I love living here!

Being iced in for most of 3 days means you have waaaay too much free time on your hands to play on the internet.  I spent much of mine on Google Earth, zipping around the globe from the Swiss Alps to the beaches of New Zealand and Oz.

I've commented here before about my neighborhood and our nearby baseball park, our mall, and all the hundred-plus (no joke!) restaurants just a short drive away.  Courtesy of Google Earth, here's what it looks like:

1....This field is where the Dallas Cowboys, the pride of the National Felon Football League, will build their new headquarters and 12,000-seat domed practice field.  It's supposed to open in 2015.

ME....This is our humble abode.  We're on the 3rd floor in a very comfortable apartment with a nice balcony.  I'm looking forward to being out there in the Spring, watching the thunderstorms rolling in from the west.  Just south is a park with a winding (man-made) stream and several ponds that Luke claims as his.  (The ducks dispute that.)

2....This is the Dr. Pepper StarCenter, a public ice rink where the Dallas Stars also practice, and the Frisco Conference Center, a mini-convention venue.

3....This is Dr. Pepper Ballpark where our Texas Ranger's Frisco RoughRiders AA minor league team plays.  I enjoy their first-class fireworks show after every Friday night home game. 

4....This is Stonebriar Mall, one of the largest in the Metroplex.  In addition to the usual better stores they have a 16-screen (?) United Artist theatre.  It also has a huge parking lot where more than a few donuts have been cut during icy weather.  Just sayin'.  ;)

5....Here is the north Texas IKEA.  The first few times I went there I hated it.  Now I've learned my way around and it's actually a fun place to visit.

6....This is where K works.  It's 1.6 miles from home, door to door.

O....These are all mid-rise (4-10 story) office park campuses.  The number of new ones being built right this minute is amazing, but because the highway infrastructure is already in place, traffic is very manageable.

R....retail.  A huge retail district has sprung up for blocks all around the mall.  If you have a tough time controlling your credit card spending, this could be a dangerous place to live.  Ouch!

DNT....the Dallas North Tollway goes north to ? and south straight to downtown Dallas (26 miles +/-).

SRT....the Sam Rayburn Tollway goes northeast to Bonham, TX (home of the legendary former Speaker of the House) and southwest to DFW International Airport (25 miles +/-) and then on to downtown Foat Wuth (50 miles +/-).

All these toll roads take a....umm...."toll" on my wallet.  I probably spend $1,000 a year for the privilege of risking life and limb daily at 80 mph.

PRESTON road....miles and miles of stores and RESTAURANTS!  I once tried to count all the eateries on or within a few blocks of Preston, but gave up at 100.  

The main residential areas of Frisco are a mile or so farther north.  The homes are huge and uber-expensive, and the owners are uber-snooty, too.  By mutual agreement with the residents, we never go there. 

That's home.  All in all it's a pretty great place to live.  :)

S 

I went to a fireworks show but a baseball game broke out instead

I live just 2 blocks north of Dr Pepper Ballpark, home of the Texas Rangers AA Frisco Roughriders farm team.  I'll go to one or two games there a year willingly, that due to the fact my hosts agree in advance to ply me liberally with brats, nachos, and beer.

After every Friday night home game the ballpark treats fans (and the neighborhood) to a first class fireworks show.  I love fireworks, but I don't want to see them from blocks away.  I want to be right underneath them....I want to FEEL them when they explode.

Last night it was reasonably cool....well..."not hot", so I thought I'd walk a block down to the park that separates my complex from the ballpark and get a ringside seat to the fireworks show.  To time it just right I found the radio broadcast of the game on some obscure AM station.  

Honestly, and I know this will offend some so I'll just apologize now, I can't stand baseball.  It just bores me to tears.  I mean, 1 guy on offense, 9 guys on defense.  How fair is that?  And talk about over-paid Prima Donna's? Jeez!  (I heard on the sports that some player....I didn't get his name....is on injured reserve after hurting his pinkie finger high-fiving a team mate.  Way to go, Stud!)

So I was very painfully listening to the ball game on the radio.  With one out in the bottom of the 9th I leashed up 'Lil Fucker (aka Luke, the dog) and we headed out.  A couple of minutes later I was at the park settled in on a comfy bench.  

Five minutes later....10 minutes later....15 minutes later....turns out it wasn't as "not hot' as I thought....nothing.  COME ON ALREADY!

Finally I called home and asked K to listen in to the game again and see if it was in extra innings.  Well DUH!  Yes, of course it was.  I'm sure some guy in the press box looked waaaaay out past the left field fence and saw me sitting there, sweating, and gave the signal to hit a late home run and tie the game.

I came home and was just getting into bed an hour+ later when I heard the first KABOOM!  

Murphy's Law / Scott's Corollary  ;)

S

Don't look now, but Dubya's back

Today all five living past and present Presidents will be in Dallas to dedicate the President George W. Bush Library on the campus of SMU.  As a native Texan, please allow me to give you my impression of our (semi-) native son "Dubya".

We all know the early story....he grew up in west Texas in a family with money and prestige.  He partied hard like many most rich kids do and got into his fair share of minor trouble.  Big whoop.  He was President of the Texas Rangers when they were little more than a door mat, and sold out (and did very well) to run for governor.

He wasn't supposed to win but he did, beating HRH Ann Richards.  She took him too lightly and it cost her.  Dubya was actually a very good governor.  Reasonable, responsible, able to work with both parties in the legislature.  So well in fact that the Democratic Lt. Governor at the time endorsed him for re-election.

He might have come across as a tongue-tied doofus compared to the urbane veteran politicians in Washington, but that wasn't him at all.  (Just ask Ann Richards.*)  Ex:  His grades at Yale were better than those of John Kerry. 

He was a natural to fill the vacuum in the Republican Party leadership.  There was a lot of Republican money itching to take back the White House, he had his daddy's Rolodex, and probably a bit of a swollen head after his success in Austin.

In the strangest election in our history he won, and IMO was immediately steamrolled by the Washington political establishment.  Those guys eat little west Texas boys for breakfast.  He fell under the influence of long-time political heavyweights like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, which I think really came back to bite him hard later.  

Cheney, the ultimate insider, especially seemed to have his ear.  He seemed to have the knack of wanting something, and then making Dubya think it was his idea.  I trust Cheney about as far as I can spit into a hurricane.  (I still don't think Dubya "gets" Cheney's influence on him.)

Then, BAM!  9/11.  Dubya did what most red-blooded Texas boys would do when they get sucker-punched....he got out his can of whup-ass.

Again IMO, 9/11 would have happened regardless of who was in the Oval Office.  Islamic terrorists had been jabbing us since the Carter administration.  Dubya just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Regarding Iraq:  Saddam Hussein laid out too convincing a lie and it cost him.  He wanted the world to believe he had WMD's in order to make him seem stronger than he really was.  Our CIA bought it (led, don't forget, by a Clinton holdover), as did Britain's MI-6, Israel's Mossad, the French, the Germans, and probably many others, too.  Even Colin Powell bought it.  Nothing definitive was ever found, but there were enough shreads of evidence to seemingly corroborate Saddam's tale.  I really DON'T think Dubya lied to us deliberately.

The beginning of the end for Dubya was when the US got into Iraq and proved Colin Powell correct.  Remember Powell's advice?  "If we break it, we buy it."  We broke it, and we couldn't afford to buy it.  Paying for that war was where our financial wheels fell off.  There was more than that, of course, but paying for the war in Iraq financially devastated us.

Regarding the financial meltdown of '08:  Again, Cheney & Co. were in the back pocket of the financial interests.  They got the green light they wanted.  The rest of us got (and are still getting) the bill.

Regarding his Grand Plan for the Middle East:  Too many lightweights, probably academics (Condi?), convinced Dubya that if we could just set up a democratic Iraq that would mirror our free society, the other people of the region would want the same and fall in line, too.  Kum Ba Ya, y'all.  

That might have sounded good on somebody's PhD dissertation, but it didn't mean shit to the average guy on the average street in the average Middle Eastern country.  Again, IMO Dubya really thought this made sense.  He has a "western" thought process, while they will always have an "eastern" thought process.  They are very different.  It was just very naive thinking on his part.

In short, I really do think George W. Bush was/is a good man.  He meant well, truly wanted to do good things that would benefit us and the world at large.  His spirituality is genuine.  He was just out of his league, coaxed along by advisers he shouldn't have listened to into doing things that we'll be regreting for a long time to come. Once you find yourself at the bottom of a deep hole as Dubya did, your options are few and not very good.

Washington is a wicked place.  It devoured George W. Bush, and unfortunately he probably won't be the last.  This isn't meant to excuse Dubya's political failures.  For eight years the buck rightfully stopped with him.

Pity how things turned out.  A lot of us had high hopes for him.  

S

*Actually you can't ask her.  She's dead.

The Park Clan, Gangnam style

"Park" is a very common Korean name.  All I can figure is that centuries ago when most of my ancestors took the traditional route from Scotland westward via sailing ship to the New World, a cousin or two peeled off eastward instead and hiked their way across Russia and China before settling in for a while in Korea.  Hence all those little "Park's" running around the Korean peninsula today.

For some reason Korean Air thinks I'm from that Asian twig of the family tree and keeps wanting me to sign up for one of their credit cards.  At least that's what I think it says.  Or maybe it's a demand for child support, I'm not sure.

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It's all in the presentation....

The idea that airline ticket prices should be based on the passenger's weight seems to be gaining some traction.  The topic comes up often when airlines industry groups talk about reforms needed to insure their long-term financial stability.

If you stop and think about it, it does make sense.  Whether you're moving letters or packages or passengers, whether it's via truck, train or plane, the more the freight weighs, the more it costs to move it.  It's simple "fizzicks".

The problem is when airlines suggest that "large" people pay more all the equal rights people get their panties in a wad.

"You're discriminating against the 'girth challenged'.  This is 21st Century America.  We're better than that!"  Then they all run down to the Hungry Heifer who has generously donated poster board and sign paint (and refreshments) for the protest march. 

OK, so it's politically incorrect to charge large people more.  So why not set ticket prices based based on what it costs (fuel, space, in-flight refreshments, etc) to accommodate large people, then give a discount on a sliding scale for thinner people?

Would that be any more palatable?

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(Talk about the perfect segue!)

EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN TEXAS....

The Ballpark at Arlington, the home of the Texas Rangers, has announced the overhaul of their food concessions for the upcoming season.  The featured offerings this year will be from their signature "24" menu....

....dishes that are 24" long like this "Murph-a-dilla" quesadilla....

....or this 24" long "Boom Stick" hot dog...

....or containing 24 ounces of meat like this GIANT "Rio Grande" steak sandwich....

....or the 24 ounce "Beltre-Burger".

Like cheese?  The "Bases Loaded" has 24 ounces of the gooey stuff.

So far patron feedback has been very....

....umm....

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And on a happier note....here's wishing you all a very Happy Easter.  :)

S

Narcissists Of The Day

Did you hear about this?....At a recent Texas Rangers / NY Yankees game a Ranger player (don't know which one as they all look alike to me) tossed a ball up into the stands behind their dugout.  An adult couple grabbed the ball instead of the little kid sitting next to them who was presumably who the toss was aimed for.

Of course the kid was crying his little eyes out while the couple claimed "they never saw / heard the kid."  Dude, you didn't see him?  Really? He's right off your left shoulder.  Yeah, THAT kid.  This isn't a ball from Game 7 of the World Series.  It's just a baseball.  Give the kid the ball!

And to twist things around they're upset with one of the announcers who called them out and they're demanding an apology.  Sheesh....some people!

S

Do as I say, not as I do

Nope, that won't work with grandson Parker.  He watches and mimics everything.  He's huge into baseball....he has his own batting helmet, bat and ball (plastic, oversized), glove, and even an official Texas Rangers jersey (XXXXS).  The scary part is he can step into a pitch and hit it a mile, well into the yard next door.  And he isn't even 3 years old yet.


He watches every Rangers game on TV and tries to bat like the Big Guys do.  He gets his stance just right, taps the plate, takes a couple of check-swings, then holds up his hand, steps back, puts the bat under his arm and "adjusts" his batting gloves, and then he's ready.  Except he doesn't have any batting gloves.  Until today:

I found some Youth XS batting gloves for him.  They're still way too big for him, but probably not more so than his batting helmet.  We're going over to see his new 'lil sister later today and convention dictates he be included in the gift receiving, too.   Now I wish I'd bought some super-vitamins for ME.  He's gonna wear me out playing baseball!

Good Saturday everyone.

S

Two women I love share their birthdays today

Today my wonderful wife and my youngest daughter celebrate their birthdays. It's the Big 30 for daughter Erica, and...umm...just a couple more than that for K.  Happy Birfday, ladies!  *huge applause*


Now for a complete 180...At last night's Texas Ranger baseball game a guy fell over the upper deck railing to his death trying to catch a foul ball for his little son sitting next to him.  It just goes to show how fleeting and fragile life is.  One second you're having the time of your life, treating your little son to a Major League Baseball game, not a care in the world, then a foul ball comes your way...a fans dream...and in the blink of an eye you're dead.  Lesson learned: Enjoy every second God gives you on this earth.  Condolences to his family. 


Clarification:  The fan who died was trying to catch a ball that had gone foul, but was picked up Ranger Josh Hamilton and tossed up into the stands as a souvenir, a simple goodwill gesture that went very wrong.


TGIF  :)


S

Guys night out

Last night my friend Gary invited me to go to a Frisco Rough Riders (Texas Rangers AA farm team) game with him.  His company has season tickets right behind home plate, and best of all, they come with free food.  Yum!

The crowd was a little thin as the Dallas Mavericks were playing on TV (they won), which just left more food/beverage/fun for the rest of us.

Between innings they try to keep the crowd entertained, and this night they had a lady with some frisbee-chasing dogs.  I caught this little pooch ^ in mid-jump.   They were hilarious!  Notice the beach umbrellas in the center field cheap seats?  They have a swimming pool out there you can rent for parties. Great idea!

Turns out we lost in 15 innings, but who cares.  It was still a fun evening.  I got home late, took a shower to cool off, and then crashed and slept like a baby.  Not a bad way to ease into the weekend, was it?  ;)

S