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Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississipp’

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I mentioned in last night’s blog that this Friday’s SpaceX StarShip #7 launch had been delayed. Now it looks like the new launch date is Monday, January 13th, starting at 16:00CST.

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I got my first Social Security check for 2025 today, receiving a whole $35 extra.

Woo! Hoo!

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Today is the 210th Anniversary of Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans.

Cue The Song.

Ironically the War of 1812 was ended about two weeks earlier with the Treaty of Ghent. So on one level, the battle wouldn’t seem to mean much.

But there’s a thought in military history circles that if the British had be able to defeat Jackson and capture New Orleans, the treaty might have been out the window and the war might have continued.

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Finishing up, with my Lumbar Fusion 3-month follow-up tomorrow, I’m hoping I’ll be released from my restrictions as far as how much I can lift. I’ve got some things I wanted to do around the rig that will require me to lift more than 20#.

Here’s hoping.

Thought For The Day:

“No positive action occurs without an equal and opposite negative one.”
Newton’s little-known Law of Karma

And Now On To Today’s Retro-Blogs.™

January 8, 2011

Trojans and Tanks . . .

Today got off to a nice slow start for a change. I made coffee and we just sat around and enjoyed each other’s company, and life itself.

Our daughter Brandi called a little after 10:30 to let us know that Jan didn’t need to come and Landon-sit this afternoon. Bummer! But we’ll probably get together one way or the other tomorrow.

I left the rig about 12:45 headed over to Pearland to visit a client’s home and work on a couple of problems he’s having.

I got him straightened out on one thing but ended up bringing his wife’s computer home with me, since I wasn’t able to get it de-virifyed before I had to leave. It has a ‘susp_irp_mj_create’ trojan that I haven’t run into before so I need to do a little research.

I got back to the rig about 5pm after stopping at the Wendy’s in Dickinson for a supper of Spicy Chicken Sandwiches and Natural-Cut Fries. Hmm, hmm, good.

After that, I went out and dumped the waste tanks since Jan was worried that she wouldn’t have room to do another wash load unless I did. I had closed off the grey tank a couple of days ago because the black tank was getting full and I wanted to have plenty of flush water available

I talked to our son Chris a little after 6pm to set up everyone’s meeting for lunch tomorrow, at the Texas Tea Room again. We really like this place.

Then I made myself some coffee (Jan doesn’t usually like coffee at night) and we watched some “Two and a Half Men” reruns before it was time for “Primeval” on BBCA, one of our favorite shows. I mean time travel, dinosaurs, intrigue…what more could you ask for?

Of course, while we were watching TV I was also working on the computer I brought home. It took a couple of hours (mostly waiting for the virus programs to scan) but I finally got rid of that trojan (and several more). I’ve rescanned the machine 3 or 4 times with different programs and it keeps coming up clean, so I guess it’s fixed.

January 8, 2012

Bulbs and Buffets . . .

After our busy week, today was a take-it-easy, do-nothing day.

We did get up a little early to head out about 9:30 a few miles up TX146 to La Brisa for their great weekend breakfast buffet. They really make a mean omelet.

Then after a quick stop at Wal-Mart for a few things, including 4 F15T8 fluorescent bulbs to replace the ones in the kitchen, we were home for the day.

Getting home, I installed the 4 bulbs. These things have gotten expensive. Seems like the last time I bought some several years ago, they were around $4 a piece. Today they were $8.47 each.

$34 for light bulbs. Ouch.

Later, after Jan fell asleep on the sofa reading, I decided a nap sounded like a nice idea so I retired to the bedroom for a very pleasant two hours.

About 5pm Jan heated up our leftover King Food Chinese from the other night. Really good, as usual.

At 7pm we watched our friend Tony Booth on a Hee Haw rerun from 1973. Tony had a number of big hits in the 70’s, including “The Key’s in the Mailbox”, “Lonesome 7-7203”, and “Cinderella”, and he and his band won 4 ACM (Academy of Country Music) awards during that time period, including “Most Promising Male Vocalist” in 1971.

That was then.

This is now.

Jan says he’s “aged very nicely”, and then just smiles. I’m not sure how to take that.

I’m gonna have to keep a closer eye on that girl.

We see Tony quite often at the Alvin Opry, when he’s not touring around the country with his band.

I know tomorrow will be busy. I’m just not sure with what yet.

I’ll let you know.

January 8, 2013

And The Rains Came . . .

or BUMMER!

The rain really hit about 6am this morning and it quickly became obvious that my caulking job yesterday didn’t fix the problem. It might have reduced it some but it’s hard to really tell.

I guess I’ll have to actually get up on the roof and see if it’s really leaking in up higher and running down under the roof. But I would think that I would see some indication of that inside the rig.

One thing that may complicate things is that our big awning is mounted along there and forms a trough that runs right below the roof seam. So the water may be backing up somewhere along there.

But it’s all got to wait until the rains pass on.

Yesterday, before the rains came, we had a large attendance at Jan’s feeders.

The many wild ducks, in this case male and female Mallards are new this year. Also new, although they don’t come to the feeder, are the White Ibis, Ibises, Ibi, whatever.

Anyway, there’s a lot of them and you can see them in the background in this photo.

Here’s a closeup of one of the male Mallard ducks.

While Jan got her veggie soup started I headed out for a few errands.

My first stop was at one client’s to do some work for another. I needed to make 36 copies of a catalog DVD, and one of my other clients has a 1 to 11 duplicator that looks like this.

You put in your master DVD in the top drive, put in up to 11 blanks, push the Start button, and off it goes. If you need more than 11 copies, you can put in the master, press the Load button, and it copies the master into RAM. Then you can place a blank disc in the top drive and make 12 copies at a time, as many as you need.

Then it was on to the next client to deliver his DVD’s. Done.

Finally heading home about 4pm, I stopped off at the feed store to pick up the deer corn which had come in.

Getting home, I opened the rig door to the wonderful smell of Jan’s delicious soup. YUMMM!

January 8, 2014

‘Raylan’ is Back . . .

One of our favorite shows is “Justified” on FX, and last night was the beginning of the 5th season. Raylan Givens, a Deputy US Marshall out of Eastern Kentucky, is a character created by famed writer Elmore Leonard, and brought to life by actor Timothy Olyphant. You’re never sure what will happen next,  but you can be sure the body count will be high,

With all the cold weather around the country, especially in areas that aren’t used to the low temps, I remember the time we spent in Fairbanks, AK in 2008 and how people reacted differently to the temps.

2008 was a cold summer in Fairbanks. We had 1 day in the 80’s – 81 on the 4th of July, 12 days in the 70’s, and the rest in the 50 and 60’s. When the temps were in the 50’s, you would have some people in parkas, and some people in shorts and T-shirts. Our granddaughter Piper who visited us in July couldn’t understand why she was bundled up in a heavy coat, and people were jet-skiing on the Chena River in their bathing suits.

I told her it’s all what you’re used to. This was summer to the Alaskans and they weren’t going to miss out. Jan was an Air Force brat living in both Fairbanks and Anchorage. She said in school that they used to play outside until it got cooler than 20 below zero. It’s all what you’re used to.

As a follow-up on that idea, here’s a chart to compare people’s reaction to low temps around the country.

60° F: Arizonans shiver uncontrollably;
People in Buffalo, NY are still sunbathing.

50° F: Californians try to turn on the heat;
People in Buffalo plant gardens.

40° F: Californian’s Italian sports cars won’t start;
People in Buffalo drive with the windows down.

32° F: Distilled water freezes;
Lake Erie water gets thicker.

20° F: Floridians don coats, thermal underwear, gloves and wool hats;
People in Buffalo throw on a light jacket.

15° F: People in Buffalo have the last cookout before it gets cold.

0° F: All the people in Phoenix die.
Buffalonians close the windows.

10° below: Californians fly away to Mexico .
zero             The Girl Scouts in Buffalo are selling cookies door to door.

25° below: Hollywood disintegrates;
zero            People in Buffalo get out their winter coats.

40° below: Washington, DC runs out of hot air;
zero            People in Buffalo let the dogs sleep indoors.

100° below: Santa Claus abandons the North Pole.
zero              Buffalonians get frustrated because they can’t start the car.

460° below: All atomic motion stops (absolute zero);
zero               People in Buffalo start saying, “Cold enough for ya?”

500° below: Hell freezes over.
zero               The Bills win the Super Bowl.

January 8, 2015

Gone, Gone, Gone . . .

Well, it made it down to 25 degrees this morning, and didn’t get back above freezing until almost 11am. Since this was expected, I didn’t even hook up water when we got here yesterday. But since it’s supposed to stay in the mid-30’s at night for the next week or so, I did connect us up this afternoon

I’ve got a lot of stuff I want to do outside around the rig, but the weather is either cold or rainy, or cold AND rainy, so that’s kind of on hold. I want to get up on the roof again and get the rest of the drilling mud off, now that I know that vinegar will cut it.

And I also want to try out the new toy that I bought myself for Christmas. When we stayed with Chris and Charles Yust for a few days on their lot at the Livingston Escapees Park, I borrowed Charles’ pressure washer trying to get drill mud off. And although it didn’t help with that, I really liked the unit for washing and waxing the rig. So I bought me one.

It’s a Karcher K2.360, 1600 psi, with a built-in detergent tank and a lot of accessories. And even better it was really marked down at Wal-Mart right before Christmas

One of the other things I want to do outside is repair the AC in our truck, now that I know what’s wrong with it. It’s not like we need it right now, but with Texas weather you never can tell. I’ve seen it in the 20’s one day and in the 80’s a few days later.

Last up, thanks to our son Chris, and all his hard work, we are finally storeroomless, or the first time in 20 years. As I mentioned before, we rented a 10’ x 25’ storeroom in August of 1994 to store household furniture for a few months while we remodeled the house. And it just never went away, because it was just too convenient to stick stuff out of the way there.

But finally it’s gone,  gone, gone.

Thanks again, Chis.

January 8, 2016

A Walk in Two Parts . . .

Jan and I headed out for our walkabout 11:30, but after the top loop, about 3/4 of a mile, Jan wanted to stop for a while. Her back was bothering her from all her cleaning yesterday, so we stopped and sat outside with our coffee and breakfast bread for about 30 minutes. Then we did the bottom loop for an additional 1/2 mile for our usual total of about 1.25 miles.

So I guess tomorrow or Sunday we’ll make the jump to 1.5 miles

Later in the afternoon I took a look at my door problem. While we were on the gate, one of the wind gusts caught the door and slammed it back. After that it was much more difficult to close and lock the door.

At the time I figured that the main door hinges had been torqued or bent, but when I really got into it, I discovered that the real problem was with the screen door and its hinges, and not the main door.

When I got a closer look, I found that the top hinge was cracked and this was throwing the door out of whack.

So it looks like I’ll need to order new hinges for the screen door, since I don’t think this one can be repaired. Even though only the top one appears to be cracked, I’ll replace them both so they’ll match.

Shouldn’t be too difficult to remove the door and replace the hinges, but like a car door, it may take a little fiddling to get it aligned.

A little before 4pm, Jan and I headed up to Ellinger to meet up with a bunch of RV’ers for the Friday night BBQ Buffet. This place is a must-eat at least once during every stay here at Colorado River Thousand Trails. And this time we had 14 RV’ers, including a newbie couple that just bought their camper a week or so ago.

Starting at the back left, it’s Roy and Nancy (didn’t get their last name) Dennis and Rita Spriggs , Janice and Dave Evans, Jim & Claudia Horak, Rick & Janice Binns, my Jan, and Ed and Debi Hurlburt.

As usual when you get a bunch of RV’ers together, we did about as much talking as we did eating.  Well, maybe almost as much. Everyone talks about where they’ve been, what they’ve done, and where they’re going next. We had a great time with these old and new friends, and are looking forward to doing it again.

Getting back home, Jan and I got back into binge-watching our DVR’d TV shows, all from the time while we were on the gate. We only lack a couple of episodes of Once Upon  A Time, and then next will probably be Marvel: Agents of Shield.

Tomorrow’s up in the air, but will hopefully include celebrating our winning the $800+ Million PowerBall Lottery.

January 8, 2017

21°

Well, last night was even colder than the night before. The forecast was for 25° but here at the rig it got down to 21°

In fact when I went out to hook us back up to shore water this afternoon, I still had a couple of big chunks of ice from where the rig end of the hose had drained.

But by Tuesday the high’s supposed to by 81°. A 60 degree swing in two days, so just a typical Texas winter.

When we left for lunch about 1pm we noticed that our neighbors on the left of us were gone. They were here last night so I guess they left sometime this morning. Certainly were quiet about it, anyway.

Don’t know if they moved on, or got a gate somewhere else. The first part of December we were offered a 3 week gate in West, Texas paying $160 a day with $100 in travel money.

Only problem was that it was a 24/7 gate without a shack. Since we had dropped off all of our outside stuff, canopy, tarps, etc. at Brandi’s at Thanksgiving, so we’re really not set up for a gate like that anymore. But if it had had a shack we might have been tempted.

Since Sunday is Barth’s Turkey & Dressing/Fried Chicken Day, that was lunch for today.

Then it was on down to the HEB for gas and a car wash. But the car wash was still shut down after last night’s freeze so we’ll try again another day, probably tomorrow.

We had planned to head down to Beeville this afternoon for the 4pm showing of Passengers, but the tryptophan intervened and naps ensued. So maybe tomorrow.

In fact we’ve got Amazon orders coming in tomorrow, and we need to make a Wal-Mart run so we may lump it all together with the trip to Beeville for the movie and then dinner.

When we were at Wal-Mart a few days ago we picked up a new bed/scratching pad for Karma.

We had the original one since the Mister days, so it lasted 3 or 4 years. But it finally broke in two, cracked at the joint. It’s made from corrugated cardboard and comes with a packet of catnip to sprinkle in the little pockets.

Karma really likes it and spends a lot of time either scratching on it or just lying on it.

January 8, 2018

Pet Parade . . .

After being out all last week due to Jan’s illness it was actually good to be back at work today.

Of course I had a lot of stuff to catch up on, but the big problem was that right after I got in we found that the webserver email system had crashed completely. This means that no one gets a confirmation email for their order. Nor can we send out any emails on the company account.

I did finally get it limping back to life, but this problem has just reinforced my determination to get the Zen Cart shopping cart off this server and up on Godaddy. That way I can also set up the email there too and not have to worry about all this again.

It didn’t help things that workers were in and out of my office replacing the sheetrock ceiling that was damaged during Harvey, either.

Over the years we’ve come across a lot of RV’ers who travel with unusual pats – Ferrets, Nubian Pygmy Goats, Monkeys, Iguanas, large tortoises, a pot-belly pig, parrots and cockatoos, and even six large St. Bernard show dogs in a small camper. Watching them all come out was like watching a clown car.

And the Full-Time RV-traveling nurse I met at the hospital fits right into this. She and her husband travel with TWO ferrets and a Sugar Glider.

A Sugar Glider, like a flying squirrel, can glide from one side of the room (or coach) to the other.

But while flying squirrels are rodents, sugar gliders are actually marsupials like a kangaroo.

When I was a kid I had a pet flying squirrel that I raised from a baby. it was perfectly tame, and whenever I would walk out on the large screen-in porch where he usually stayed, he would swoop down and land on my shoulder waiting for a peanut or a piece of carrot. I could even take him outside and he never tried to get away. He would just ride around in my shirt pocket with his head poking up looking around.
I had him for 5 or 6 years until I gave him to a friend when we moved to South America.

And what was the name of my pet flying squirrel, you might ask?

Well, Rocky, of course.

January 8, 2020

Still Not Impressed . . .

We made another run at making chicken drumettes in our new Ninja Foodie Grill, and they were just as delicious as before. We really like this unit, and going to be trying some new recipes, including doing entire meals in the tray.

As I mentioned Jan had kept her old toaster oven in case she didn’t like the Ninja, or didn’t think that it would replace the oven, but I think she’s about decided it can go.

Once again, I’m not impressed.

Jan was prescribed an ointment by her dermatologist, so I thought I’d again compare GoodRx, SingleCare, and WalMart’s regular price, which in this case was $65.26.

SingleCare at WalMart was a little cheaper, at $60.97, with Kroger cheaper still, at $54.14.

But once again, GoodRx was the runaway winner, at $31.55 for WalMart, and $32.16 at Kroger.

As I said, I guess that’s what happens when you have to pay Martin Sheen and Charlie Sheen to be your spokesmen.

Earlier I had thought I might be able to crawl under the rig tomorrow and take another shot at fixing my oil leak by pulling the filter and adapter head and replacing the gasket once again. But it’s looking like a 50% chance of rain. so I’ll hold off for now. But the Saturday/Sunday timeframe looks good so far.

We’ll see.

As far as the rest of tomorrow, we plan on brunch at Snooze and then some shopping, and a trip by the storage room to drop off the Christmas decorations. And there’ll probably be a stop by the office as well.

January 8, 2022

Bigfoot Lives . . .

Jan and I had lunch at Spring Creek BBQ, our first visit in a while. Ribs and Brisket as delicious as always. Then it was next door to WalMart for a few things, though we were dodging the incoming thunderstorms during our in and out.

Amazon continues to amaze me, in both good and bad ways.

Since they opened their new warehouse right down the road in La Marque, more and more of our orders come the same day, between 5pm and 10pm, or the next morning, between 4am and 8am. But then sometimes they go off the rails.

On Thursday I ordered a new coffee bean grinder for us. We had a small one a few years back, but finally it burned out. We didn’t replace it since we were getting our beans ground at HEB where we bought them, specifically the Lola Savannah Texas Pecan with real pecan pieces.

But then early last year the pecan pieces disappeared from the HEB clear bags. At first I thought it might be CoVid-related, but when I called the company, which is here in Houston, they said that HEB had requested the removal.

Turns that HEB was worried about the pecans going through their grinders might affect people with nut allergies who use them afterward.

But the coffee was still good.

We did find that we could get the beans with the pecan pieces from Amazon, or directly from the company, but it was more expensive, and still needed to be ground. But recently our hand was forced.

It seems that HEB has stopped carrying Lola Savannah, or at least none of our 4 local HEB’s have it in stock any longer. So I decided to check Amazon again and found they had 2# bags for $27.50, only a couple of dollars a bag more than HEB’s price.

So Thursday I ordered us a new coffee grinder, a heavy-duty Cuisinart that will do half a pound of beans at a time,

Cuisinart DBM-8 Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill

and a 2# bag of the coffee, both of which were supposed to be here today.

But then yesterday the delivery date on the coffee changed from Saturday to January 15 – March 1. Not what I wanted to hear.

This morning our Cuisinart was delivered, as well as two packages for the people in Site #13. So what, the Prime driver couldn’t drive 6 more spaces? So when we left for lunch we dropped them off.

This is the 2nd time this has happened, though this is the first time with Amazon.

Then still wondering about the coffee delivery date change, I went back to the original order listing and found that if I ordered right now, it would now come between 5pm and 10pm tonight.

So I ordered it again, and then canceled the first order. And about 8pm tonight it showed up at our door. But I still don’t know what happened to the original order.

I also recently ordered some new Skechers shoes that were delivered yesterday, but will have to be returned since they’re too small.

The problem is that I inherited my father’s feet.

Nominally I wear an 8-3/4 EEEE. Yes, that’s 4 E’s in a row.

Or as my father described them, “Snowshoe Feet”. However they’re also really good for barefoot waterskiing too.

Obviously, shoes that actually fit are few and far between. I can sometimes find something close at the Red Wing shoe stores, though there’s not a lot of choice in styles, pretty much ‘ugly’ and ‘more ugly’.

So I usually make do with the widest width I can get, in something like a 9-1/2 to 10-1/2. Now the ones I just ordered were a 9-1/2 in an Extra Wide. But in this case a 9-1/2 wasn’t long enough and an Extra Wide wasn’t wide enough. So back they go to Amazon.

And Amazon made it really easy this time. I don’t even have to box them up. Just dropped them off at a UPS store, show them the QR code Amazon gave me, and I’m done.

Nice.

And I’ve got a new larger, wider pair on the way.

January 8, 2023

They’re Dead To Her . . .

First off, the Jeep’s engine has been repaired and is running fine.

But . . .   (Somehow you just knew there was a ‘But’ coming, didn’t you?)

there’s a wiring problem, probably a bad ground, that’s causing a Check Engine light due to wildly fluctuating oil pressure, going from 0 to 120 psi and then back to 0. However the actual pressure measured at the engine is fine, and pressure reading coming out of the oil pressure sensor is also fine, though they replaced the sensor just to be sure.

The problem seems to be between the sensor and the computer. Hopefully they’ll track it down soon. But our Old Faithful Dodge Dakota is still working fine.

Tomorrow I’ve got my possible Lumbar Fusion evaluation to see what’s what with my lower back, comparing my recent MRI/X-Rays with the ones taken a year ago. So I’ll know more tomorrow.

Lunch today was to assuage Jan’s hunger for Turkey & Dressing, but of course, not at Cracker Barrel.

As Jan says, they’re dead to her.

So today’s lunch was at Kelley’s Country Cooking, the one over in Alvin. Because unlike CB, Sunday is a Turkey & Dressing day at Kelley’s, just one of the Daily Specials.

As planned, Jan got the Turkey & Cornbread Dressing, along with more Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, and Green Beans,

while I got their enormous Country Fried Chicken Breast,

along with Cornbread Dressing, Mashed Potatoes, and Green Beans.

Note that Chicken Breast actually hangs over the edge of the plate.

And everything was delicious.

Jan’s found her CB replacement.

Jumping back to yesterday . . .

We got to Brandi’s about 11 so I could do some updates on Landon’s Ender 3 Pro 3D printer. While for lunch Brandi set out a Charcuterie Board with some delicious tidbits.

Of course, according to Facebook, Charcuterie is French for ‘I just touched all your food’. But I noticed that Brandi was wearing gloves as she laid it out.

And it was fantastic!

Then it was back to work.

First I installed a new glass print bed, which took only a couple of minutes since I just had to remove the old one and clip the new one into place.

Next up I replaced the filament stepper motor, the filament drive, and installed a knob to make it easier to load in new filament, giving me this.

So first up was to print Jan a Flamingo.

It started out like this, laying out the base pattern.

Which when done, and cut apart, looked like this.

And when snapped together, came out looking like this.

And as you can see the neck is flexible.

We’ll probably do this again next Saturday since I’ve got some upgrades in mind.

January 8, 2024

They’re Coming For Your Cars, And Your Owls . . .

It seems that the government now wants to install speed limiters on all new cars.

National Transportation Safety Board Calls For Speed-Limiting Tech in Cars

Intelligent speed assistance technology, or ISA, uses a car’s GPS location compared with a database of posted speed limits and its onboard cameras to help ensure safe and legal speeds.

My Garmin GPS has a speed limit display on the screen from this database, and it’s often inaccurate, both showing a speed limit both above and before the actual limit shown on the street signs. So if you’re stopped for speeding, will the cop believe you when you tell him your car said it was OK?

Active systems include mechanisms that make it more difficult, but not impossible, to increase the speed of a vehicle above the posted speed limit and those that electronically limit the speed of the vehicle to fully prevent drivers from exceeding the speed limit.

And what about the speed differential between old cars with no limiter and new cars with one. Can you imagine how the owner of a brand-new Corvette feels tooling along at 65mph, while all the old cars are bombing past him at 80+ mph, like they do every day on I-45?

As the NTSB notes, some 12,330 people died in speeding-related crashes in 2021 alone, roughly a third of all traffic deaths in the U.S.

So maybe it might be worthwhile to see what causes the other 2/3 of the traffic deaths.

But wait, there’s more!

If you can’t speed limit older cars, just take them away from the owners and junk them.

The EU Wants to SEIZE Your Old Car to Meet Climate Goals

Coming soon to the US?

The EU has something called End-of-life vehicles directive, and they are looking to expand this to become so draconian that it reminds of something that would have happened in the Communist Soviet Union.

A new set of criteria will be established that will decide whether you will be allowed to keep your car. If your car does not meet the criteria, the EU will seize your car and scrap it.

One of the criteria is that if your car has missed it’s regular EU checkup for two years, then it is considered to be “waste” and they will scrap it.

If the cost of repairing your car exceeds the value of your car, then the EU will seize it and scrap it for you. Very nice of them…

There is an exception however for cars that are more than 30 years old. But they have to be original. Meaning that if you put a different engine in it than original and your car hasn’t been through an EU control check within the last two years, then they will scrap it!

Meaning that many older cars will be considered “waste” by the EU and they will SEIZE your car and scrap it for you – All under the excuse of recycling and meeting climate goals.

Again, coming soon to the US?

And now they want to kill owls to save owls.

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Killing One Type Of Owl To Save Another In Northern California

Killing one species to save another sounds like a drastic solution, but that’s exactly what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is doing in California to protect the Spotted Owl from a predator that happens to be its distant cousin, the Barred Owl.

On the Hoopa Indian Reservation near the Oregon border, it’s owl country, but not the kind Mark Higley wants to see.

The tribe’s resident biologist is tracking an invasive species from the east called the barred owl. “Up to the ridge line we have been getting barred owl responses,” he said.

At first the birds were a novelty, but now they’re a huge problem because they are taking over the nesting territory of the native spotted owl, a threatened species. Spotted owl numbers have dropped as much as 80-percent in just the last 20 years.

It’s all part of an experiment recently approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The plan is to kill 3,600 barred owls over the next four years in California, Oregon, and Washington.

Mark admits it’s not easy. “Oh it’s awful, I mean I am a biologist, the barred owl is a wonderful species, it’s a spectacular bird. The only reason I am doing this is that I feel it’s an invasive species,” he said.

So this fall he plans to be on the front lines again, killing one bird to save another.

So how many spotted owls are going to be killed by accident, mistaken for barred owls up the trees?

Just remember –

It’s not nice to mess with Mother Nature.

OR

Some animals are more equal than others.

OR

“We had to kill the owls to save them”

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Well, as often happens, our proposed lunch today was at Armadilleaux Cafe here in Santa Fe. But that was based on Jan’s hearing that they had Clam Chowder. But when I called to double check, they said they only have it occasionally, and not on any schedule.

So Armadilleaux became Jason’s Deli, and Clam Chowder became Broccoli Cheese Soup. As well as a Quarter Turkey Muffuletta.

And my Clam Chowder became a bowl of the Southwest Chicken Chili and the Salad Bar.

And in another one of those examples of ‘synchronicity’ in our lives, you’ll see in the Retro_Blogs.™ below that back today back in 2011, we also ate at Jason’s and had exactly the same thing.

Well, it’s either ‘synchronicity’ or we’re in a rut. Take your pick.

* * * * *

Right before I posted this blog, I saw an announcement that this launch has been pushed back 3 or 4 days.

Stay Tuned.

The next SpaceX StarShip launch is scheduled for this coming Friday, January 10th with a 97 minute launch window opening at 16:00 CST. And just like past Starship launches, this is a bigger, better ship.

Bigger as in over 6 ft. taller and  300 TONS heavier, and carriers 25% more propellant.

This chart gives you an overview.

They also plan to do a simulated deployment of Starlink satellite, and an in-flight Raptor engine relight.

And of course, an attempt to catch the returning booster at the launch tower.

Thought For The Day:

Don’t be part of the problem. Be the entire problem.
You can do it. I know you can.

And Now On To Today’s RETRO_Blogs.™

January 7, 2011

Toys and Tea Rooms . . .

Another early morning started when we left the rig about 9 am heading up the road to Webster for Jan’s 9:45 dental appointment.

While she was there, I ran some errands, ending up at EPO (Electronics Parts Outlet), one of my favorite places to explore.

They have computer stuff, electronic parts and tools, science kits, and best of all,

TOYS…lots of Toys!

And as Jan says, I can resist anything but temptation. I saw a new helicopter that I just had to have. It’s a new 3 channel model that has both gyro-stabilizers and an accelerometer, so it’s very stable and easy to control.

And it’s a lot of fun to annoy the cats with. Of course sometimes the cats annoy it back.

I’ve lost several copters that way.

You can see it fly here.

As I was leaving EPO, I got a call from Brock’s Car Care telling me what they’d found on my truck. And as I suspected, a stuck brake caliper was the problem. So the caliper, pads, and rotor on the right side had to be replaced. But because of the higher pressure in the brake lines caused by the stuck caliper, this caused the left side to stick and grind down the pads and the rotor on that side too, though not as bad.

Brock’s said the total would be about $650. So next I called my extended warranty company to see what they would be able to take care of.

And the answer, as I suspected, was pretty much nothing. They ended up paying $70 of it.

Which was 1 brake caliper. Apparently they pay for the bad part, but not anything the bad part damages. Huh?

Oh well, I’d been trying to remember to cancel them anyway. This just gives me an incentive.

I’d originally got the warranty free for the first year when I bought our 2004 Dodge Dakota in December 2007, and then kept it going since then. But this is the first time I’ve used it, because nothing has gone wrong so far, just maintenance stuff.

Jan was done about 11:30 so after picking her up we drove over to Jason’s Deli for lunch. Jan loves their Muffulettas and Broccoli Cheese Soup, and I really like their Southwestern Chicken Chili, so we were both happy.

Finishing lunch, we headed home to the rig. While Jan fed the birds and then sat outside with Mister and enjoyed the nice weather, I went back to finish flushing out the water heater, now that I got the drain plug off.

I use one of these wands to do a better job of flushing it out. It goes on the end of your water hose and lets you get up in there and get all the ‘gunk’ out. You’d really be surprised how much stuff comes out.

One more job on my pre-flight checklist done.

We left out again about 3pm so Jan could meet Lowell and Landon at Landon’s pediatrician’s office.

Brandi had noticed a lot of wax in Landon’s right ear and wanted to get it checked out. Jan was along for moral support and to help manage all the bags, bottles, and carriers that seem to accompany any moving of Master Landon. He has his own ‘posse’.

It turns out that Landon does have a slight ear infection, so the doctor prescribed an antibiotic to take care of it.

I left them there while I went by Home Depot to get some more Teflon tape and then by Sam’s Club to pick up our prescriptions for the month.

Then I headed over to the house to wait for them. On the way I got a call from Brock’s saying my truck was ready. But I had to wait for Jan to get there so I could go get it.

After Jan got there and we got our truck, we drove over to Texas Tea Room to supper. Then it was finally back home for the night.

January 7, 2012

It’s Dead, Jim . . .

Thought I’d start off today’s blog with a little musical interlude.

Here’s “Sweet Georgia Brown” on 3 Guitars and A Tractor, in German, no less.

“Sweet Georgia Brown” on 3 Guitars and a Tractor.

After coffee this morning I got back on my truck’s power window problem. I wanted to pull out the motor–regulator combination and see if it can be repaired, or will need to be replaced.

First I had to get the glass out, by removing the trim strips from the window edge,

and then the front window guide inside the door.

After removing the two bolts at the bottom of the glass, I was able to carefully lift the glass out of the door and set it aside.

Then 5 more bolts and I was able to pull out the motor and regulator combination. It took a while to figure out how it works,

but finally I found the culprit.

This piece of plastic had broken off, letting the cable that raises and lowers the glass, wear through the plastic guide and snap off.

I spent some time trying to figure out if it could be repaired, but it quickly became obvious that if I did fix it, it wouldn’t last.

So my next step was to order the replacement from Amazon that I found yesterday. Hopefully it will be here toward the end of next week.

In the meantime, while I’ve got the door panel open, I’m going to take a look at a problem with my door lock. The key unlocks the door, but does not turn off the alarm. I fixed it once before, but I haven’t had any luck this time. I may have to replace the lock, and if so, now would be the time to do it.

Tonight was Jan’s night to get together with her former coworkers like she does every year. This year it was at Café Adobe up in Webster, so I dropped her off a little before 5:30, and I headed over to one of my client’s office to work on configuring his new computers and router.

I picked up Jan about 8:15 and we finally headed home after another busy day.

January 7, 2013

Depots and Dinosaurs . . .

Today started out slow but ended up being fairly busy.

My first job was to get outside and caulk the roof seam right over the window next to my computer desk. We’ve had a lot of rain since we got here at Galveston Bay RV Park right before Thanksgiving. And during the last several downfalls, I’ve started to get some water leaking in down the inside of the window.

So I got out my ladder and my trusty caulk gun and went at it. The seam I was trying to seal is where the roof rolls down and meets the vertical side. I had caulk part of this a couple of years ago, but as it turned out it was a length of the original caulk that had a lot of voids and holes in it. I caulked about 2 feet of the seam, and we’ll see how it does over the next several days.

The reason I wanted to get the problem fixed today is that we’re expecting 4 days of solid rain.

My next task was to call Westland Sales out in Clackamas, OR. I need a new door switch for our Splendide washer/dryer. Lately it has developed an intermittent problem of not wanting to open at the end of the wash or dry cycle. Sometimes it will open immediately, sometimes it takes overnight.

So a new switch was needed. When I talked to Westland, the tech said it’s a known problem with this model and he was surprised it lasted this long. A new one will be about $80 and will go out First Class today. I always have gotten great service from Westland.

Luckily I will be able to replace the switch from the front and won’t have to pull the washer out of the cabinet.

About 3:30 Jan and I headed out for dinner and some errands. Our first stop was at a local feed store where we were finally able to find Jan some deer corn. Or at least we will find it there when we go back tomorrow afternoon after their shipment comes in. So hopefully that is taken care of.

Our next stop was at the TGI Friday’s across the Interstate from Baybrook Mall. We haven’t been there for several years and thought we’d try it again. Don’t know why we haven’t been back more. We’ve always enjoyed it and this time was no exception.

Then it was right down the road to the Home Depot for a return. When I bought caulk last week, I thought I was buying one tube of clear and one of white, but ended up with two of white. Guess they were mixed up in the bins

Our last stop was at Kroger’s. Jan’s going to make a big batch of veggie soup tomorrow and wanted to get a fresh onion and some garlic, along with a few other things.

Hot soup sounds great for these next few cold rainy days.

January 7, 2014

Peaks and Fountains . . .

We’re both pretty much back to normal this morning (well, as normal as we get, anyway), and after 4 days at the rig, Jan was starting to get cabin fever, so about noon we headed up to Clear Lake. Our first stop was Twin Peaks for lunch at Jan’s new favorite place.  Mine too, but don’t tell her that.

She had her Spicy Hot Chicken Ranch Sandwich, while I had a cup of their really good Venison Chili and an order of the Average Joes, the mini sausage dogs with spicy mustard, and chopped onions and jalapenos. A great meal.

And of course it wouldn’t be Twin Peaks without our lovely server, Lauren.

Our next stop was Bed, Bath & Beyond for a couple of things. A blog reader said that they had a good K-Cup selection, and Jan wanted to check out their bed sheets

They did have a large K-Cup selection but nothing that really caught our eye, and Jan didn’t find any sheets she liked, so our next stop was at a client’s office to install some updates.

Then it was off to Sam’s Club for a few things before heading over to our son Chris’ house to pick up Jan’s Mary Kay order that had come in yesterday.

Heading home, we stopped off at the Victory Lakes Wal-Mart for a few things. And I finally found some K-Cup Hot Chocolate.

It was Café Express by Green Mountain Coffee, so we thought we’d give it a try.

We got home about 5:30 and then about 7:30 I fixed Jan and I some of the K-Cup Hot Chocolate to have with some of the cookies she bought.

The Hot Chocolate turned out to be pretty good, but I doubt we’ll buy it again. It’s more expensive in K-Cup form, and compared to the Swiss Miss packets, it’s more work.

With the packets, I can microwave enough hot water to make a cup for each of us at the same time, but the K-Cups have to be done sequentially. Plus if you follow the directions, you’re supposed to run a cup of just water through your brewer to clean it out after you make the hot chocolate. Just more trouble.

One thing I did figure out is why the all the K-Cup hot chocolates seem to have both sugar and sucralose (Splenda) in them. Some of our blog readers, as well as some online reviewers don’t like the taste of sucralose and wonder why they put both in the K-Cups, but not the packets.

I think it’s because it won’t fit if you sweetened it only with sugar. I took an empty K-Cup pod, cleaned it out and then tried to pour a packet of the Swiss Miss into it. And it overflowed the K-Cup. By a good bit.

Artificial sweeteners are much sweeter per weight than sugar, so they use as much sugar as they can, and then finish it off with Splenda. A bad break for people who don’t like Splenda or NutraSweet. Personally I can’t tell the difference between sugar and Splenda or NutraSweet, but Sweet N Low tastes bitter to me. Different strokes, and all that.

It looks like the freezing weather is gone for a while so I hooked us back up to shore water this morning. It did get down to about 27 degrees last night, but tonight’s supposed to be in the 40’s.

However it was much colder last night up in the Katy area where this fountain froze over.

You’d think we were up north, or something.

January 7, 2015

Moving On, Again . . .

Today was our day to oscillate back over to the Colorado River Thousand Trails near Columbus, TX., our second two-week stay here this season.

Since we only had about a 2-1/2 hour trip over from Conroe, we didn’t need to leave very early. So about 8:30 we drove down to the nearby Cracker Barrel for breakfast. CB usually has great coffee and today was no exception. Perfect for a 40 degree morning.

And as sometimes happens at CB, Jan found a $35 blouse she really liked, to go with our $22 breakfast. Funny how it works out that way.

So is CB a gift shop with a restaurant attached, or a restaurant with a gift shop attached?

We pulled out of the Conroe TT about 11:30 and after a very smooth trip, pulled into our site at Colorado River a little after 2pm. And we once again got our favorite site, A2. And apparently we really lucked up with that. The ranger said that the couple who had been in this spot had just left this morning. and a week early.

Lucky us.

Getting parked and set up, I did get to try out the new leveler pad/awning hook tool that I made. My homemade pads are very strong, but pretty heavy. And normally I use the awning hook to push and prod them into position. But if the ground is rough, then the awning hook flexes and bends instead of pushing and prodding. So I’d been thinking about coming up with something a little stronger.

So a couple of weeks ago when we were going through stuff in our storeroom, I came across a metal mop handle with a screw-on mop head,

and this got me to thinking about how I could use it.

Remembering the extension poles I’ve used with rollers to paint ceilings, it seemed like the threads were pretty similar. So when I was in Home Depot the other day I picked up a small foam paint roller, being sure to get the heaviest one.

And as it turned out, the threads were a perfect fit.

And removing the roller gave me a hook that is strong enough to move the pads around with no problem, and it’s still a great awning hook too.

I love it when a plan comes together.

January 7, 2016

A New Hack?

When I got up about 11 this morning, Jan was knee-deep in spring (winter?) cleaning in the rig. She had things emptied out from all the cabinets in the kitchen area, and was scrubbing them out, before cleaning the contents, and then replacing everything.

Thus there was no walk for us today. But it looks like it should be OK for tomorrow morning, so we’ll see how it goes.

While Jan finished up with her cleaning and putting stuff back where it goes, I worked on blog and website stuff. I’ve learned to only help Jan with this stuff when she directly asks me for help. Otherwise, it’s almost guaranteed that I’ll put something back where it doesn’t belong.

My Next Hack: Our daughter Brandi gave us this really nice bathroom soap dispenser for Christmas.

Bath & Body Works Touch Free SmartSoap Automatic Hand Soap Dispenser

It works great and there are a lot of different scent refills available online. But it has one almost certainly designed-in ‘fault’. It seems to spit out about twice as much soap as you really need to wash your hands.

Of course, if you’re the soap manufacturer, that’s exactly what you want it to do to sell more soap refills at $14.95 a pop.

So what I want to do is to figure out a way to change the amount of soap that comes out. And to do that I see two different possibilities. First I can try to change the actual amount of soap that comes out, based on how long the pump runs. And it’s a fixed amount, not dependent on how long you have your hand under the spigot.

Or I can try to hack the circuit so that the pump only runs as long as your hand is in place. Since the timing is possibly hard-wired into the circuit, it may be easier to just bypass the timing circuit altogether, and wire it up so that the pump only runs as long as your hand is in front of the sensor.

So in the next few days, I’ll take it apart and see what I find. I’ll let you know how it goes.

I’m still trying to track down a new glass/LED screen for my son Chris’ Galaxy S5 smartphone. As I recounted last weekend, when trying to replace the cracked glass, I found the underlying LED screen was also cracked. So now I’m looking for a new screen combo, but I’m finding a lot of the ones for sale are not OEM, but some 3rd party parts. And the online reviews of these are not very good.

So now I’m shopping around for an original Samsung model, with a decent price, and a quick delivery time. Hopefully I find something soon.

Tomorrow afternoon we’ll be getting together with some other RV friends, meeting them at the great BBQ buffet up at Peter’s BBQ up in Ellinger. Really looking forward to it.

January 7, 2017

22°!

We had 24° forecasted for Kenedy last night, but here at the rig it went down to 22°. Tonight’s looking like 25°, so not much warmer then either.

Today’s high was 43°. but tomorrow’s looking up with 55/40, and then 73/56 on Monday. So nice. So we should be able to hook back up to shore water tomorrow.

One thing I also do during cold weather like this is turn on the light in the water bay. Since it has a regular incandescent bulb and not a LED, it provides a modest amount of heat, actually raising the temp about 10 degrees, enough to safeguard the pipes from freezing. We’ve had the coach down to 6 degrees so we shouldn’t have a problem. But safe is as safe does.

Our last gate was Tues. night/Wed. morning, so I texted Todd this morning to tell him we’re bored and ask what’s on the horizon gatewise. He said they’re waiting on a number of gates to start up. Just waiting for the Company Men to call. Here’s hoping.

Jan and I tried to like last night’s 2 hour premier of Emerald City, a retelling of the Wizard of Oz, we really did.

We normally like stuff like this. Grimm, Once Upon A Time, Sleepy Hollow, etc. are all favorites of ours, so we had high hopes for Emerald City. But we only lasted 20 minutes.

When they referred to the show as a ‘reimagining’ of the Wizard of Oz story, we didn’t realize that they would ‘reimagine’ Dorothy as an illegal immigrant from Mexico who steals drugs for Auntie Em from the hospital where she works, and kills the Wicked Witch of the East by running her over in a police car she stole. And Toto is a German Shepherd police dog.

Oh, and the Wicked Witch of the West runs a brothel.

In hindsight, it’s amazing we lasted the entire 20 minutes.

Of course they did the same thing a couple of years ago with Once Upon A Time in Wonderland, which was a spin-off from Once Upon A Time. By the time they got through with it, it was not only ‘reimagined’ but also unwatchable.

Which is probably why it only lasted one season.

But we did really enjoy the season premiere of Grimm. Really sorry that it’s the last season.

We had thought about heading down to Beeville this afternoon and catch the 4pm showing of Passengers, and then have dinner at a well-recommended German place. But inertia kept us at the coach. So maybe tomorrow.

For dinner tonight we had our leftovers from La Fonda on Main a couple of days ago, Jan added some of her delicious homemade Nachos.

All really good.

January 7, 2018

What A Burger!

Jan continues to get to get a little stronger every day. And again we both appreciate all the well-wishes from 100’s of friends and blog readers. Thanks.

We’ve had a number of emails from readers concerned that Jan was taking Cipro and now Levaquin, and the possible side-effects from them.

First off Jan has taken both of these for short periods of time in the past with absolutely no bad effects whatsoever. In addition, name one antibiotic that doesn’t have bad side-effects for someone.

I’ve also read several times that if aspirin were developed today it would be a prescription drug due to all the bad side-effects that some people have from it.

So we appreciate everyone’s concerns, but so far she’s doing fine.

I took the panel off the microwave today trying to fix a nagging problem. When you use it 2 or 3 times in a row the microwave power will shut off. The timer keeps counting down and the turntable keeps spinning, but the interior light goes off and it stops cooking.

If I push in on the panel the light comes back on and it starts cooking again. But the longer it is used the harder you have to push in on the control panel.

I’m pretty sure that problem is with the microswitch that senses whether or not the door is closed and latched. When I reach in I can wiggle the switch, so I’m pretty sure that it is the problem.

But the way it is mounted behind the frame it’s hard to get to, so I used Gorilla Tape to try and lock it down in place. And in testing, it did three 3-minute runs heating water with no problem, so we’ll see how it works out.

About 2:30 Jan and I headed over to I-45 and the Victory Lakes area to eat at the Whataburger there. This time, along with our burgers, we each got a salad.

Jan got the Garden Salad while I got their Apple & Cranberry Chicken Salad.

Both salads were really good and we have enough left over for dinner tomorrow.

Heading back toward home I stopped for gas at the HEB. Don’t know what’s really going on with the gas prices, but since the week before Christmas the price has jumped 26¢ up to $2.19. Ouch.

Then we made a quick stop at the nearby Jason’s Deli for a cup of their Broccoli Cheese Soup for Jan’s lunch tomorrow while I’m at work.

January 7, 2019

Supposedly . . .

Supposedly . . .

Supposedly, Godaddy has moved the blog to a new server after finally, ‘grudgingly’ admitting the problem was really theirs.

So Supposedly, the problem is fixed. But we’ll see.

The site has been up since 7:12pm last night, BUT it should have been back up yesterday afternoon, but apparently it didn’t stabilize until last night.

And of course, it was up for 28 hours and 40 minutes last week, leading me to believe that it was fixed then too.

So as I said, we’ll see.

If it’s still up tonight, I’ll start posting regular blogs again.

Stay tuned!

January 7, 2020

Little Crunchy Meat Nuggets . . .

Jan had her dermatology appointment at 1:30 which only took about 45 minutes, so then we were back onto the other side of I-45 to have lunch at Black Bear Diner once again.

Jan got her new favorite, the Chopped Steak & Eggs, which is actually a breakfast item. But she gets it without the eggs, potatoes, and biscuits. Instead she gets is with their Seasonal Veggies and a Side Salad.

Lately I’ve been getting their Sirloin Steak and Eggs, but this time I went back to my old fav, the Bacon Cheeseburger Salad.

Really filling and only about 850 calories. I always remember to tell them to do the burger part as Medium, because the first couple of times I got it, the meat was Well-Done, i.e. hard and crunchy little meat nuggets.

But it was delicious this time.

Then it was back to the other side of the Interstate again for some WalMarting. We checked out their wings, i.e. chicken drums for our Air Fryer, but they didn’t have any drums, or wings, for that matter.

So we’ll check back again, or it’s off to HEB again. But we have enough for our dinner tomorrow night, so we’re good for now.

Since we started RVing almost 13 years ago, we’ve always had one of these Day Clocks.

It has performed yeoman service all these years, including a couple of falls. But a few days ago it quit working. I assumed it just needed a new battery, but it was for naught.

It was dead.

In other words, to paraphrase Monty Python –

It has passed on!  This clock is no more!  It has ceased to be!  It has expired and gone to meet its maker!  It’s bereft of life. It has kicked the bucket. It has shuffled off the mortal coil, rang down the final curtain and joined the choir invisible!!

THIS IS AN EX-CLOCK!!

But since we’ve found over the years that it is pretty easy for us RV’ers to lose track of the day of the week, I went to look for a replacement, and remembering this is 2020, I decided to go digital, so I ordered one of these that came in this past Friday.

Digital Calendar Day Clock

Jan really likes it, it’s easy to read from across the room, or across the rig, I guess, and you can make the text either yellow or white, and we chose yellow. It really stands out.

It was only after I ordered it and we got it, that I noticed that it was specifically designed for Dementia and Alzheimer’s patients to remind them what day it is. Hopefully it will keep working a lot longer in case we actually need it for that.

But you never know.

Replacing the MicroSD card in my GPS was successful, and it was working fine after I downloaded about 5GB of replacement map data. Glad I got it working again.

I’ve had this one since 2011 and I wasn’t looking forward to replacing it, mainly because I didn’t really like any of the new ones.

January 7, 2021

Gentle Gonging . . .

Jan and I headed up to League City about 1pm to have Turkey & Dressing at Cracker Barrel, it being Thursday, after all. And it also helped that we had a gift card for CB given to Jan as a Christmas present by Sonja and Lendell, Lowell’s parents.

Then after Jan got her Turkey fix we headed back down to the Santa Fe area for a PO/Dollar General stop, finishing up with coffees from Cowboy Coffee.

Getting home I finally had a chance to assemble Jan’s Wind Chimes and then we sat outside in our new chairs and enjoyed the view and the gentle gonging of the chimes.

We’re coming up on a year with our Rubbermaid storage shed and I’ve been very happy with it. It survived the Texas summer with no fading or warping, and in fact it still looks brand new. Very nice.

When we got the Jeep I couldn’t mount our Garmin GPS like I did in the Dakota. There just wasn’t room. But with a little research, I found this one that works great.

GPS Gooseneck Mount

It works great and it was only $14.

The Echo Dot is normally only used on long trips to listen to music and news without having to keep finding a new station. To keep it connected I just hotspot it to my phone, and it works great.

Tomorrow night we’ve got another Alvin Opry show, so probably not much of a blog then.

January 7, 2024

Much Better . . .

Jan felt a lot better today, so we headed out for lunch about 12:30 we headed out for our usual Sunday Denny’s/HEB/PO trek. But rather than her usual Ultimate Omelet, Jan had a yearning for a waffle. So still Denny’s, right?

Well, wrong.

Apparently Denny’s hasn’t had waffles for a long time. What’s up with that?

I mean IHOP (you know, the International House of PANCAKES) has waffles. 5 different types as a matter of fact.

So why can’t Denny’s have waffles?

But overcoming this major disappointment, Jan went with Waffle’s low-rent cousin, pancakes.

As well as an order of very crunchy bacon, just the way she likes it.

I as usual stayed the course with my Ultimate Omelet.

Delicious as always.

Next up, it was on over to HEB for a few things, but Jan was getting a little tired, so she stayed in the Jeep while I did the shopping. Then it was on the way back to the rig, with a quick stop at the PO.

A really nice day, especially since Jan is so much better.