Heh. And Home.

From the Usual Source...

Yeah... you'll believe anything if you bought into that hopey-changey stuff.  How's that workin' out for ya, if ya DID buy into it?

We're back in P-Ville after an uneventful trip back home to Texas.  I can hear you now, Gentle Reader, when you say "Home?  What's with this 'home' stuff, Buck?"  I always get a feelin' of minor elation when I cross the state line into Texas and that's really a weird kinda thang, seein' as how I'm a Texan in name only.  What I mean by that is I carry a Texas driver's license, I keep Texas plates on my vehicles, and my "home of record" is in Livingston... a tiny lil burg about two hours north o' Houston.  But have I ever LIVED there?  No...

Some day I'm gonna pull the trigger and become a New Mexican.  I've been thinkin' about that for at least four years now and I just can't bring myself to do it.  It has sumthin' to do with that feelin' I get drivin' across the state line.  Well, there's that and the fact I pay no state income tax.  Naw, it couldn't be the taxes now, could it?

Hey! Guess What?

The wind died down to a manageable level... for a while, at least.  And it's relatively cool (a balmy 84 degrees), too!  Here's what we look like at the moment...

The only thing that's missin' is ME, and I shall be out under the awning with beer in hand very shortly.

Beautification Project

It occurred to me that Beautiful La Hacienda Trailer Park needs some sprucing up and I'm goin' to do MY part, said part bein' the installation of some tasteful statuary to be placed somewhere outside of El Casa Móvil De Pennington.  So I bought these:

Really.  I did.  Proof:

I have Scooney to thank for the inspiration.

Hey! Guess What?

The wind abated.  It didn't stop, but it's down to what the Ol' Man useta call a "Dull Roar," meaning a constant speed of 15 mph with gusts of 20.  So... we have our awning down and are taking Happy Hour on the verandah today, for the first time in I-don't-remember-when.  Srsly.  I really cannot remember the last afternoon we spent outside with book, beer, and cigar.  But let's not complain, let's simply enjoy.

We look a LOT like this today...

Only with different glasses.

(Inadvertently) Broadening Our Horizons XX

I bought a sixer of Sammy Adams' Winter Lager on my last beer run and imagine my surprise when I went to the fridge and pulled this out of the carrier:

That's an SA Blackberry Witbier, which I wouldn't have bought by choice, given my recent less-than-satisfying run-ins with American fruity beers.  This one is no different, bein' way too sweet for my tastes... but we shall drink the damned thing anyway.  And then follow it up with a Winter Lager, which we both wanted and expected.  The best laid plans, yadda, yadda...

Today's cigar is an Acid Kuba Kuba... a fine lil stick that often graces our humidor.  It looks like today might be a two-cigar kinda day.  I just kinda-sorta feel it in my bones and elsewhere.

Update, 1535 hrs:  Round Two.

MUCH better!

Update, Part Deux:  Under the awning, in two views:

You need to view the second picture in its original size, i.e., click for larger.  In which we thank The Deity At Hand we don't suffer from allergies as the cottonwood detritus resembles a snow storm in its most intense moments.  But other than that?  It's the finest of fine days here on The High Plains of New Mexico.  I hope your day is half as good, Gentle Reader.

The Doctor Is In

Or, "why I'm glad Andy exists."  Coz I'd hate to be doin' all this myself, which presupposes I'd have the knowledge to do it in the first place... not to mention other stuff.  Removing and repairing an RV furnace takes a lil bit o' doin'.  Here's a few shots of the work in progress:

The stove had to come out to get access to the furnace

Where the furnace lives, Part One

Where the furnace lives, Part II.  The unit slides out from a hole in the side of El Casa Móvil De Pennington.

As I said:  Thank The Deity At Hand for Andy.  I need to get started on building his altar.

It's Always SUMTHIN', Part IX

Pretty soon we'll have all our major systems replaced here at El Casa Móvil De Pennington, as it seems like I'm running out of things that break and/or wear out.  Last night it was our furnace... the blower motor quit blowing.  And the blower motor is indeed gone, as verified by Andy the RV Doctor a few minutes ago.  I suppose this sorta thing is to be expected, as nothing is forever... especially where machines are concerned.  The good news is the furnace should be repaired by tomorrow evening.  The BEST news is the furnace waited to fail until the weather warmed up considerably.

But Hey!  This is all small stuff compared to events elsewhere in the world, eh?

―:☺:―

Speaking of those events... Blog-Bud Deb sends along a link to a NY Times feature with a series of before and after satellite images of the Japan tsunami devastation.  A couple o' screen caps:

Before

After

What makes these images unusual is you can slide the cursor over the images for the before and after contrast.  I'm still having difficulty comprehending the extent of the damage; the continuing teevee coverage of this event has been heartbreaking.

Pretty Cool

Here's an interesting article about the Air Force flying flags... usually US flags, but not always... on missions over The AF.  A couple of excerpts:

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - Whether a unique thank you, patriotic souvenir, or solemn reminder more than 3,000 flags have been flown over the skies of Afghanistan by the combined aircraft of the 451st AEW over the past six months.

The wing, through its Operations Support Squadron, carries flags on routine missions over Afghanistan. It's an additional duty that aircrew have willingly accepted and anyone can submit any flag to be flown.

"We've had Boy Scout flags flown along with team flags," recalled Airman 1st Class Joshua Williams, a knowledge operator who is now the manager the flag flying program and whose office is packed with boxes full of American flags.

[...]

A large number of flags are requested by soldiers, many on a second or third deployment, said the colonel. Many, he described, credit the A-10 or one of the other 451st AEW aircraft with having saved their lives. When the soldiers drop off their flags and paperwork, they'll sit down and tell their story.

"They'll say, 'I want it flown on the A-10. That was the plane that saved me last time'," he recalled.

Airman Jones was struck by the story of a group of soldiers from a mounted division, who had fallen under attack while on a patrol. The group was almost out of ammunition and being fired on from several sides when a single airman in their group called in an air strike. Within 10 minutes an A-10 screamed overhead and destroyed the insurgents. Airman Jones claimed each of the soldiers requested flags from the A-10s.

Pretty cool, eh?  Long time EIP readers know the Air Force had a similar program during Operation Iraqi Freedom.  And how do you know this?  Coz ya saw mine:

(click for larger, as always)

SN1 got mine for me when he was at Balad AB in 2008.  As I said back when I received the flag:  Best Present Ever.  I'm bettin' those guys who have a flag flown in an A-10 feel pretty much the same way, only MUCH more so.

The Best Thing I've Seen Lately

We have water and we don't have any leaks.  The ice dams had melted away by early this afternoon and I turned the water back on just for grins 'n' giggles.  Close inspection of the service areas and all visible water lines revealed nothing amiss, so we assume Dr. Andy was right about the problem being a holding tank overflow.  We WILL be keeping a close eye on things for the next few, however.

What amazes and mystifies me is this wasn't our first cold-weather rodeo, but it was the first time we had issues beyond the all-too-often frozen water lines.  Ah, well.  Stuff happens.

Now if you'll excuse me, please, I have some dishes to do.

This Just In...

"This" meaning me, as in just in from running the day's errands.  I broke a vow of sorts by going to Wally-World on a Saturday and it was a zoo, as it always is on the weekends.  But we had pent-up demand because we stayed indoors during our recent... ummm... cold snap, if you can call sub-zero wind-chills a "snap."  I used to enjoy going to the zoo once upon a time but that was a zoo of an entirely different sort.  Well, I suppose that's open to debate...

One of our local radio stations had a van set up in the parking lot and was blaring music out for the entertainment of Wally-Worlders as I arrived on the scene.  I had to laugh at the logo on the side of the van as I walked by... "ALL the greatest hits!"... boogieing as I was to the sounds of the Beach Boys singing "I Get Around."  Yup, all the greatest hits from damned near 50 years ago.  I looked around the parking lot and observed not one single soul who possibly could have been alive when "I Get Around" was in the Top 40.  Except for me, of course.  It sucks when the Oldies station plays music the deejays spun as you waltzed around your high school gym...

 Then

Now

We could be doin' an outdoor Happy Hour today as it's 63 degrees outside, as we speak.  But I don't wanna, sez my Inner Child... mainly because I DON'T want to look at the much-too-slowly thawing ice lake (see above) that would be close to hand as we sat on the verandah.  Out of sight is out of mind, if you concentrate.

Concentration would be required, too, as the memory of hauling six gallons of water in from the outdoor tap is still fresh in my mind.  It's amazing how much water is required to do a small sink full of dishes, consisting mainly of three coffee cups, three beer glasses, and assorted dishes, plates, and silverware.  It will also be amazing if I don't succumb to food poisoning over the next few as I've resolved to rinse out each glass and cup immediately after using said vessel.  We WILL economize on dish soap, however... not to mention the fact we'll be eating out a lot more than usual, too.

And so it goes.

We Have Bad News and Bad News

Andy the RV Doctor just departed El Casa Móvil De Pennington.  His verdict: nothing can be done until the ice dams melt away, as the HUGE amounts of ice in every nook and cranny block access to everything/anything that might be broke.  No fix today, in other words... not that I really was expecting a fix.  The only good news is Andy feels the issue MIGHT be a holding tank overflow due to ice blockage, as opposed to a broken water line but there's no way of telling until the ice dams melt away.

Andy has been a busy, busy man the last few days.  He remarked in passing that nearly everyone living in an RV in the Clovis/Portales area froze up in one form or another last week, with some folks experiencing catastrophic damage.  That's obviously good for his bid'niz but not so good for us RV-dwellers.  I suppose there's some small consolation of the "misery loves company" variety, but it's small consolation, indeed.

So... the really bad news is three more days of livin' off bottled water, at the very least.  The only faint ray of hope is that we'll be in the mid-60s to lower 70s for the next week, so a fix should be forthcoming the first part of next week.  That's all well and good but I see at least ONE night in the Holiday Inn Express in my future.  That's mainly because I can do the stand-up bath thing with water heated on the stove, but washing my hair is problematic under those conditions.  

I guess I'll just pretend I'm "in the field" for the next few.

Damn Part II, or Worse Than I Thought

I didn't go out yesterday.  There was no need as I was stocked up on all the important stuff and it was just too damned cold out, anyhoo.  But I did order a pizza last evening.   As I was taking delivery I happened to look down, upon which time I scared the livin' Hell out of the pizza guy with my very emphatic and menacing "FUCK!" exclamation.  He stepped back a bit, still clutching the pizza box and looked at me with a wide-eyed "fight or flight" expression, the best I've seen lately.  "It's not YOU," sez I... "it's THAT!"  And this is what I saw:

It looks for all the world like I have a busted water line and it looks pretty bad, don't it?  So, whereas I THOUGHT our freeze-up yesterday morning was my fault for not leaving the tap running, it wasn't.  It was something one whole helluva lot worse.

Andy the RV Doctor will be dropping by for a house call tomorrow, once it warms up and we can see exactly where and how bad the break is.  

Sigh.  It's always SUMTHIN'.

Damn.

I had running water this morning, emphasis on had.  My water lines froze up in the short space of time between making the coffee and going back for my first refill, prolly about a half-hour.  It seems I wasn't fully awake while making the coffee and I shut the tap off completely instead of letting it run.  It apparently doesn't take long for water lines to freeze when it's only eight degrees outside.

Sigh.  It's always fuckin' SUMTHIN'.  I'll be living on emergency water for the next two days, as we're not supposed to get above freezing until Friday... or at least not long enough for the lines to thaw.  I prolly should have googled a "snake-bit" image for this post, eh?  Or sumthin' to do with stoopid. 

Get Off My Lawn! (Valentine's Day Edition)

I only have to put up with this shit for another five days or so:

and this crap, too...

We're economical with our words and don't waste time reinventing the wheel, so in that spirit here's what we've said the last few years on this subject:

I’m glad this “special day” is here and will be gone with the sunset this evening. Why? So I won’t be exposed to Creepy Valentines Day advertisements on my teevee every 17 minutes. From these guys.  You know, the people who tell ya there’s “…only one gift guaranteed to get women to take their clothes off…” with “all that spa stuff that women just love,” the bottom-line being “she’ll think you spent weeks planning it.” Yeah. Right. To say these ads insult male intelligence is only scratching the surface. And were I a woman receiving a V-Day pajamagram, I’d seriously RE-consider the quality of my relationship. That goes for Vermont Teddy Bears, as well… perhaps double. I’ve read both businesses are owned by the same company. Which may or may not be true, but the ads for both products look very similar, so I tend to believe what I hear. About which…

Yet another business to add to my list of places to visit when I begin my post-retirement career as a midnite fire-bomber. 

That was YrHmblScrb, ranting on St. Valentine’s Day last year (ed: 2007). The supremely irritating ads for VTBs and PajamaGrams began last Monday evening, as best as I can determine, and tend to run in various late night slots. FNC’s “Red Eye” seems overrun with the ads, just to cite one example, which presents me with yet another case where my mute button gets the ultimate work-out. The PajamaGram ads are quite tolerable with the sound turned off, though. Nice eye-candy. The VTB ads? Not so much…

At least the PajamaGram folks came up with something new this year: the incredibly erotic "hoodie-footie."  There's nothing like covering up all the fun bits... from head to toe... with pink fleece to pique a man's interest, eh?  A hoodie-footie would be very useful in the sort of weather we've been having of late, but it is NOT suitable boudoir wear.

Ah, well.  Valentine's Day was sorta fun in the third grade, unless you happened to be one of those kids who didn't get any Valentines or didn't get enough tacky cards to make the "popular" cut.  Ya hadda feel bad for those kids, but we digress.  I submit we should send V-Day back to school and KEEP it there.  A pox on Hallmark Holidays.  AND their associated ads.

―:☺:―

In other news... It wasn't supposed to get this gotdamned cold last night:

But it did.   I took that screen-shot around 2200 hrs last evening; we've warmed up to eight degrees (-13 windchill) since then.  We sure are burnin' a lot of propane this year.

Today's Happy Hour Soundtrack

New to me... some Geezer Rock (well, it ain't rock, really) from CSN&Y:

I'll admit I haven't kept up with either Crosby, Stills, and Nash OR Neil Young for the last few years and this song is over ten years old.  But the tune resonates with me because it sounds like "Old Neil," which is to say it would have fit in nicely on "Harvest," "Zuma," "Comes a Time" or any other of Neil's albums that are 30 years old... or older.  I was a MAJOR fan of Mr. Young in the way-back and sort of a minor fan of CSN(&Y) in the very early days (think: "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes").  We have posted quite a few reminisces about good times as we knew them and Neil and stuff over the life of EIP.  So this fit rather well today.

―:☺:―

Apropos of cold and frozen stuff... I was horrified to find my Humi-Pillows were all frozen solid when I went to select a cigar for today's Happy Hour.  Closer inspection revealed my cigar stash appears to be in good shape but freezing these sticks... about 50 of 'em... couldn't have done them any good.  Everything seems to be intact; yet another bullet dodged.  And so it goes.

Moving Day

Well, I have to check out of my semi-posh digs in a lil over an hour, so there's just enough time to get one last looong shower (unlimited hot water, yanno?) (when there IS hot water) (which, to the HIE's credit was all but seven hours of my approximately 90 hour stay), pack, and hide the bodies.  We're up to 22 degrees at this hour, on our way to a whopping 38... which will be the first time we'll find ourselves above freezing since Monday afternoon.  We are grateful for small favors.

We'll be back a lil later today, hopefully without tales o' woe concerning the state of El Casa Móvil De Pennington.  That said, I'm prepared for any and all eventualities.  Coz I'm good like that.

Update, 1130 hrs:  Well, we have water:

Sorta.  My water line to the coach is free and we have COLD water... but no hot water... in the kitchen, and nothing in the bathroom.

Worse... everything that COULD freeze DID freeze.  Even my soap:

The furnace didn't reset during my absence... as I figured it mightn't... and it is freakin' COLD inside El Casa.  The furnace is blowing hot air now and we should be back to some semblance of normal within an hour or two.  

In the words of John Howard Payne:  "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."

We Otta Be a Whole Helluva Lot Smarter By Friday...

... on account o' because we're gonna be spending the next four nights in the Holiday Inn Express just across the highway.  I thought about this long and hard before I decided to abandon El Casa Móvil De Pennington for a warmer space.  My Inner Macho Man said "don't be a freakin' wuss, it's just a lil cold, is all."  Macho Man was winning until I ran into Jenny at Wally-World and she was pretty emphatic with the "do it!" thing.  Which all goes to prove that women are generally smarter than men when it comes to macho stuff.

And just how cold will it be?  This cold:

 

I can do overnight temps in the teens but below zero stuff just ain't ANY fun.  At all.

So.  We're booked.  Registering at the front desk of the HIE was sorta funny... I was asked for address, etc. and duly gave the particulars... which got weird for the lady when she said "and your ZIP code there?'  "88130," sez I.  "Hunh?  What's that all about, if I may ask?"  We explained, she understood.  And Hey!  Free breakfast for the next four days, or at least someone else is gonna do the cookin'.  Coz it ain't exactly free, yanno? 

Rock On!

Well... mebbe next week, coz the current WX (see the post below) precludes a road test under actual field conditions.  The new rocker arrived today and it IS most comfortable and sturdy.  We had to try it out in the limited space available here in El Casa Móvil De Pennington and we were most impressed.

Did I ever tell ya our living accommodations are small, Gentle Reader?  It's almost like bein' in the Navy.

Only better.  I don't share my quarters with a close friend (or 60, or more) and alcohol is allowed in the berthing spaces.  Encouraged, even.

Blog Fodder

There was no sleeping in TODAY.  These guys got to work around 0945 hrs and they're jes a lil bit... umm... intrusive.

So... I step outside to take the pic and one of the tree dudes gets VERY defensive, as in "We notified the park owner yesterday that we'd be here today!"  "Well, yeah, OK"... sez I... "No worries, this is just blog fodder."  "Whut?" sez he.  I should have just said "Never mind" coz he still didn't geddit after at least six minutes of explanation.

Yup.  This Modern Age.

Added, 1300 hrs:   Did I say a LIL BIT intrusive?  Why, I think I did...

It Is To Laugh

So... here's the skinny on our third-world power grid:

Xcel working to solve repeated power failures

January 11, 2011 1:09 PM

An Xcel spokesman said a short-term solution to Portales’ power troubles has been found and crews are working to resolve recent problems.

Technicians are installing  a higher capacity breaker in a substation near downtown Portales while at the same time working to shift power loads from overloaded lines, spokesman Wes Reeves said Tuesday.

“(The new breaker) will allow more power to flow,” Reeves said, as opposed to the existing breaker, which trips the circuit at a lower level, causing power failures.

About 600-800 Portales Xcel customers have lost power four times in the last week, with the most recent incident being Tuesday morning.

“Customers should be aware that these are extreme conditions and should be prepared to keep warm in some other way if the power goes out again,” Reeves said.

There's more at the link, including the fact last night's failures were on the coldest day of the season.  I got a kick out of the only comment on the story:

Last weeks story was a joke. Xcel blames their customers for not telling them that the grid load has increased over time. I believe we all have that little round box on the side of our house that tells them how much electricity is being used. At least they send me a letter every month asking for money! We lost power six times last night and once this morning.

The commenter's reference to "blaming the customers" comes from a quote by an Xcel energy spokesman who asked customers to notify Xcel when they install new appliances or devices that will increase electricity consumption.  They really said that.

Update, 1815 hrs.   Mebbe Xcel could call these guys for some professional help:

Civil engineers restore electricity to village

Posted 1/11/2011  

by Senior Airman Tong Duong
332nd Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

1/11/2011 - JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq (AFNS) -- For the past three months, inhabitants of Bakir village, Iraq, were without power, but members of the 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron, contractors and local Iraqi electricians worked together to install new high-voltage cable to restore electricity.

Heh.