Did you survive Valentines Day?

I’m here and hoping I did.

After last year’s debacle (we wont even go back to the year before last!), I’m really hoping I did OK this year. I tried. I have often been told that trying is all it takes. I don’t think those guys know a damn thing ‘bout Valentines Day—trying don’t get ya anywhere.

While the wife was at work, I made myself lunch and kept the pups off the carpet—didn’t even allow them outta the kitchen. I decorated the kitchen and made the wife a Valentine Sack—you remember those; the kind you pasted harts on and hoped your best girl would give you a special Valentine—even though she had absolutely no idea whatsoever that she was your best girl. I made me one also just so I could put my two lonely cards inside and re-read again later. Of course I maintained the appropriate proportionality between the sacks—I’m not completely stupid.

I next went over to the HEB, searched up and down the Valentine Card aisle for just the right card that had exactly the right words on the inside—like I could really tell. I walked around and around the flowers and finally picked out just the exact right ones in this area also—ditto the previous comment.

Brought all the goodies home and added some appropriate sentiments to the inside of the card. Then I sat back and waited on the inevitable outcome.

The wife arrives: “What’s this?” she comments as she stares down the big sack I have provided for the collection of her valentines.

Just WHO gets all the attention at my house?

I explain that I wanted her to recapture her youth, but only if she wanted to. She did enjoy the roses—actually took a few to work with her the next day; saying: she “wanted to enjoy them more.” There wasn’t as much excitement about the sack—Gus and I had put a lot of work in on that; I was disappointed now. The pups, both Little Gus and Otis thought the sack was the top of the world. They kept running at it and poking it with their nose and tail: “Look Mom; we got a sack!”

See, I put it in there!

Patsy got a bite of ham or two, went upstairs to change clothes and we were off to the Austin City Limits Live stage to take in a Rob Schneider concert. She had scored the tickets at work—actually she is my main link to good tickets to whatever is going on in the Austin area now that I have retired and no longer have various vendors attempting to bribe me for business purposes.

I am always looking for somebody I know when we are out like this and invariably I never see anybody I know.

Making our way through the throng, we encountered some of Patsy’s associates and the Director of Marketing who were working the event and I scored some very cool sunglasses and a hand soap dispenser—you can never get too much free junque, ya know? Soon after we were chased down by one of the two of Patsy’s employees and their significant others—also attending the event—prior to heading to our seats. We spent the rest of the pre-show available time with good people and great conversation.

The organization where Patsy works has a suite at the ACL-Live stage so we took advantage and had two or three (or more) glasses of champagne and several chocolate covered strawberries apiece before the show and again at intermission.

Schneider’s show has been reworked a bit since the last time I saw him at a ACL Festival several years back—probably a little more that just a little re-work has taken place. He has a string quartet, an additional cello, a piano and trumpet player accompanying him now along with two girl singers who perform off and on (singularly) throughout the show. The songs had been captured from the late 1930s and early 1940s—My Funny Valentine, As Time Goes By and the like. We both enjoyed the show immensely.

Made our way to our seats and found some squatters; sternly advised them that they needed to move—actually considered chunking them over the rail; we were on the first row of the mezzanine and could have. They moved to the seats I kindly advised them that were available at the time but were up and down during the whole show.

Checking around the section, one of the group spotted Mathew McConaughey (with fiancée) and Robert Rodriguez sitting in our section. I thought it so sad that neither of them knew Patsy nor I—their loss.

We didn’t get out of the theatre until after 11 PM and finally home some twenty minutes later. The pups were irritated that they had to stay up past their bedtime—mine also. I paid for it this morning with Champagne Head.

Yep, I survived Valentines Day; but just barely.

Meeting of the Executive Committee of SFA graduates in the Austin Area

Well, I am finally home from the meeting of the Executive Committee of SFA graduates in the Austin area. The employees of the Red Lobster off 183 ran us out just a few minutes ago. It seems that they had to close the restaurant so they could open it for the next days activities—weird rule but they seemed to know what they were talking about.

Neither Bobby nor I had seen hide nor hair of Jimmy Phipps since graduation from Texas A&M back in 1970. Forty plus years had gone by just like an overnight.

We managed to induct Jimmy onto the Executive Committee prior to starting any discussion on world peace, the state of the union or the solving of hunger throughout the globe—a hard task, but we managed.

Taking seats in the booth we started in on the questioning of Mr. Phipps: where he had been over the last forty years; what he had accomplished; and what his plans were for the future.

Due to the fact that there were two old military types the conversation naturally revolved around the telling of experienced “war stories”—all of which were true I am sure. Have you ever heard a war story that you even had the slightest bit of doubt as to its authenticity?

We allowed Jimmy to tell several prior to the gauntlet being thrown down. During the telling of an adventure he detailed about an event while stationed at Fort Riley, Kansas, Jimmy mentioned that there was nothing between the North Pole and Fort Riley—obviously trying to one-up the cold factor on the entire assemblage. His account of the cold was most likely true to anybody having not ventured north of the Lower 48 but I couldn’t let the challenge pass.

At this time in the tales of the past Jimmy did not yet know of my traveling. I took the opportunity to interject that I was between the North Pole and Fort Riley for the four years I spent on my first tour of duty in the Army and had better first hand knowledge of just what the effects of the Hawk could be. In fact, the Hawk checked in with us prior to heading south. Cold? Man, let me tell ya ‘bout Cold..

After this confrontation we moved on to each of us attempting to one-up one another time and again with our best stories concerning: Fort Hood adventures, flights on C-141s, flights on C-130s, mountain adventures, Fort Drum adventures……..

At the end of each inning, Bobby would add his editorial comments and we would move right back to the confrontation.

The process took an hour to get through our salads and two waiters//waitresses before we ordered lunch.

Once in a while, the conversation would move toward the politics of the state, the nation and the world. Each appropriately adding their own two cents (never more) about the current subject prior to moving on to the next somewhat related (not a requirement) war story and extra innings.

Eventually the waiters forced us to order a meal which was pretty much engulfed without the interruption of the current conflict being described by who’s ever turn it was.

Boy! What a time we had.

I want to publicly thank Big Bucks Bobby for picking up the check. By the way, he promised to do so again whenever we meet north of the Colorado River—this is an option I will not soon forget.

By the time they asked us to leave, the restaurant had ran out of both coffee and iced tea—both sweetened and unsweetened. As I was sitting on the inside and both Bobby and Jimmy had outside seats, the lack of non-alcoholic libations was probably a good thing at this time; I know I was beginning to feel the urge.

We resolved to meet again as soon as we all recovered from “war story overload.”

UPDATE - useless devices from the backyard

After the rains this pas Saturday—I’m guessing that was what we received; hadn’t seen anything like it in several months—and after the water level in the backyard had resided, the pups and I ventured out back there to determine if we needed to apply for some form of federal disaster aid—a tough choice to make; there’s just so many different categories and so much money to choose from.

While out there, I thought I might take a look and see how those useless devices I reported on last month had weathered the storm. The most of them fared pretty well—no federal aid money to be made there unless I can come up with some sort of  natural disaster failure to remove backyard clutter—I probably oughta look and see if I can find a federal agency that specifically handles problems of this nature. I’m sure the Democrats have one; it’s just a matter of finding the agency.

Well, at any rate, in my final check, the last device I came across seemed to have taken on a task of its own. I’m still not sure that my assessment of its ability to function as a spider trap—not with the amount of liquid it had managed to store up. No self-respectin’ spider is gonna get itself caught in that mess.

This sent me to wondering again—maybe my original idea was completely off point. What could it be?

Puttin’ the ole grey matter in gear, I began to ponder:

• Maybe it’s a substitute bird watering hole

• Could it be a mosquiter breedin’ device—that seemed fairly plausible

• How about a knat swimmin’ pool

I wasn’t getting anywhere; all good ideas, but they just didn’t seem to be the solution.

Standing there while I crunched the brain cells, it began to dawn on me that I was closing in on real trouble. The pups had continued there quest of backyard relief—they’d been cooped up for some time and not allowed out. As they churned up the mud and what little grass remains, I realized that my wife wasn’t gonna let them back inside without some form of cleaning, washing, or scrubbing. They were beginning to look pretty bad; Gus not so much—he doesn’t like to get wet for any reason; but Otis is another matter entirely. He has no fear of  water unless it’s in the form of a bath. Otis will get as dirty as dirty will comply with his need, desires or devious humor.

I knew I was gonna be in as much trouble as they would soon be.

That’s when it dawned on me. The device in question was one of the most ingenuous device ever invented by man to keep man outta trouble.  Its entire purpose seems to be to alert man—prior to ever venturing out the back door—to the mud level in the immediate area of his intended roaming. I’m thinkin’ bout getting one for the front yard as soon as Home Depot opens up.

6 reasons why Austin’s Stage 2 water restrictions will not work

Otis (my baby puppy—8 days short of 1 year) woke me up this morning to go outside at 0423 hrs. He usually gets Patsy up at that time, but she’s outta town doing Strategic Planning for her position at the credit union, so it was my turn to take the early shift.

Gus (the older of the two—he’s 2 years & 8 months) came with us to supervise I guess.

At any rate, there I sat on the deck steps while the two of them ran around the yard hither and yon as dogs do. There was some noise that shouldn’t have been there at that time of the morning—there shouldn’t be any noise at 0423 hrs in the morning in the pitch black out-of-doors. The pups gave the racket some notice but eventually let it go as not any of their concern.

I recognized the noise right away. There was no doubt what it was and where it came from. Yep, the neighbors were watering their yard. They have a sprinkler system which makes it easy to do so at 0423 hrs in the morning. There might have been more than one of them doing so but at 0423 hrs, I wasn’t gonna go check to see.

Let me describe my cul-de-sac to you.: most of the houses have an underground sprinkler system. Of the seven houses, only two don’t: mine and one other. They all got them on the cheap—a friend of a friend kind of deal. Of the seven houses in the cul-de-sac and the two facing the entrance only two no longer have any grass in the front yards. Both of these two, as far as I can tell, have rigidly complied with the City’s watering restrictions: only watering two days a week originally and now only one day a week. These two yards are now almost completely grassless. The other yards are lush and green.

The lush and green yards have nothing to do with the sprinkler systems however—it’s all about following the rules. If ya follow—ya got no grass; if ya don’t follow—ya got grass. The house without the system that has grass tends to water three or four days a week; even outside the restricted times: before 10 AM and after 7 PM.

The current rules (under stage 2 restrictions) allow odd number residences to water on Saturday and even numbered residences to water on Sundays. Of course hand watering is allowed any day of the week—but why hand water if ya got a sprinkler system?

Oh, I almost forgot! What are the 6 reasons why Austin’s Stage 2 water restrictions will not work?

1 – Monday

2 – Tuesday

3 – Wednesday

4 – Thursday

5 – Friday

6 – Saturday or Sunday (depending on your assigned watering day)

I guess come spring I will fork over the money to have the yard xeriscaped or concreted. Maybe I should clandestinely cut there source of moisture every night and stop this foolishness at the source.

You got any ideas on how to go about this?

Why the Nice morning in Austin, TX and where did these hummingbirds come from?

The temperature in Austin is 66ºF. Perfect for a stroll around the neighborhood with the pups (actually we do it everyday, but today was special). Thinking we may never see this temp again within our lifetimes, we spent a little longer in the park watching the birds and the kids getting off to school. Got back home and moved our whole operation to the back deck. The hummingbirds are here already and a load of blue jays making racket in the area.

Billy Joe is back again this year

Still a little early in morning light for their best colors.

Some time he sits and guzzles instead of hovering.

Long cool (??) drinks.

He will go to both feeders and try to protect them from all the other hummers.

4 Useless devices in the backyard

I know I am getting older; heck it’s obvious. It hurts to do just about anything, especially if it requires the movement of my appendages—any or all of them.

As I was coming back inside yesterday afternoon upon completion of a game of retrieve the bird with my pups, Little Gus & Otis, I noticed a device laying by the back door that I could not for the life of me remember why I had it or why it was where it was.

But there it lay. Right in front of the back screen door. It seemed to be a leaf specimen collector. What do I do with the leaves once I get them collected. I’m not about to catalog a bunch of leaves and anyway; once I had them cataloged, then what do I do? I’ve just been stepping over it or walking around it for so long now, I can’t remember why.

Off to the left were some objects that resembled the chairs that we use inside the house. These objects seemed to be collecting leaves also—I remind you here of my argument above. They could be chairs for lounging outside but we haven’t done that in some time. I guess we stopped about the same time that the weather started hitting 100+ºF or more—ya just can’t sit out there in that heat. Maybe I should put them away for the winter; you know we have some pretty tough winters around here. But wait! What if we have a fall this year? Might I need them that week? I guess I will leave them out for the time being.

Oh! There’s that swing over there. I faintly remember what that does. We used to sit in it with the grand kids when they visit. The heat has kept them away from Austin this year. It seems to be cooler up in North Texas—boy they’re some lucky son-of-a-guns up there.

I walked back out in the yard to see what was setting on the fence my neighbor and I share—it keeps us from doing battle over the little rat dog they have. That rat keeps my two pups stirred up all the time. They have never seen the rat, but they instinctively know that they shouldn’t like it. The device that is attached to the fence looks to be the most useless device of all the devices that I probably own. It seems to be a spider trap. Now, like in the case of the leaves—you remember those leaves I mentioned earlier—I have absolutely no use for spiders or know anywhere I could sell (or donate) a gaggle of spiders should I be able to trap them in that gal-darned trap.

I stood scratching my head for a moment until it became way to hot to be standing out in the middle of the yard in the 100+ºF heat so I decided to go inside and come back out about 2 AM—it’s a lot cooler at 2 AM—and try to make heads or tails of these contraptions. They must have some use, but danged if I can remember what it might be.

Veteran’s Day Parade - 11 Nov 10

Did I see you at the parade this morning? The parade was supposed to start at 0900 hrs, but it looked more like 0925 hrs before I saw movement down the route. No big-a-deal. What’s fifteen or twenty minutes when watching a parade is involved? So, we waited. Then it came. The turnout was pretty good for a Thursday morning. There seems to be more and more Latinos showing up on the sidewalks every year. I’m glad to see that. If you served, you served and need to be proud of that fact. Did I see you there?

It is sometimes just way too easy not to put forth the effort to do what’s right. Stay in bed, stay home and watch the tube. If you had to work or were on your deathbed (or standing at another’s); you get a pass. But if you didn’t have to work you shoulda been there or somewhere honoring a Vet. There’s just no excuse.

When I arrived, there was plenty of room for more to come; places right on the curb. Soon the festivities began. Bucky Godbolt of the Bucky and Bob Morning Show on KVET was our MC this morning.

Then came the bands. Not just one but many.

There’s always room for pretty girls and these are just an example of those that showed up.

Three Navy WAVs are always there. I think they served in WWII.

The Purple Heart gang.

Time for military vehicles.

A new group, the Emergency Service Pipes and Drum Corps; They were really good.

A guy in a Texas Flag shirt singing the Ballad of the Green Berets was outstanding.

The Knights of Columbus representatives are getting up there in age; but still impress.

The Austin Retired Air Force Chiefs are always represented. That’s Dale Lyons, a friend of mine, driving the car.

Of course there are always some REAL old soldiers from the Revolutionary War and the Confederate contingent always shows.

I had a good time. Wish I had seen you there.

Here we go AGAIN – Bicycling around Austin

Man, I love to bicycle but just haven’t got a bike anymore; haven’t had one for sometime. But, there is now a proposition before the City Council to spend in excess of $250mm on bike lanes. The Statesman article shows stats representing rider use within the population. Seems that something less than 1% of those going to work on a daily basis in our fair city do so by bike. Less than 1%, that’s right; less than 1%.

And what is this about the City’s Bike Czar, Annick Beaudet, program manager for the city bicycle and pedestrian program. Is this Annick Beaudet’s entire job?

The program was initiated in 1994 so it has been around for quite some time. Initially, the plan was staffed with a manager and two staff members and was to be funded chiefly by grants. The Council asked for pedestrian issues to be included in the program in 1996.

The city of Austin now has a plan that took two years to write, that’s right, two years. They want to get more of outta cars and on bicycles; it seems we are falling further and further behind Seattle and Portland- we really can’t let that happen now can we?

It just seems to me that there is just not enough justification for spending $250,000,000 on bike lanes, trails and bridges; especially within the economic environment we currently are experiencing.