Living History....

Saturday was our first living history day at the Sibley Center and it came off very well. We had history reenactors from many of the old forts in West Texas including Forts Lancaster, Griffin, Concho and Chadbourne as well as groups representing the 9th Cavalry "Buffalo Soldiers" and cavalry troops of Confederate Army days. They were all dedicated volunteers and kept the crowds interested with displays, stories and firing drills.

The photo above is a three gun volley presented by the Fort Griffin battery made special for me as they invited me to join in by pulling the lanyard for several shots. We enjoyed meeting many of the participants as well as having dinner Friday with our special guest Montie Goodin from Goodnight, Texas who is restoring the panhandle home of famed cowman Charles Goodnight. Amazingly Montie's father was raised by Mr. Goodnight and later became the foreman of his ranch. Hard to believe, really, as the era of Charles Goodnight seems so long ago.

Especially interesting to me, as I spent some time getting to know them, were the Buffalo Soldiers who traveled all the way from San Antonio to participate in the event. These gentleman, years ago, had all been extras in a movie portraying black soldiers of the frontier era. They enjoyed the experience so much that they formed an organization to tell the story of black troopers of the 19th century. And they did so very well captivating both adults and children alike.

A very special thanks to Burr Williams and all the participants for staging this entertaining event. As word spreads of the fun and education we are hoping for a bigger and better showing next year.

Upload this....!

Thanks for checking in and sorry for the lack of posts, but I haven't been feeling well. It's been an ongoing thing, with flu like symptoms that had been coming on just occasionally but now are a daily occurance. My crack medical staff has been doing yeoman work to try and figure this out with tests, more tests, antibiotics and other means. Part of the problem seems to be low blood pressure so we are cutting my blood pressure med's to see if that picks me up. So far the verdict's out on that.

Of concern, of course, is the heart operation last Christmas, though since I can walk three miles a day at a good pace and actually feel better, we are hopeful that there is no cardiac link to this illness. However, just to make sure I am now fitted with an amazing cardiac monitor which is the subject of this short post.

Modern medicine is amazing and has taken great strides with the digital revolution. My monitor is about the size of a pager or pack of playing cards. It is hooked to me with two wires which plug into leads pasted to my chest which are easily changeable by me when they wear out. The monitor is constantly on but is on an hourly override cycle which provides a continuous EKG. When I feel particularly ill I punch the "record" button and the device puts the previous 15 minutes thru the current time on the hard drive for storage until I can uplink it.

After the data is stored on the device I simply call an 800 number in Dallas that is permanently manned and tell them my name and that I'm ready to send data. I then put the monitor speaker up the the phone, hit the "send" button and the data is transferred to the centers EKG machine for reading by an on staff cardiac nurse. If there is an emergency type problem they call back and if not they fax the EKG data to my cardilogist in Midland for interpretation. So far, I haven't received any emergency phone calls. This is good.

We're hoping that when the blood pressure medication is completely out of my system I'll feel better. I sure hope so.

Tennis anyone...?

I'm not going to lecture here, but I am always amazed when I hear people in Midland say that the town is a great place to live but that there is nothing to do for entertainment. As I say, I'm not going to lecture, but......where were you folks this weekend at the NCAA tennis tournament? This was big league sports entertainment but I've seen larger crowds at St. Ann's School 5th grade basketball games.

The winning players all made statements that they loved to come to Midland for this tournament because of the friendly atmosphere and great fans. I can appreciate the first comment, but frankly I was somewhat embarassed by the second as the stands at the Racquet Club were only marginally filled even for the men's finals on Sunday. And the crowd for the women's? Well except for me, their coaches and a few others interested parties the seats were all but vacant.

I was interested in the women's finals on Sunday because during my visit on Saturday I had met and befriended the Pepperdine team and their coach Gualberto Escudero. As alert readers may recall I earned my MBA from Pepperdine and so they were my hometown favorite. And they didn't disappoint as Sylvia Kosakowski won the women's singles title fairly easily beating her opponent from UCLA. Interestingly enough Coach Escudero had played at Pepperdine in the mid to late 1960's, playing in tournaments against some of the people I knew from my undergrad days at Trinity University.

It was a grand tournament, fine weather [except for a shower late Sat.] fun and if you have any interest in tennis and didn't go, then try and make it next year. Several of the kids participating made a point of thanking me for being in attendance to watch them play. And.....Coach Escudero gave me his Pepperdine tennis hat and a T-Shirt. What more could one ask?

A Fair Weekend.....

It was grand to see Dallas again. I lived there for 15 years and truthfully, have only been back three times before this last weekend. And in those three short trips I really hadn't looked around town much. We looked around this trip, and boy have things changed!

Julie had been dreaming of this trip for months because, besides visiting with her old Midland friend Sandy, we were going to the State Fair Music Hall on Sunday to see the musical, "Wicked". Guys aren't supposed to like musicals, but I liked this one a lot. Having listened to the music from the show for 3 straight months now, I had grown to like most of the tunes and so to see them performed live was a thrill. The staging of the show is impressive and honestly whenever I go to a first class live performance I'm always a little shocked that some people can be so talented. The voices of this cast are simply stunning and powerful. Though this is the broadway touring show cast, nothing was lost and there were even some extra surprises for us in the cast such as wonderful actress Carol Kane, who many will remember as Latka's girlfriend in "Taxi".

We did and saw so much in our two days in Dallas that it is hard to describe briefly, but Saturday we spent the entire day at the State Fair of Texas. We covered every inch and saw it all including the pig races, the auto show, the Pioneer Mills flour display and the burro-cart driving finals. I hadn't been to the fair in years so it was a hoot. We toured the midway and mingled with the Texas/OU football crowd and in a moment of pure irony I got to take a picture of Julie surrounded by the family of Longhorns quarterback Vince Young. Julie and Vince's grandma, mother and brother all sporting #10 UT burnt orange jerseys. Julie hates strongly dislikes the University of Texas.

And what of the picture above? To peak my interest in the trip, Julie had previewed the performance program at the fair and found that R. Lee Ermey, "The Gunney" on the History Channel's Mail Call was going to be speaking at the fair on Saturday. Not more than 5 minutes after we had entered the fair grounds I noticed someone exiting one of the exhibit hall doors. In a moment of pure coincidence it was none other that the Gunney himself. My good friend Joe Galloway had recently appeared in a segment of "Mail Call" so it was easy to introduce myself to R. Lee and we had a pleasant conversation along with a good photo op.

Though worn out, I enjoyed spending time in Dallas with my beloved seeing her friend Sandy again and meeting her new husband Marvin. Marvin grew up in Dallas and we had fun remembering some of the old places around town that are now long gone. Good trip..glad to be back.

Jim Hall.....

My cell phone rang on Monday and it was Jim Hall asking me if I'd be interested in meeting with him about a gas project my partner and I have been working on. It's not often that one gets invited to go to lunch with one of his all time idols. This is the equivalent of a football fan getting a phone call from Joe Montana.

Jim, of course, was the creator of Chaparral racing which dominated much of the sports car racing scene in the 1960's and later found acclaim on the Indy Car circuit, winning the Indy 500 in 1980. And so this morning, partner Del Sloan and I met with Jim in his offices at Chaparral Racing, which really have changed very little since their heyday. I had been down there many times before to see my friend Jim Edwards who runs the day to day affairs of Chaparral, but I had never been in Jim Hall's private office.

And I had never sat down for a couple of hours with one of racings all time legends and talked. Del and I layed out our plans for the gas project which Mr. Hall quickly grasped being an experienced engineer and oil man and then we talked in detail about Chaparral Cars. Jim, like many of us I think, likes to talk about his interests and successes with people who are knowledgeable about the subject as Del and I certainly are. At several times during our meeting I found myself having to remind myself that I was really sitting with Jim Hall asking personal questions about his experiences.

Jim volunteered several stories about how the cars were constructed and about the role that General Motors had had in assisting him including ideas on molding the brand new composite fiber bodies. I had always wondered which of his many Chaparral's he really had the most emotional attachment for. He didn't have to think long to tell me that the Chaparral 2E was his all time favorite, the reason being that it embodied all the aspects of a sports car that he was trying to achieve, and unlike the 2F, it was open cockpit. He likes the 2E so much that he and a partner are currently constructing the first, of hopefully many, reproduction 2E models which will be on the market for purchase within a year. If the gas deal works out....I'd like to own one!

Jim is an interesting, intense, smart and most importantly a very nice man. He is also very interested in participating in our gas project, so that it looks like I'll soon be able to visit with him again...!

Air Sho...Day I

It was a good day at the CAF Air Sho 2005, strange, yet good. I had good volunteer help in the form of two oil partners, an oil partner's future son-in-law, Julie's Uncle Leon and a very enjoyable high school volunteer. It was strange because, normally, we have many acts up and flying as the crowd streams in starting at around 10:30 am and today we had none in the air until

the main show started just before 2 pm. I can attribute this only to the high cost of aviation fuel keeping some of the smaller individual fliers away.

While the volunteers were driving, I got to visit at length with my friend Greg Baiano and take a good look at his newly rebuilt Huey, pictured above. Greg has purchased two of the Vietnam vintage helicopters and has gone to considerable expense in restoring them to their former glory. I'll be flying with Greg soon on one of his weekly training flights to the Crane Co. airport, a flying experience I have not had in decades. While attending a private ceremony honoring another friend, Medal of Honor recepient George O'Brien, I met up with Midland Mayor Mike Canon and had the opportunity to give him a lift so that he could see the Huey too. Unexpectedly while we were driving down the flight line we ran into an old high school classmate of his, George Johns. I had never met George in person but know him well for he is none other than the proprietor of the popular Blog, Sleepless In Midland.

More flying tomorrow, with a more promising start around noon. Hope to see you there.