Expendable Bernie Served Purpose — Illusion Of Competition

July 26th, 2016 · Tags: Uncategorized

Is There No Balm In Goliad For My Soul … And My Redneck … And Wi-Fi?

July 24th, 2016 · Tags: Cities · Coffee Shops · Hotels · Wi-Fi

ESPIRITU Plaque

“That’s right, ‘I AM’ from Texas,” to misquote a lyric from AggieLand’s Lyle Lovett … but even though I am from Texas, sorry to say I don’t like very much country music. But, there have been a few moments when country music has struck a chord … I remember several of my buddies and I made exceptions for Merle’s “Silver Wings,” Freddie’s “Easy Lovin,” Pure Prairie League’s “Tears,” Kenny doing Mel’s “Ruby,’ and all them “drangin songs” by Gary Stewart.  That’s my kinda country.  And of course there’s that Outlaw Country thing …

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Remember When “News Organizations” Were Neutral?

July 23rd, 2016 · Tags: Satire

#PingForADay … And The Award Goes To: PingAn

July 22nd, 2016 · Tags: Uncategorized

Ping Doubles Quota … A PDQ Blog

July 19th, 2016 · Tags: Cities · Wi-Fi

Last week was The Chicken Ranch blog.  This week the blog zeros in on a different kind of chicken joint.  Have you checked out PDQ?  Several Houston locations were my first exposure to the franchise, although I see there is at least one in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metromess.

I didn’t have time to stop at PDQ during recents jaunts to Katy, Cinco Ranch and Sugar Land … then I noticed a location on Louetta, off of 249 in extreme “North Houston” … very near my current “Dirty Gig.”

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Wi-Fi & A Little Ol’ Tale From Texas Rock Lore

July 10th, 2016 · Tags: Arts · Coffee Shops · Wi-Fi

La Grange Exit Selfie

With this new fad, now that records … or albums … or vinyl have become back en vogue, I don’t feel as silly for still carrying around a few crates of music from back in the day.  But man … I wish I had my old 45s too.  For the younger audience, 45s were the small records … the singles … the hit songs and an extra song on the back … a couple of songs sold separately from the record albums or LPs.

My friends and I used to play Led Zeppelin’s “Over The Hills And Far Away” over and over trying to figure out the lyric.  I think the line is “Darlin, darlin, take a walk with me … you’ve got so much …”  We were convinced Robert Plant was asking the darling lady to do something else … I digress.

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Rode To Omaha VS. Road To Omaha … College World Series

June 26th, 2016 · Tags: Cities · Sports · Wi-Fi

Attendance sized

How far must I ride to get a win out of my alma mater Texas Tech in the College World Series? In 2014, I rode the new Triumph over from Columbia, Mo., not such a big deal, just 315 miles. This year, I caught the first game of the school’s second ever visit to the College World Series after a 652-mile stretch from Fort Worth. Well … Tech finally got a win over #1 Florida, right AFTER I headed back to Texas. As I write this, both Texas Tech and the purple horde of Texas Christian University have been eliminated from the CWS … but oh my, what a game the two Texas teams put on for my hot sweltering visit to TD Ameritrade Ballpark!

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Pinging The College World Series … Steely Dan

June 22nd, 2016 · Tags: Satire · Sports

Pings For Sir Doug, Genuine Texas Cosmic Groove

June 15th, 2016 · Tags: Arts · Cities

 

J. Nick

J. Nick

A diminutive, yet scrappy kid from Fort Worth moved up north and found himself managing a record store in a place that gets entirely too much snow.

He moved back to Texas and settled down in Austin to be a writer, at a time when the folksy city was little more that the State Capitol. All of that was about to change.

Within a couple of weeks of Joe Nick Patoski’s return to The Lone Star State, another Tex-patriot did the return trip from psychedelic San Francisco, still high on the fame of a hit record.

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Aussie Takes A Spin On Cycle, After Spin Cycle

June 12th, 2016 · Tags: Cities · Hotels · Wi-Fi

There’s not much worse than hotel laundries for the traveler.  Seldom does anything positive come from there.  To summarize:

  • Typically the machines are old and slow
  • Typically the machines are full, but have stopped spinning sometime … yesterday
  • Typically the owner of the non-spinning clothes has passed out after gorging on room service
  • The sky’s the limit on the price for a load.  Hotels will charge as much as modern coin insert hardware will allow

The saving grace for hotel laundry?  Wi-Fi … the greatest technology for down time … ever.

So the other day, I had been writing a blog and headed to the laundry with my computer when a woman stopped me in the hall.

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