1/3 of the way there

Yesterday evening I took a full truck load of "stuff" from our storage room here at our apartment over to my daughter's house for their weekend garage sale. This afternoon I have to move about the same amount from our warehouse. I've stirred up more dust in the process than a west Texas sandstorm. That will put me 2/3 of the way there.

I told Wonderful Daughter #3 I would be at her house by 7:30 to help her set up and price all this junk. I'm going to put a garage sale notice on Craig's List this evening, and I guarantee by first light tomorrow morning there will be cars parked in front of her house, waiting for us to open the garage doors. By mid-afternoon I'll be finished with this ordeal, and ready to enjoy what's left of my weekend.

What do people who buy all this stuff do with it? Are they the ones we see featured on Hoarders on TV? I've examined it all carefully and I'm pretty sure there are no Picasso's in the pile. It's just pure junk.

S

But I'm sure she was a great cook....

The gravesite service had just barely ended when there was a tremendous bolt of lightning, followed by a massive clap of thunder, accompanied by even more thunder rumbling in the distance.

Hearing that, the deceased's husband calmly looked at the preacher and said, "Well.....she's there."

Somethin's gotta change

Usually by Hump Day I'm beginning to get pumped about the upcoming weekend. This Hump Day I'm definitely NOT looking forward to what awaits. Why? I have to haul several truckloads of "stuff" to my daughter's house for their neighborhood garage sale.

I know I'll feel better later when I can see my dramatically cleaned out warehouse and storage room, but getting to that point is nasty, dirty, sneezy work. Why do I let myself get into this position? Why do I buy more and more stuff, then quickly shuffle it off to the closet (first stop), then on to it's final resting place (rotting place?) in storage? This is becoming an every-few-years ordeal. I need to change this pattern.

S

Pleasant memories

Over the past few days I've brought home a number of boxes from my warehouse, hoping to cull things worth keeping from garage sale stuff and just plain trash. Tonight I uncovered a number of signed volumes with special meaning for me:

On Silver Wings is the story of the WASPs, the Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II. I knew many and admired them all. In fact, I wrote their letter of recommendation to The Texas Aviation Hall of Fame. (They were based in Sweetwater, TX.) They were amazing women.

Before his passing I became well acquainted with "Tex" Hill, one of the squadron leaders of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) of World War II, better known as the Flying Tigers. He personalized my copy of his autobiography. He was a wonderful gentleman.

The same with Col. Paul Tibbets, remembered by history as the pilot of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Tragic as that was, it undeniably led to the final surrender of the Japanese, ending WWII. He was an interesting man I'm glad I had the opportunity to know before he passed.

Many of the Cactus Air Force (as the air assets on Guadalcanal were known) pilots I met were kind enough to share with me many of their experiences in the south Pacific during WWII. Interestingly, Saburo Sakai, the highest scoring (surviving) Japanese ace of the war was there at a special symposium I attended and signed my personal copy of their book.

I wonder what I'll find in tomorrow's warehouse search? I'm kinda looking forward to finding out.

S

Are we there yet??

"There" being the day after the Royal Wedding? I'm sure there are some who are enthralled by it all, but I'm not one of them. So Bill got himself a hot girlfriend. Well, I'm happy for him. And Kate will get herself a title, and might someday be the Queen of England. That's cool, I guess.

All I know is I didn't get an invitation, which is probably just as well because I'm trying to clean out our storage and get things ready for a garage sale this weekend. I really don't have time to do the garage sale thing and then get cleaned up and jet over to England. There just aren't enough hours.

S

Best special effects EVER!!!!

Last night K and I watched the old "B" movie Twister. Just as the huge, evil F-5 tornado was barrelling down on our heroes, throwing around cars and cows like they were mere toys (mainly because they were mere toys), our neighborhood tornado sirens went off. For real.

Turns out our city now sounds the sirens when the National Weather Service issues even so much as a severe thunderstorm warning. It's no longer just for tornado warnings, so it turned out to be a big non-event. Some lightning, some rain, some wind....that was it.

Still, the timing almost made that old movie a "B+" movie. Almost.

S

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to you all.

I hope that amidst all the Easter egg hunting, the trips to see the family, the big lavish meals, etc, you'll take time to reflect back on that amazing event that happened several thousand years ago. Those other things are fun for sure, but they're not the Main Event. :)

S

Daddy got some new shoes

I found some cool Puma's on sale last night while we were out, cheaper than on Zappos even, so I snatched them while I could. They feel great and look pretty good, too, methinks:

Why do I usually feel guilty for buying myself things? Is this whole purchase just a subconscious exercise in retail therapy? Which begs...therapy from what?

S

Tara Belle lives!

They're closing a Borders Bookstore near us, and everything is on sale super cheap. K bought this day calendar of Westie photos:

Now every time I look up from my computer screen I see my small Tara Belle shrine on my desk and another Westie pic, too. I looked at today's calendar photo and saw Tara Belle's personality in the model dog's eyes. I guess if you never knew Tara you wouldn't recognize it. I do.

Hope all of you have a very Happy Easter. And you too, Miss Belle.

S

TGIF

All Friday's are good, but this one feels absolutely euphoric. I'm SOOOOOO ready for the weekend. Yesterday bit me in the butt. People who were supposed to show didn't. One that wasn't due until Friday suddenly showed and sprung a doozie...and not a good one...on me. It was a "one step forward and two steps backward" kind of day.

Good Friday will be a slow day at work, as it should. I'm just ready to vegetate.

My daughter's neighborhood is having a community garage sale the weekend after Easter, and we're going to clean out the warehouse and our storage room here at our apartment and unload some junk...er...sell some near-priceless heirlooms there. I should probably start digging through what's in storage. So much for "vegetating". Now where did I put that poker-playing-dog picture?

Have a good Good Friday everyone. :)

S

I'll bet the view is good from up there....

Looking back on some of the photos I took this past weekend in Ft. Worth I noticed this interesting figure atop what I remember to be a Baptist church. Look carefully:

It appears to be a statue of a Spanish Conquistador. (You can click on the picture to enlarge it.) It doesn't look like the hoodmold was quite large enough, so they later built another shed roof to help protect him from the elements.

Wonder what the story is behind El Conquistador? Maybe he.....er.....He's probably.....no, I've got nothin'. Somebody dazzle me with your imagination.

S

Watch your step.....

This past weekend I suggested K and I take a hike...literally. It's a several hour drive to a real wildlife refuge anywhere near us, so we went online looking for something....anything....closer to home. Lo and behold we found that our city has a 200 acre nature preserve just 3 miles from where we live. WHO KNEW?

It was a very civilized hike, but still pleasant. The only wildlife we saw were one lizard and this CopperRattlerMoccasin:

Actually I'm not sure what it was, but I don't think it was a pit viper as the head wasn't the right shape. He was in a dried-up creek bed, no doubt out for a casual stroll (slither?) on a warm sunny day just like we were. "Live and let live", as they say.

S

"Spring has sprung, fall has fell....

....summer's here and it's hot as hell."

Lot of truth in 3rd grade humor. Dallas is on the cusp today with temperatures ranging from the mid-90's to 100. I has hoping to milk this beautiful springtime weather we've been having for at least another few weeks. I guess it's just not to be.

100 degrees in late April. *shaking head* This climate change thing sucks.

S

Black cloud...silver lining

Today the bond rating service Standard & Poor's changed its forecast on the United States Government's ability to pay it's future debts from "stable" to "LOOKOUT!", and the stock markets tanked at the news. That ain't nothing compared to what would happen if S&P had actually lowered the gubment's bond rating a notch or two. The sidewalks would be littered with jumpers.

Bad news, right? NO! Great news! Would you want to be a congressman or a Senator, or even worse, the President, when our financial house of cards finally collapses? Didn't think so. Now maybe....just maybe....our elected crooks in Washington will face reality and start standing up to the special interests who collectively get as much as a TRILLION dollars a year in tax breaks (depending on which gubment accountant is cooking the books this month).

Yeah, I know....homeowners over time will see their home mortgage interest deduction disappear, but TS. They stopped allowing us to write off our automobile financing interest years ago and the world didn't explode, so why should it now?

If we can cut spending AND start collecting all the moolah we've been leaving on the table for years, we should be able to actually make a dent in our national debt. Then maybe Standard and Poor's will smile at us again.

Aww, screw Standard and Poor's. It's just the right thing to do.

S

Main Street Arts Fest; debrief w/ photos

This morning K and I drove to Ft. Worth to take in their Main Street Arts Festival. It's touted as one of the top 3 arts festivals in the country, and I wouldn't argue with that claim. Not long after we arrived the streets began to fill. This is what the scene looked like, stretching for 6 or more long blocks:

K made friends with this zoo escapee. (That's K in the foreground.) *wink*

She wore a jacket, a fanny pack, a camelback (water carrier)....I swear, armies have marched across continents carrying less gear. I wore shorts and a T-shirt as it was in the mid-70's well before lunch. It couldn't have been better weather.

The event was literally in the heart of downtown Foat Wuth, where they have an interesting mix of old and new buildings. I thought this was a cool effect.

Last year we had lunch on this rooftop deck at The Flying Saucer. The ambiance was good, the food, not so. This year we tried the street food and weren't disappointed.

At each end of Main Street they had a stage set up, with different groups/genres performing throughout the day and evening. We liked what we heard, although we were spared the hard-core C&W that I'm sure came later.

As the mural on the side of this building will attest, Ft. Worth is still known as "Cowtown".

K and I were both impressed with the lady who made hand-crafted leather-bound journals. They were beautiful...in fact I would be scared to actually write in one. It would be like defacing a work of art. (The photo is from her website.) Check her out here.

I was captivated by this kinetic sculpture. It sent little balls round and round, up and down, over and over with exact precision. K finally had to drag me away. I can imagine how long it took to craft, and understand why it cost nearly $3K.

Our indulgence for the day was us each having a Mojito. It's a Cuban drink made with lime, mint, rum, sugar water, and a bit of 7-Up. Darn good drink!

That's all folks. It was a great day, and a great arts festival. There is another one in Richardson, TX, (closer to us) in just a couple of weeks. We'll be there, too. Have a relaxing Sunday, everyone.

S

Art Festival season is here!

Tomorrow morning we'll be on the road early. We're going to the Foat Wuth Arts Festival. It's one of our favorites, with lots of excellent judged vendors. "Judged" means the artisans are invited based on their talents, not on whether they can afford to buy a space on the esplanade. Only the best in each medium (such as painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, etc) get to display.

We've been to enough art fests over the years we now know several of the vendors, and look forward to seeing what new works they're offering. Unfortunately a shortage of funds as well as display wall space will probably preclude us buying anything new. Oh well, at least the music at these events is always good, as is the food. I'll try and bring back some interesting photos to share with you tomorrow.

S

What a GREAT idea!

I wish I'd thought of it. And had an airplane or two. And knew how to fly them. What am I babbling about, you ask? Pet Airways:

Ever want to take a nice family vacation, but hesitated because it would be a LONG drive with Fido along, and flying was out because you wouldn't dare treat your loving Mutt like a piece of cargo in the hold of a commercial airliner? (And after diligently guarding su casa 24/7 she deserves a vacation, too, right?)

Pet Airways is your answer. It will take your beloved 4-legged family member and tote them ahead, where you can pick them up when you arrive at your destination. They travel in the cabin, and even have their own flight attendant. I heard about them because Dallas, Houston, and Austin are the newest cities being added to their system, and they've launched a PR campaign here.

Pretty cool, huh? :)

S

My cynical mind at work

My motto: "Nothing is as it seems."

I heard on the radio today that a congressman/Senator (can't remember who or which party) will be introducing legislation to take "Obama-care" out of the hands of the Federales and instead give states their proportional share of the funding and let them decide how to spend the money. The idea is that folks on the local, or at least the state level, are more trustworthy to spend taxpayer dollars on health care for their citizens than Washington is.

My knee-jerk reaction: AMEN!

But then my cynical mind kicked into gear and I could see a dark side to this. I can imagine 50 state governors hearing this, their eyes growing big as saucers, drooling like big fat cows, saying, "Yee-Haw! BIG, juicy, state contracts for ALL my buddies! (Read: big campaign contributors.)

No sir, with that many BILLIONS of $$$$$ just dropping out of the sky, I wouldn't trust any politician to spend it wisely. There's just too much room for shenanigans.

Am I over-thinking this?

S

Southfork Ranch is hopping again. Can JR be far behind?

One of my regular back roads on the northeast side of Dallas takes me by Southfork Ranch, the site of the Dallas TV show from way back in the 80's:

There's been a lot going on there lately, and now I know what it is; film crews are back shooting a pilot for a new Dallas series. I drove by this afternoon on my way home to see if there were any hot starlettes.....er.....new cast members in residence yet. Nope, nada. No sign of the TV folks today. Just the same old house sitting in the middle of the same old field.

I doubt I'll watch the new Dallas series, seeing as how I didn't watch the old Dallas series, either. And if anyone out there really believes the TV show was at all representative of Dallas, Texas, well....I have an old house sitting in the middle of an old field I'd like to sell you. And I'll even throw in a slightly used bridge.

S

I've officially put her on a pedestal

Today I took Miss Belle for a walk around our small neighborhood lake. She did very well, giving out only a muted woof or two, attacked no small kidlettes, and only stopped at every other tree. I was so impressed with her behavior I elevated her to pedestal status:

Now I'm back home with my #1 lady (that would be K), where she's making us some of her renowned sangria. It will be the icing on a wonderful spring day. Now I'm off to enjoy "the sweetness of doing nothing".

S

Half empty or half full?

This morning I took the dog out for her daily dootie call and found it was 49 degrees. The weatherguessers tell us it will top out today in the upper 70's....perfect. Then I remembered....it's already April. :(

If it had been the exact same weather but in October, I would have typed :)

Why the difference? I know that in just a few short months it will be 100+ degrees here, and my 5 month ordeal will just be beginning. If this were October my ordeal would be over until next year. Calendars play mind games with me.

Don't tell me you Yankees are any different. It's just that your sense of seasonal dread/relief is reversed.

Oh well, it is what it is.

S

I'm a man of simple tastes....

I heard that tonight while watching Anthony Bourdain. He was quoting some famous (?) French chef, but it really struck me. K said I'm a man of simple tastes, too.

You've heard of the K.I.S.S. principle....Keep It Simple, Stupid? Henceforth that will stand for Keep It Simple, Scott.

Yeah...we'll go with that. Feel free to use it.

S

Finally, something intelligent from Geraldo

I'm not a big fan of Gerald-O Rivera. I think he's an arrogant little snot. Every time two tribes throw a few rocks or spears at each other, Geraldo shows up on TV, "reporting from the front lines". He somehow thinks of himself as a respected war correspondent.

Over the weekend I saw him on one of the news shows where he was reporting his take on the "war" in Libya. When asked if he thought the rebels would be able to re-take the vital oil city of Rama-lama-ding-dong, he replied, "The rebels are so disorganized and ineffective they couldn't take a Walmart."

Understand completely. Those Walmart crowds can be pretty surly, you know. ;)

S

You know what bugs me?

The lack of etiquette and manners I witness every day, that's what bugs me. Don't parents teach these things to their kids anymore?

As we often do, especially on weekends, K and I walked the one block to Bishop Street, aka Fun Street, which is a destination people from all over north Dallas come to for a fun, lively evening. It's apparently prom season, and this is what I saw tonight: A group of about a dozen teenage girls all dressed up in their formal dresses, all walking together, then about 20 paces behind came about a dozen teenage boys dressed in their tuxedos, obviously part of the same group. What's wrong with this picture?

Every single day I see cars park at the curb, a man gets out of the driver's side and a woman gets out of the passenger's side, and they walk, with him well ahead of her, to their restaurant, ice cream parlor, jazz club, etc. Aren't guys taught these days to walk beside their lady, and if the path is constricted (such as a narrow sidewalk), to let the lady go first? Do men open doors for women anymore? I would hate to see these people sit down to a formal dinner. I can only imagine how lost they would be with the place settings. Not that I eat formally very often, but if necessary I would at least know which fork/spoon to use for each course.

To me teaching your kids proper manners is just part of parenting. I guess I'm even more of a dinosaur than I thought. *shaking head*

S

Guthrie, TX in the springtime....

My friend Wildstorm recently shared a photo she took in Guthrie, TX, the gateway to the 6666 ranch in west Texas. That reminded me of the rather embarrassing experience I had there back in the early 70's.

I travelled through Guthrie about 4 or 5 times a year back then, commuting from Lubbock/Texas Tech where I was going to school, or as they would say, "gettin' some learnin'", to Dallas. One spring day back in 1972 I was headed home, I'm guessing for spring break, in my pride and joy, my new Camaro SS. (It was a graduation gift from my parents. They made the payments for me my senior year, and then I took over the payments after I graduated and secured a job.)

About a mile west of Guthrie, a bird had the audacity to commit suicide by slamming into my car, right where the hood turns down to meet the grill. OMG...I had feathers and blood and guts all over my hood, the windshield, and over the top of my car. I pulled in to the only gas station in Guthrie, a Texaco station as I remember, and borrowed a water hose and cleaned up my car as best I could. I went inside and bought something, which was my way of saying 'thanks' for the use of their hose.

Back on the road, about a mile east of Guthrie I met a cattle transport truck headed west. At the split second we passed just feet apart, a cow inside decided to have a projectile BM, right through one of the holes in the side of the trailer, and....wait for it....it splatted in all its wet glory right on the windshield of my car.

I made a U-turn and went back to the same Texaco station as before and again borrowed their water hose and cleaned up my car. According to my personal code of conduct I was again obligated to buy something, so I went back in to make another small purchase.

There were 2 grizzled old west Texas boys manning the station, and they were rolling on the floor with laughter, obviously amused by my string of misfortunes. One of them finally gained control of himself long enough to take my money and to say, "This just ain't yore day, now is it, boy?"

After that I always made it a point to slow down when I was passing through Guthrie, honk, and wave at the guys in the Texaco station. They're probably still talking about me.

S

You meet the strangest creatures where you least expect them

While it isn't exactly East Africa, St. Paul, TX can be a pretty exotic place. Today I was again traveling cross-country from one jobsite to another when I spotted this dromedary camel grazing in a pasture:

I can only imagine what he's thinking...."Somebody tell me again how I wound up in St. Paul, Texas??"

Quiet, a rare commodity

I just read an interesting piece in the British magazine Car. The writer told of being in Venice recently, where for a precious few minutes the schedules of all the water taxi's and other water-borne traffic failed to converge. There was no motorized noise at all. An occasional splat of a gondolier's oar hitting the water, a nearby conversation, a dropped coin hitting the pavement....but no motorized noise.

I take my dog out for a walk very early every morning, usually before traffic starts to build for the day, and I marvel at the calmness and quiet of that early hour. Imagine having the quietness of living far out in the country, yet still living right in the heart of a city with all the conveniences of city life still handily available.

If electric cars ever become universal and all internal combustion engines are idled, that's what cities of the future could sound like. (That's a BIG if.) Except Big Brother wants electric cars to emit a noise to alert pedestrians so they can pull their heads out of their ----- long enough to see what they're stepping in front of. Imagine that cacophony of beeps and squeals and chirps. I guess that idyllic peek into the future was short lived, huh? I say, "butt out, Big Brother". A little cleansing of the gene pool might actually be a good thing. Just kidding. Sort of.

Looks like "quiet" will become an even rarer commodity in the future. But by then we'll all be either dead or deaf, so I guess it's a moot point.

S

Did you know....

....that even if the US Government shuts down later this week due to an inability to pass a new budget/funding bill, congress and the President will still get their full paycheck? Pretty sweet deal, huh? (I mean for them, not us.)

And along a similar vein, there is a bill before the Texas legislature that will allow elected officials who are permitted to carry handguns to go in to certain places armed, even it there is a notice posted on the door that says firearms are prohibited for anyone, licensed or not. These rules of course don't apply to us common folk.

And of course it's now common knowledge that congress does not pay in to Social Security, but has their own retirement system, and they have a medical insurance plan you or I would kill to have. Because they're special.

So now you know where the saying, "Do as I say, not as I do" originated.

I thought our new Republic disavowed royalty (and privilege) 235 years ago. I guess our elected officials didn't get the memo.

S

A new toy has popped onto our radar.....

This past weekend I saw the new (to North America) Fiat 500 that will be officially on sale here next week:

Innit cute? I brought home the literature they were passing out and now I think K wants one. I say that because today she sent me the results of the "virtual" Fiat 500 she built online. I know a hint when I see one!

I can just hear my (late) dad now: "So, son, where's the rest of it?" Hahaha!

S

From Maxine, my mentor.....

"So you're a sick senior citizen and the government says there is no nursing home available for you. What do you do?

Our plan gives everyone 65 years or older a gun and 4 bullets. You are allowed to shoot 4 politicians, not necessarily dead.

Of course, this means you will be sent to prison where you will get 3 meals a day, a roof over your head, central heating, and all the health care you need. Need teeth? No problem. Need glasses? Great! New hip, knees, kidney, lungs, heart? All covered. (And your kids can come and visit you as often as they do now.)

And who will be paying for all this? The same government that just told you they cannot afford for you to go into a home. Plus, because you are a prisoner, you don't have to pay any income taxes anymore."

IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY OR WHAT?*

*I especially like the part about shooting all the politicians. Now that's what I call a public service! *wink*

S

Mystery and intrigue....

OK, so maybe I've been reading/watching too many spy thrillers, but something I saw yesterday really peaked my interest.

Mid-morning K and I took our newspaper and walked the one block to our neighborhood Starbucks where we got a coffee and an outdoor table and settled in for an hour. Before long several gentlemen, nicely groomed and casually dressed, pulled up a table not far away and began conversing. In a few minutes another few showed up and joined them, then a few more, then.... until a total of about 12 assembled.

They spoke in a foreign language that sounded to my untrained ear like a middle-eastern tongue. Many drank strong espresso and smoked those vile little cigar/cigarettes. Every few minutes one or another would take a phone call, walk a few steps away from the table, then would call a few of his friends over to apparently see a text message, then go back and share it with the entire group. No smiling, I don't think it was a joke-of-the-day type of text. Their discussion was very serious and very animated.

In my imagination I visualized this group was a government-in-exile, plotting with rebels back in their middle-eastern homeland to overthrow their evil dictator and re-assume their rightful place in history. I even visualised a coup d'etat underway right then, with these guys getting updates from their fellow conspirators back home on the progress of the revolution. Or maybe the evil dictator was getting whacked right then while they sat there and sipped their espresso. (Anyone heard anything about an evil middle-eastern dictator getting whacked yesterday?)

That, or they were discussing the latest bocce ball tournament results (or whatever they play in the mid-east). I dunno. I like my first theory better.

Interesting.

S

And the winners are.........

Alfa Romeo, and Alfa Romeo.

Today was Coffee and Cars, the monthly 1st Saturday car event in Dallas. I usually find one car that stands out in my mind as the one that impressed me the most. Today there were two. In the classic car category, I liked this 1959 Alfa Romeo Montreal:

It was spectacular! Of interest to me was the fact I've never seen one in the flesh before. A bystander familiar with the car told me the paint job alone cost the owner $30K, and I believe it. WOW! I don't know enough about it to know if it had "all original parts" or matching serial numbers, but I do know I loved it. :)

In the new(ish) car category I was "smit" with this Alfa Romeo 8C:

There were only 500 of these ever made, and I doubt you could buy one today at a price even close to it's $200K original price. It was actually assembled on the (sister company) Maserati assembly line, and is powered by a (sister company) Ferrari-built engine. And with an Alfa Romeo badge, that makes for quite a pedigree!

The weather was absolutely perfect, and the organizer told me attendance of show cars easily set a record. I was expecting 300+, but he said there were closer to a thousand. Who knows the actual number, but the lot was totally overflowing. And the crowd was in the multi-thousands, too, so thick in fact that it was difficult to take a photograph. Oh well, the price was right. "Free" is always right!

Hope your day was as satisfying as mine. Regards....

S

Mom was right...numbers ARE good for something....

....although I still haven't figured out why I had to learn algebra.

This year we will experience four unusual dates: 1/1/11, 1/11/11, 11/1/11, 11/11/11; that's not all....take the last two digits of the year in which you were born, now add the age you will be this year, and the result will be 111 for everyone! Try it. (No, I'm not smart enough to figure this out all on my own. Someone sent it to me.)

And even more freaky....this year October will have 5 Sundays, 5 Mondays and 5 Saturdays. This happens only once every 823 years.

Now you can wow your friends, and maybe win a beer at happy hour. :)

S