Another week, another entry...
So it's State Fair time in Texas. Our annual celebration of Big Tex, pig races and fried foods started on Friday and runs for three weeks.
And I would not skip it even for serious money.
Lynne and I headed down just after lunch on the first Sunday. I mean, what's the hurry. They don't start serving beer till noon anyway. And we were not disappointed.
We used the entrance at the back side of the fairgrounds, near the animal pens, since it's never crowded. Plus there's a family with excellent parking on McKenzie just 50 yards from the entrance. Sweat deal.
Our first stop was the coupon booth. $120 later, we headed off in search of
corndogs. Fletcher Corny Dogs are the standard by which all others are judged. And this year they did not disappoint. We ate 6 of them between us.
From there, we headed off to the Hans Mueller tent next to the main stage. This is where I get my good
German beers - and the site of my first major surprise. Good beer prices had gone up. It now cost 12 coupons (6 bucks) for a bottle of
Spaten Optimator or
Paulaner Salvator. That's up 3 coupons from last year. I must admit, it slowed my drinking down. Luckily, the Turkey legs had only gone up 2 coupons (to 14). But Lynne is pretty sure she got an extra 3 coupons worth of leg this year. The turkey was cooked to perfection and huge. She couldn't finish it.
With those two things out of the way, we proceeded to the usual hangouts - auto show, Big Tex, dog shows, Food & Fiber Pavilion,
Embarcadero/Creative Arts and the Grand Place. We also enjoyed the return of the
Killdares to the fair at the Rock Band stage. I even picked up their new CD at one of the
souvenir tents
Besides the cost of the beer, probably the biggest disappointment of the fair was the dog shows. The Dancing Dogs show we attended was just plain bad. Since the passing of Skid Boot, it's just not been the same. But at least the arena has been air conditioned.
We also noticed that attendance was definitely down. By 6 pm on Sunday, it was starting to look like a ghost town. The aisles in the Grand Place were definitely empty. One of the vendors we like to patronize said that their business was off at least 75%.
That said, Lynne and I still managed to spend about $250. Was it worth it? Well, as they say in Texas - Hell Yeah!
They've had a tough time down in the Houston area since Ike it. And while agencies like the Red Cross do a good job at helping pick up the pieces, I don't appreciate that they're using part of my donation to solicit me for more donations.
The people at the Greater Houston Community Foundation tell me that they're not going to waste a donation doing that.
So if you'd like to help, please consider using the link at the right to support storm victims.
Additionally, the mother of one of my coworkers recently passed away after a long illness. During her final days of hospice, the Visiting Nurses Association of Texas did a commendable job of making sure she was comfortable. The family requested that friends and family support the VNA instead of sending flowers. If you'd like to help that organization also, you can click on VNA to donate.
Thanks
Random Ramblings
My spam trap email address now has 16,927 spam email messages in the bucket.
Hurricane Ike was ugly down south, but mostly a non-event here. Except for gas prices. They've jumped 24 cents a gallon since Thursday morning. We actually could have used more rain. I hope all everyone down south is OK.
Carnival Cruise lines will sell you personal information to everyone on the planet. Since taking a cruise in April, the junk mail at the house has doubled. I know it's because of Carnival because it says so.
One of my coworkers has a mother in hospice. She's not doing well. And it sucks.
Looks like the Tennessee Volunteers may suck this year.
Did I mention that I bought a new rifle in honor of Joe B getting chosen as Obama's running mate? I did. And while I really don't care for McCain, his choice of running mate has me wavering. I had intended to pick None of the Above. Who knows.
Max (my Golden Retriever) is now 15 years and 1 month old. Every day with him is and has been a joy. Good dog, Max. And not to belittle the other animals at the house - Hank, Spock and Lance are all doing quite well, and amusing us with their antics. Though I do wish Lance (a Rhodesian Ridgeback mix) would quit trying to get into the house through the cat door.
There's a "new" liquor store in town. Beverage Depot has added a second store over off of I-35E and Northwest Hwy. You can see it from the interstate, but it's hard to get to... Which is why it's never busy. I'm afraid it will close soon if business doesn't pick up. Which is a shame because it has a great selection of adult beverages, along with the most cooler doors I've ever seen in one store. And the prices are good. Here's a map -
Beverage Depot. I
highly recommend a visit. You won't be disappointed.
Lynne is officially a full professor at the Baylor College of Dentistry. That means she can pretty much get away with murder.... as long as she cleans up the mess before she goes home for the evening.
I'm thinking about taking a month off to go sailing. I haven't sailed enough this year.
Closing in on 114,000 miles on my '95 325i, or about 70,000 miles since I got it. Thanks for the deal, Dad.
Seems like the charitable organizations are really scrambling for money. And as much as I'd like to help out, I'm not pleased with how my donations are being spent. Instead of using the donations to "take care of business", it seems like they're only using your money to send you solicitations for more money. Even when I specifically ask a charity to not solicit me, the solicit me. So I've started cutting back on the people I send donations to. But that's good for the groups who've listened - cause they're getting the money I used to send to other organizations.
My wife gave me an Oregon Scientific weather station for my birthday - the WMR968 wireless rig. And as slick as this unit is, the instructions for it just plain
SUCK! It also appears that the rain gauge does not do well in wind driven rains. So as much as I like it, I definitely can not recommend it for anyone but a serious techno geek.
That's all for tonite.
DTV Coupon Program - another federal failure
When the government announced the transition from analog to digital TV, I knew we would be affected. The only TV we receive is over the ether. We don't do cable and we don't do satellite. And our youngest TV is over 10 years old. I have a very nice antenna in the attic that pulls in local channels (and some distant ones) just fine.
But in the name of saving bandwidth (and making money) the broadcasts are going digital.
I don't really have a problem with that. After all, I am (or was) a digital design engineer. I know the power of ones and zeros. And I don't mind having to buy a converter box to make our old televisions work.
So the government announces a DTV Converter Coupon Program - "Limited Availability". I of course submit my application for a couple of coupons right after they start accepting them. Lo and behold, we get coupons a few months later.
Then the bad news. The coupons are only good for 90 days and only for specific models of DTV converters. I gotta say I should have waited. I spent hours driving, calling and looking for converters that fit the bill... with zero luck. While the government was ready with coupons, retailers were not ready with boxes. In the end, my coupons expired.
It doesn't bother me so much that I won't save the $40.... Okay, it bothers me. But the whole program was a horrendous waste of money. The feds wasted a ton of money printing these cards with no way to use them.
So I complained to my elected officials about the waste.
Talk about a bunch of clueless fools. Apparently not one person in any of the official offices bothered to read the letter (which was short and too the point). The plugged keys words into a program and printed out responses that had absolutely zero to do with what I wrote.
Amazing...
Come November, I say we vote "None of the Above".
Fuck 'em.
Dallas County Constable Failure
There was a terrible wreck in the Dallas the other day. A drunk driver fleeing from police after they tried to stop his truck t-boned an SUV while running a red light, then flipped through the air landing on a smaller car. The passengers in the smaller car were killed. The SUV passengers suffered minor injuries (probably because they were in an SUV).
The drunk was a multiple loser and had frequent flier miles at the jail.
The problem was that he should have already been in jail instead of out on the street. There were outstanding warrants for his arrest.
Unfortunately, Dallas County Constables are spending all their time writing tickets for traffic violations (a money maker) instead of doing the job they're tasked with - serving warrants.
So to all you Dallas County Constables writing speeding tickets - the blood of the newlyweds who died in this accident is on you. Serve the damn warrants or join the police dept if you want to write tickets.
Dallas County Constables SUCK! And so do their handlers.
Labels: Dallas County Constables SUCK
