Some Updates

I know you’ve all been sitting on the edge of your seats waiting for this one…

My shipment from Wal-Mart arrived about 2:30 yesterday. All items were undamaged; surprise.

I wanted to try a different brand of paper plate, and received them…crap. Real paper, and limp as noodles…scratch that one.

I’ve been getting my paper plates as Sam’s for years; they are the lightly plastic coated variety. They were about $17 for 600.

We use paper plates exclusively as it keeps us from using the dishwasher. Certainly there are times we need hard plates for steaks as an example. X’s supreme nachos on a paper plate don’t do well under the toaster oven broiler.

I did chicken strips yesterday. I cut three boneless breasts  into strips, and soaked/marinated them in buttermilk for several hours before letting them dry out some, and then breading them with pancake mix, salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper, then deep fried…they were very tender…the wife said they were tainted; more for me.

As I waited for the groceries to arrive, it seemed logical to leave the gate unlocked, and to my surprise, I had a knock at the door.

It was the “engineer” working with the fiber network  install people, getting a layout and a plan to run the fiber cable; yes, it will be fiber right up to the house; no joints like they do with coax cable…well, not near as many.

The fiber splices they use are technical marvels. Not coax splitter, where one loses several db at each joint. A good friend of mine worked for Dynatel, a division of 3M that made the splices back in the eighties. It was a ‘factory’ of sorts, and he was just one of the minions. The ‘reject’ percentage was huge, and bigwigs from corporate HQ investigated, and found that the splices were contaminated. My buddy, who is too damn smart for his own good, began doing his own investigation, and found that under a microscope, the cutting blades used in the splicing kits, were rusty and jagged, causing an imperfect cut in the optic cable, which lead to way too many db loss in each splice.

He reported his findings to management, and got promoted. He eventually got his computer science degree, and moved up the ladder until he retired.

The engineer indicated that the “installers” preferred to dig, instead of bore under things like sidewalks, patios, and other concrete barriers. Digging, he said was safer, and with a little less liability.

So, we continue to wait for the next leg of the installation. I should go down to their office and pick up my free Roku box before the 1st.

I have done some research on replacing the fuel filter on my Ranger…ugh. Looks like scootching under the truck is unavoidable.

I did decide however, to make the wife a buttermilk pie. She will be surprised when she wakes up.

I have also decided to make a quick cheesecake for myself…and the wife too, if she so desires. She doesn’t really care for this one…don’t know why…oh yeah I do; it’s the graham cracker crust she doesn’t care for…more for me.

Advertisements

Friday!

Those of you working folk have been waiting for today all week; especially it it’s payday!

For myself, Friday is pretty much like every other day of the week; ‘ceptin’ Tuesday is when Remus publishes his Woodpile Report.

Do yourself a favor, and check out his fresh perspective of politics, science, and life every Tuesday.

It’s cloudy today here, keeping the temps a little lower; at least out of the hundreds anyway.

I am eagerly awaiting my shipment from Wal-Mart dot com. Since I did not renew my Sam’s membership, with which I had free shipping, I found out that Wal-Mart now does that for a minimum of $35 order. We’ll see.

They have already dropped the ball, as I ordered in time for next day delivery, but instead am getting it a day later. Whatever. They will hear about it.

I did receive my replacement stove control, and installed it this morning.This is the second control on the burner I have replaced in four years. Of course, this burner is the one we use the most. It just seems a poor design to deteriorate so quickly at $25 a pop. The tell-tale sign is that after the burner is kicked on, it can and will turn on inexplicably to high, and normally requires shutting off to kill the burner. That ain’t right, so another one today…good thing it’s easy to install.

I did trim and clean my ribeye roast yesterday. This one was a little different, but ended up with several nice slabs of steak, and the famous ribeye cap cut, which joins the other in the freezer.

With some of the leftover chunks and smaller steaks, I made ribeye guisada last night; a favorite of mine. It takes so long to cook, and requires flour tortillas to properly eat it, that I rarely do it any more.

I have gotten to the point where I only buy raw flour tortillas, and cook them as needed. The raw ones taste more like the ones abuelita used to make. I have not mastered the art of making flour tortillas from scratch; or corn for that matter, although I have a press to do to. A press is a gimmick; a real master of Mexican foods does not use a press, but rather a nice, heavy, cutting board to flatten the dough balls, then a rolling pin; maybe.

Anyway, the ribeye roast guisada was delicious with some homemade pintos, topped with cheese.

I used all my 8 1/2″ Food Saver bags to freeze the rest.

I must also put away the rest of my grocery haul today; bacon, chicken, and sausage will need to be stored.

OK, that’s done…now I wait for the grocery delivery.

Have a great weekend

Ranger Update

Most of us who drive/own pickups, love them. Rancheros and El Caminos count as well, as anything with a bed is my point…not forgetting Caballeros…Phil.

A truck is a personal choice; like buying a book, or a CD, or art; it’s personal. Choosing and buying a truck reflects who we are.

I’ve had my ’02 Ranger now for 16 years.

A reader suggested that I had water in the fuel, after I posted my latest issue. I went to the local Carquest and purchased three bottles of HEET. I shall attempt later today to see if that worked. I used to put in a bottle every fall…just because, and never had any water in fuel problems…lesson learned.

I have yet to trim my ribeye roast, so that’s on the agenda for today, after determining whether or not I need to keep my appt with the garage tomorrow.

*********Update**********

I added a bottle of red HEET earlier today, and just returned from a test drive. All seems to be well with the Ranger.

I had two bottles of red, and one yellow. The yellow went in the truck, the red in the wife’s Escape, and one spare…for the winter. I don’t know the difference between them, as they both claim to absorb water out of the fuel tank.

Thanks again mbumgua for the tip.

Ranger Off To The Shop

The local grocery store in town has the boneless ribeye roast on sale again, and I just got paid.

I got up early and headed to town for the ribeye first, in the Ranger. As I turned on the highway and tried to accelerate to highway speed. the Ranger coughed, choked, gasped, and refused to gain any RPMs at all.

I back off on the gas, and goosed ‘er again, with same result. I pulled off the road, and hung a U, and headed back to the rancho. At slow speeds, no problem, but any attempt to get any speed resulted in same.

I pulled into my slot in the carport, and put it in Park. I revved it a little; no problem, but when I revved it to around 3200 RPM, it surged again.

IDNHAC as to the problem, so I made an appt. with the local garage,,,who are really very good automotive techs, and I mean that. Earliest I could get in was Friday at 9…so be it.

I took the wife’s car and got my boneless ribeye roast; a 13+ pounder; the biggest they had out.

I dropped it off at the house, then proceeded to the big city where I bought my month supply of groceries.

The bitter taste of WTF is wrong with my truck, and how much it will cost to fix remains.

I topped off the groceries with a dry goods order from Wal-Mart…should be here by Friday.

Ribeye roast ad

Then, the wife and I were looking over the barnyard, when this came up for a drink

That is one big axis buck.

Probably should call him Gunga Din, as the water in those troughs is green and crawlin’ (for Rudyard Kipling fans).

Telemarketers

Man, that has got to be down there with pumping out septic tanks; telemarketing that is.

Why anyone would subject themselves to getting yelled at, cursed at, hung up on, for a living is beyond me…but then, I’m slow about some things.

Somehow, my wife got on a list and she receives no fewer than 10 telemarketing calls every day.

I might get two calls. If they do not leave a message, I block the numbers. I have voicemail, but have no greeting or message.

Even a blocked caller can leave a message, if they wait through all the rings and “the person whom you are calling….”

My wife has since gotten wiser, and now leaves her phone in the dining area overnight, as she sleeps in; giving us a chance at uninterrupted sleep.

I have shown her how to  block her calls as well, but she, for whatever reason, decides not to block all of them.

My old phone allowed me to block everything that wasn’t stored; including “no call ID numbers”. That was cell phone bliss, knowing that whenever I answered, it was someone I knew. Those days are gone.

Even though I have had our number on the “national no call list” we still get them. Telemarketers are not supposed to make calls past 9 pm, or before 9 am. I am certain they “fudge” this boundary, however.

I worked briefly for an overoptimistic company that sold copiers over the internet back in 2001. I knew it wouldn’t last, but took the job as a tech, because I knew I would have nothing to do. The business got desperate, and forced all the service techs to make 10 telemarketing calls every day…pure agony. That business folded in early 2002 after just over a year. They pissed away 22 million dollars from their investors…right down the drain.

I am sure that statistically, telemarketing has a certain measure of success…the more numbers reached, is bound to find some poor bastard in need of whatever the hell they are selling today.

The last copier place I worked, put a hard sell on a local telemarketing firm. The firm ordered two expensive copiers, and the idiots at my company ordered them like next day freight…

$$$$$$, you guessed it…the telemarketing firm welched on the deal, and we were stuck with fifty grand worth of copiers. Those things sat on the showroom floor for years, many times being used to strip parts from to fix other customer’s machines.

Hello, this is Jane from account services

Hello, this is Alice calling about your health insurance needs

Hello, this is Phyllis calling about your security system needs

How are you today?