A Slow Day

Monday
May 11, 2009

I slept in this morning as did Gina. Of course my sleeping in was only until 6 o’clock but that’s a lot for me. Now Gina on the other hand slept until 9:30. This was going to be a slow day for both of us. Gina spent her day in Louisiana pressure spraying the house and trying to move things around in preparation for Nicole & Shane to move in at the end of the month. I spent the day at work trying to earn a dollar. I thought I would put a picture of the ship as it was arriving in Corpus Christi last Saturday.

Helix Producer I Arriving

Artist Concept drawing of final configuration

This is the project that I have been working on for the last 16 months and still have approximately 8 months to go before it goes offshore and starts producing oil.

Once I got home I installed a new filter in the Rear AC unit for the truck and surfed online for a little while. I’m still researching my electrical install for the truck. My dilemma is I just don’t see a need to install solar power yet mainly due to cost so what is the best way to recharge my batteries? My thought process is that I have two choices: buy a large enough generator to run the heaviest load which would be either two Honda 2000 watt generators and operate in parallel which would charge the batteries as the power went through the inverter or buy a separate battery charger and buy a small 1000 watt generator just to charge the batteries. The normally process would be to just connect your power to the ac input of the inverter and allow the inverter’s built in battery charger to recharge the batteries. The problem is once you connect an ac power source then you cannot use the power from your batteries. If you have a generator that is big enough then there is no problem. The concept here is replacing solar panels with a small generator and battery charger. The cost of solar power for what I’m looking at is approximately 6000 dollars and the cost of a small generator plus battery charger is 1000 dollars of course this doesn’t include gas. This is a big difference to me when I’m just not sure if we are going to boondock very much. I’m not in a big hurry for setting this up but just researching.

While I was eating dinner I had a neighbor stop by and ask if he could use my powertank to fill his trailer tires to 110 psi and his compressor was struggling. I said sure so I got it out and brought it down and within 5 minutes the power tank had all four tires at 110 psi. I will tell you these power tanks may not be cheap but in my opinion worth every penny when you consider what is required to use a compressor. Mike I think you’ll be selling another power tank to a guy named Greg. He’ll also be buying a pressure pro tire monitoring system too. After I finished that I came inside and watched “House”. I tried to talk to Gina but they had a real bad electrical storm come through Louisiana and knocked out the power so I called her back later and then she cooking dinner for Thomas, his girlfriend and Malinda (Gina’s friend). She said that she would call me back. However, I never heard back from her before I fell asleep. So folks that was our day. Not very exciting but it was another great day.


Until tomorrow, Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Gina's Enjoys Mother's Day

Sunday
May 10, 2009

Happy Mother’s Day to all the ladies out there. I woke up early this morning to post an entry in the blog for Friday and Saturday which I got done before Gina woke up. I then brought Gina her cup of coffee to bed but she wanted to get up and go outside to enjoy the morning. So we went outside and enjoyed it together. Around 9 o’clock Nicole & Shane stopped by to give her a Mother’s Day card along with a nice Orchid plant in a pot (this is an inside plant). Nicole wrote about something that happened when she was 9 years old that Gina had long forgot about but it had a lasting impression on Nicole. While they were here Gina took them out to see the pool she put in with the ducks. Gina decided she wanted to get inside and catch a duck.

Look at that Face






It's a duck not a dog but she wanted to Pet it

For those that don’t know Gina is a city girl. So these kinds of things are really fascinating to her. For the next two hours she was like a kid in that she kept telling me how she caught and held a duck. It was definitely a good laugh for all of us out there watching her. While sitting outside I decided to feed the fish so we all could watch the fish eating and playing around in the pond and Gina could get loved on by her children and I could take some pictures of them.

But the most important item for the day was giving Gina her Mother’s day present. Normally I would have just given it to her but this year was different since I needed her supervision. She has wanted to create another sitting area in her garden so that was my present to her. Here are some pictures. I would like to say I did it all by myself but if you know Gina she couldn’t just watch me, she had to get involved too.

It was now lunchtime and I asked her what she wanted but she just said she didn’t want anything fancy. That didn’t answer my question but she did finally tell me she wanted a Stromboli from our local pizza place. I called in the order and then we went and picked it up so she could see how the new seats feel in the truck. Once we got back home we sat outside in the swing so she could eat and enjoy such a beautiful day. I wanted to go to Wal-mart since I didn’t want to stop off on my way home to Houston tonight. So off we went to wally world. Once we got back to the house it was time for me to leave and head back to our home in Houston. I got on the road at 5 o’clock but got stuck in traffic in Baton Rouge for almost an hour. I finally made it through the back up. I talked to Gina a few times while I was driving and she was just enjoying her day relaxing. I made it back home a little after 10 o’clock and heated up the leftovers from Monjunis restaurant. It is some of the best Italian food in my opinion. After that I said good night to Gina and went to bed. It was another great day and Gina enjoyed her Mother’s Day. I am so thankful that God gave her to me and that she is the mother of our children. She has been such a wonderful wife and mother to all of us.

Until tomorrow, Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.

Happy Mother's Day

First thing before I get started I wanted to explain why we moved sites. I was supposed to move to Rockport Texas on May 1st but the client decided at the last minute that I was going to stay in Houston until September. When I went to the office to tell them they said that they didn't have any monthly rentals available for May. Well they called me on May 1st and told me that I could stay where I was until May 8th and then I would have to move to the site that we're at until the 21st and then I would have to move again and this site I could stay in until September 1st. We're ok with this since we really enjoy this place and the owners are super nice. Only half of the campground is available for monthly rentals and it's not because they want to make more money but they built this place with the intent for families to have somewhere to camp in Houston or a place that groups could have a rally for a week or weekend.

Now on to Friday and Saturday:

We had another semi normal morning in that I drove the big truck into work since I would be leaving straight from there for Louisiana. I made it to Louisiana at 7 o’clock. Gina was still down at my sister’s house finishing up her landscaping and Thomas was on the backhoe finishing up the culvert. Here are some pictures of what she did. I don’t know how she does it. That is back breaking manual labor but she loves it none the less and the best part is she’s not spending my money!!!

While I driving I decided I wanted to go out to eat at this little Italian restaurant. Gina still had to water her garden and take a shower so finally we got to the restaurant a little after 9 o’clock. The name of the place is Monjunis. Gina had a shrimp pasta dish, I had crawfish fettuccine and Thomas had meatballs. It was very good. The funny part is I brought my own seasoning and the waitress looked at me funny but it was worth a good laugh. Their food is good but just needed a little kick. We had a great time talking with Thomas listening to his stories of his last day of school.

Interesting Sign

Grapes Hanging from the Ceiling

Saturday found Gina working in our yard first thing in the morning after we had our coffee in our garden. My dad came down and we wanted to finish the AC install in our truck. We got the holes drilled in the cab and ran the copper tubing and electrical between the two units. We had all intentions to finish but this AC unit has a new type of Freon and the fitting is different. Apparently every time there is a new Freon they change the fittings so you cannot mix different Freon. Well, finishing the AC install will have to wait until next weekend. I then began helping Gina in her garden. I cut the grass and then I used the pressure sprayer and cleaned under our carport. By this time Gina had made it back from the store with a kiddy pool. Thomas built a cage last weekend for the ducks out by our big pond and Gina wanted them to have some water to play in. Putting the pool out there was the easy part getting water to fill it was the hard part since the pond is about 400 feet from the nearest faucet. I rounded up all the hoses and finally had enough to reach it. We watched them for a little while to see what they were going to do with it. One by one they jumped in and it was exciting to watch them play.

Gina Waiting for the Ducks to Jump into the Pool

Ducks Having Fun

We then left there and went to Jack & Sue’s house for a fish fry. As always the fish, French frys, hush puppies , and fried pickles were great. We finally made it home at 7:30 and we walked out by the ducks again and watched them until it got dark. Once we made it inside for the night we got cleaned up and called Ashley down in Grenada and talked to her for awhile. Finally, we had enough and went to bed.

Until tomorrow, Gina & I hope everyone has a pleasant and wonderful day, enjoying what our Father has so graciously blessed us with.