One of them is the fee for the P.O. Box so when I went to pick up my correspondence stopped to inquire why and the reason is that they never received it! If I do not pay it by next Friday I will have to pay more because the fees are going up...I had paid the fee for current box holders.
Swung by the library to ask for help in learning how to scan documents so I won't have to keep a physical copy and cut down on my paper clutter. The people that work there are very helpful. Learned that scanning using their machines is FREE whereas making black and white copies cost .10 cents apiece. It was a no brainer.
Ran out of serranos again so stopped by little HEB but like last time ended buying much more to prepare for the colder temperatures. By the time I got home, I was exhausted. Sat down to watch the start of a Spurs game but before I knew it...it was 1:11 a.m. and I had missed the whole thing so went back to sleep. I woke up at 7:05 a.m. after sleeping soundly for 12 hours!
We had a low of 42 and a high of 73 degrees with plenty of sunshine.
Good night. May you all have Terlingua Dreams.
Saying of the Day
I'm probably crazy but I like to have a paper copy of anything important. I just don't trust technology for the long haul - something is going to fail majorly in the future.
ReplyDeleteYou are not crazy...I totally agree with you about a major fail in the future. However, I have so many copies of what I considered important going back 30 years...well, at least of those that have not faded.
DeleteI am drowning in paperwork and I really want to streamline it. Even though I hate cellphones for the past two years I have been taking pictures of many of my important documents and keeping the SD cards in my bank's safe deposit box.
I know what you mean about all the paperwork. I finally decided to throw stuff away from long ago, and even some not-so-old items. I don't need or want to keep any documents relating to my mobile home, as it is sold and I doubt I'll ever need them. Same with utility bills; I keep the last two or three but no more than that. But I think there will be a major technology fail before I'll ever need any of that old stuff.
DeleteWith everything that is going on with this administration and our foreign enemies it is only a matter of time before they launch a Cyber attack on the US, its institutions, electrical grid, water sources, nuclear facilities, etc.etc.
DeleteI still have the first computer I ever owned the type that uses floppy disks and just for the fun of it I powered it up last December and by golly it works and so did my floppies so I still have copies of what I then considered important and without using the internet.
I need to write some property tax checks this month too. It's just making a rental payment to the govt for property I own free and clear. If you don't pay you get evicted.
ReplyDeleteI am just glad I sent off the payments early just in case something went wrong. While two of them I could have paid online the other three did not offer that option.
DeleteDel Rio has two post offices and our P.O. Box is in the old one which has a new personnel that are just learning the ropes. One left me a note saying my name was not included in the box and I should add it if I wanted to continue getting my mail.
I took the note to the lady at the counter and she apologized that is how I found out they had new people working there. We have had the same P.O. Box for 47 years and no one had ever questioned WHY I was receiving my mail there. Turns out my dad's last name had been removed and only his first name remained so of course the new person had no idea that was a Spanish first name not a last name so it was not going to match.
I'm with bigfoot, what a scam own and paid for and still have to pay more.
DeleteOur taxes cover police, fire, school districts, hospital, local colleges so they have to be funded even if we own our properties outright.
DeleteSnail Mail is so unreliable. You might have been better to drop the Cheque off in person.
ReplyDeleteGlad you caught up on some sleep. You might have to readjust your sleep time.
Be Safe and Enjoy the warmer winter temperatures.
It's about time.
Rick, had I known I would have paid it in person. If I'm still around next year I will certainly do that.
DeleteFirst game I got to watch this year.
ReplyDeleteUgh
Well at least they won this afternoon. Too bad they have a quick turn around and have a game tomorrow.
DeleteMaybe I'm a jinx so I better stop watching. I didn't expect anything this year but thought they would be fun to watch. Let's see if they can gel and get something going during and after the rodeo road trip. There's plenty of time. GSG!
DeleteThey have been fun to watch...except when they lose! Kidding, actually even when we have lost I have enjoyed watching how much DeMar DeRosan has improved as well as LaMarcus Aldridge.
DeleteI can hardly believe the Rodeo Road trip is just around the corner.
This is Part 4A of the Terlingua trip. We spent two nights in the tent in Chisos Basin campground in Big Bend National Park. The weather was fantastic, very comfortable. We hiked several trails and now “N” wanted to pack up and head to Terlingua for the chili cookoff. Since we had not planned to camp at Big Bend (I am serious, we did zero planning), we didn’t know the location of the gas stations [I saw two gas/diesel stations within the park and one in Terlingua] or showers, or if there even were any in the park. I asked the park ranger where the showers were located and he said there was only one shower in the entire park. He said there was also a private shower at an RV park in Terlingua, just outside of the park. We were camping at Chisos Basin which is in the center of the park. The only shower in Big Bend National Park is in the Rio Grande Village Store which is at the extreme southeast corner of the park. Terlingua is at the extreme west side of the park, just outside of the park. The sensible thing to do would have been to head for Terlingua and take a shower there. My thought was, since we are not in a big hurry, we should drive all the way over to Rio Grande Village and shower there. If we do that, we get to see the east side of the park and check out the only showers in the park. We loaded up and headed to Rio Grande Village. After we found it, we looked for a trail and went hiking before we took a shower. It was getting a little cooler with a little wind so I wore my sweater on the hike. There was word that it was supposed to be cold and windy in a few hours. The shower is coin operated and only takes quarters. It is $2 for 5 minutes. That was, without a doubt, the best $2 shower I’ve ever taken. After the shower we headed for Terlingua which is all the way on the opposite side of the park, just outside the park. We really didn’t know what we were getting into or what to expect. We had no way to research anything so we were learning all this as we went along.
ReplyDeleteAt least you got to go on several hikes. The only time I have been to Big Bend National Park was the first time I drove out there by myself and Triple A routed me through the park.
DeleteBack then there were no smartphones and not too many people had computers much less access to the Internet.
Park rangers are walking encyclopedias glad you ran into one.
This is Part 4B. According to the Rand McNally Mileage Calculator, Rio Grande Village is 145.8 miles away from Fort Stockton and I 10 where we should have been without this unplanned stop. That means we were now 145.8 miles x 2 (round trip) = 291.6 miles out of the way from our planned trip. According to Rand McNally, it is 49.7 miles to Terlingua from Rio Grande Village. We headed for Terlingua and the original chili cookoff. The couple in the restaurant told us it would be “behind the store” so we drove to the store and started looking for an entrance to the cookoff. We found the entrance and drove in. I asked the attendants, “what is this and how much does it cost”? They said it was the original chili cookoff and it is $40 per person. The lady that was training the guy was very nice and told us that there are two different cookoffs and if we were looking for the original one then we were at the correct place. She told the guy to be sure and tell people that just in case they are looking for CASI. The way we understood it, according to the couple in the Rio Bravo Restaurant, you could camp “anywhere” behind the store. We drove down the driveway and there were a lot of canopy tents and RVs. We drove to a dead end and turned to the right. We drove a little and saw an empty spot on the left and pulled in. There was no place to set up a tent in this spot because it was too small but we both decided that it was too cold and too windy to set up the tent. If we had to do it, we could have done it, but neither of us wanted to try it. We decided we would just sleep in the car rather than setting up the tent in this weather since we were only staying one night. They had two bands that night. The first band was The Lavens from San Antonio and the other band was The Tejas Brothers from Fort Worth. After the dances we went back to the car. The next morning we had breakfast and headed back to I 10.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I went to the cook-off was with an ex-boyfriend and we drove down from Houston. A mutual friend warned me that he might call me since all his male friends had turned him down. When I realized he wanted to go to the Terlingua Chili cook-off I promptly hung up on my friend and called my ex...jajajaja!
DeleteIt was a Friday and I usually drove my camping van so I could go party after work without having to go home to change. I can certainly relate to not having planned anything out or even having adequate clothes to wear the first time I went. I also went for only one day.
The ex had not been to a cook-off in years so he pulled into the wrong one the "one behind the store". It was around two o'clock in the morning so no one was manning the entrance. He quickly realized we were at the wrong one and we went on our way to find CASI.
It is a good thing that the lady you got was training the new guy correctly so he would inquire which cook-off the people wanted to attend. I have known so many people that attended the "Original" one their first time because it is the first one they come to.
You made the right decision to car camp. It was terribly windy and cold those last days in October.
This is Part4C. According to the Rand McNally Mileage Calculator it is 148 miles from Terlingua to Fort Stockton. That means we went 145.8 miles + 49.7 miles + 148 miles = 343.5 miles out of the way (off of I 10) to camp in Big Bend and attend the Terlingua chili cookoff.
ReplyDeleteI searched the Internet for that private shower in Terlingua the park ranger told me about and found out that it is at BJs RV Park which was the next entrance past the entrance where we turned in for the cookoff. We drove all the way across Big Bend National Park to use the only shower in the park and ended up sleeping right next to the shower that is outside of the park.
We went 3,255 miles in 19 days (18 nights).
We slept in:
the tent 10 nights
the condo 4 nights
a hotel/motel 2 nights
the Star Dome 1 night (it looks like an Igloo made of adobe bricks without a roof)
the car 1 night
I did all of the driving and “N” did all of the planning and navigating.
MsB wrote: I was wondering how you knew where to camp
d wrote: A couple at the restaurant told us you can camp anywhere behind the store. We did not ask anyone else for confirmation, we just drove around until we found an open space. Since we had already decided on the way there not to use the tent because of the weather, all we needed was a parking space.
MsB wrote: and how you would rate it.
d wrote: Since we were only there for two days (one night) and we really just went for the dances, I would rate it as great because we had a lot of fun dancing. I’m glad that we went.
This ends the Terlingua trip story.
Flyingdj - I really want to thank you for sharing your first time Terlingua Chili Cook-off with me and my readers.
DeleteThe shower you refer to is the one most of us used to go after they closed down the ones in Lajitas. It is also a quarter shower. After they invented shower tents I bought one and quit going there because the lines were so long.
Do you think you and "N" would consider going again?
This is a post I made back in 2016 that documents the first time I came to the cook-off many moons ago when I was a freshman at Sul Ross State University.
Deletehttps://terlinguadreams.blogspot.com/2016/10/terlingua-chili-cook-off-memories.html#comment-form
It is just amazing how much paperwork is involved in modern life. What to keep and what to toss is a constant worry. I do not trust any information to the cloud. Big brother is always looking for new ways to monkey with our information and the internet could easily go down just when you need it the most. But that is just me being paranoid.
ReplyDeleteTwelve hours of sleep sounds like pure heaven. I am lucky to get three in a row.
The postal service has become so unreliable. If I send anything important via mail, I always get a receipt so I have proof. Its a dollar or two more but cheap enough for peace of mind. I just paid my box rental here for six more months. It was $32.00. I get a few notes and cards from my fan club, which I love, and it makes my day to open my box and see something besides a bill or my bank statement.
I am still enthralled with the Harry and Megan saga. I am beginning to wonder if they are being used to send up a smoke screen to cover news about Andrew's involvement with Epstein. It's like episodes of Dallas. At least it is a break from endless politics going in circles. We are all circling the drain.
Weather here has warmed up to 35*. I am ready for spring.
To think that when personal computers came to be they said we would no longer need paper copies...how wrong they were.
DeleteI suffer from insomnia have for years so 12 hours of uninterruped sleep was like winning the lottery. When I send something important I used to send it register mail return receipt requested but it went up so much it is cheaper to send using their 2-day all you fit in an envelope option.
Your P.O. Box rate is very reasonable I paid $118.00 for a year.
At 35 degrees you all are experiencing a heat wave! I like your theory about the smoke screen to cover up Andrew's involvement with Epstein.
Can you believe that one year from now a new President (I am being optimistic) will take the oath of office? I will watch sham trial tomorrow.
In 2000 I bought a MFC (multifunction center) 6-in-1 printer.
ReplyDeleteThey are also called all-in-1 printers.
Mine prints, copies, scans, FAXes, and does 2 other functions that I never use.
Like you, I live in the county/country so I wanted something I could use at home instead of running to town to do these things.
It has never been in the shop.
It is a LASER printer, not an ink jet printer.
If I was buying one today, I would just buy a 3-in-1 (print, copy, scan) because I never use the FAX.
If you didn’t want to mess with the printer/copier portion, you can buy just a scanner.
In the old days, you had to load the drivers and software on a CD/DVD.
Now days, you just plug in the USB port and it is ready to go.
They even have wireless so you don’t have to run the USB cable.
That is just a suggestion so you don’t have to run to town every time you want to scan something.
I really do not want to buy anymore stuff do not have the room for it though I have considered buying a scanner so I can scan our family albums.
DeleteYou asked if we would consider going to Terlingua again. I’m pretty sure we will go again. If not every year, maybe every other year or whenever we can work it in. If we are driving that far, we might consider what you said some people do, go to both of them depending on the bands playing and what time they play. That would be an expensive dance but we might as well get the most things in for the money while we are there if we can work in a lot of dances.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you would consider going again. I am not 100% sure but I think it only costs $10.00 or 20.00 dollars to just attend the concert/dance portion.
DeleteWith that said The Original Cook-off seems to attract better bands than those who play at CASI. It has been years since I went to the pavilion to hear the bands (I am a lousy dancer).
I would consider going to the Original Cook-off if Los Lonely Boys ever played at the event.
That is the second time you have mentioned Los Lonely Boys. I laughed the first time you mentioned them (when you compared them to The Tejas Brothers) and I laughed again. The reason I laughed was because I had a boss that was a fan of them. We had a very boring job. Just to keep things interesting, every time he mentioned how great they were, I, just to pass the time of day, would argue how bad they were.
DeleteLol, your poor boss!
DeleteDon't you bad mouth my favorite band...I also like their Lonely Papi...a tall weathered widowed cowboy that is easy on the eyes :)
I read your post concerning your first time at the cookoff (when you were apparently a 5-year-old prodigy in college). I was in Terlingua and all of the Big Bend area in 1967. My highlight for that trip was being able to throw a rock all the way across the rio (river) into Mexico from the US side.
ReplyDeleteLol, you made my night!
DeleteFake News...I have never been to BJ's RV Park...the showers most people in my camp attended before they bought their RV's were the ones at Big Bend Motor Inn I think it is now called Big Bend Resort and Adventures.
DeleteThey have separate showers left for women, right for men and they are coin-operated. While they have toilets on the weekend they run low on toilet paper so take your own.
I assumed the Park Ranger or Park Host was talking about BJ's because I found this comment about BJ's which is next to the Terlingua store:
DeleteJamie B wrote a review Nov 2016
Hot Showers!
We didn't stay in the RV park so I do not have any comments regarding the sites - only used the showers. We were camping in BBNP and there is only one shower facility in the whole park - $2 for 5 minutes of COLD water! We happen to be making an evening trip into Terlingua to check out the town and drove by this park - just on a whim pulled in and inquired about showers. We were able to use the showers for a $4 fee. They were clean and had HOT water! The camp host was super nice and accommodating. We even returned the next night for a shower.
MsB wrote: Park rangers are walking encyclopedias glad you ran into one.
ReplyDeleted wrote: Park Rangers were plentiful around our campground. A “neighbor” across from us got fined $80 for leaving an ice chest out because it was not in the bear-proof-bin.
Wow, that is a stiff fine!
DeleteIf bears are around I don't think I would want to camp there it is bad enough having to deal with the rattle snakes :-(
I didn't see a bear in BBNP, but "N" saw a bear when we were there. We also saw bear scat on our hikes.
Delete