Five Bags Full . . .
A lot of Houstonian’s are still without power and the finger-pointing has begun.
And some of it is kind of funny.
And even the graffiti around town is on CenterPoint’s case.
And it seems that they’ve been lagging on tree maintenance, especially since downed trees have caused most of the outage problems.
Entergy spent $32.1 million dollars in vegetation maintenance, or
$62.76 per customer.
Texas New Mexico Power spent $8.1 million or $30.40 per customer.
CenterPoint spent $46.5 million, or $16.84 per customer.
AEP Texas spent $11.4 million, or $10.34 per customer.
And there have been a lot of stories online about repair crews who came in from other states just sitting in parking lots for the last few days because the higher-ups are fighting about who’s going to pay for hotels, food, etc.
Or nobody’s told them where to go to fix things.
And because of this, a lot of people are calling for the firing/ouster of CenterPoint’s CEO, Jason Wells. After all, he makes about $7 million a year.
Personally, I think he should fired/ousted because of his bad judgement.
Anybody who would wear that jacket out in public shouldn’t be allowed to run a major corporation.
Since the Internet still wasn’t up at the office, I didn’t go in today, but Jan and I did go down to the rig to check things out, bring in an Amazon delivery, and empty the soon-to-rotting contents of the refrigerator/freezer.
Well, probably not rotting directly since everything had started cooling back down when the power came back on yesterday morning. But since both sides showed 50° when the power came back on, and it had been that way for a couple of days, probably not something that you’d want to eat.
We made an HEB stop on the way to pick up some more cat food to drop off at Jennifer’s since Karma’s staying a little longer than we had planned.
Finally getting to the rig, we found both A/C running and the place nice and cool. A big change from when we left here Tuesday evening. While Jan gathered up some things she wanted to bring back with her to Brandi’s, I grabbed a bunch of garbage bags and started emptying the fridge/freezer, ending up with this.
Five bags full, a lot of it stuff we just bought on Sunday before the storm.
Sigh!
Before we left the rig, I called in an order to King Food to take back to Brandi’s for dinner tonight.
Yumm!
Thought for the Day:
Harlequin Romance; Version “2024”
He grasped me firmly, but gently, just above my elbow, and guided me into a room, ‘his’ room. Then he quietly shut the door and we were alone. He approached me soundlessly, from behind, and spoke in a low, reassuring voice close to my ear,
“Just relax.”
Without warning, he reached down, and I felt his strong, calloused hands start at my ankles, gently probing, and moving upward along my calves, slowly but steadily.
My breath caught in my throat. I knew I should be afraid, but somehow I didn’t care. His touch was so experienced, so sure.
When his hands moved up onto my thighs, I gave a slight shudder, and partly closed my eyes. My pulse was pounding. I felt his knowing fingers caress my abdomen, my ribcage. Then, as he cupped my firm, full breasts in his hands, I inhaled sharply.
Probing, searching, knowing what he wanted, he brought his hands to my shoulders, slid them down my tingling spine and into my panties.
Although I knew nothing about this man, I felt oddly trusting and expectant. This is a man, I thought, a man used to taking charge. A man not used to taking ‘No’ for an answer. A man who would tell me what he wanted.
A man who would look into my soul and say .. . .
“Okay, ma’am, you can board your flight now.”
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2009 – Baltimore and Buggies
2010 – Old Homes and Old Times
2011 – Shakey’s and Tomato Street
2012 – A New Rig
2015 – Old Cowboys And Big Sodas
2021 – WYSIWYG
2022 – It’s Bikini Week At Twin Peaks
And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™
July 12, 2009
Baltimore and Buggies…
We left Lake Fairfax County Park in Reston, VA about 10 am, heading north for Pennsylvania. Kinzers, PA to be exact.
And things were going fine until we hit Baltimore. Actually, I would like to hit Baltimore.
It deserves to be punished. Twice.
Because that’s how many times we were forced to drive thru DOWNTOWN Baltimore. Yes. I said DOWNTOWN. In a 63-foot-long vehicle!
We were heading up I-95 coming into Baltimore and approaching the Fort McHenry tunnel when we found out we weren’t allowed in the tunnel because we have propane on board. They consider it a HazMat problem.
Anyway, we were dumped off the Interstate at the edge of downtown Baltimore, and left on our own.
No signs telling us of alternate routes, nothing. And the only way we could go was straight into Baltimore. DOWNTOWN Baltimore!
Finally, we saw a sign directing trucks to I-95. And we took it.
Big mistake.
We ended up back on the Interstate just one exit down from where we got off before. And had to get off again.
Suddenly we were heading right back into Baltimore just like before. On the same street.
I found a place to pull over and plotted a new course on my GPS mapping program thru town, around the tunnel, and out on US 30 back to I-95.
And it would have worked great, except for two things.
The Baltimore Orioles were playing and a lot of streets were blocked off because of the game. Streets I needed to drive on.
And the other streets I wanted to drive on all seem to be under construction.
But after wandering around for over an hour, we finally made it out of beautiful, downtown Baltimore.
Soon we were in Pennsylvania, motoring through Amish country. And there were Amish buggies everywhere. We had to be very careful going over the hills.
Finally, we were less than a mile from our RV park and at an intersection a sign said “Low Clearance Ahead”.
No height mentioned
And then less than a half mile from the park we come to the Low Clearance, a railroad underpass with a sign that “Height: 12 feet 0 inches”
And we’re 12 feet 6 inches.
I can drop about 6 inches by dumping the airbag suspension, but you can’t always trust these signs down to the inch. Sometimes what will happen is that the street will repaved multiple times under the underpass, raising the level of the street, shortening the height, and making the signs wrong.
So we didn’t chance it.
But we had to unhook the toad, so I could turn around in the small parking area where we had stopped in front of the underpass. About a mile down the road we found an overpass instead of an underpass.
At last, a few minutes later, we were pulling into the park.
It had been a very long day.
And I still hate Baltimore!
July 12, 2010
Old Homes and Old Times…
After a relaxing morning, we headed out about 1 pm to check out Montgomery, and how it had changed in the last 32 years or so since we lived here.
We left in December 1978 when we moved to Houston when I went to work for NASA. We moved here from Birmingham in December 1974 when I went to work as a Broadcast Engineer at WCOV Ch. 20 and Jan had a job at Jackson Hospital.
We first went by Jackson Hospital so Jan could look up old co-workers, including Kathy Wilkes, who we were planning to get together with for dinner tonight.
Leaving the hospital, we drove over to our first place in Montgomery, these apartments on Burbank Dr. We lived in the bottom floor unit just to the left of the entranceway.
They still look very nice, although when we lived there they were out in a big open field. Now there’s so much around them, they were hard to find.
After a year we moved into this house on Matterhorn St. It still looks very good, too.
Nearby was Chris’ Elementary School, and it still looks very nice, too.
A few months later, we bought our first home, here on Brookwood Dr. A little run down, but not bad after 32 years.
Montgomery has changed so much that we never really got our bearings here. Thank goodness for the GPS. Otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to find anything.
Our trip down memory lane done, we headed back toward the rig, stopping off at Walmart for the usual stuff, and the Post Office to mail a letter.
Then it was back to the rig for an hour or so, before heading up to Prattville, about 20 miles away to meet Kathy and her husband Whalen for supper.
They said the Longhorn Steak House was good and, boy, were they right. Not only were the steaks great, but so was the conversation. We spent almost two hours talking over old times. Here’s Kathy and Whalen.
On the way home we stopped off at a Books-A-Million to look for some books and magazines.
Then it was home for the night.
July 12, 2011
Shakey’s and Tomato Street
After a long day’s drive yesterday, we both slept late this morning, with Jan getting up a little before 10, and me about 15 minutes later.
And since it was close to lunch, we just had coffee before Jan heated up the leftovers from last night’s great Mexican meal at Rancho Alegre in Newport. The tortilla soup was even better today than last night. It certainly aged well.
Then about 1:30 we made the 30-mile trip into Spokane for some errands. Our first stop was Home Depot where I wanted to some more wire and some new wire splices to finish up my transfer switch bypass fix.
I used these Split Bolt Splices the first time but found they are a real pain in the rear working in close quarters like I am under the bed.
But this time I found these Reducer Splices that will be much easier to work with when I try to finish this up tomorrow. Then I will be able to use the generator again when needed.
Leaving Home Depot our next stop was the SuperCuts right down the street so Jan could get her hair done, while I spent the time reading on the Kindle in the car.
Then it was off to the nearby Wal-Mart for supplies. If Wal-Mart’s parking lots had full hookups, it would probably be easier to just stay there full-time.
By then it was a little after 4 pm so we decided to have dinner at a nearby Shakey’s Pizza. The last time we ate at one was last year when we were staying at the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds in Lancaster, CA, and we were looking forward to trying it again.
But unlike the one in Lancaster, this one only has their buffet during lunchtime, so we decided to come back another time. But I did get some great photos of these neat old cars. They were setting up for a car show in the parking lot and these 4 were the first ones there.
Leaving Shakey’s, our next stop was Tomato Street a couple of miles down the road. We had passed it on our way through town yesterday, and had planned to eat there before we left. We had last eaten at the one in Coeur d’Alene, ID, and had really enjoyed it. As it turns out there are only two restaurants in this small chain, and now we’ve eaten at both of them.
And as last time, the food was great. I had the Baked Spaghetti and Jan had the Chicken Parmigiana, and then we split a delicious Bread Pudding for dessert. The servings were so large we had plenty to take home for later, so lunch will be really good tomorrow.
July 12, 2012
Hi Ho, Hi Ho . . .
It’s back to work we go.
Well, as I posted on Monday, a knock at the door put us to work on our new gate. It seemed kind of early to us. They didn’t even have the derrick up yet. But I guess that’s why they pay us the big bucks. LOL
Like our gate-before-last, we’re just a few hundred feet from the rig. It is convenient for dropping off the logs at the rig office, but it is noisy. The big chillers make a loud roaring sound very much like the roar of the water at Niagara Falls.
Last time we were almost a mile and a half from the rig, and couldn’t even really see it through the trees. We kind of do miss the peace and quiet.
This is what it looks like from our RV.
This is our 3rd gate with this drill rig, and should be our last, since we’ll be leaving sometime around the 20th of August to start heading north to Celina OH.
One nice thing about moving with a rig is that you don’t have to learn a whole new group of people. The drill rig has the same core of 15-20 people all the time. Actually I should say 30-40 since half are off at any one time.
The Marathon guys work 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off, and the H&P guys (the crew) work 1 week on and 1 week off. Marathon owns the lease and runs things. They hire H&P to furnish the drill rig and the crew to do the actual drilling.
The other thing different about this new site is the rain. This past Tuesday and Wednesday we had a lot of it. Inches of it. And we discovered a problem with our pad.
Even though it should be nice and dry under our canopy, we were slogging around in about 2 inches of mud. The problem is that the pad has a definite slope from behind us, under the rig, under the canopy, and out onto the road. I guess the idea was for drainage, and it does drain, pretty much right under our feet.
But that’s not the worst part. The roadway and the pad are all made from caliche, a form of calcium carbonate. When it’s dry, it hardens like concrete. That’s why it’s used for the roads and pads. But when it gets wet, it becomes, as my grandpa used to say “slick as snot”, and very sticky.
The slick part makes it kind of hard to walk on and the sticky part means it clumps to your shoes until you’re just walking around on about 2 inches of mud caked to your boots. But the real problem comes if you let the stuff dry on your shoes.
It turns to concrete and you pretty much have to chip it off, unless you soak them in water until it softens again, and then scrape it off. I finally ended up just wearing my Crocs since they were the easiest to wash off and clean.
One nice thing was that yesterday (Wednesday) we got another steak dinner for each of us dropped off at our rig. But since we had already had dinner, we just saved it for tonight.
Now that things have settled down I’m going to try and catch up on the blog comments and emails. I’m a few days behind, but I’ll get to them.
July 12, 2013
It’s A Four’fer . . .
Isn’t that what you call two two’fers?
I’m not sure if anything is going on here this weekend, but a lot more rigs came in today. We’ve actually got next-door neighbors.
As I mentioned the other day, we’re parked right up against the fence. And right on the other side of the fence are railroad tracks. I think it must be a law somewhere that every RV park comes with a set of railroad tracks.
And a lot of the online reviews complained about the noise from passing trains, but I don’t think we’ve really heard any trains, especially at night. Of course, that may be because we use a White Noise Generator like this one.
It pretty much masks out any outside noise. We’ve used one for years, even before we started RV’ing. And they work.
After a quiet morning with coffee and conversation, we headed out about 1:45 for another movie two’fer, in this case, an all-animated two’fer.
First up was Despicable Me 2. We didn’t see the first one, but now we want to. DM2 was hilarious, laugh-out-loud funny. Like other well-written animation stories, it’s written on two levels, one for the kids, and one for the adults that are there with them. Or us old f**ts, anyway. There is a scene at the very end of the movie with the Minions (the little yellow guys) that probably no one under the age of 30 will recognize.
About 15 minutes after DM2 finished up, we were sitting in the Monster University theater. In this case we had seen the first one, Monsters Inc., years ago and really liked it. But MU wasn’t quite as good, or maybe because we saw it right after DM2.
By the time we got out of MU it was after 6:30 so we headed back over to Famous Dave’s BBQ for one last visit. It was a few minutes after 7pm when we got there and the lobby was full of people waiting for tables. They told us it would be about 20 minutes, but it turned out to be only about 5, because most of the others were large groups, and we got one of their tables for two.
Jan got a Brisket Sandwich with Fries this time but I got my usual Ribs and Sausage.
That way I’ll have plenty of leftovers for later. And even better, the last time we were here, we won a free Bread Pudding Dessert for our next visit, so we got it to go.
Coming home we dropped off some mail at the PO and then got back to the rig about 8:30. Another nice day.
Tomorrow we’ve got a 180 mile run to the Freeborn Fairgrounds in Albert Lea, MN, where we’ll be for one night, before heading for the Wisconsin Dells on Sunday. Jan plans on doing some more driving tomorrow, and I’m hoping I can talk her into starting out here at the fairgrounds, rather than taking over after we’re on the road.
We’ll see.
July 12, 2014
It Was Only Flat On One Side . . .
About 1:15 Jan and I headed out for a Wal-Mart run, but getting out to the truck we found this waiting for us. Or rather me, since I had to change it.
I had the jack out, the tire off, and the spare dropped down in about 15 minutes. Then I spent the next 15 minutes trying to get the spare mounted on the front hub. On this truck the hub doesn’t stick out any further than the lug bolts, so you’ve got nothing to hang the wheel on so you can rotate it into position. And when I tried to use a crowbar to lift it into position, the crowbar kept sinking into the ground instead of lifting the wheel.
But finally I had the wheel in place and tightened down, and we were really to go in about 30 minutes. I didn’t rehang the flat tire because I’ve got a plug kit and I’m going to see if I can fix it myself. I didn’t see any obvious punctures, but I’ll air it up and see where the problem it.
After we got back from Wal-Mart, I completed the install of my LED fluorescent upgrade by finishing up the wiring.
The 3 additional sets I ordered should be in on Tuesday, so I’ll do the other lights then.
July 12, 2015
Cowboys and Sodas . . .
About 9:30am, Jan and I left our rig parked on City Lake and headed over to our co-in-law’s, Sonja and Lendel’s house. They were taking us into OKC to do some tourist stuff.
Our first stop was for lunch at the world-famous Cattleman’s Steakhouse in Oklahoma City’s historic Stockyard City.
In business for over 100 years, it has hosted presidents, movie stars, sports figures, and singers. And in 1945 its ownership changed hands based on a bet whether a guy could roll a ‘hard’ six (two 3’s). He did, and was suddenly in the restaurant business.
And like you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can’t judge this place by its entrance. Inside it’s much bigger than it looks, and is well-appointed with rich woods and leathers, and really good steaks. Well, at least for some of us.
Lendel and I both had the 10oz Luncheon Ribeye above, while Sonja had the Luncheon Strip Steak. Jan of course, being at a world-famous steakhouse, had the Turkey & Dressing. That’s my Sweetie!
Even my cellphone camera was stunned by this. I tried 3 times to take a picture of her meal, and every time I pressed the shutter button, the camera app crashed and dropped back to the home screen.
Then after a really great lunch, Sonja next drove us into downtown OKC to visit the location of the Oklahoma City Bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
It’s hard to describe the feelings that run through you as you visit this memorial. It’s stark and bleak, yet comforting in its serenity. 168 people, including 19 children, died here over 20 years ago, but it doesn’t seem that long ago. And visiting here really brought back memories of watching the rescue efforts on TV, always hoping for more survivors to be found.
The building right next door houses a museum with the story of each person killed in the blast, telling their life history.
The chairs, one for each of the 168 victims, are arranged in rows, with each row representing the floor of the building that the person was on.
The shorter chairs represent the 19 children killed.
This is the memorial from the other end.
This is one of two memorial walls, covered in mementos and other keepsakes.
One final fact is that although the official death count from the bombing was 168 people, it was probably 169. The reason being, that after identifying all the victims, they had a leftover leg, which could not be matched to anyone else. Strange.
Our next stop was the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Housed in a beautiful building complex on the outskirts of OKC, the first thing that greets your eye as you enter the foyer is James Earle Fraser’s world-famous sculpture, “The End of the Trail.”
It’s hard to believe that this piece of art was almost lost to the world when It was abandoned in the mud because World War I’s need for metals prevented it from being cast in bronze at the time of its creation.
The second thing that greeted us was our docent, Carol Lee. A friend of Sonja’s, Carol took us under her wing and showed us around the museum.
But besides being our docent, I found out that Carol is also a blog reader, a real surprise. And a small world.
The museum has room after room of beautiful Western art, which we really enjoyed, but can’t show you. Because of copyright reasons, no photography is allowed. So you’ll just have to go see it for yourself.
Two of the most interesting exhibits were about Western ‘hardware’, I.e., guns and barbed wire. They had examples of the earliest Colt revolvers, both barrel-loaded and breech-loaded, covering everything from cap and ball to percussion cap and cartridge loads. They even had examples of revolving cylinder shotguns, something I’d never seen before.
But the exhibit that even caught Jan’s eye, was the one on the evolution of barbed wire and how it changed the West. It’s hard to believe how many different ways you can manufacture wire with sharp things sticking out of it. But there was row after row of them.
The longest single run of barbed wire was over 200 miles, and the famous XIT ranch in the Texas panhandle had over 6000 miles of barbed wire fencing encircling its 3 million acres.
Wrapping up at the museum, we followed Carol over to another place we wanted to visit, the famous Pops, on old Route 66.
You know you’re getting close when you come over a hill and see the 66-foot-tall soda bottle.
And it’s even more impressive at night with its kaleidoscope of colors rippling up and down the bottle.
Pops has over 600 varieties of soda, including 80 types of root beer and 50 types of cream soda. And yes, you can even get a Coke.
Pops also has excellent food, really tasty sandwiches, and other stuff. But everyone agreed that the highlight of the meal was the Root Beer Bread Pudding that we all shared.
So good in fact, that Jan asked for the recipe and was told it was a secret and they did not give it out.
But Google knows all, and here’s the recipe from an OKC newspaper. Of course, you might want to cut it down a bit.
POPS Root Beer Bread Pudding
Yields 1 full pan at 24 orders (6×4)
5 loaves Texas toast (cubed)
10 eggs
5 T vanilla extract
1 2/3 cup root beer syrup
13 cups heavy cream
2 ½ cups granulated sugar
3 ¼ cups raisins
3 cups brown sugar (for crust)
Spray the inside of a deep hotel pan (12×20 inches) with pan spray. Mix the eggs, vanilla, root beer syrup, cream, sugar, and raisins in a large bowl. Add the cubed Texas toast and mix just until incorporated. Transfer to the hotel pan. Top with the brown sugar and bake at 350 degrees for 35 minutes
Glaze for Bread Pudding: yields 3 ¼ quarts
6 ounces butter
1 ½ cups brown sugar
9 cups heavy cream
1 cup root beer syrup
Melt butter and brown sugar together in a saucepan. Whisk until smooth and simmering. Add the cream and root beer syrup and allow to reduce by a third (15 minutes).
Tomorrow, more fun stuff to do.
July 12, 2016
Not Enough Time . . .
Seen on a license plate.
IML8IML8
What make and color car is it?
A week or so ago I happened to notice that the clock on my Galaxy Tab 4 was off by about 5 minutes. Now this was strange since I had set the Tab to automatically sync the time when I got it a couple of years ago. So maybe that setting had been turned off somehow.
So I went into Settings – General – Date and Time.
And well, it wasn’t just turned off. It was now completely gone.
I know it was there originally, or was I just imagining it?
A Googling told me I was still sane (well, I wasn’t any worse, anyway) and that the Auto Time Sync had disappeared sometime in a past update. And nobody knew why.
Now on phones, when you set ‘Automatic Date and Time’ to On, it uses the inherent time signal that is part of your phone’s connection to the cell system. But of course that won’t work on a WiFi-only tablet.
But there are other options. A very, very accurate time signal is available through your GPS connection, and you could also use a program that accesses one of the many online atomic clock sources like ‘time.windows.com’ or ‘time.nist.gov’ like your PC does.
And there are now a number of apps that will fix this. Kind of.
I looked at a number of these apps, and ClockSync seems to be one of the best. But unless your tablet is ‘rooted’ (if you don’t know what ‘rooted’ means, your tablet is almost certainly not ‘rooted’), ClockSync will still not update your device’s time automatically. But it can make it easier to manually sync it yourself.
Check it out.
A number of you have sent me info on the magnets needed for my magnetic shade project. I had already checked Home Deport and they don’t have any that are strong enough. In fact, with the ones I have now, if you can pull them apart with your bare fingers, they’re not strong enough.
Several others had the right ones, but much more expensive than before. And the ones that are vinyl-coated won’t work either.
Reader John Cox turned me on to BangGood.com which looks like it might be a good source, and I’m going to check it out.
July 12, 2017
A Nice End to A Nice Day . . .
I spent the morning trying to finish up some last-minute stuff on the new website I’m doing for a client.
But part of that time was spent reminding the client he’d already approved some things and can’t go back and start changing them without incurring some extra costs.
Jan and I headed out for dinner and shopping a little after 4pm. As we were leaving the park I got this photo of where the new RV sites are going up here at the Lake Conroe TT.
Supposedly it’s going to have 67 sites with concrete roads and concrete pads, and should be finished sometime in August. We’ll see.
The area is just to the right of the guard shack as you come down the hill entering the park.
We had planned to eat at the Asian BBQ & Grill, but as we got there we remembered that they close at 3pm after lunch and don’t reopen for dinner until 5. So since we didn’t want to wait for 30-40 minutes, we drove back across the Interstate and went to Jason’s Deli, another place we really like.
Jan had her usual 1/4 Turkey Muffuletta with a cup of Broccoli Cheese Soup,
while I got the Small Rueben and a bowl of their Southwest Chicken Chili.
The Rueben didn’t turn out to be all that small. Wonder how big the regular one is?
Our next stop was to get gas at the Sam’s Club station for $1.93. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Then it was into Sam’s for a couple of things, and to pick up our prescriptions. I got a text Monday evening telling us they were ready, and that the total for the 4 would be $351.56.
Now I might have been upset at this, but I knew what had happened. Because they’d done it before. They hadn’t priced them under my Sam’s Club Business Plus Card.
Most people know about Wal-Mart’s $4/$10 prescription discount list, but it seems most people don’t know about Sam’s Club’s Extra Value Prescription List.
And the Sam’s list has a lot of drugs on it that Wal-Mart doesn’t. And more expensive ones, at that.
And when I got to the Pharmacy, that turned out to be the case. My two prescriptions were priced correctly, but they hadn’t Jan’s correctly. And it made a BIG difference.
One of Jan’s was $45 and the other one, Anastrozole, that she takes as a breast cancer preventative, was priced at $270.56. But when the clerk ran it under our Business Plus Card, they dropped down to $24 each.
There are two things different about the Sam’s Club list. Just like the Wal-Mart one, it’s $4 for a 30 day supply. But unlike Wal-Mart’s, it’s not $10 for 90 days worth, but $12. Still not bad.
The other thing different is that it costs a little extra. The regular Sam’s Club membership is $69 per year, but the Business Plus membership is $99 a year. So $30 more.
But I saved over 8 times that $30, just one prescription today. You can go to the Sam’s Club website and download a copy of their list. Then look it over and see what you can save.
You might be surprised.
You can upgrade your regular card at any time by going to the Customer Service desk and paying the prorated upgrade charge.
Check it out.
Next it was on to the Wal-Mart right next door for a bunch of stuff and then home with a quick stop at the Culver’s across the street for a couple of sundaes.
Nice end to a nice day.
July 12, 2018
Not Enough Eye Bleach . . .
We were out the door about 9:20 this morning, heading for Jan’s 10am doctor appointment up in Friendswood, unaware that I would later see something that can not be unseen, and also be run down by a shopping cart
But before we left the Santa Fe area, we stopped at the local Valero (soon to be Circle K) for a fill-up. It’s hard to believe how much gas prices dropped while we were gone for our 2-1/2 week vacation.
When we left the price was pushing $3 a gallon, but today it was $2.55, a nice drop. Don’t know if it can all be attributed to the fact that the 4th of July has passed, but I’ll take it, anyway.
Jan’s appointment was just a blood draw, to check up on her thyroid . . . or lack thereof. She hasn’t had one since the 90’s so she takes levothyroxine. But they like to keep an eye on her dosage, thus the tests.
Finished with that we drove over to Webster to have breakfast at our favorite The Egg and I, a doctor appointment tradition of ours. We’d have breakfast here more often, but it seems like doctor appointments are pretty much the only reason we’re up in Webster this early in the day. And that’s why we usually end up at the Denny’s down here when we’re having breakfast for dinner.
Jan likes their Build Your Own Omelet, with Onions, Mushrooms, and Tomatoes, Bacon, Fruit, and an English Muffin.
For me, it doesn’t really matter where we have breakfast, Denny’s, IHOP, First Watch, or The Egg and I, I always get my usual Two Eggs Over Easy, Bacon, Fruit, and an English Muffin. It’s a nice rut, what can I say?
After our delicious breakfast, I made a pit stop and walked in on two full moons. A gentleman was at the urinal and apparently decided to just drop his shorts and underwear down around his ankles while he took care of business. I think the most apt term is ‘pasty white’.
I need eye bleach.
Our next stop was at WalMart to drop off a couple of prescriptions that we’ll pick up later this afternoon. Then leaving the store, I was ambushed by reality again.
A lady? I guess in a BIG hurry, wheeled her cart around the corner and ran me down as I was coming out the EXIT, and rocked me back on my heels. In fact I suspect if I hadn’t been walking forward, she might have knocked me down.
Looking at her with the cart pretty much embedded in my gut, I said, “I’m sorry. I thought this was the exit.” Then I looked up at the sign overhead and said, “I was right. This is the EXIT.” When she continued to just stare at me, I pushed her and her cart back about a foot and headed out to the truck.
I’m not sure who, or what I ticked off, but I’m going to be really careful the rest of the day.
Our next stop was a couple of miles away at our house, so we could start making a list of things we want to fix, change, or update throughout the place.
I was happy to see that ‘Juan’ had done a really nice job on the yard, so I’ll see if I can get him to do it every two weeks or so.
“Por favor, corte mi patio cada dos semanas.”
Overall the place looks pretty good, especially for a house that will turn 40 next July, with just a couple of major things and some other small ones that need to be done.
One thing that sets our place off from the others like it in the subdivision are the French doors across the back of the living room.
Originally this wall consisted of a solid wooden door located where the far right door is now, and a 4’ x 6’ window on the middle left. Then, probably 20 years ago or so, Chris and I knocked out the entire wall, installed a 4” x 4” pillar in the center, and added the two sets of French doors. It really opened up the space.
Another plus is that our place has never been flooded, not during Hurricane Alicia in 1983, Ike in 2008, or Harvey last year. Everything stayed high and dry.
Finishing up, with a lot of ideas and measurements to consider, we headed back over to WalMart (no cart injuries this time) for our prescriptions, and a few other things, and then next door to the Sam’s Club for a few more scripts.
July 12, 2019
My Punishment Continues . . .
I mentioned yesterday that I had gone into work on my off-day. Jennifer, our office manager has been out with the flu since noon last Friday, and the orders, both call-in and website, were piling up.
So Dr. Heimlich and I jumped in and started processing them. He would pull the products and I was packing them for shipment. Normally, unless it’s an International shipment, we used either USPS or UPS, and have online apps to do this.
If they’ve ordered from us before, they’re in the system’s address book, so I just have to select the recipient, box up the order, put it on the scale, print the label, slap it on the box, and toss it in the outbox.
Probably 80% of our orders will fit in a Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box which simplifies everything. But we do have bigger, heavier orders that have to go via UPS.
We had pumped out about 25 orders when Dr. Heimlich called Jennifer to ask a question about where a certain product was stocked. But when he told her that we were doing orders, she was certain that we were doing it wrong, and to stop until she came back today. So we stopped.
Don’t mess with Jennifer.
But when she didn’t show up this morning we called and found out that she had been hospitalized and didn’t know when she’d be back. So It’s back to doing orders.
And I’ll be doing them tomorrow, and probably Sunday too, still trying to catch up.
No rest for the wicked, or weary, or both.
I used my new TENS last night, and it worked great. Much stronger. But the 9 volt battery that was supposed to last about 20 hours, lasted about 3 hours before the output weakened.
Glad I’ve got the 9 volt eliminator ordered.
For dinner tonight it was our regular Friday night visit at Los Ramirez Mexican. Delicious as always.
July 12, 2020
Don’t Forget To Feed The . . .
I went outside this afternoon to run another check on the truck’s A/C system. Based on yesterday’s results I figured the Freon level would have slowly leaked back down to zero. And it had.
So I’ve got medium-sized leak, and not a big one. And rather than try and go any further myself, I’ll take it over to Mike’s Auto Repair, the place that replaced my water pump last June.
I could probably do it, but I have to buy some equipment I no longer have. Like a Freon leak detector, a full set of gauges, etc., and then there’s finding the time to do it.
So I’ll try to set up a car rental in the next couple of days and then get it in the shop.
This morning when I got up Jan said that during the night she had thought of something that she wanted to do this morning, but now couldn’t remember what it was.
I told her that what she should do is keep a pencil and paper by the bed, and if she thought of something during the night, just write it down. But when she said that was a great idea, I warned her that it might not always work out.
When she asked why, I told her that back in college I woke up in the middle of the night with a great idea for something, and wrote it down. But when I looked at the paper the next morning, it said,
“Don’t forget to feed the Unicorns.”
This was a surprise to me because I didn’t even know it WAS my job to FEED the Unicorns.
July 12, 2021
WYSIWYG
Once again Jan and I sat outside this morning with our coffee, the nicest morning in a while. First off, it wasn’t raining, a big change from recent days. But even better, the temp was in the low 80’s, with low humidity, and enough breeze to keep our chimes gently, well, chiming.
Jan and I dropped off the Jeep at our mechanic’s this afternoon, but he had already left for the day, so I left a note and the key in his key drop box and I’ll call him in the morning.
Just to be sure that we wouldn’t have any trouble using the truck for a few days, I drove it into work today just to be sure. And except for a little smoke, there were no problems.
Recently I was reading an online article about different word processors and problems with them, and I thought to myself, they have no idea what word processor problems are.
In fact when started, they weren’t even called ‘word processors’, but text editors. And all you could do was just type text on the screen, pretty much like on a typewriter. And you had to hit the Enter/Return key at the end of every line.
And if you typed a paragraph of text and then discovered a typo three lines back up, you couldn’t just click on the incorrect word and correct it using your mouse. In fact there was no such thing as a mouse anyway back then.
And the only way you could back up to correct the error was to backspace back through all the text to get to it, then correct it, and then retype the text all over again. Fun!
And if you wanted to change the type in any way, you had to insert the codes directly into the text. So if you wanted to print ‘this text is in bold’ in bold, you had to do it like <b>this text is in bold</b>.
The <b> turned on the bold function, and everything afterward was in bold until you turned it off with </b>. And you did italics the same way with <I> </I>.
What’s kind of interesting is that these inline control codes carried over into a computer language called HTML which is what websites were programmed in,
And actually printing something was just as archaic, and expensive. I bought my first printer, a Base2 dot matrix model, in 1979, and at $995, it was the first one under $1000. And that was in 1979 dollars too. And that was so long ago in computer years that I haven’t been able to even find a picture of it online, just a couple of ad references.
Like most dot matrix printers of that era, it used a 5 x 7 dot matrix printer head, which meant the font looked like this.
Note that the characters underlined in red have no descenders. That’s the part of a lowercase letter that hangs down below the line. So because of the printhead limitations, everything had to be above the baseline, so they just squished it all on top.
But I figured out a way to make the printer print the descenders using the graphic mode, and it was the very first article I ever had published in a computer magazine.
But finally the first actual word processors appeared, with a very early one being called Electric Pencil appearing in the 1976 timeframe. But EP was eclipsed in just a few years by WordStar, which put word processing on the map. And WordStar was probably the first word processor to bear the acronym WYSIWYG or What You See is What You Get.
This meant that what saw on the screen looked exactly like what would print out. Bold letters, Italics, photos, etc., it all looked exactly the same.
But WordStar in turn was left in the dust by WordPerfect which dominated the field for years. But WordPerfect never really made the transition to Windows after a severely bug-ridden version for Windows was released.
Then Microsoft Word took over the top position and holds it to this day.
July 12, 2022
It’s Bikini Week . . .
This afternoon was my first Physical Therapy session/consultation, so we were on the road about noon for my 1pm appointment. It only took us about 30 minutes to get there, the same Houston Physician’s Hospital where I had my Cervical Spine Fusion last November. But I figured there would be first-visit paperwork, and there was. But I was called in right on time.
Melissa, my therapist, spent the first 40 minutes or so going over my history, asking me questions about my symptoms, and testing the strength of my legs and back in different directions.
Then the last 20 minutes of the hour were spent going over 4 exercises that I’ll be doing every day for about 15 minutes. Exercises to strengthen my legs and back. And it seems that not only will this help me now, but also later if I decide to do the lumbar fusion at some point. Supposedly it will speed my recovery.
We’ll see.
Then it was on down the road a bit for lunch.
And it seems that, to my enjoyment, it’s Bikini Week at Twin Peaks.
A while back, our regular server, Sylvia, had given us her phone number so we could text her before a visit to be sure she was working that day. And when I did that this morning, she said she would be.
But when we got there a little after 2pm, and ask for a table in Sylvia’s area, we were told she had just gone off shift.
Bummer.
But we took a table in her area anyway.
And about 30 seconds later, Sylvia showed up, and after checking with the server who would have been ours, she came back on duty and took care of us.
Jan got her usual Chipotle Chicken with Double Broccoli,
while I changed from my usual half-BLT and Soup, to the Soup and Salad, along with a side of Broccoli and another of their Green Beans.
Just as delicious as always.
And of course, I can’t forget the obligatory photo of Sylvia in her bikini motif.
Saying our goodbyes, we headed home, making a quick stop at the nearby Costco for gas.
And at $3.89 a gallon, it’s the cheapest we’ve seen in a good while.
July 12, 2023
First It Was The Nigerians . . .
And Now It’s The Canadians?
I’m sure you’ve heard about the Nigerian Prince Email Scam, where they’re going to cut you in on a multi-million dollar inheritance if you’ll just help them get the money out of the country by advancing them some small amount of money for necessary taxes, fees, bribes, etc. And then they’ll need a little more, and then a little more. . .
Well, today I got a fax from a purported Canadian law firm promising to add my name to an insurance policy for a guy who died from CoVid two years ago. The policy will pay out $11,550,300, and Edward White, the lawyer in the fax, promises to split it with me, after he gives 10% of it to charity (what a nice guy!). Leaving us with $5,197,635 each.
And the reason he’s willing to split it with me? Well, it seems we both have the same last name.
Lucky me.
I’m rich.
This is Royal Caribbean’s new “Icon Of The Seas”, the largest cruise ship in the world.
Scheduled to set sail in January 2024, it’s five times bigger than the Titanic. And with over 5600 passengers, 19 decks, more than 40 bars, and restaurants, it’s a world unto itself.
But from the look of it, that’s not a cruise ship. That’s an amusement park.
As Jan says, “Why would you ever want to leave the ship?”
Power To The People . . .
Well, Us People, anyway.
When I woke up this morning a little after 7am, I checked my phone and found still no power at the rig. But like yesterday, the office’s Internet was still up and running and I could log into the computers there.
I say No Power at the rig, but actually I could have power, but no Internet, since without the Internet working I can’t see the devices that tell me the power is back on. But I’m hoping it all comes back up at the same time
And when I checked again about 9, lo and behold, we had power at the rig!
But now no power at the office. Bummer! But I figured it would come back up in a bit.
Apparently I figured wrong.
At about 10am Jennifer called and said that Dr. Heimlich had checked and the office next door had Internet. Also said that there were workmen there replacing the roof and wondered if they might have cut some wires?
I told them that if that’s what happened then it would be Comcast wiring, since we didn’t have anything in the attic. But when they called Comcast they said it was out all over the area and had been since last night, and probably would be until the weekend.
So all we can do is wait, I guess.
About 10:15 Jan and I headed up to Conroe to meet up with Debi and Ed Hurlburt at the Saltgrass Steakhouse there. Traveling along on I-45, we were amazed to see all the restaurants, businesses, etc. that were closed and dark with no power. Especially since we saw no evidence of any kind of wind damage.
So why was the power out all the way up here?
We were up at the Conroe Thousand Trails when Hurricane Harvey hit here in August 2017 as a Category 4. And if we hadn’t been watching on the news, we wouldn’t have none there was a hurricane. But Beryl was just barely a Cat 1, so why all the power outages with no wind damage?
But back to lunch, the food was delicious as always, and the company was even better. And we’re already booked for next month at Vernon’s Kuntry Katfish that has reopened after being flooded back in early May.
As it stands right now, I’m going down to Clear Lake to the office tomorrow and work if the Internet is up, and then go by the rig. I want to clean out the fridge and the freezer of all the bad food, which has now been re-refrigerated and frozen. Also need to drop off some more cat food for Karma who’s still at Jennifer’s.
Jan will just stay up here since she is supposed to start dog-sitting on Saturday while Brandi, et. al are away on vacation next week. This was all planned before Beryl arrived, so it worked out nicely.
Then I’ll come back up here and stay until Sunday when I’ll go back down and stay at the rig next week while Jan’s up here for the week. Then I’ll come back and get her next weekend.
Thought for the Day:
Some things are better left unsaid. Which I generally realize right after I’ve said them.
Your Retro-Preview Highlights –
2009 – Mt. Vernon, George Washington, but no cherry tree…
2011 – Little Diamonds and Big Plates
2014 – RV Tips From Ed Hurlburt
2017 – Greg Makes Cookies
2020 – The Fix That Didn’t
And Now On To today’s Retro-Blogs.™
July 11, 2009
Mt. Vernon, George Washington, but no cherry tree…
This is our last full day here in the Washington DC area, so we started it with breakfast for one last time at the Silver Diner.
After that we drove down to Mt Vernon to visit George Washington’s home on the Potomac River.
We got there about 11 am and the place was packed. They were already into overflow parking.
After watching a very good film at the Welcome Center on George Washington in the French and Indian War, and the Revolutionary War, we headed up to the house itself.
And ran into a very long line.
They said it would take about 55 minutes to get into the house.
They lied. It took over 90 minutes to get in.
But in the meantime, we got to see some very old trees lining the path that were planted by George Washington.
They even have these old trees protected with lightning rods to keep them safe.
Finally we got within sight of the actual house itself.
After touring the very large house (over 9000 square feet in three floors) we got to sit on the wide front porch and look out on the same river view that George Washington used to enjoy.
One interesting tidbit we learned from one of the guides during the house tour was that George and Martha must have presented a somewhat odd appearance as a couple.
George was about 6′ 3″ and Martha was 4′ 11″. Talk about ‘stooping to conquer”.
And from the big smile on her face, Jan enjoys it too.
After leaving Mount Vernon, we drove over to Alexandria, VA to eat at the Chart House restaurant on the Potomac River.
After a very good meal, we headed back to the coach to get ready to leave tomorrow morning.
July 11, 2010
Old Times and Old Friends…
We left the Moose Lodge in Jackson about 9:00 am, first heading down the road about 8 miles to Pearl, MS to have the breakfast buffet at Shoney’s.
I always enjoy the looks on people’s faces as 63 feet of RV and toad come trundling thru the parking lot along with the cars. When we are thinking of stopping at a restaurant on the road like this, I usually use Google Maps and Google Street View to check out the area for parking opportunities. So far we’ve always been able to make it work. Here we are in Rawlins, WY.
Except for some rough roads in MS, the trip was pretty smooth and easy. We arrived at the Capital City RV Park in Montgomery AL about 2:45 pm and got set up.
About 4 pm we called our friends Fred and Susan Springall to set up a time to get together for dinner tonight
Fred and I worked together at Storer Cable TV here in Montgomery from Aug 1977 to December 1978 when I moved to Houston to go to work for NASA. Although we kept in touch with Christmas cards and such, this is the first time we’ve seen each other in almost 32 years. We’ve got a lot to catch up on.
We went over to their house about 5 pm, and after talking over old times with Fred and his wife Susan, we drove over to a nearby Country’s BBQ for a great dinner of Alabama BBQ. Jan had a Sliced Pork Plate, and I had a Conglomeration Platter, a conglomeration of Ribs, Sliced Pork, and Sliced Beef.
MMM! MMM! Good!
After dinner we drove back over to the RV park to give Fred and Susan a tour of our rig. We put out some chairs and spent more time talking. About 8:30 pm we said our goodnights, and they headed home. We’ll probably get together one more time before we leave.
That normally would have been it for the night, except for one more thing.
About 11:30 pm we lost shore power for about a minute and then it came right back on. And went off again, and again.
The bad thing was that the 2nd time it went off I was saving this blog post, and since the write to the Hard Drive was interrupted, I lost everything. That’s why I’m late posting today, or last night, actually.
Turns out it was my Electrical Management System dropping the shore power because the voltage was too high, over 132 volts!
After some investigation, at 1:30 in the morning, I found I could use the 20 amp service OK. It was only about 125 volts, and that was enough to run 1 A/C.
This morning the voltage was back down to 122 so I switched back to 50 amp. I can only figure that’s it’s jacked to take the A/C load in the heat of the day, And then at night the voltage spikes high.
If you don’t have an EMS, you would never see the problem, but it really shortens the life of anything electrical plugged into it.
We’ll see what happens tonight.
July 11, 2011
Little Diamonds and Big Plates . . .
We headed out at 9:45 for the Little Diamond Thousand Trails Park about 245 miles away. It’s located in Newport, WA, about 40 miles north of Spokane.
And hopefully our visit to this park will include satellite TV, since Jan’s starting to go into withdrawal.
But we only got about 10 miles down the road on US-2 before we came to a screeching halt. Well, maybe not screeching, but my brakes did squeal a bit.
Turns out there was a rock slide blocking one lane so we had to wait a while. But at least we had some nice scenery to look at while we waited.
Then right after we crossed the Columbia River at Wenatchee, it was like a whole different country, with lush valleys full of vineyards, apple orchards, and apricot trees. Talk about a change in scenery.
And then it happened again. Right after we left Douglas, we climbed up on a high plateau where the road ran straight as an arrow due east, bracketed by green and yellow wheat fields as far as the eye could see.
Then around Coulee City, it happened again with canyons and hills like in New Mexico.
And then back to rolling hills and farms again.
Right outside of Spokane, we got on I-90 for about 3 miles before exiting north right through downtown Spokane, At that point we were 40 miles from our park.
Driving through the city wasn’t bad, and about an hour later we were pulling into our park right outside of Newport, WA, which is only about 10 miles from the Idaho border.
It turns out this is a NACO park, and also a KOA park. Kinda different. We got checked in, parked the rig and unhooked the toad, and then drove around looking for a good site.
We found a nice one in a new area that had just opened. I don’t think anyone had ever stayed here before. We got parked and set up about 4:30, and then came the real test.
Satellite TV.
But we had a clear view of the sky without too many trees so it worked perfectly. Jan said she was ‘giddy’.
About 5:30 we drove into Newport about 10 miles east to have dinner at Rancho Alegre, the one and only Mexican restaurant in town, on the recommendation of the lady who checked us in.
And boy was she right. The food was delicious and the portions were huge.
I got a cup of tortilla soup as an appetizer, and it could have been the whole meal. I ended up taking almost all of it home.
We got back home a little after 7 pm and settled in for the season premiere of some of our favorite shows: Rizzoli & Isles, Warehouse 13, and Eureka.
Life is good!
July 11, 2013
The Heat is On . . .
I spent the morning figuring out where we’re going when we leave here on Saturday. And now I know where we’re going to be for the next week.
Our first stop will be in Albert Lea, MN, where I found a nice, cheap site at the Freeborn County Fairgrounds there. We’ll only be there the one night, and then it’s on to the Wisconsin Dells where we’ll stay for 5 nights at the K and L Campground, a Passport America park.
After that, it gets a little squishy. We may spend a few days on the peninsular at Sturgeon Bay, before we head up to Sault Sainte Marie for a while, or we may just go straight from the Dells to the UP. We’ll figure it out next week.
About 1pm Jan and I headed a few miles down the road to see another movie. We were hoping to make it another two’fer like yesterday, but couldn’t make the times and theaters work out. So we decided to see “The Heat” with Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy of TV’s ‘Mike and Molly”. Today’s movie was at a different theater than yesterday’s movies. And because of that, our tickets cost us over twice as much.
Yesterday’s movies were at an older mall and the theater was basically a ‘Dollar’ movie, and at $3.00 a ticket, a lot cheaper than the $6.25 we paid today. And unlike a lot of other second-tier theaters, it was very nice inside, and more importantly, you’re feet don’t stick to the floor.
The mall housing yesterday’s theater was kind of interesting too. Although it still has a few retail stores besides the 7 screen theater, about 10 years ago they started converting it to a professional office building housing doctors, lawyers, real estate agents, financial companies, etc. And it must be pretty successful, because they’re adding on to it.
We both really enjoyed ‘The Heat’ since we liked Sandra Bullock for a long time, and Melissa McCarthy’s Mike and Molly is one of our favorite TV shows. Though be forewarned that the movie is rated ‘R’, and it’s definitely for the language, not sex.
By the time the movie was over it was after 4pm so we headed next door to have dinner at Ruby Tuesday. It’s been a while since we’ve eaten at one, but we saw their new ads on TV, and we’ve always liked their big salad bar. Jan had the Blackened Tilapia and I had the Grilled Chicken and Shrimp, both very good. And they had something new.
They now have a competitor for Red Lobster’s Cheddar Bay Biscuits. They’re called Maple Bacon Garlic Cheese Biscuits and they’re even better than Red Lobster’s. Worth going back just for them.
Tomorrow we may try to take in another movie or two. We’ll see.
July 11, 2014
RV Tips . . .
Thanks to my friend Ed Hurlburt of the RV Tips section of Facebook, I found out about these really neat LED lights. Ed has had good luck using them to replace the small T8 fluorescents in his RV, so I thought I’d give them a try.
They are actually 12v LED Running Lights for autos and trucks. Ed originally found them on eBay starting here:
So if you want to buy a set for your RV, you can get them for a little over $21.00.
But if you want to buy them to use as running lights for your vehicle, you can get them here for a little under $10.00. Wink, wink.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291161780706?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649
But I decided to check out Amazon and found them here.
Super Bright COB White Auto 12v LED Running Light
When I ordered a set on Tuesday, they had 6 left. When I went to order more today, they had 3 left. So I ordered all 3 since that’s how many more sets I needed.
When I ordered the set on Tuesday, they were $7.99 with Prime Free Shipping. But when I went to order today, they had jumped to $8.99. But now the Amazon ad says they’re out of stock from this supplier.
But I found a bunch of other Amazon sources, some slightly more expensive, and some with Prime Shipping.
More Amazon Sources for LED Running lights
Using the set I got in yesterday, I thought I’d just do a trial installation to see how they worked. I started by removing the diffuser cover and the two F15T8 bulbs.
Next, to get to the 12v wiring, I squeezed the center metal cover together until it was released from the clips.
The circuit board is the ballast that takes the 12v and steps it up to the voltage needed for the F15T8 bulb. The black and white wires are the 12 volts coming into the fixture. Be careful though fooling around with these lights. Although there is only 12v coming to the fixture, the ballast puts out several hundred volts when you first turn it on, and then settles down to about 100 volts while the light is on.
I clipped the 12v wires so I could feed it into the new LED strips
The LED lights have a peel-off adhesive strip on the back so I stuck them to the top of the fixture.
I next put the center ballast cover back in place to protect the ballast, and also to help reflect the light out.
Here’s what the bathroom looks like without the light.
And here’s what it looks like turned on.
Compared to the F15T8 bulbs I’m replacing, the LED lights put out anywhere from 50% more light to more than double, at about 1/2 the wattage.
For example, a Cool White F15T8 bulb puts about 825 lumens, consuming about 15 watts. And a Daylight F15T8 bulb puts out about 700 lumens for the same 15 watts.
Although the specs on the LED lights call them Cool White, they’re not. Cool White bulbs have a color temperature of about 4000K. The LED’s have a color temperature of 6000K, making it a Daylight light source.
Also the LED lights put out anywhere from 1000 lumens to 1500 lumens, depending on the voltage range. ( I.e. 12.6 volts to 13.6) using about 6 – 10 watts.
And they’re waterproof, for that additional light in the shower.
I’ll probably go in tomorrow and finish up the wiring. I’ll let you know how they work out.
A little before 5pm we all headed out for one more try to have dinner at the Sherman House Restaurant. And this time we were successful.
But a little disappointed.
One of the things we’ve enjoyed so much in the past was their excellent German dishes. But now, no Sauerbraten, no Jaeger Schnitzel, and no Red Cabbage. Bummer.
But we all ended up enjoying our meals anyway. So it was all good.
Jan had the Fried Chicken while I had the Apple Roasted Pork Tenderloin.
We both really enjoyed what we had, and the service was very good too. We’ll go back.
July 11, 2015
I Like ‘Em . . .
Jan and I pulled out of the Amarillo Ranch RV Park right on time at 9am. We were heading for Pauls Valley, OK, about 60 miles south of Oklahoma City. We’re spending a few days here visiting our son-in-law Lowell’s parents Sonja and Lendel Morrison.
Right before I disconnected shore power, I started up the genset, and about 45 seconds later, the transfer switch connected the genset to the coach and we had power for the A/C’s’. And with the temps forecast to be in the 90’s the whole way, we would certainly need the A/C’s. And as it turns out, despite our recent problems with the system, the genset ran the whole 6 hours with no problems, and we stayed nice and cool the entire way. Since the genset never stopped, we didn’t have a problem with the transfer switch not working without shore power.
The 315 mile trip went very smoothly, except for a 10 mile stretch near Norman where they had things down to one lane, a very narrow lane, because they had the barrels way over into our lane. This meant that I was partially driving on the seam between the roadway and the shoulder, and the new pavement kept grabbing the rig and pulling it more onto the shoulder. But finally we were into OKC and heading south on I-35.
We pulled into the Pauls Valley City Lake RV Park about 3pm, and got parked and set up. A really nice park, it’s not well advertised and pretty much underutilized by RV’ers. It’s mostly just the local boaters on the weekend.
But where can you get a view like this at $13 a night for 50 amp FHU. Very nice.
About 4:30 we made the 15 minute trip over Sonja and Lendel’s. Then after catching up, we drove over to Tio’s Mexican Restaurant for dinner. Turns out that Tio’s is well-known in the area, and the 30 minute wait showed it.
Their chips are made in-house and are probably the best ones I’ve ever eaten. And the rest of the meal followed right behind. Really great Mexican.
Tomorrow Sonja and Lendel are taking us on a tour of OKC, and we’re really looking forward to it.
I now have about 1000 miles on my new Ironman I-601 rig tires, and I like ‘em. They do feel a little different, not bad, or anything. But they do respond differently to road surfaces. They do feel very firm and don’t seem to be affected by bumps as much as my last set.
There was something that nagged me for a while until I figured it out. The subliminally faint sound that the tread pattern makes on the pavement is different from my previous Sumitomo’s. It’s slightly higher in pitch, and has a different beat. But I realized today that it didn’t bother me anymore.
July 11, 2016
It’s Coming Back?
There is a sign along I-10 coming into Katy that shows some oil industry stats, like the price of a barrel of oil and the price of 1MMBtu of natural gas. But maybe the most important stat is the rig count. And boy, did it jump recently.
About three weeks ago when we drove by, the count was 408 (+4). The (+4) means 4 more rigs since last week. And that +4 was the first time I’d seen the count go up in a good while.
But today the count was 440 (+9). WOW! Maybe that explains why we seem to be seeing a lot more trucks passing us on the Interstate carrying casing and drill pipe.
Hopefully, this bodes well for our next Gate Guarding adventure in six weeks or so.
Regular blog readers know that Little’s V Vietnamese Bistro in Katy is one of our all-time favorite places, but our meal tonight was something extra.
Every July, Thuyen, the owner, has a benefit dinner to raise money to build schools for the poor children in the rural mountain regions of Vietnam. But since we’re not normally here in July this is the first one we’ve had a chance to attend.
The menu consisted of 5-course prix fixe (“fixed price”), complete with a bottle of wine.
![LittleV Menu_thumb[2]](https://ourrvadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/LittleV-Menu_thumb2.png "LittleV Menu_thumb[2]")
The first course was a Grilled Pork Meatball appetizer with mushrooms and herbs.
Very flavorful and spicy too. In fact ‘a little spicy’ seemed to be the default for the evening.
Next was a Julienned Green Mango salad with homemade dressing and topped off with shrimp.
Next up was the soup course with a spicy Beef Brisket Phở with Rice Vermicelli Noodles, really, really good.
The next course was your choice of entrees, either Marinated and Grilled Catfish with Vermicelli and Vegetables, or Lemongrass Chicken with Rice.
Jan had the Catfish while I had the Chicken, which we shared with each other. Again, really good.
Wrapping the final course was a Chilled Coconut Milk Tapioca with Fruit, just the perfect sweetness to finish off a really great meal.
One thing about the meal is that, although the portions seemed kind of small, by the time the meal was over, you were stuffed.
A really great meal for a great charity.
It seems like one day on Facebook, someone is either singing the praises of Good Sam ERS (Emergency Road Service), or damning them to perdition. And then the next day it’s Coach-Net’s turn in the ring.
For the last nine years, we used both, switching back and forth every now and then. Over the years, we’ve been towed five times, twice with the rig in Canada, twice with the rig in the US, and once with the truck. And we’ve been unstuck twice.
Shut up!
But we’ve always gotten good service from both. mostly recently when we were towed into Prescott, AZ after our blow-out last May.
One thing every tow driver has told me is that in almost every area there is a central pool of tow companies, and everyone, Good Sam’s, Coach-Net, AAA, State Farm, GEICO, Allstate, etc., all pull from that same pool, so the company you use really doesn’t make a difference. So if Good Sam can’t get you a tow truck for 4 hours, probably neither can Coach-Net.
Now I’ve heard some people said that one road service company gets preference with the tow drivers because they pay quicker. Funny thing about this is, it always seems to be a different company that pays quicker, never the same one.
So you roll the dice, it seems.
July 11, 2017
Coooookkkkiieeesss . . .
We’ve in a nice site here at Lake Conroe Thousand Trails, high up on the hill so the water runs off with no problems.
And with all the rain we had yesterday, that was a good thing.
Our home here at G13.
Heard some good news for the oil patch today. Halliburton announced that they’re really ramping up frack crew hiring to over 100 a month. And they’ve increased their frack equipment by over 30% the last couple of months.
As with this week’s jump of 12 new drilling rigs, it bodes well for us gate guards.
I spent most of the day putting the finishing touches on the first run of the knife website, and then passed it on to the client for his take on it. Hopefully, I’ll have it wrapped up by the weekend. Maybe.
For dinner tonight we finished off the last of Jan’s delicious Hamburger Vegetable Soup from yesterday.
And earlier in the afternoon I whipped up a variation of Magic Cookie Bars for dessert. But Jan and I can never leave a recipe alone. So we made a few modifications
We did start out with the crumbled graham crackers and butter mixture pressed into the silicone pan. Next I poured the can of Sweetened Condensed Milk over the crust and let it soak in.
But rather than using chocolate chips, I crumbled up a sleeve of Girl Scout Thin Mints over the crust. Then I sprinkled the coconut. over the pan.
Finishing up with the chopped pecan topping, it went into the oven at 350° for 25 minutes.
Although in the photo the pecans look burnt, it’s just the lighting. They’re actually perfect toasted.
And the bars were really good. The little hint of mint from the cookies adds a really nice touch.
And the fact that I left both the graham crackers and the cookies in larger pieces, meant the bars were really crunchy chewy.
Tomorrow we’ll do some shopping and pick up some prescriptions at Wal-Mart/Sam’s.
And probably dinner somewhere.
July 11, 2018
Hotspot Not . . .
Well, things are starting to come together now that we’re back in residence here at the Petticoat Junction RV Park in Santa Fe, TX
I did finally get someone to mow the grass at our house today, so that’s done for a week or so, at least. Darn stuff just keeps growing.
Readers will remember that I set up a couple of the Wyze cameras at the house before we left on our trip, but it hasn’t worked out as well as I had hoped. I left Jan’s cell phone there, plugged into a charger, to provide a WiFi hotspot for both cameras and also a remote-controlled lamp.
But I ran into a problem with the hotspot. I had set it up here at the rig for a week before we left and it worked fine, never dropping out. But a couple of days after we left on our trip, the system shut down, both cameras and the lamp. I figured the hotspot had turned off, or everything had been stolen. I was hoping for the former, not the latter.
When our son Chris came back down to pick up some last things he turned the hotspot back on and it worked . . . for a couple of days. Then it quit again.
A couple of days later, Piper came and turned it back on. And a couple of days later it quit again. Then when we got back this past Monday we turned it back on, and a day later it quit again. ???
Then our son Chris gave us a clue on what was happening. He said they’ve had a lot of short power outages at the house recently. So when that happens, the cameras and the lamp controller shut down for a while. But the phone stays on, and after a couple of minutes with nothing connected to it to the hotspot, it shuts off, supposedly to save power. And as far as I can tell from online there’s no way to fix this.
I could take my Jetpack MiFi over there and use that, but then I’d have to reconfigure the cameras and light controller to work on the MiFi, and also reconfigure all the Alexa’s, remote switches, etc., here in the rig to work off Jan’s phone. So probably not.
Tomorrow morning Jan has a doctor’s appointment for some regular every six month tests. Then after breakfast at the Egg and I, a doctor’s appointment ritual, we’ll head over to the house and start making a list of things we want to do there before we put it on the market. And of course, turn the hotspot back on.
July 11, 2019
No Good Deed . . .
Though Thursdays (and Tuesdays) are days I normally don’t go into the office, I ended up there this morning, due to a stupid offer I made yesterday afternoon right before I left.
Jennifer, our office manager, has been out with the flu since last Friday, and the orders have really been piling up, so yesterday I offered to come in today to help out.
No good deed goes unpunished, they say.
But it meant that I was there when my new TENS unit came in, though I didn’t get to play with it until I got home this evening.
After I got home about 4pm we headed out for dinner we made a return visit to Pho20 for another round of Spicy Garlic Chicken for Jan,
and a big bowl of White Meat Chicken Pho for me.
And as usual we both started out with our favorite House Crunch Salad.
Just as delicious as always.
Back home I took a look at my new TENS, and so far I really like it.. Turns out that this is actually a professional model that was only available with a prescription. And reflecting that, it’s more much adjustable. It comes in a nice hard plastic case with two sets of leads. But the big plus for me is that though it has a timer, it can also be set to run continuously.
I can adjust the intensity of course, but also the pulse width, the pulse rate, and the mode, I.e. Burst, Steady, Modulated, and Strength-Duration modes. I’m really looking forward to the Normal mode, which just a steady buzz, and not an On-Off rate.
The professional background of the unit is indicated by the fact that it’s much more powerful than my other units. With the new one, I can only turn it up to about 4 before it becomes painful. With the old one, I had to turn it up to about 9 before reaching the same pain level. In addition, it also tracks 60 sets of patent records for up to 999 treatment hours.
The only two negatives are the fact that it uses a 9 volt battery rather than being rechargeable like the other one, but the battery supposedly will last for about 20 years. But I ordered a 9 volt battery eliminator anyway.
The other problem is that fact that that the pads and leads are non-standard, meaning they want to sell you their more expensive pads. But the connectors where the leads plug into the unit ARE standard, and the old leads/pads work fine.
I may hook it up tonight just to see how it does.
July 11, 2020
The Fix That Didn’t . . .
Jan got a new shirt yesterday that she found on Facebook. It’s a really nice material and very comfortable.
Of course, one reason she likes it is because it looks a lot like our Karma.
I told Jan I could get a permanent Sharpie and fill in Karma’s Hitleresque mustache onto the shirt for her. She said No.
Jan and I tried a new place for ‘linner’ today, and it turned out to be really good. it’s called Salata and has locations in Texas, California, Georgia, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Illinois, and Florida. It’s basically like a Chipotle with salads and wraps, but with much less emphasis on the Mexican side of the menu.
Like Chipotle, you go down a cafeteria line telling the server what kind of salad mix you want, and then which of the 50+ veggie, fruit, and meat ingredients you want on it. Here’s Salata’s menu.
They also have Tomato Basil, Broccoli, and Chipotle White Bean soups, so Jan and I got a bowl of the bean version, which was really, really good too.
The only problem was that we didn’t realize how large the regular salad was. The stainless steel bowl is almost 12” across. Next time we’ll get the small one, especially if we’re also going to get soup, which we probably will since it’s so good.
And we will go back.
As far as the ‘fix’ that didn’t, yesterday morning when I headed into work, my truck AC wasn’t working. It was just blowing warm air.
Now it was working fine Thursday evening for Jan and I, so I was hoping it was just a blown fuse, or something else simple. But, alas that was not to be.
So this morning I went out to take a look at it. The fuse/relay was fine, so next I checked the 12vdc that feeds the electric clutch on the front of the A/C compressor. The voltage was good, and when I plugged the connector back in, I heard the loud ‘click’ as it pulled in, so it was OK.
I replaced this compressor about 4 years ago, just because the clutch was bad, so I was glad to hear it working.
My next step was to check the Freon level. A while back I had picked up one of these A/C Pro recharge kits on a ‘just in case’ basis.
But plugging it into the system, I was very surprised to find the gauge showing no Freon at all. Now what was surprising about this is that the clutch voltage goes through a low-pressure switch which is supposed to keep the clutch from engaging the compressor with too low a Freon level.
This is because the oil in the Freon system is what lubricates the compressor internals, so you don’t want it running without Freon/oil.
Checking out the A/C piping I saw no signs of any obvious leaking, I.e. oil, so I started adding Freon from the can. And the level gradually started coming up until it was in the middle of the green band. And now I had nice cold air coming out of the vents.
But I didn’t expect it to last, since it had obviously leaked out before. And it didn’t.
When we headed out to Salata about 4pm, the air coming out of the vents was cool, not cold. And when we were coming home it was only ‘coolish’. So I’ll have to get it in the shop next week.
July 11, 2021
New And Improved . . .
For the first time in days it was nice enough, and dry enough, to sit outside with our coffee this morning. In fact I think this is the first 24 hour period in a couple of weeks when we haven’t had heavy rains during the day. Some days it looks like our puddles have puddles.
About 1pm Jan and I headed over to the Denny’s for our Ultimate Omelets, and then it was over to HEB for some groceries. Before we left I added the last half of the can of Seafoam to the Jeep’s tank in a last-ditch effort to save a trip to the mechanic tomorrow afternoon. But, unfortunately, there was no improvement.
So as soon we got home and got the groceries put away, we headed back out, with me in the Dakota and Jan following in the Jeep. The truck was low on gas and I wanted to top it off before we drop off the Jeep at the mechanic’s tomorrow afternoon. I also added a bottle of STA-BIL Gas Treatment since the Dakota doesn’t get driven all that much anymore, so I don’t want the gas to go bad while it just sits here parked in front of the rig for weeks/months at a time.
In fact I think the last time I drove the Dakota was back in Nov. 2020 when we drove it up to Conroe to bring the Jeep back to Santa Fe after we bought it.
So tomorrow afternoon after I get home from work, we’ll take the Jeep down and drop it off at the mechanic’s and see what he can come up with.
I know you’ve all been waiting for this to come on the market, and it’s finally here. New and Improved.
Finishing up, I thought you might enjoy this.
July 11, 2022
$%#@*&% . . .
After all the problems at work Friday without digital phone system, I was looking forward to getting some other stuff done. Only to discover when I got into the office that now the credit card machines are down.
Well, they were working fine when I left Friday.
The credit card machines are also Internet-based so I started tracing back from the router and found that the power had been unplugged from the router. And plugging it back in got the machines working again.
Turns out that my client came into the office over the weekend and decided to ‘tidy’ things up with the wiring.
And while I was trying to get that problem fixed, the phone system went down. Again!
$%#@*&%
But with a little more moving stuff around, I found a bad Ethernet cable. And after I replaced it, everything was working again.
Since that was my last spare cable, I ordered 6 more 10ft ones from Amazon.
I need some new laces for one of my pair of boots, and I came across these.
Strangely, they’re actually elastic, but very strong.
You lace them up like normal and then use the lace lock to tighten them down.
I’m pretty particular about how tight my boots are laced up, so I was doubtful about these.
But they work great.
July 11, 2023
I Don’t Want To Say I Told You So . . .
But, I Told You So!
Today was just a nice hang-around the rig day. Jan read, YouTube’d, and napped, while I computered and napped.
Like I said, a really nice day.
This past April I posted this blog about the Total Eclipse coming through Texas next April 8th.
I Almost Waited Too Late . . .
And warned you about the fast-escalating prices in the Waco/Killeen area. Even back then, motel prices had started to climb.
We got a room for two nights at the Killeen Days Inn for $125/night. But the week before that same room was $85.
But now it’s gone off the charts.
Where there are 23 hotels/motels available the week before the Eclipse, there are only 4 left with rooms during that time
A room at the local Econolodge the week before looks like this.
But during the Eclipse it looks like this.
Yikes!
And don’t forget your Eclipse Glasses.
