STARLINK MINI

 Here we are, still kicking and screaming in central Cali.  I think I've recovered from the shrimp fest and am on to better things .... like girding my loins for Bingo night, WAY too close to that full moon,

Weird photo this morning.  That's the moon, surrounded by a rainbow of colors that don't show up in the picture.  

The opposite direction looks like this.  It's a wonderful 66 degrees, soon to be down to the mid 50's.  YAY!  I think Mother Nature is ready to dump all her leaves in my front yard.

The first thing on my to-do list was to use up those tomatoes before they spoiled.  I actually boiled some water to make the tomatoes easier to peel.  That little trick really works well.  After a ride in the blender, I dumped them into the pot of browned hamburger.  I prefer Italian sausage, but alas, there was none at the Mexican store in town.  More spices than I have EVER used before, went swimming for about an hour.

I compared it to the leftover in the fridge.  Not bad ... not bad at all, though I could taste a little anise in the other one.  I dumped a big spoonful on top of the leftover pasta.  Perfect for lunch!!

I contemplated staying home, but you know that's not in me.  Just as I was heading out the door to the fabric shop, they called to say the last two Veterans Quilts were ready for pickup.  If you remember, my machine went on the fritz, so I took them to the shop.  It has taken a month to get them done.  Luckily I have until October to finish them up.

And then of course I had to get these.  I'm guessing you can tell what this quilt will be ... a Halloween special.  Yessiree ... bought most of this fabric two years ago for that pumpkin quilt.  Hopefully THIS year it will get done.

That left me back at home sampling all of that sweet goodness out of the fridge ... leftover desserts.   That is not good for the diet, but OH so tasty!  I finally decided it was time to tackle the Starlink setup.

I went to the patio and set it on a small table in the middle of the lawn.  The only setup was plugging the cord in to the unit itself, with the other end going into the plug.  That's it ... the router is built in.  

Next you download the Starlink App (which I had already done) and sign in.  I clicked on START YOUR SETUP.  This was the first screen that popped up.  

As with all electronics, the next thing that popped up was an UPDATE.  It took maybe 4 minutes for this to happen.

As it rebooted, it told me to go to settings and turn on my phone Wi-Fi, clicking on the Starlink icon.

Next it told me there were no obstructions, but to click on Alignment.  This image came up which had me completely stumped.  Finally I figured out when I moved the phone, the alignment arrow got longer or shorter, meaning I needed to turn the dish around until it disappeared.  Sure enough ... I was aligned.

So from now on, set it up, click on the WiFi setting on my phone and align the dish.  Done!!  I played a few games on my phone to see how the speed was ... and it was just fine.  In fact, you can check the speed downloads and uploads.  Just for fun, I clicked on that to find the download was at 225 and the upload at 25.  All I know is that it worked great.  

It was a piece of cake to set up.   Maybe tomorrow I will see how it works with my smart TV that is much smarter than I am, since I haven't been able to figure it out at all!   It will also be interesting to see just how far 50gb will get me, which is the much cheaper limit.  Not far enough, I'm sure, but I can move to unlimited with a click of my phone.

Next question, is it waterproof?  They say it can take rain, hail and snow, but not tornados, hurricanes, meteors, dinosaurs or other extreme forces of nature.  Yes, that's exactly what it says.  Okay then .....

Though we rarely see sunsets around here, there was a nice one last night as I put the dish away and folded up the cord.  

That took all of two minutes and I think this will be a good addition to my van.  The cost you ask?  $500.00.  If you want the BIG version, they are currently on sale for $175.00, but then you have to deal with the much bigger dish, the long cord AND the router.  

Now to find a nice hard case to put it in while traveling.  And of course put on my armor for BINGO because TONIGHT is the last night my Fairy Godmother will be able to work and do all that setup for me.  I will now be left to my own devices!!!  Wah Wah Wahhhhhhhhh!

The Moon and The Starlink?

 Good Morning!!  Just like McDonalds, I'm loving it this morning.  Not that it's going to stay this way for long, but we had a gorgeous 60 degree night, followed by a lovely 81 degree day.  I may just have to get out and DO something!

Here we are at 6:30 getting in a little exercise by the same sunflowers that are still blooming like crazy.

Two minutes after returning to the house ... yup ... fast asleep.  It didn't take long and I was right behind him.

We said hello to Kitters as we wandered outside to water the tomatoes.  She's looking much better since being brushed most every morning.  There was lots of purring and leg rubbing, which brought out a bite of the hand that feeds her.  That was followed by a little SWAT on the butt.  She apologized.  No attitude allowed around here girlie!!

I put this box out for her, along with a crate, to see if she would sleep in one.  Sure enough, she was snuggled up in the cardboard box.  I guess even WILD kitties like cardboard boxes.  Yes there will be a visit to the Vet in her future.

A quick check of the mini tomatoes brought about a discovery this morning.  Cooper has always gone straight to them, smelling in and around the branches.  What did we find this morning but LOTS of ... well ... crap.  It doesn't look like fox to me, but it could be.  Apparently we have something running around at night that will require the game camera to come back out.  I've got my fingers crossed it's not wearing a tuxedo!

Another morning harvest will be made into spaghetti sauce as soon as I get the lodge recipe.  That stuff was so good I ate it straight from a cup with a spoon.  

In between catching a few Zzzz's on the couch, I put up the deserts in the freezer.  First things first, the lemon bars don't freeze well, and there's no way I could eat an entire pan, so I called my neighbor.  Turns out they are the man of the house's favorite.  I was happy to accommodate.  With four folks living there, they won't last long.

Then on to the caramel almond squares.  These look more like breakfast bars to me!  Yes I even ate the crumbs with a spoon.  It's mostly OATS, which are healthy for you, right???

After yet another afternoon nap ... I woke up just in time to see someone drop off a package.  That's interesting ... I'm not expecting anything for two weeks.  FED EX?  No .... it couldn't be.  I just ordered that Starlink Mini two days ago.  They said 2 to 3 WEEKS for delivery.   

My brain wasn't quite awake yet, so I left it on the counter for several hours.  No use trying to figure it out when I wasn't thinking straight.  A few hour later ... here we are ... nice long cable, a wall plug-in and a connector if you want to put it on top of a pole.  

As is usual nowadays, there are no instructions other than how to attach it to a pole, which I'm not going to do.  Everything is done through your phone and their app.  How to set it up, how to make the satellite connection, how to switch usage programs ... everything.  

Yes, it's still in the box.  I'm feeling much more intelligent this morning ... so maybe after the sun rises, I'll plug it in on the patio and see what I can mess up ... I mean see how quickly I can set it up.

As you know, the full moon is not my friend, beautiful though it may be.  This is the CORN MOON because the Indians were harvesting corn at this time of year.  Europeans call it the Falling Leaves moon for obvious reasons.  It's autumn and leaves are falling.  

I call it the OMG moon because it's WAY too close to Tuesday Bingo night!!  I'm sure the hangover will be epic!!

And so ended a lovely day of guess-what's-in-your-back-yard NOW!  I wonder if they are eating the little tomatoes from the branches laying on the ground.  Hopefully I'll find out tomorrow after setting up the camera.

Here's to another gorgeous day!!!!

The Shrimp Boats Have Sailed

 So here we are, sitting in my kitchen contemplating the tomatoes.  Yessiree ... these came from MY bushes.  They are starting to ripen .... all at once of course.  I guess I'm going to be making marinara sauce very soon!!

By 9:00 I was on the road to the first stop.  The Jantz Bakery.  Here lies sugar cookies, gorgeously decorated in fall pumpkins colors.  They are so huge, there is only four in a box.  I wish I had snapped a picture before they tied them up, because they are BEAUTIFUL.

Next stop ... the MIX Bakery, where I picked up that decadent caramel cake with caramel filling and cream cheese frosting, topped with golden balls of gold leaf chocolate drops.  It was gorgeous.  Unfortunately, I ended up being so crazy busy that I didn't even get ONE picture.  I GUARANTEE I WILL NEVER DO THIS AGAIN.  Good grief ... I had no idea how much work it was going to be.

The two in charge didn't really write down anything ... like who would do what, what they needed, etc, etc.  Things like setting the tables with plates and silverware, and hey guys ... you need pitchers of water and glasses on those tables, and oh, you ran out of napkins 30 seats ago, so I quickly learned how to fold those napkins.  Mostly I ran interference and kept them from killing each other.

Then it was raffle items.  We had to get out two more tables due to the generosity of Elks Members.  I even left two of my donations in the truck.  They will be returned today.  With so many high dollar things, we set up TWO silent auction tables and made over $1,000 just on those items.  

There were a few snafus ... like two folks were scheduled to sell raffle tickets until the gals setting it up said OH NO ... that was THEIR job.  Yeah, there was a little of that going on!  I quickly directly them over to the silent auction table ... and their seat at a shrimp table for dinner.  They were happy campers.

At last the food serving began.  Our local high school FFA group had been rounded up to serve.  Just WOW ... those kids were all dressed to the nines in white shirts and black pants.  They worked like ... well Future Farmers  ... and served 137 people.  

First course salad .... second course two flavors of pasta ... the most amazing french bread ... and FINALLY ... SHRIMP!  Sadly, I didn't get many of those at all.  Of the three varieties, I got 3 cold ones, 3 with garlic and butter (YUM) and 4 cajun.  Not NEARLY what I had planned, but who's counting.  ME ... I WAS COUNTING.

I spent most of my time running around picking up dessert dash bids and figuring out who got to go first.  In the middle of that, they posted raffle ticket winners on the board, so I had to collect money.  Finally the silent auction was closed, so I collected money for THAT.  

When they called the Dessert Dash winners (I knew we were first with a whopping $700 bid), I screamed across the room ... PLEASE CUT ME A PIECE OF THAT CARAMEL CAKE ... A BIG PIECE!!  Reason being, I donated this fabulous cake which cost me ... are you sitting down? ... $120.00.  No kidding ... when you buy a fabulous cake, you definitely pay for it. Luckily I also got a big leftover piece for my freezer.

It was pretty chaotic for a while as I tried to gather up and count all the cash.  Sadly, though I spent $100, I did not win the gun raffle.  I had a Queen of Clubs ... they called the Jack of Clubs.  C'est la vie!!

I made up for it in take-homes.  I got not one, but TWO boxes of pasta and bread to take home, followed by ........

Two huge pieces of this chocolate caramel pecan cake my friend made.  I'm getting her recipe for this one.

We had 12 tables sold, 14 by the time we started to eat.  The person in charge of the Dessert Dash said we only had 12 desserts, so I picked up two more just to be sure we were covered.  Thanks to our members who are magicians in the kitchen, we ended up with FOUR more than we needed.  

I ran to the back and stashed the extra I had purchased.  My neighbors will love me today when I knock on their door and offer them dessert.

Yes, they were $25.00 each.  Now you know why I ran to save them!!  The cost of bakery items is HUGE nowadays, especially compared to what it would cost if you made it yourself!!

When I finally got home, I crashed on the couch with Cooper, after unloading all that stuff from the truck.  The two dozen extra cookies (not shown) went in the freezer, as did my extra pieces of cake.  I'm set until at least January!!

This whole shebang was much more of a workout than I expected.  Running interference between two large and in charge women, one of whom would not take no for an answer, wore me out more than expected.  Luckily it all went very smoothly and the lodge made money.

On the other hand, this won't ever happen again, because THAT SHRIMP BOAT HAS SAILED.  You know that game Never Will I Ever?  Well never will I EVER volunteer for anything like this again!!  Nor will I complain about how much work I do because that ... THAT ... was EPIC in the work department.

I shall now go park myself on the couch and eat that lucious piece of caramel cake for breakfast!!!!

I'll Soon Be Feasting On Shrimp

 There is something to be said for sleeping in.   I don't know what, since that never happens to me.  Regardless, I'm happy to wake up every morning to a new day.

THIS hit my door bright and early.  Literally .... he threw the package towards the door as he ran back to his truck.  Must have been running a little late today.  I took your advice and ordered a sprayer for that gallon jug of bug spray that refused to spray.  Maybe tomorrow I'll get a chance to try it out. 

First things first ... that second eye appointment.  It didn't take long at all.  There were none of the "normal" eye tests ... can you see this thing or that thing.  It was just "which is clearer, #1 or #2".  In less than five minutes I was headed down the hall to see if they could adjust my current glasses just a bit from when I sat on them in the RV.  

The gal refused to help, but she did ask for my $20 co-pay for the new pair of glasses.  I don't have a co-pay, nor did I want them to make my glasses for $350.  She insisted I pay in advance, so I just got up and walked out the door with prescription in hand.   What is WITH businesses nowadays?

Back home, I unknowingly became the go-between for an epic disagreement ... on EVERYTHING.  I'm just the help ... but I got drug into a battle for the Shrimp Feed.  Two VERY capable, but VERY stubborn ladies could not get along or work together even one tiny bit.  

My simple donation is to run the Dessert Dash.  This explains it pretty well.  I pick up the envelopes and determine who gets to go first.  That's it ... that's my ONLY job and I'm sticking to it!!

It appears no one knows how many tickets have been sold, how many raffle items have been rounded up nor how many desserts have been donated.  Oh the fun!!  My text message bell was going off every five minutes.  I finally took away one phone and responded to the messages myself.  Aren't we adults here?

I finally left, hoping there was no bloodshed before nightfall.  Not knowing if they had enough donations or not, I ran by Walmart and picked up a couple more.  If plenty of items turn up, I'll return these.

A blender for your margaritas, and everyone likes air fryers, right?

I spent the evening trying to get reservations OUT OF TOWN for a quick getaway in the RV.  I'm sad to say that's not happening.  Good grief ... everyone is booked.  I thought when school started back up, it might let up a bit.  

Even all the State Parks are full to the brim.  I'm not the type to just take off and hope for a spot somewhere.  Because of my kids, I need to know I have a hookup.  Otherwise I would dry camp.  

To prove how serious I am about this, I actually bit the bullet and ordered a Starlink Mini.  I've read lots of reviews recently that they actually just set it on the front dash of the van and it works great!  Even if there are lots of trees around.

You may remember I finally cancelled the Verizon MiFi for lack of use, lack of connections and a too high price per month.  This one gives you 50 gb per month for $50.00.  If I find I need more, I can go up to unlimited when traveling for $150, then back down to $50, or if I'm not using it, ZERO, all with a few clicks on my phone.  

So those of you that HAVE Starlink, could you post your phone number for me, because I'm sure I'll be calling you asking how to set this thing up!!!

And so the day ended on a happy note as I contemplated being parked somewhere over on the coast .... if and when I find a reservation.  

Now I'll go answer those ten more text messages I got last night from the one who wants to be in charge, but left on vacation the entire week of the event when all the work needed to be done.

It's okay though ... I'll soon be feasting on not one, but THREE flavors of shrimp!!!

BRING THEM ON!!!!

It's A New Day

 Good Morning California!!  It's a new day and I'm determined to be bright and shiny!!  Here's my list of to-do's for the day!  I'm going for #2 because .... well ..... it's says CAKE!

Not really ... I did my very BEST to keep a good attitude, smile in the face of adversity and laugh at the controversies.  In other words, I turned my phone off.  Though I looked out the window to see this happening again, I turned my back and hung out with Kitters and Mr. Cooper, who now tolerate each other.  Kind of ... sort of ... okay, not so much.  Coop is just not impressed with that black thing!!

Here he is in his I NEED A TREAT stance, which happens twenty five times a day.  If he disappears, I always know exactly where to look.  If I just sit there, he barks, not just once, but continuously until the snack hits the floor.  Like me, he's on a diet.  The pieces have been getting smaller and smaller!

Luckily I was able to sneak in one short nap, followed by the last of the bacon, on a lovely piece of FREE French bread.  All the while NOT looking forward to the night's audit meeting.  

We have to do it, which unfortunately means standing up in high heels for over an hour while the long list of must-haves is checked off.  When they can't find anything missing, they always find something.  We are exceptionally good at this, but in an effort to note at least ONE thing wrong, they said we did not have the letter we SHOULD write to our accountant giving them the date our taxes are due.  Gee ... I'm pretty sure they know when taxes are due.  

As my feet screamed I'M GOING TO GET YOU FOR THIS, we finished up in 75 minutes, just in time NOT to miss the second meeting, even though I tried.  Luckily that was cut short due to our meticulous preparedness ... and down to the basement we went.

I took the above picture to point out that the projected table placement for the Shrimp Feed will not work.  This setup is much better.  I passed that info along, but I'm not sure it was appreciated.  More text messages ensued as CLICK ... my phone magically turned off.

Since he who sells dinner tickets had surgery on his hand, I became the new salesgirl.  I love it.  I never have to stand in line to get my ticket and I get to meet all the members.  There were 147 of them having dinner last night, which included these lovely appetizers.  No one does crunchy chicken wings better.

Dinner was salad, ribeye steak, delicious pasta and the best roasted veggies around.  I don't know how they do it.  The veggies all come out perfectly cooked.  I'll have to get our Chef's recipe.  I didn't get a picture since I only had ten minutes to eat before the next meeting.

After that we headed back upstairs.  The new guy was ... well ... new.  He didn't know the routine any more than we did.  We got through it fairly easily and finished up by 9:30.  

It was then that the hunt began.  A very nice couple who makes critters out of horseshoes and sledge hammers left two gifts for the Shrimp Feed.  I was tasked with taking them home, except where the heck were they?  I searched the storeroom in vain.

Lucky for me, someone actually had their phone number.  I packed two 15 pound sledge hammer puppy dogs out to my truck and headed home.

BUT WAIT ... oh my great Aunt Jeanie (nope, no Jeanie in my family) ... my gas gauge says almost empty!  I was virtually on the edge of requiring a tow truck.  I pulled into the next gas station, not even caring what the price was.  Turns out it was $4.69 a gallon.  I don't know how this happens, but somehow it turned into $4.89 a gallon when I started pumping.  It could have been $6.00 a gallon and I would have been happy to pay!!

And so today I go back to the eye doctor so he can buy that new car he's been eyeing, just to get a prescription, which I will take to Costco.

Then there's a stop at the lodge to meet the Shrimp Feed crew.  I'm taking a large bucket of cold water in case there are any skirmishes.  I'm already practicing ..... NO ..... NO I CAN'T ..... NO SORRY, NO.  Do I sound convincing??

Good News ... Bad News

Beware my friends ... there's a FULL MOON in three days.  I'm sure that's going to spill over into the Elks Lodge audit meeting tonight.  I tried to sleep in, but even with the outside lights turned out, it was too bright to catch any Zzzz's.

The good news is I think just MAYBE fall has arrived.  We are down to the 60's at night ... WOOHOO ... and the air conditioning is not running all day long.  Interestingly enough, in spite of all the increases in electrical and gas prices, my solar is holding me right at a zero bill every month this summer.  This is a first!  I won't count on that for winter.

In other good news ... lookie here ... they DID turn red while sitting on the counter.  One more day and I'll be chowing down on BLT's once again!! 

One quick throwback to Bingo ... I took pictures of every machine hookup so hopefully I remember how to do it when the time comes.  Setting up the computer?  That's another story altogether, along with turning on EIGHT televisions, all of which are a different brand, with a different controller, and all of which operate differently.  As soon as I can teach this to someone else, I'm OUT.

Yesterday was a simple day.  I was off to play accountant and pay the company bills, to the excited look on the face of the insurance guy who came to pick up their check.  There is something to be said for paying your bills on time.

Three hours later I was back home for a snooze on the couch.  Those 20 hours days are killer!  After eating one of my fabulous chili verde burritos (not to self ... use less refried beans) I went back to binding this quilt.  It will take a few days to finish the hand sewing.  

And then the bad news.  I live very near to Gold Country.  Back in the day, people covered this part of the state looking for their fame and fortune in gold.  Many of these little towns still exist, including this one called Chinese Camp.  

In 1849, some Englishmen came here along with thousands of Chinese looking for wealth.  The Englishmen hired the Chinese to work the mines.  Originally known as Camp Washington, the Chinese built Chinee Camp.  There soon developed Chinese "companies" ... protective associations ... for the workers.  This resulted in the first ever Tong Wars, right here in River City.  Eventually, the placer mines played out and people moved away.

Only about 90 people have lived there for the last few years.  Many of the old boarding houses and stores remained intact, though appearing to be abandoned.  

But many of the houses were still lived in.  

Until now.  In the last two days, lightning strikes set several fires in this area, and the entire town was burned to the ground.  All of it ..... gone.  Thanks to Facebook, people were able to get their horses and other animals out of the fires path.  After 176 years, the town no longer exists.  It will be missed by those of us who always took the back road.  

And so I'm thankful for my safe house, even if I have crappy neighbors!!  

Today, after coffee and snuggling with the KID, I'll be heading out to the BIG audit of the Elks Lodge.  I admit, I have a slight problem with people coming in and telling us how to do things better, when we are the biggest lodge around, donating more money than anyone else, and in better financial shape than 95% of lodges. Okay, I won't go there.

I'm sure however, that I WILL be answering my phone 89 times about the Shrimp Feed happening Saturday.  It truly is a lot of work, with LOTS of planning involved with every detail.  Having a raffle, a silent auction, a dessert raffle, six gun raffles AND dinner ... is a big undertaking.  One which I did NOT undertake.  I'm just trying to keep the two people who DID undertake ... from strangling each other!

So here's my prayer for the day ... for everyone ... including myself!!!