Rain AAR

So, I left a half hour before O'dark thirty for work this morning and ended up taking a very short tour in the local area, U turning three times and driving back home.
On the "bright side" a temporary shotcrete retaining wall on the side of an overpass under construction blew out in the storm yesterday. Two of three lanes inbound on 290 are closed until further notice.
This fail is between me, and 20,000 other people and my work, and the other 20,000 people's work.

Belle and I took a little reconnaissance drive a short while ago looking for a way to what's left of the freeway.*

Nope, not getting out that way

Nor that way

The third option I couldn't get a picture of water. I'm certain it was downstream of us somewhere, but someone had placed orange construction barrels closing the road.  The upside is my VPN connection is solid and I've been working from home.  I could get used to this, ya know?

Two bonus pics

Right around the corner from the BAR Corp HQ

The houses here are high and dry, in the back of this neighborhood,

not so much.

Neither "Infinity" nor "G7" mean waterproof in Japanese

Click to embiggen and you can see the waterline on the door.

All snark aside, this time, this is an inconvenience for me.  Many, many homes were flooded. A number of people lost their lives. Two people got trapped in two different deep underpasses, both of which I travel through frequently, and drowned. While there was less total rainfall than Tropical Storm Allison, there was more rain in a 24 hour period.  South of us there was 15 to 16 inches. A nearby blogger, Teke, is down there somewhere. I hope he and his are ok.
Close by, there was 11 to 14 inches.
Sobering.
I suspect I will have an unusual calm and patience on my circuitous commute in the morning. This is not a problem, this is an inconvenience.







*Freeway, there's a misnomer. How many hours of my life have I paid on that God forsaken treadmill?  

Ted Cruz for Prez

I think 'Merica is ready for our first half Latin president, don't you?
I mean we've done the half mocha latte president now. It's time for some positive change and we desperately need some hope.

Ted threw his hat into the ring in the wee hours via a tweet, which I read about this morning as I do not tweeter  twitter twat whatever...I can barely keep this blog afloat.

I digress.

I read the transcript of some of Ted's speech today and it was good, quite good.   Reagan'esque some pundits are calling it.
I'd vote for Ted.  We will see if is he there at the finish line.  I say this not because he lacks the qualities we desperately need in a leader right now, but because he doesn't just have to beat the democrats, he will have to overcome the liberal media and the establishment republicans.

November 2016 is still a long ways off.

This is not to say that I don't have faith, I voted with my pocketbook a few minutes ago.

Dad, I need money

"Tomorrow, I need to get my cap and gown"
Music to my ears.
Two of the childrens in college right now.
Last Semester for both.

Neither will graduate with the burden of school loans. As Borepatch described it some time ago, "a mortgage they can't live in."

I count it as a personal success. Lord knows they have both worked there asses off.

We did it. :-)

Soon, real life begins for them.

Ah, I see what you did there

Companies Must Now Swear — to the IRS — That None of Their Layoffs Are Because of Obamacare.

Under penalty of perjury no less.

So, I can lay people off, but I can't tell them  that they are being laid off because the cost of health insurance due to Obamacare that will bankrupt the company lest I get prosecuted.

I can lay people off because of the cost of health insurance because of Obamacare, but I cannot state the reason in an email, or a blog, tweet, facebook post, nor mention it to anyone, anywhere, ever.

Hmmm, that's going to put the kibosh on the job loss statistics related to Obamacare isn't it?

Can't have all that negative press leading up to the mid-term elections. (as if, curse you Fox News)

The recent CBO report stating that 2.5 million jobs would be lost as a direct result of obummercare didn't sit to well with the overlords I guess. So, they made a new rule to reposition the federal jackboot on your neck.

There used to be something in the Constitution about this didn't there?

This was done not by elected representatives, but bureaucrats.

From whence do they get this power?

Think about this just for a moment or two.

If this doesn't alarm you, you are brain dead, or a liberal. Apologies, that was redundant.

That time of year again

Knock, knock on the door.
I open the door to nothing..wait, momentarily I look down upon two pint sized little girls.*  Before either says a word, I spy the color coded form.
"Yay! Girl Scout cookies!" says I.  Taking the form in hand and looking up I see Dad on the sidewalk, smile, wave and say Hi.
Gotta have my Thin Mints.
Truth be known,  I could do with out them. I like them just fine, but the calories won't do me any favors.

I remember trudging my neighborhood, pee wee baseball candy in a sack, door to door. This was in the sixties. I got an awful lot of "no thank you".
Because of that, I tend to be a soft mark for the local kids when fundraising time comes around.  I don't even pretend to be otherwise anymore.

I'll probably vacuum up a few more boxes when delivery time rolls around.  It's a sure bet there will be table set up in the vestibule of the local grocery.  It's usually a minimum of two Mom's and three to four little girls.
"Would you like to buy some Girl Scout Cookies?!!"
"I'll catch you on the way back out girls."
(dejected look)
Twenty minutes later: "see, I told you I'd be back."
"Now, what do we have to choose from here?"
(big smiles)

Frankly, the smiles and the "Thank You's" are better than the cookies. :)






* These two little ones had to be Brownies.  They were just as cute as they could be.

Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light, For rest and shelter of the night, For health and food, For love and friends, For everything Thy goodness sends.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ever get that weird feeling?

That either something good, or bad is about to happen?
I'm going with the "good" part of that.

I've had three people that I've not seen in quite some time ping me in email  this week wanting to get together.

Months:
A long time friend, one of my architorture acolytes that left after ten years and went to the dark side, and became, gasp, a contractor.

Years:
A landscape architect I worked with beginning 13 years ago in California.  He happens to be in Houston for a while, ultimately headed to Boston to open a new office there.

Decades:
One of my most influential and favorite professors from  my college days called me out of the blue. I was kind of expecting a pitch for a donation, or a request to come judge a design charette for the students.
There was none of that.   I answered the phone and he said,"this is Rodney" and I knew who it was like it was yesterday.
He'd run across an old newspaper clipping he'd kept. An article and pics of a bunch of wood carvings we'd done, as students in his class at a  park in College Station.  One of the pics was of me.
I cannot say what I did in his design class that made such an impression on him so many years ago, that he would call me 30 years plus later.  I did work my ass off in his class though.

Oh. shit. It just dawned on me.
It's not me this is about.  I think Rodney's time might be nigh.
I think I may have to make a short road trip Sunday.

Sobering

There are some things that make you take note of every minute of every day. In my experience, those events have been of the not good kind.
A friend, mentor and employer of 24 years passed this morning at 12:57 am.
God Speed Bill.
I could write volumes about the virtues of this man and at the same time I can sum it up in a few words.

I am a better man for having known him.

The passing of a Mentor

I tried to write this a little while ago and just scrapped the whole thing.
He hasn't gone yet, but his time is nigh. He's not my Father, but I have spent more time in his "house" than my own Father's.
He came to the office today. He's fighting cancer. He is a shell of his former self.
His time is nigh.
As a young man, he wanted to create a business of his own to support his family, and so he set out to do so.
He succeeded, creating a business that provided opportunity and success for many families. One of which is mine.
Yes, he is my employer. He enabled me to become his peer, in title at least.
I, solely, could never fill his shoes. Nor could any of my fellow partners.
My partners and I have a hard row to hoe.  Each of us possesses some of his best attributes. None of us  possesses them all.
Now it is up to us as a group to carry on his legacy.

I had so wanted this to be an eloquent post instead of the stilted mess that it is, but ...



 

8001

I'm just not much of a club guy, but I've been thinking about this for a while.

Now I'm a club guy.

.

A Good Problem

Oxymoron? Maybe.
Posting has gotten a bit spotty because things at work have gotten very busy.
And it only looks to get worse better.  If Romney wins the election, the flood gates may open.
If all the projects that went on hold came back online, and by hold I mean it was like someone flipped the prosperity switch to full off with no concern about a graceful shutdown, back in 2008, we'd need to double our staff in very short order.

Wouldn't that be a shame?

In the Presence of Giants

We had close friends down at the creek this past weekend. Husband and Wife, and her Dad.
He's 75, about the same age as my Dad. Enlisted in the Air Force at 18 or so. Got out and in short order enlisted in the Army. He is, physically a giant of a man as well.  Career Military man.
Stationed in the U.S., Korea, Vietnam Vet, Germany, you name it.
I found myself drawn to him, eager to engage him in conversation, of which there was much.
I'm still mentally processing the conversations.
Thank You Joe, for your service.
I think he had a good time down on the crik.
Ever been hugged by a Giant?

Now I have a Name for It

It's a 

Cold Civil War

Kevin named my fear.  

Once a Month

So says Kevin. Until the election. I'm joining him.

If I wanted America to Fail:

Post DAB Thoughts

You know,  Borepatch ginned up the impetus for the Dallas Area Blogshoot. One last hurrah with his Texas Brethren before he heads back to Georgia for the last time.
I don't think he realizes it, but he gave all of us, the participants, a going away gift.

A darkness has spread it's pall across the blogosphere

A few of my favorite bloggers have gone dark.  Some of their blogs are still online, but they haven't posted in quite some time. Some have been removed entirely.  I was invited by the Lovely Belle to contribute to her blog.  I never had any delusions of creating the next Drudge Report. I consider myself the court jester of BAR.  I fire off a good post every now and then, but those are the anomalies. Being the dilettante blogger that I am, I've hit blogger burn out more times in my short blogging "career" than you can shake a stick at.
It is highly (highly)  unlikely that I'm going to make a blog post that is picked up by the major nooos networks, or even the big time Bloggers.  I'm not going to change the opinions of rabid liberals.
I'm not going the show anyone the error of their ways or their thinking.
What I have done via my blogging is to find a community. Like minded bloggers all over this great land.
I like reading your blogs about the minutia of life. I like reading your rants. Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't.
 I have 4 kids, all grown now. My cars break down. I have guns. I don't have a tractor but wish I did. I would love to live on acreage in the country, but I don't.  Sometimes life is briefly really good, sometimes it really sucks. Money runs out and life really really sucks.
 I guess the point I'm getting to is that you never know the impact the "mundane" post you made yesterday might have on someone out there.  A long not thought of memory of your grandmother canning spiced peaches perhaps. You never know.

Time for the Bluebonnet Run

No, not that kind of run.  Look, if you see me running, you'd better turn and run in the same direction I'm headed because it means something mean and nasty is chasing me.
Wild Flowers are in bloom.
We're rather fond of Bluebonnets, being the state flower and all that.

So Belle and I decided to take a short loop through the hills this morning.
Up to Navasota, hooked a left on 105 and turned down CR1155 towards Chapel Hill.  This route on the suggestion of a friend of hers.
1155 is a really nice winding two lane road, not too many wide vistas though. Weekend warrior bikers like it a lot. We saw more motorcycles than cars.  Then we ran into a massive herd of one man power cycles. Seems the "Head for the Hills" cycle event was today.

The pic at left is the first leg along 290.  Blue sky is a nice break from all the rain we've had lately.







20 miles or so of the 1155 leg involved me focusing on not bumping one of the endless stream of bicyclists off into the rough. (makes my knees hurt to watch that slow uphill grind)

Belle got a few shots along 1155.  Bluebonnets.

The better views came later, on 290 again just east of Chapel Hill.

Star of the show:





The grass got jealous and demanded a pic. (how'd that get in there?)










We ended the short trip with a Stuffed Avocado, Tacos Al Carbon, Margaritas and Cerveza at Gringos.   Belle was very happy all along the way.  The spring wild flower bloom just seems to put a sparkle in her eye.  The drive, the verdant green vistas and the wild flowers were really nice but they pale in comparison to having your wife tell you multiple times how happy she is.
When Belle is happy....kx59 is happy.

Pollen wiping and other nonsense

The turn of the leaves in the fall is a beautiful sight much further Northeast of the BAR.  Fall and winter here seem to just turn a gray shade of green.  The oak trees here shed their leaves in the spring by the bushel full and pollinate. We are talking full on Vegas floor show with feather fans pollination.  Parking next to a 50 foot tall pile of sulfur in a gale would deposit less yellow stuff on your car.
Between auto mechanics in the first part of the day, and cutting the yard at the end of the day, I grabbed a microfiber towel and the hose and did a quick rinse and wipe down of the cars. The flood line along the curb left a long line of yellow on the street.  Pollen wiping. It's a loosing battle. The cars will be coated in yellow again by tomorrow morning. Fortunately, this will only go on for another week or two.
Today was good. I spent the first half of it on my back with my Son under his Jeep.  One of two things is for certain. When you leverage a transmission pan to make it let loose from the dipstick tube and crunch your own pinky and it makes you laugh hysterically, you have either stopped to smell the roses, or you are abjectly crazy. My Son had no idea why I was laughing.  What made me laugh is that I did it twice....in a row.  Pan was loose and I was starting to make some headway on getting the tube from the pan to release from the dipstick tube. So, my attention was focused elsewhere. First crunch was a little "ow", second crunch got my attention, which reminded me of the first crunch.  Monkey brain said, "maybe you shouldn't do that again." The homo sapiens part of my brain simply responded with, "Really?"
It's still making me chuckle.  Pinky is fine. The laughter made the hurt go away.
Best part of getting greasy today was that I was in a happy place, because I was turning wrenches with my Son, and I told him so.  Must be some oak tree pollen in here. Now I'm getting all teary eyed.

From the BJF mailbag

My Bud Billy Joe sent this in. 

 No disrespect to Whitney Houston intended whatsoever, but it frames the priorities of the American Media, and many Americans for that matter quite succinctly. 

The death of Whitney Houston is on the news several times a day. She had one of the greatest voices ever!

Then, there are these guys:Justin Allen 23, Brett Linley 29. Matthew Weikert 29. Justus Bartett 27, Dave Santos 21, Jesse Reed 26, Matthew Johnson 21, Zachary Fisher 24, Brandon King 23, Christopher Goeke 23, and Sheldon Tate 27...These are all Marines that gave their lives for us last month.There is no media for them; not even a mention of their names.

Honor THEM by sending this on.--

"If ever a time should come, when vain and aspiring men shall possessthe highest seats in government, our country will stand in need ofits experienced patriots to prevent its ruin..." Samuel Adams, 1776
J.P.Midland, TX

God Bless our Service Men and Women.

Slowly winding my way back to

Books.

From grade school up until ten years ago, or so, I was a voracious reader.  Read lots of stuff about Sharks, Dinosaurs, Volcanoes, Dolphins, Whales and Indians as a kid. Read enough fiction over all those years to fill a super tanker with paperbacks.

Reading American history was not high on my list. ( it wasn't on my list actually. Well, ok, Indians are part of American History, but...sorry, fell down a rabbit hole )  In the meantime, I read auto repair manuals, transmission rebuild manuals, etc., etc. Stuff that saved me money reduced my expenses. (spending less is not saving)

Ten years ago, or so, I went dormant on reading books, as in total hibernation. Last year, a month or two prior to my 52nd Birthday, with all the shit that has been going on, I felt a small but determined tug at my soul to start reading the writings of our Founders. The first thing that popped into my head at the time was the "Federalist Papers".  So, the Lovely Southern Belle  got me a Kindle Fire for my 52nd birthday last year and I went on the hunt.

While hunting, I found a book on the "Federalist Papers" and a book on the "Anti-Federalist Papers".  Started reading both, but got sidetracked.

YeoldFurt posted about "Paul Revere's Ride" by David Hackett Fischer and gave it a one gun salute from "Bob".  So I got it and read it.  He was right. It was a good book.  Lot's more going on in Mr. Revere's story than, "one if by land, two if by sea".

Then I got sidetracked again with fiction novel, "An Act of Self Defense" by Erne Lewis. I ran across this from a post by one of the bloggers on the Gun Blog Blacklist. I can't recall who it was, otherwise I'd be sharing some linkylove. 

I'd started my slow trek back to reading books with "The Federalist Papers", which were not "speaking" to me. So, I hit the "Anti-Federalist Papers" on my Kindle Fire again.  

This I find connects. I've been highlighting passages that speak to current day events.

"...when business is unshackled, it will find out that channel which is most friendly to its course." (unlike socialism)

"Whenever men are unanimous on great public questions, whenever there is but one party, freedom ceases and despotism commences" (See much difference in the two parties these days?)

"Antifederalist No. 11: Unrestricted power over commerce should not be given the national government." (Commerce Clause?)

Late to the real American History party, but working on catching up quickly. And, reading, voraciously again.