Monday Meanderings - 12.29.2014

Welcome to the last post of the year. I hope the past year has been a good one for you, and that the year to come brings abundant peace and joy.

Bowl Mania is upon us; wall-to-wall football! Watching a ho-hum blowout? There are 3 other games to choose from. Of course there are some problems with binge-watching football. For example, you see the same commercials, over and over. And over. After a while you really don't care if the Garcias got a new Buick or not. And what I have in my wallet is my business - not that of some dude in red pants.

One frequent commercial for Tamiflu warns that a possible side effect is unusual behavior. For many I know, myself included, I wonder just how you determine what unusual behavior is, and how it differs from everyday behavior?

The pecan saga continues. The overwhelmed Senior Activity Center did get my 40 pounds of pecans cracked in a reasonable time frame. That's the good news. The bad news is that in their rush I think they resorted to cracking them with sledge hammers. I have 2 big bags of pecan parts. Very small parts. Oh well. I have plenty of time to pick out the good stuff while I am watching Bowl games. And commercials.

At our church's Christmas Eve candlelight service, a young couple sat down in front of me with what I at first thought was an infant in arms. I then realized she was holding a small dog wearing a Christmas vest! I was a bit indignant at first, but if you think about it, there were probably dogs, and sheep and cattle in attendance at the first Christmas eve.

The Visit

The anxiety that had gripped him – all but consumed him – since he had received his instructions held him motionless before the small village. “This can’t be right,” he thought. “This backwater village in this backwater region can’t be the place.” He almost thought “There must be a mistake,” before he caught himself. No, there was no mistake, but that didn’t ease the sense of despair, the dread that had overwhelmed him since he had been sent on this mission.

He thought back to his summons before the Throne. There, before the Most High and a small group of angels, the Word had told him that He was going to leave heaven and go to Earth as a human, to become the King of the wayward and rebellious people and turn them back to the Father. He thought at that moment the heavens would fracture and they would all fall into the abyss, but that was just the beginning. The Word went on to explain how He was going to become human, and who His earthly mother would be and that he, Gabriel, in his role as messenger was to go and prepare her. He had already carried out a similar mission six months ago by appearing to Zechariah, the priest and foretelling the birth of a son. He chuckled a bit at having left Zechariah speechless. But that was different; Elizabeth was just old and childless. This… this was something altogether different.

Now Gabriel stood in the dark on the road before the little village of Nazareth, a collection of mud houses nestled on a hillside in Galilee, one of many such villages, none notable. Some of the houses seemed piled on top of others against the hill, mud roof of one becoming the courtyard of another. Some were white-washed; most were not. At the end of the street a few awnings stretched across poles marked where the vendors made a market each day. The market was empty now, as were the streets. All of Nazareth was indoors.
Gabriel strode quickly to the house. Pausing before the door, he tried to muster as much angelic aura as he could, but aura – and almost everything else – had been sucked out of him. He pushed the heavy curtain aside and stepped into the room. She was alone, as he knew she would be. She was startled at his abrupt entrance, but not as much as Gabriel was. “A child!” he thought. “She’s just a child.” He knew the way of the humans – the betrothals at a very early age, the arranged weddings – but to actually see her just confirmed all the dread he felt. “What was He thinking? This skinny girl cannot be the mother of the King of Israel!”

Pushing aside his misgivings, Gabriel set to his task and exclaimed in his most angelic voice, “Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you.” He was chagrined at the weak and trembling way the proclamation actually came out. He cleared his throat.

Mary stared at Gabriel in shock. She was startled, but there was nothing to be afraid of in Nazareth. Certainly there was nothing threatening about this man, stranger though he was. What troubled her was his greeting. Mary was a non-person in Nazareth; hardly anyone ever spoke to her at all, least of all strangers, and this was certainly not what a stranger said to you – not even a stranger who burst into your house unannounced. This wasn’t even a greeting that the Rabbi would make – not that the Rabbi ever spoke to her – but this… this greeting made the hair on the back of her neck stand up.

Gabriel, aware that he had startled Mary, quickly said, “Don’t be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God.”

Now Mary was afraid. First, this stranger knew her name. The neighbors didn’t even know her name. Then he said he knew something about her that she didn’t know – and what he knew came from God. Deep down, the first tiny spark of knowledge of who this stranger was and what was happening snapped into being. Yes, now Mary was very afraid.

“You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Mary heard the words but they didn’t make sense. Then she began to process them, first the part about having a son, then the part about her son being given the throne of David. The little spark was burning white-hot now. Then she went back to the beginning – the part about being with child. Yes, she was engaged to Joseph, and they would marry soon, but something told her this was not what was meant. She lowered her eyes for a moment, then raised them to Gabriel and said, “How can this be? I... I’ve never been with a man.”

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. That’s why the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

Gabriel saw the flash of terror pass through Mary like a lightning bolt. She turned her head away, but Gabriel had seen her eyes wide with alarm. “It’s too much for this child,” he thought. “She can’t handle this.” He sought some way to comfort her. He said gently, “Your cousin Elizabeth is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. Nothing is impossible with God.”

Mary looked at the angel, for she knew full well now that this stranger was from God. Her heart pounded as if it would leave her body. Her mind raced from one thought to another. God has chosen me… What will Joseph say…? It’s not possible… Nothing is impossible with God… What will mother say…? The Messiah – at last…! This can’t be happening to me… Me! God has chosen me…! Why me…? What will father say…? There’s an angel standing in my house… What will the neighbors say…? What of the shame…! Mother of the Messiah…! What will Joseph’s family say…? What…?

Gabriel was stunned. He felt the emotional turmoil, sensed the burning questions as they caromed through her consciousness. He was certain she was going to bolt into the street and he positioned himself squarely before the door to stop her flight when it came. The whole future of creation hung on the answer from this child and he was powerless as to its outcome.

Slowly, the Spirit calmed her mind, softened the trip hammer of her heart, and brought stillness to her thoughts. She looked at Gabriel a long time, then bowed her head and said. “May it be to me as you have said.”

Gabriel blinked once or twice, trying to decide what to do next, but there was no next. His work was done. There was nothing more to say, so he just turned and stepped back into the street. He paused in the dark passage, thinking about what had just happened. He had delivered a preposterous message to a totally improbable girl and she had received it in stride – and was prepared to act on it. Smiling to himself, he set off to find Joseph.

Monday Meanderings - 12.22.2014

The other day I noticed a man walking down the street wearing a safety vest, a hard hat, and a loaded-down tool belt. A while later, he knocked at our door. He said he was with Comcast, which is about to take over Time Warner, and after showing me his credentials asked if he could take a look at the utility pole in the backyard. After assuring him it was okay to do so, I watched him approach the pole, enter some information in a digital tablet he was carrying, then he put his ear to the pole and listened! After a bit, he moved around to the other side and listened again.

He did a number of other things, like measure the pole's girth with a giant caliper he was carrying, measure the height from the ground to the cable drop with a large extending measure, measure the distance the pole was from the nearby fences and then take a few photos, each time entering his findings on his tablet. When he was all done, he once again put his ear to the pole and listened for a good two minutes! I'm thinking of walking down there to see what my utility pole has to say.

Hooray! The Senior Activity Center has reopened and is cracking pecans again! I had searched to no avail for some other option to deal with my 40 pounds of pecans, so I was glad to haul my sacks down there and stand in a looong line to drop them off. They are overwhelmed at this point, so it may be a while before I get a call to come get them. Meanwhile, every time the wind blows another batch falls from the tree. It's a race between me and the Vietnamese lady to see who gets to them first.

I'm looking for a replacement office chair and Saturday we went to IKEA to check out a highly-rated chair. We have been IKEA fans since Julie and Jason introduced to those iconic blue stores in Prague, and we have several furniture items from IKEA. However, I made two major mistakes on this shopping trip. One, it is the week before Christmas, and Two, we went on Saturday. I was prepared to buy the chair, but after a long, long, unsuccessful search for a cart and a look at the impossibly long lines at checkout, we decided to come home empty handed. There's always next year.

Under the category "You can't make this stuff up, folks" here are two recent news items. The first a social media posting from the American Statesman -

"Police have located a Buick LeSabre police had thought possibly stolen from the home of an elderly couple. It was in the home's garage."
 
 And the other a news item on the Huffington Post -

"Robert O’Neill, the former United States Navy SEAL who shot and killed Osama Bin Laden, had his home mistakenly invaded by members of a street gang this morning shortly after 1AM. O’Neill was uninjured; the five intruders remain hospitalized."

Monday Meanderings - 12.15.2014

The new phone books are here! The new phone books are here! Here's a question. How many phone books ago did you actually use one to look up something? I wouldn't want to be a Yellow Pages ad salesman these days.

Next week Austin celebrates the 125th anniversary of its founding. Hard to believe that we have been here for roughly a quarter of that time.

This week I received a check from Toyota! It was part of a class action lawsuit dating back to the brouhaha about Toyota automobiles unexpectedly and unintentionally accelerating. As far as I know, our Highlander was never involved and was never recalled for that condition, so I guess the $29 was Toyota's way of saying, "Thanks for driving a potentially unsafe car - not that it's worth all that much to us."

Our home treadmill is positioned so that I can look into the backyard as I walk. Normally there is not much to see out there but the neighbor's overgrown grape vine and the occasional squirrel or two.  But this week there is a Chinese Tallow tree in gorgeous Fall bloom - leaves of pale green, yellow, gold, and rich dark red. They are tumbling to the ground with every puff of wind, but there's a rich, variegated carpet of color on the ground. It's not New England, but for Austin it is spectacular.

We made the annual trek up IH-35 for the Cousin's Christmas on Saturday. That's our name for the Holiday get-together that evolved from Christmas with our parents. With origins in "going home to Breckenridge" for Christmas, it grew into my brother, sister and I gathering our families at the Lake Cabin with Mom and Pops, and then later in Fort Worth when our parents relocated there. Now that we are the older generation, the three of us host a gathering for our multi-generational families, and any available cousins of our own.

My sister found evidence that we have been holding the gatherings in their current format for 27 years. The gatherings wax and wane as various participants change life situations, add to the family, move away, etc., but there's always a crowd and always good fellowship, and always ever-so-much good stuff to eat.

Monday Meanderings - 12.1.2014

We were blessed with a house full of kids and grand-kids this past week. There's sort of a controlled chaos with 10 people in our smallish house, but it's all good. In addition to Thanksgiving festivities, we celebrated a couple of birthdays, hit Chuy's twice and spent an afternoon flying a really cool drone. Sweet.

Since I prefer to celebrate my holidays in order, I can now dig out the Santa hat. Even the weather is right on time. Yesterday it was 80 degrees - too hot for the hat. Today, the thermometer is plummeting and the warm hat is welcome!

And I leave you with a sight seldom seen. It's hard to see in the picture, but every check-out lane at Walmart is open for business. Time to go shopping. Not.

Monday Meanderings - 11.24.2014

 I was not aware that our new phones are Amber Alert enabled. With an alarm that will wake the dead! If you have a weak heart I suggest you turn that feature off. On the other hand, Siri and I are becoming good friends, primarily for her ability to add reminders and items to my notes and lists.

I was watching the UT women play Tech in soccer the other night. When they posted the line-ups I noted that the Tech goal keeper's last name was spelled Czyz. I waited patiently for the announcer to pronounce this name for me, but for some reason, throughout the entire game he referred to the player only as the "Tech goal keeper." Understandably.

Some years back, in the spirit of "you should buy what you know," I purchased a few shares of Wendy's stock. We were big Wendy's fans back then, but over the years the chain faltered and I eventually sold my shares. But not before Wendy's had acquired the Canadian restaurant chain Tim Horton's and later spun them off as a separate entity once again. That's how I ended up owning shares in a Canadian Coffee and Sandwich operation. Those shares performed much better than Wendy's, by the way, so I have kept them all these years.

Now Burger King and Tim Horton's are merging. And I mention all of this simply because of the 600-page, fine-print, 4-pound book that arrived Priority Mail this week, explaining to me just how this merger is going to take place! I wonder just how many of these suckers hit the mail this week? And who read past the front cover?

The other morning I was checking a couple of things on my Google calendar, and a message popped up that said "You should leave for Dr B's at 9:00am." Huh. My appointment was for 9:30 and it takes about 30 minutes to drive there. Good job, Google. Then in a couple of minutes I got another message: "You must leave by 9:13am to avoid being late to your appointment with Dr B. You will be charged a fee if you do not keep your appointment!" Okay. That's a bit much, Google.

I hope your Thanksgiving brings you good food, good friends, and good memories with loved ones - from the past, and for the future.

Monday Meanderings - 11.17.2014

The limbs that remained attached to the pecan tree out front have dropped almost all of their pecans. The squirrels have gathered their fill, I have gathered my fill, and as I write this there is a little old Vietnamese lady scratching through the leaves to gather what is left. I guess it's a cultural thing; from time to time folks stop and ask if they can pick up pecans, and almost everyone walking down the street gathers those that end up in the gutter or curbside, but this little lady has simply made herself at home.

At least the wind has stopped blowing. A cold front came through this week and the pecans dropped like bombs for a couple of days. I tried gathering while the wind was blowing and got beaned a half-dozen times. And this was Large Brush Pickup week by the city, so I had to get the last broken limb down out of the tree so they could haul it off for free. It had been up there a while, and after a few hours of trying to get it cut loose - it was just out of reach of my pole saw - Barb and I finally got it down. That's me, standing victoriously over my counquered tree limb.

I shelled about half a grocery sack last week and I still have three full sacks, so I gathered them up and took them down to the Senior Activity Center, where the friendly folks will run them through their big shelling machines for a modest fee, only to find that the Activity Center is closed for remodeling! I've been searching for an alternative cracking service, but thus far the closest I've found is in Burnet, about 45 miles away! Maybe I can hire the Vietnamese lady. My goal is to shell enough pecans for a couple of pecan pies for Thanksgiving. At 1 1/2 cups of pecans per pie, I figure I am good for about 400 pies.

Monday Meanderings - 11.10.2014

The new phones are here! The new phones are here! After a 41-day wait, AT&T finally got around to shipping our phones. I had to break a solemn oath that I would never go back to that AT&T store, but I decided in the end that was the quickest way to get everything transferred and up and running. It only took an hour and a half, and a good bit of that was because Barb has two Apple Ids (my bad) and it took some finagling to get everything brought across. Now if I could figure out what all the new settings and apps are.

Wandered into Whole Foods the other day. I decided it is a great place if you want some gourmet coffee, craft beer, high-scale pizza or sushi tacos. If you are just looking for some Sweet-N-Low it misses the mark.

Who knew? Found out that Austin must be the "Undying Lands" because Frodo lives here now. Yep, that Frodo. Sailed here from the Shire, I guess.

Also learned that Chuy's just opened its 59th store. I may need to get a move on if I'm going to visit all the Chuy's locations.

I came across a recipe the other day that suggested you could prepare a really nice low-cal waffle by adding egg white and baking powder to one of those high-protein pudding mixes and using that for the batter. Huh. I like me some waffle, so I tried it. I mixed the batter up according to the instructions and poured it into the Waffletron 9000. It was just the right amount to make one waffle so I think all is well.

Until I started hearing this hissing and sputtering sound and turned around to see batter beginning to ooze out on all sides. And then batter started to spew out on all sides! In about a two-foot circle! When it was all over, I had two waffle skins stuck to the top and bottom of my non-stick waffle iron and several square feet of waffle spew! I did get it all cleaned up before Barb got home, so she will never know.

Monday Morning Meanderings - 11.3.2014

Welcome, Fall! Now that's what I'm talking about!

Barb brought the plants in, we put the blanket on the bed and the heater came on in the early morning to warm the house. Hello snuggly. Hello coffee on the patio (after putting on warm clothes).

Of course, this wonderful weather can work against us; this was Formula One week in Austin and tens of thousands of folks are looking around, saying, "You know, this would be a really nice place to live."

What limbs are left on the pecan out front are dropping nuts like crazy and we have been gathering and shelling them. Good tasting nuts this year.

For the 49th consecutive Halloween, I dressed up as an aging hippy. Peace.

There was one downside to the weekend. Daylight Saving Time ended and it will take weeks to get accustomed to the change. Grumble, gripe.

Monday Meandering - 10.27.2014

It's been a quiet week here in Lake Wobegon. At our age quiet is our preferred status, so it has been a good week.

Probably the most exciting thing that happened was to spot the Google Street View camera on my route - not once, but twice. If it was filming, I'll post the coordinates so you can see me driving down Koenig Road in October of 2014. Talk about an alibi!

A couple of times I have spotted an unusual couple out for a trek through the neighborhood. Both are outfitted in boots, walking shorts and boony hats - you know, the wide-brimmed floppy type, associated with the Outback or such. Each also has a backpack, but what is most striking is that they seem to be "poling" through the neighborhood; both have what like like ski poles, or a pair of walking sticks, and they are working the poles every step, at a really accelerated pace.

Well, I voted last week, but for some reason the TV networks have not recognized that fact and I'm still seeing all the political ads. Huh.

This week the US Women's Soccer team has been competing in the CONCACAF Tournament, which determines which teams in that conference will get invites to the World Cup next summer. The US qualified midweek with a win over Mexico, and met Costa Rica, also a qualifier, in the championship game Sunday night. Abby Wambach scored her 174th career international goal in the game. She also scored her 175th, 176th and 177th - about 50 more international goals than any other player, man or woman. The first 3 were headed in; nobody does that better. The 4th was a delicate little chip over the keeper's head, just to show she could do that, too. Looking forward to some soccer this summer!

Monday Meanderings - 10.20.2014

The news from Fangorn Forest is good this week; no major limbs fell on our heads (knock on wood - uh, wait!). My fear was that we were losing that pecan tree, since it seemed to be divesting itself of limbs at an alarming rate. I finally called an expert and Andy Arborist came out and checked everything out. He said that the tree was quite healthy - if it were not, it wouldn't be loaded with so many pecans. He blamed the breakage on the timing of periods of drought followed by good rains. And once it drops all its pecans we should be out of the woods. Heh heh.

If there is anything I like better than food at Chuy's it's free food at Chuy's. Our regular waitperson was vacationing in Maui this past week (maybe I'm over-tipping?) and we got Billy Beginner. After a long, long wait, the manager came by and told us that they discovered that Billy placed our order in the "training mode" which meant it never went to the kitchen, so our late-arriving meal was on the house. I'm good with that.

I have mentioned before that I find it odd that most gyms and fitness centers put all the heavy cardio equipment on the second floor. That's certainly the case at Silver's Gym, and the other day some guy right in the middle of the upper floor, on the edge overlooking the weight area, had his treadmill in warp mode. He was pounding it, and the floor was shaking so badly I had to hold on to the rail to cross to my treadmill. I kept thinking that when the floor collapsed I would be on top of those poor souls below - but under a treadmill!

Barb had a blind woman come by the other day and take measurements and then Friday a blind guy came by and installed...blinds. Okay, no more, I promise. Over the years we have had various window treatments - woven woods, shutters, shades, curtains, even some blinds, but now we have nicely coordinated matching wooden blinds in all our windows. I'm really liking the open view, but there is some discussion going on as to openness vs. privacy. I maintain that don't wander around in my unawares that much, but Barb's pretty insistent. She may be onto something.

Monday Meanderings - 10.13.2014

Looked out Friday morning and this bad boy was sitting on top of one of the bird feeders.

When I tried to get a picture he flew a few feet away to the utility wire. This shot doesn't provide a good perspective; this bird is more than 2 feet long! A Red-shouldered Hawk, I believe. Formidable-looking as he might seem, a gang of Jays chased him away a few minutes later.

Guy on the corner was flying a sign that said, "Need fuel for the space ship back to Mars." From the looks of him, he might be right.

In a recent John Sandford book, a character was described as "needing a fresh Chapstick for every time he read. Without Chapstick his lips got cracked and chapped."

I now get texts from my bank informing me of my current balance. That's okay, but I wish they didn't add "LOL" to the end of every text.

And I noticed a product at my local Walmart that I didn't even know I needed.

Monday Meanderings - 10.6.2014

Since Austin is now almost completely encircled with toll roads, I picked up a couple of TxTags for our vehicles the other day. The clerk carefully explained how to access my account online to keep up with the charges and payments, and even gave me an instruction sheet with all the needed information. However, when I got home, the website rejected all my attempts to log on.

I finally called the Customer Support Desk and explained my dilemma, and after several fruitless attempts, the support person asked, "What is your email address?" I told her, "Bob@*******." She laughed and said, "We had something else. I'll correct that." So while she is correcting my email address, I check the instruction sheet that I was given, and sure enough, they had  "Boob@*******."  Close, but no TxTag.

The AT&T saga continues, but this time the telephone support guy got it right. We still don't have our new phones, but at least the plan is all correct and working. While the telephone support guy was waiting on his manager to work out some details, we were chatting about this and that, and he asked  - since I lived in Texas - if I was a Cowboys fan, noting that they were off to a great start. I confessed that I was, even though I know if the Cowboys are 15 and 1 at the end of the regular season, they will break my heart in the playoffs.

Friday, there was a group of people surrounding one of those beach buggies, parked at the entrance to Virginia's on the Bay. I thought it might be a medical emergency of some kind; one of the men in the group turned to me and asked, "Do you have a crescent wrench in your car? My wife's seat belt won't release and she's trapped in the buggy."  Alas, we did not, but I assured her that we would bring her something to eat when we got ready to leave.

Same song, 4th verse. Welcome to Fangorn Forest. Beware the trees.

You had one job and one job only!

Monday Meanderings - 09.29.2014

Fall is officially here. That means only 30 or so more days of Summer.

We were watching the UT women in a soccer match against Texas Tech the other evening, and the Tech coach was constantly yelling. He loudly called out instructions to his players, criticism to the officials and general expressions of his discontent throughout the game. We kept expecting some response from one of his team. sort of like back in the Youth Soccer days, when one player, who shall remain nameless, turned to her vocal mother in the stands, who shall remain nameless, and said, loudly, "Mother! Shut Up!"

Barb and I are not the only Monday evening regulars at Chuy's. There is a group of four women that we see regularly; so much so, that we now exchange greetings each week. Last Monday there were only two, so they felt obliged to tell us the other two were off on a cruise, but they would be back next week.

Barb's phone is beginning to have problems. It's several years old and a few models back, so I decided it was time to upgrade. Others had commented that it was a pretty straightforward process, so we dropped by the AT&T Store the other day, old phones in hand, ready to get it done.

After first trying to:
  - interest us in U-Verse
  - interest us in a home security system
  - sign us up for AT&T land line telephone instead of our current carrier
Sean, as his name tag proudly stated, told us that they didn't actually have any new iPhone 6s in stock but we could take care of everything now and we would receive the phones in a couple of weeks and we would be all set.

Except his trusty iPad that he used for all of the transactions was sort of slow...and it wasn't giving him the expected results...and after consulting with two other clerks...and a supervisor...and spending an hour and a half... he announced that couldn't exactly upgrade our phones and our billing plan to what we had agreed upon, but he did have us signed up for another, more expensive plan, BUT... all we had to do was come back to the store when we got our phones... in 45 days... and THEN he could get us set up on the agreed upon plan.

I kept looking around for Lily, the woman in the AT&T TV ads that solves everyone's problems, while Barb went looking for a manager to tell him that he might want to step in because she feared that I might possibly do something with Sean and his alternative plan that wasn't covered in the training manuals.

All in all, I thought I behaved very well, but I doubt if the manager ever before had to write out and sign a handwritten statement that said Sean's deal was NOT the real deal, and spell out what the agreement was going to be, if, and when we ever receive the new phones.

More reasons women outlive men

Oh, the irony!

Never give a safety engineer a knife.

How is that even supposed to work?

Nothing at all.

Ah, electricity.

What?

Of course newspaper will protect your eyes.

This was almost okay until it wasn't.

No idea electricians went to circus school.

Who needs a jack?

In what universe is this a good idea?

I can't even caption this.

Notice that the guy's foot is in a puddle of water.

This is not going to end well.

Balancing act.

What are friends for?

Flammable must mean "If you got 'em, smoke 'em."

I'd pay money to see one guy step off.

Monday Meanderings - 9.22.2014

Yay! Rain. The new rain gauge got a workout this past week; nearly 3 inches accumulated over several days. It has been a long time since we have enjoyed a rainy day.

And the frogs are back. Not sure where they go doing the dry spells, but after a couple of days of rain they are croaking and peeping on the patio. One of them sounds like the smoke detector low-battery chirp. Sort of drives you crazy. Was the hall detector, or the frog again?

Another limb from the pecan tree bit the dirt. This makes two for us, two for the next door neighbor and one for the neighbor down the street. A guy up the street has preemptively propped up a bunch of limbs in his tree with long boards. It makes for an adventure every morning - peer out the window and see if anything fell over the night.

I called the lawn guys this time for help with cutting up and hauling off the limb. It looked like it required some ladder work and homey don't do ladder work anymore. About two hours after I called, one guy in a pickup pulled up, took out one of those chain saws on a long pole, and about 15 minutes later had everything trimmed and loaded and took off.

My Bible app on my phone dropped me in the grease yesterday. In class, I was asked to read a portion of Hebrews. I really prefer to do this from the printed page, but I had left my "real" Bible at home, so I punched up the passage on my phone and began reading. About halfway through, I found myself describing the lamb with 7 wings and 7 eyes. Wait! That's not in Hebrews! I've read Hebrews and there's no 7 wings and 7 eyes!

Sure enough, the app had seamlessly segued into Revelation 5 and next time I'll pass if asked to read and I don't have my print Bible.

Stories for my grandchildren - Vincent DiNino

Vincent DiNino died last week.

For more than 50 years, DiNino was a presence at UT - first as the director of the Longhorn Band, then later overseeing all 6 of the University's bands. A newspaper article said "Beginning in the mid-1950s, DiNino built the Longhorn Band into a force every bit as formidable as coach Darrell K Royal’s football team. The two of them, along with longtime announcer Wally Pryor, were fixtures at UT games for decades."

And for at least one summer, Vincent DiNino directed the Boys State Band - and that's when I met him. It was a short friendship, to say the least. One rehearsal only. For some reason, Mr. DiNino took exception to my playing ability. Specifically, my ability to play the chromatic scale on my clarinet without fingering the keys. I just clamped down on the reed, harder and harder as I blew, and the resulting sound ran the gamut from the low E to G₆, or thereabouts. It wasn't the cleanest scale ever played, I'll admit, and that may be why DiNino pointed at me and said, "You. Leave now."

Truthfully, it didn't hurt my feelings at all. I had already determined that he was very serious about his band, and expected college-level capabilities. I was neither serious, nor capable. In fact, I found myself desperately looking for any section in the music that contained notes I thought I might be able to play.

So I put away my clarinet and wandered over to where the Boy's State Newspaper staff was meeting and ended up having a lot more fun. Even when we got arrested by the UT police, a story that I've already shared with you.

Monday Meandering - 9.15.2014

I don't think I understand how this blogging stuff works. I wrote a post back in December, 2010 about Basil Clemons, a unique individual who captured much of the oil-boom days and early history of my hometown in photographs. Last week, a  few hundred blogs and 4 years later,  someone commented on that post. So I guess it's true that things that get placed on the Internet live forever. I get that.

But there's more... the comment cast aspersions on an individual named in the post. I responded, both to the commenter and in the post comment section, that there was no basis for the accusation that was made. There. That should take care of that.

But here's the part I don't understand. Within 24 hours I had received 3 more comments; 2 that excoriated (verb : to criticize someone or something very harshly) the 1st commenter and one that said the disparaged person was a relative of theirs. Don't bother looking. I deleted all of the comments.

Tell me. How does a comment on a 4-year old blog post all the sudden generate a flurry of comments?  Are people checking back daily to see if, after all these years, someone said something disparaging about Uncle Whatshizname? Is there a secret web site that gathers flaming posts and alerts the troops? IMWTK.

I've been waiting all summer for that first cool spell, when one can comfortably sit out on the patio to enjoy one's morning coffee. According to the weather dudes, Saturday was going be the day. Sure enough, a cold front blew through Friday night and Saturday morning was... too cool to sit on the patio without a jacket! I hadn't been that cold since we were in Alaska. But Saturday was a nice stay-indoors-and-listen-to-the-rain day, and it has been a long time since we had one of those!

I have seen birds flying around in Walmart before, but I don't think I have ever seen one walking down the aisle. Someone needs to get this guy a cart.

The car of my dreams

I came across an article the other day that said that Jaguar Cars Ltd. is going to make 6 more E-Type Jaguars - the venerable XKE.

When I was a young man I lusted after this automobile. Sleek and powerful, with a sensuous hood that stretched out forever, the E-Type was labeled "the most beautiful car ever made" by Enzo Ferrari. The NYC Museum of Modern Art added a blue roadster to its permanent design collection in 1996, one of only six automobiles to receive the distinction. In 2008, it was listed 1st in a tally of the 100 most beautiful cars in the world. In production from 1961 to 1967, more than 70,000 cars were sold. Some 50 years later, it is still highly sought after by collectors.

It is common for young (and old) men to yearn for fancy automobiles. I craved the E-Type Jag; my roommate and later brother-in-law was keen on the Mercedes Super Light. He made good by later owning a couple of Mercedes autos, though not a Super Light. I never got a Jag of any kind, apart from the toy model Barb gave me one Christmas.

I have been near some of these magnificent vehicles from time-to-time. While filming "State Fair" in Dallas in 1962, Pat Boone drove his E-Type to the ACU campus to visit his sister, Judy. Too bad we were no longer an item; I might have lucked into a ride. And while Barb and I were in Carmel last year several E-Types were on display at the Concours on the Avenue.

 So what's the story about making 6 more? Well, in 1963 the company committed to making 18 special  lightweight, race-ready versions of the car. They built 12, but their success on the race track was spotty, at best. Transmission problems plagued the competition models (and the street machines, as well) and the aerodynamics of the vehicle tended to suck the drivers right out of the open roadsters. The project was scrubbed with 6 machines not built.

Fifty years later, over drinks, an engineering team at Jaguar Land Rover decided to complete the task. They are determined to build the cars—with chassis numbers set aside in 1963—exactly as the first dozen were made five decades ago. That means keeping everything strictly original, right down to the construction methods and the countless parts no one but a mechanic will ever see. Money is no object. All 6 have already been sold at an average price of around $1.5 million dollars!

Which brings me to the reason why I never owned an E-Type. I simply could not justify spending the amount of money needed to own one of those luscious autos. When you could buy a brand new VW Beetle for $1,200, who could conscientiously spend - wait for it - $5,000 on an automobile?