 10:30, and it was.

Even though it was still overcast, when the rain hadn’t showed up by 2, I got ready to go outside and tackle the awning. But before I could get out the door the hard rain swept through.

But looking at the Rainy Days app, I saw that the rain was a long, thin line sweeping through so I still thought I might make it. And by 3pm I was outside and ready to go.

This one has seen better days. It got soaked in drilling fluid in 2014 when we were across the road from the drill rig and they blew a seal and covered the rig in sticky oil. I tried everything I could to get the stains out, but no luck.

And when the then tiny hole appeared I tried to patch it with awning tape, but it wouldn’t stick. In fact nothing I tried would stick. So that leaves us here.

I locked the pliers to the end of the spring, removed the screw, and unwound the spring, counting the turns.

On the left end I just let the spring unwind free, leaving me with this.

Then after removing the screw from the upper frame, I was able to slide the frame piece and the fabric off.

Finally I uncrimped the frame, slid the fabric loose, and I was done.

It only took about  30 minutes. I’ll try to drop it off at Sundowners tomorrow or Saturday.

About 4pm we headed down to the Victory Lakes area to have dinner at Jason’s Deli, one of our favorite soup and sandwich places. But this time it was Soup and Salad.

Jan had a cup of her favorite Broccoli Cheese Soup AND got a bowl of it to go for tomorrow’s lunch while I’m at work.

I got a bowl of my usual Southwest Chicken Chili, my all-time favorite.

Really good. Unfortunately I forgot to bring in my Volcanic Pepper Flakes to spice it up a little.

For the salad part, we both got the Nutty Mixed-Up Salad,

with grilled chicken breast, greens, grapes, cranberries, feta cheese, raisins, nuts, apples, and pumpkin seeds.

Really delicious and we both had some to take home.

There’s a Social Security Office in the same area as Jason’s and I had hoped to stop by and find out why my 2018 check amounts don’t make sense, but we ran out of time and they were closed. Maybe next time.

When we got to Jason’s, the sun was out and the sky was blue. But by the time we left about 45 minutes later, the sky was dark gray and heavy raindrops were starting. So our stop at the nearby HEB for a few things was postponed.

Although our high today was 70° our low tonight is looking at 33. And the front coming in presages 40/50 degree days and 30/40 degree nights for the next week or so. Our favorite temps.

Brandi, Lowell and Landon are all settled into their rent house for the next year while they’re looking for a new place to buy. The last we heard they close on the old house on the 22nd. But in our experience, that’s always kind of fluid. On one of our buys, we had 3  different appointments before one stuck.

Brand did send over this pic of Landon and his best buddy, Baxter. Too Cute!

Back to work tomorrow.

January 11, 2019

Maybe, Just Maybe . . . This Time.

After two failed Auto-Migrations to a new server in the last two days, I feel more confident than at any time in the last two+ weeks that the problem is fixed.

Maybe.

I finally found a Godaddy tech who took charge and manually moved my blog over to a new server. After first checking to be sure that the new server didn’t have the same problem.

It took a couple of hours, and as of right now some photos are still migrating over. But it all should be in place in the next few hours.

So if the blog’s still up tomorrow evening, with no outages during the day, then I’ll be back in the blog business tomorrow night.

But as I always say, we’ll see how it goes.

January 11, 2020

OK, I’m Confused . . .

We had our usual great time at the New Alvin Opry last night, catching up with old friends, and seeing some really good performers for the first time.

And of course, we always start an Alvin Opry visit with dinner at long-time favorite, Monterey’s Little Mexico Restaurant. We had been eating at the one in Dickinson for over 20 years, but it was flooded out in Hurricane Harvey in 2017 and it’s never reopened, though they keep saying they will. So we have to make-do with the one in Alvin whenever we’re up this way.

Jan, as usual, got her fav Fajita Beef Stuffed Avocado.

while I got the same Chicken Tortilla Soup that I’ve getting for 20+ years. Yes, it’s that good.

Though the Opry show didn’t start until 7pm, we got there when the doors opened at 6, since unless you have a large group with a reserved table, it’s the best way to get a good seat.

I had planned to get some photos, but when I got there I found that the battery was dead in my Panasonic Lumix camera, so no pics this time.

I talked to Cummins yesterday, trying to get some more info on replacing the oil filter adapter head again on our rig, and I had two questions for them

First off, should I use any kind of sealer or coating on the gasket? Last time they told me to use some Permatex Ultra Seal Black, which is what I did. But this time they said no sealer. Make up your mind.

And when I pulled the adapter head originally, I didn’t see any trace of any. So no sealer this time.

I also wanted to talk about the torque setting on the 4 bolts that hold the head in place. The docs say 212 in-lbs., which is a little over 17.6 ft.-lbs. And last time, I had no trouble tightening the bolts down with just a little effort.

However, when I first took the bolts off, I had to use a cheater piper on the end of my ratchet to even break them loose and unscrew them. So I was asking about possibly tightening them down a little more.

And while they wouldn’t come right out and give me a value, they did seem to think it would be OK to bump it up a bit.

I did a test run this afternoon to see if I could get under the rig to access the filter without raising the rig up on the levelers, and it looks like it’s doable.

So that’s my tomorrow afternoon.

Ok, I’m Confused. (no snickering)

A couple of times a week, Jan and I have some whipped cream with our morning coffee, and of course, we have to share it with Miss Karma. In fact she’s very insistent about it.

For a while now we have been using the Great Value (WalMart’s brand) Sugar-Free version, like this.

But the other day they were out of this, so I was looking at some of the other selections.  (What the heck is Fat-Free Whipped Cream anyway? Isn’t that kind of contradiction of terms?)

So I picked up a can of the GV Regular Whipped Cream, like this.

And when I compared them, I was confused to find that the Sugar-Free version had 5 more calories per 2 Tbsp. than the regular one.

OK, so you take the sugar out and replace it with Sucralose (Splenda) and the calories go UP?

How exactly does that work?

January 11, 2022

Box-Adjacent . . .

For lunch we got Pho Barr’d once again, but with something a little different this time.

Instead of our usual Grilled Pork Spring Rolls for an appetizer,

we got a Grilled Pork Banh Mi, which is a Vietnamese sandwich on a French baguette with Grilled Pork, House Special Mayo, Cucumbers, Pickled Carrots, Jalapenos, and Cilantro.

Very good, so it’s going to be hard to decide between them next time.

While we were there we asked about the progress on the new Pho Barr down in our area. And as I had suspected, the holdup seems to be getting the necessary inspections. We heard the same thing from Theresa, the owner of our favorite Cowboy Coffee. She said it took forever to get the city and county inspectors to come out, sometimes just sitting and waiting for weeks. They seem to work on their schedule, not the citizens.

Your tax dollars at work.

Next up was a haircut, which turned out to be a little shorter than I had planned. But it will grow back. Maybe.

Finishing up was a stop at Kroger’s for some things that our son Chris wanted. There is no Kroger’s in their area and there are some things that they carry that Chris and Linda really like.

Unlike pretty much every cat we’ve ever had, Karma has never been a ‘box’ cat. She did look in one once, but that was about it.

However the other day she did get box-adjacent. She came over and, after checking things out, laid down on the open lid.

And she must have liked it, since she came back a couple of more times.

Maybe she’ll end up being a box cat after all.

January 11, 2023

Absolutely Hilarious!

Tonight we saw Jeff Dunham’s ‘Still Not Canceled’ show up in Houston at the NRG Arena. And it was Absolutely Hilarious.

Toward the end the guy to my right was laughing so hard I thought he was having an asthma attack. Or maybe he was, but he was still having trouble catching his breath.

But we didn’t get home until after 11, so more tomorrow.

But before I go. I didn’t discover until this afternoon that an entire section of the Titanic or Olympic post disappeared between when I wrote it and when I posted it.

So I’ll straighten that out as well.

Just know that Nobody Was Supposed To Die!

January 11, 2024

Plate-Sized . . .

Lunch today was at Kelley’s Country Cooking once again, and it was as delicious as usual. And both of us went with something different.

Jan got a short stack of their Blueberry Pancakes. She also got an order of Bacon that didn’t fit in the photo.

And the Blueberries are all buried inside the pancakes.

Not just a Short Stack, but also a Wide Stack. That’s a full-size plate.

And plate-sized food seems to be a theme here at Kelley’s, with their Texas Chicken Fried Steak.

I got one of their Daily Specials, the Grilled Pork Ribeye, along with 3 sides, Mashed Potatoes, Fried Okra, and Red Beans & Rice. All for $12.99.

And even better, I brought half home for tomorrow night. So $6.50 per meal.

Cheap, Delicious, and Big Servings. It doesn’t get much better than that.

And Jan had half of her Pancakes and Bacon to bring home too.

And even better, we got to check in with long-time friend Staci, whom we’ve known since her days at our favorite Denny’s.

Nice.

I mentioned a few weeks back that I discovered that our RV water pump was not working.

The park water was off for a few hours, and when I went to use the pump it was DOA. Now it had probably been a couple of years since we’ve used it, so maybe it just felt neglected.

I checked the 15A fuse under the bed, as well as checked that I had power there and it was all fine.

I kept meaning to get outside to check things out kind of fell off the map. Until now.

That’s because this coming Monday and Tuesday we’re looking at temps in the low 20’s. So I’ll want to shut off the shore water and be able to use the rig water and pump. So I’ll go out Saturday morning and take a look at things in the water bay.

There is another fuse out there to check, but in case it’s actually the water pump, I went ahead and ordered a new one from Amazon in case I need it.

Shurflo RV Water Pump

If I don’t, I’ll send it back. It should be here tomorrow.

We’ll see.

Finishing up, we were greatly saddened to find out this morning that long-time friend Donna Huffer had died yesterday.

She and Robert Parker have been friends of ours since our early days of RV’ing.

She will be missed.