Picked Up The RV

Last Saturday our friends Louie and Jeneane invited us over for cocktails and snacks. Louie had just brought his custom made bar-b-que pit home. He had it built in Sugar Land, Texas for $2800.00. It's a beautiful pit with lots of great features but man, that's a lot of money.

He can cook about a dozen briskets in the side stack alone not counting the two racks in the main chamber. It's made from heavy gauge steel and powder coated. The main chamber is a 24" pipe. To compare my pit has a 15" pipe. There are two chimneys on the vertical stack and one on the main chamber. The main chamber has two metal plates that spread the heat evenly. We cooked bacon wrapped dove breasts on it and it was like cooking in an oven, no moving everything around to prevent burning.  This pit will last him the rest of his life. I look forward to lots of good food from it. All the pictures in this post are from my i-Phone except the last one.

This week I told my boss that I was planning on retiring in June if everything works out. I wasn't going to say anything to him until a month before the date but he has been a good boss so I feel I owe him a heads up. He didn't act surprised but did tell me I could stay as long as I liked. Kind of a weird vibe. Made me feel like a house guest who maybe needed to move on.

We started construction on the the Galveston Seawall this week. It will probably be my last big project. I'm doing the full time inspection as well as the construction administration. I know that it's been a while since I've stood on my feet following a milling machine for 11 hours a day. That's what we usually hire consultant engineers for. My feet and legs have been complaining all week. Back in the day I wouldn't have thought anything of it.

Thursday the Harvest Moon Regatta started. They had about 200 boats according to the paper. It was neat to watch them sail across the horizon. I'm not sure where they sail to, Port Aransas I think.

You can barely make them out. I wish I had the good camera with me. It was a beautiful day to be anywhere but work.

I picked up the RV today. Connie had to work and she was a nervous wreck about me going by myself. She left a post-it note on the check book to remind me to put the mirrors out on the truck.

When I got to the dealer they took 15 minutes to find the check from the insurance company. It had been mailed to them three weeks ago. They handed me the check to sign and the invoice for the work. The check was for $2279.75. That was the amount of the agreed repairs minus my $500 deductible. The total repairs were supposed to be $2779.75. The invoice was for $2937.98. I asked them who was supposed to pay the $158.23 difference. They thought I should. I asked them if anything had been done other than the agreed upon work order. They said no and had no other explanation for the discrepancy. I refused to pay it and threatened to call the adjuster. They backed off immediately and accepted the agreed upon total. Nice try guys. You've screwed me once before on repairs you aren't going to do it again.

I left there and drove to Discount Tire in Texas City. I was praying all the way that one of the other tires didn't blowout. I had called all over looking for good, American made, NEW trailer tires. Most places wanted to sell me truck tires or Chinese made tires. Discount told me they could get me Goodyear Marathon trailer tires made in the USA this year. I told them to order them and that I would be there today to get them mounted.
I pulled in, gave the man a check and left with 4 new tires in less than an hour. The total cost was $604.00 including road hazard. I also found out I could get four new Goodyear tires for the dually for a hell of a lot less per tire than I paid for the two Firestones I bought earlier this year. That will be necessary in the near future.

Connie should be proud of me. I pulled in and backed up into the stall with no jockeying around. I didn't hit anything and even remembered the AC unit on top. She seems to think I'm a disaster waiting to happen when I'm towing that RV.

I left there and drove home without incident. Backed into the driveway perfectly on the first try. I didn't even have to use the driveway across the street to get it in the right spot. Unlike someone else I know. :) She better be nice to me or I won't let her tow it anymore.

Home safe and sound!

We have been having great sunsets lately. Here's one from the other evening.

Adios for now, enjoy the day.

--Rod