The Artiste......

It was four years ago this weekend that the bride and I had our second date. Our first had been to the ballgame the night before and we decided to try it again, this time to the Celebration of the Arts. I'm glad we did because we agreed that my friend, local artist Helen Pogue, was one of our joint favorites. We bought a large oil painting that day that still adorns our large den fireplace. I'm glad also that we had a second date because, well.....we ending up getting married.

So we have been back each year since and bought works from Helen each time. Most years two at a time. Helen is a premier and well known local artist who has exhibited in galleries in Santa Fe and New York. Unfortunately in the last 10 years she had a stroke which at first slowed her work down and recently forced her to call a halt to all painting.

Last year she announced to our chagrin that 2005 would be her last show so we bought our usual allotment. In the galleries Helen's works command premier prices, but because she is a friend she always makes some excuse as to why she can sell us her art for ridiculously low prices. "Oh I never really liked that one" or "I've had this a long time and I'm tired of looking at it". Sometimes I think that the gold frames are worth more than she is charging us.

So Saturday as I walked into the convention center I was overjoyed to see Helen in her usual spot in a high traffic corner. We joked about her continuous "going out of business sale" but she said that this year she had cleaned out her storage area and the works hanging were indeed her last. I started out to purchase one oil and then couldn't let my second choice go....nor my third choice. I bought them all. Helen has many eclectic styles but the one we like the most and is the theme throughout our home is her impressionistic views of New Mexico. Vibrant in color and in the main simple in composition they go wonderfully with our decor.

It will not be the same going to the Art Show with Helen not there....but we're hoping that she will do some "on commission" work for us. Her hand is not as steady as before which is the reason we think she doesn't want to do public works anymore. But her heart is still in the work. Here is one of today's purchases.

Addendum: I forgot to add that one of the brighter spots of the day was when I was "carded" to prove my age for the Senior Citizens discount. Thank you young woman at the gate!

Illegals & High Gas Prices...

My mailbox is being flooded with mail concerning gas prices and
all of the illegal immigrants. To boycott oil companies or not;
to provide amnesty to illegal immigrants or not, etc.

Since I have become jaded to the various solutions proposed by
the Republicans, Democrats, Sierra Club, ACLU, etc., I elected
to solve the problems as they affect me. It solves both my gas
and illegal immigrant problems.

I have hired illegal immigrants to push my car.
They're plentiful and cheaper than buying gas.

GOD BLESS AMERICA !!!

Tonight's story.....

I'll begin tonight's story with the conclusion of events. It's about 10 pm. and Raoul, the city water department night emergency man just left the estate moments ago.

Homeowners everywhere cringe at those words, water department night emergency man. Raoul had to come out to help me locate the emergency water shut off valve. I knew where the meter was in the alley, but the valve was in an odd position and buried under dirt so it was difficult to find.

It's strange how I can trace tonight's final calamity directly back through a series of seemingly inconsequential steps. That's the way the world works, one small step for man, one broken water system for mankind.

Several months ago, I was putzing around in the storage shed where the sprinkler system controls are housed and I decided after all these years to finally take the time to program the sprinklers to do exactly as I wished. No easy task as we have 12 different stations in the system. But with persistance and some computer skills I got the task completed, or so I thought. I could never get the first station to come on, either manually or automatically, so with some previous sprinkler management experiece under my belt I decided that a valve must be stuck. A diagnosis that was confirmed tonight when I saw a large pool of water under the huge Afghan Pine in the front yard. A valve not only stuck, but now apparently broken.

This discovery led me to the next stage on the road to further troubles. This is the second law of homeownership, I have found. Once a problem is discovered, at least one more major problem will arise out of the first. And so it was to be. Having found the large pool of water I decided to run the sprinklers once more for the night and then shut off the water to the entire sprinler system using the master cut off valve in the back yard. I have done this many times with no problem....until tonight. As I turned the valve inward a fine spray of water from the valve stem quickly turned into a major spray, the more I turned, the greater the volume of water. Trying to mitigate the damage I backed the valve back out to open where it had been, at which point the whole valve and gasket assembly basically fell apart, sending out a massive spray. The only good side of this was that on a hot night it felt pretty good to be soaked.

With some experimentation I turned the valve to a point where the spray was somewhat manageable and then I found time to curse....a lot. This is the point that I decided I'd better figure out how to turn the water to the estate off and found that the valve was not to be seen. Knowing when one is in trouble is the first step towards recovery so I phoned the City of Midland night emergency operator.

And this is how Raoul came to be at the estate. I have to humbly say that I apologize for all the times I've cursed the City Water Department because Raoul came quickly, was very pleasant and calmed my fears about leaving the spray running all night. Apparently he's seen a lot worse and we both agreed that since the spraying valve is in amongst the trees, they could use the water.

So tomorrow I must find a sprinkler repairman and be prepared to shell out significant dough for above and underground valves. But that's tomorrow.....Fiddle Dee Dee.

PS: what is the first law of homeownership? It is...."just when everything seems to be running smoothly......it won't be for long".

The next day...., it is now Friday morning, the birds are chirping, the water is shut off and Henry [seen above] is busily fixing the main sprinkler cut off valve. All is well, almost, at the estate. However early this morning as I drove to a V.A. doctors appointment in Odessa while searching the yellow pages and calling 2 or 3 sprinkler companies I thought I was in trouble. I thought I was in for more "roofer" type treatment. All very nice but the earliest they could get to my urgent problem was, "sometime next week". Until I finally called Alldredge Gardens. They are not the biggest in town for no reason....they found time to send someone out, that would be Henry. I will pay a little more for their services, but it's worth it to have good prompt service.

Glo-ball-ization......

Today was the day I made the decision to switch my office ISP from T3Wireless to Clearwire. Both wireless providers [perhaps you could tell by the names!] but Clearwire is $20/month cheaper, provides faster service and if I should move office locales again all I need do is to cart the free standing modem along with me..or if I want to put my PC out in the front yard, it would work there too.

The other pretty nifty deal in getting Clearwire now is that I got a buy one/get one free airline ticket anywhere in the U.S. on any air carrier. Not bad! But what I wanted to highlight is perhaps the worst example I've seen of political correctness and globalization run amok. The Clearwire folks have in their offices, a display highlighting the free airline ticket deal. The display has a sandfilled pool surrounded by beach toys. One of which was a beach ball. Just a plain old beach ball like any child would play with at a pool or actual beach. Except, take a moment to look at the photograph of the side of the ball.

WARNING: USE ONLY UNDER COMPETENT SUPERVISION!

This is a stinkin' soft beach ball we're talking about here. Unless it's somehow been loaded with high explosives I think that probably we could trust the kiddies to be OK with this plaything. And this dire warning is then copied into every language invented by God since the Tower of Babel. What's this world coming too? Don't answer that.....I think we know. The last line tells all: Hecho en China.

Serenity.....

Today in the Picture of the Day, I bring you the picture of serenity a lone fisherman all to himself on the Colorado River near Bend, Texas. This photo is from last March and my Let's Go Fishing annual excursion with my frat brothers. The fisherman is actually Terry McCarty of Boerne, one of our group. Terry was the star running back at Trinity University in the mid 60's. Just look at him now! How far we've come. Perhaps I should entitle this photo, "Picture of Senility".

A Kinky link.....

Thanks to academy award nominated screenwriter, famed mystery novelist and power blogger Roger L. Simon for taking an interest in the story of his fellow mystery writer Kinky Friedman. The guy in the photo with Kinky looks familiar but I just can't place him.....

A Kinky story....

Thanks to our pal Jimmy Patterson I was able to spend an hour or so with notable Texan and gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman this morning. Jimmie was kind enough to let me sit in on his live webcast interview with Kinky and to photograph the proceedings.

I enjoyed meeting the Kinkster up close and personally and found him to be extremely interesting, intelligent, knowledgable about issues and dead serious about becoming the next governor of the great State of Texas. Not to mention utterly hilarious! His interview with Jimmy had it's humerous moments but Kinky answered questions in a serious and responsible tone and in fact, had some great and very straightforward solutions to the challenges that face Texas today. You can learn more about how Kinky would govern Texas by visiting his website. And if you didn't catch the half an hour interview with Kinky you can see it archived at My West Texas.

Thanks again Jimmy for this photo op, what a blast.

More Clouds......?

Yes, more photos of storm clouds. They're so beautiful and magnificent I can't help myself. But the week is supposed to be hot and clear so this should be it for awhile and I've put varied pictures up on their own page so you can get your fill.

Tomorrow, if all things go as planned, I'll be exhibiting some celebrity shots.

Oil pricing and you....

We in Midland had the rare opportunity to hear one of the world's premier oil analysts live and in person last night. As some of us in the crowd joked, one explosive device would have wiped out the Permian Basin oil business, such were the numbers of people in attendance.

Matt Simmons has been an energy investment banker since 1973 and over time has gained great stature as one of the leading thinkers on the subject of oil, gas and energy in general. He has recently written a book entitled, "Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy." His research, started many years ago before the present price crunch, led him to believe that the capacity and life of the Saudi oil fields was being vastly overstated and overrated. These fields, he believes, are in a state of decline and in fact no new large fields have been found in Saudi Arabia since the 1970's.

This is crucial because for decades economists and analysts have thought of Saudi oil like a central bank, stepping in to shore up supply shortages and keeping the price of oil fairly moderate. A decline in production means that in reality this is not possible for the Saudi's anymore.

While not predicting future price scenario's Mr. Simmons believes oil is still very cheap at $70/bbl. This bears some truth to me if one compares oil, our lifeblood, to other common products. With oil at $70/bbl. the price of a gallon of it is 60 cents, translating into, roughly, $3 a gallon gasoline. At this price consumers are outraged, towns boycott Exxon and the senate passes an anti-gouging bill aimed at Big Oil. Yet the outraged consumers don't seem to be sellng their SUV's nor driving less nor to be so strapped that they have to stop buying their bottled Dasani Lemon Water for $1 a pint.....which is $4 a gallon. Hmmm? Water costing six times what a gallon of oil costs. It would seem that oil has a long way to go on the upside to achieve full value.

In a nutshell, this was Mr. Simmons concluding point. Ever since modern man has used fossil fuels to power his world, he has been used to cheap, much too cheap, fuel. Simmons is quick to point out that we are not running out of oil, but we are running out of easy to find, high grade....and cheap oil, so the recent high prices are probably not an abberation, but a harbinger of things to come.

My synopsis is thus: big changes are in the wind in the world of energy and since energy powers our economy and lifestyle, big changes are in store for Americans. Mr. Simmons thinks sooner rather than later.

Read more here on Mr. Simmons thesis

Immigrants Day....

Welcome to Immigration Day, the day when the poor downtrodden immigrants have spontaneously arisen to show their support for the American ideals of freedom and a better job. Well actually, it's "illegal immigration day" but let's not let technicalities spoil the fun. And truth be known, the spontaneous outpouring of support for immigration felons is not so grassroots but has been orchestrated by International ANSWER, which is a socialist organization. We used to know them as communists. Did you stop and think about why the spontaneous demonstrations were planned for May 1st? Remember those biggest of parades they used to have through the Kremlin in Moscow? It was called the May Day celebration, held on May 1st.

Separated at birth.....?

First of all let me say that we in Midland are proud of our homegrown talent, Eric Winston, who was taken in the 3rd round of the NFL draft by the Houston Texans. After a stellar career at Lee High School and the University of Miami it will be nice to see someone we are familiar with playing in the pro ranks. The Bride and Jack know Eric's little brother from various sporting events.

But did Eric's picture in today's sports section of the MRT remind anyone else of some other familiar characters?

An added benefit...

As far as volunteer activism goes I've never lived in a city where so many people give of their time, energy and assets as they do in Midland. I try to follow the example set by such friends as Pat and Joan Baskin and the late Dean Stoltz as well as my parents in giving something back. The people who give freely do it for several reasons I think. Foremost, they want to participate in something that may help someone else, they enjoy what they do and they enjoy the company of other like minded citizens. This truly is enough, but it does feel good to be noticed and honored with an award occasionally, even if one feels somewhat undeserving.

It was a day...

I don't feel like writing a long expose of the day today, perhaps some details later. But it was a busy and interesting day. I attended events at two organizations I love and support, the Sibley Nature Center and the Commemorative Air Force. An open house for patrons at The Sibley and a seminar at the CAF to hear Col. Joe Kittinger speak. I had dinner with the Colonel at a small affair last night, found him quite personable and didn't want to miss his talk today.

OK, so I'm going to write more than I intended but you'll want to know that Joe was the guy who tested most all of the high altitude ejection systems used to this day by NASA and modern military pilots. To do this he made many trips in balloons over the New Mexico desert in the late 50's and early 60's. No ordinary trips, most were over 75,000 ft. where Joe parachuted out until he hit 18,000 ft. were his main parachute opened. His most historic flight took him to the edge of space at an amazing altitude of 102,800 ft. where Joe bailed out in -100° temperatures. Because of the very limited air at this altitude he hit speeds approaching 700 mph, becoming the only person ever to break the sound barrier without a powered vehicle. His altitude and speed record still stands after 46 years. Use the link above to see the remarkable photo of Joe exiting the balloon on his final and highest jump. Joe joked that his commanders were very proud that he hit his ground targets within a quarter of a mile on most jumps. Joe says that this really didn't matter to him. His personal target was "anywhere in New Mexico, Earth".

As if this wasn't enough of a career, Joe later when on to fly threee combat tours in Vietnam, where on his last tour he shot down a MIG-21 and then sometime later he was shot down himself, landing in the infamous Hanoi Hilton for two years. Later Joe became the first man to solo a balloon across the Atlantic, going from Maine to Italy.

And remind me to relate to you at a later date the details of one of the funniest war stories I've ever heard. The one where Joe loaded up half a years supply of empty Pearl longneck beer bottles, over 10,000 by his count, into the bomb bay of his A-26 bomber, took off at night and flew over North Vietnam. Finding the biggest road he could locate he dropped down to under 100 ft. and opened the bomb doors. Having so much fun with this he did it 4 more times. He has always wondered what the hell the North Vietnamese must have thought, finding about a half mile of broken Pearl longnecks on their road.

And if this wasn't excitement enough for the day, when I arrived home from the CAF, there in my email box were not one, but two personal emails from Peter Noone. For those of younger ages, that is none other than Herman of Herman's Hermits. More on this later.....

What...the pond again?

One of the things I love about West Texas is the vastness of the interplay between the sky and land. Land of the High Sky is our old motto. And last night the sky was wide, high, vast and beautiful with thunderclouds made more beautiful by the setting sun. I'm a sucker for big thunderhead photos and since we live in a treescaped neighborhood I usually have to run down to the duck pond to capture the full sky in a photograph.

So.....please bear with me today's Picture of the Day is yet another view of clouds over the duck pond. And this time the limitations of my digital camera are evident, to me anyway. Being dusk I had to bring up the brightness and contrast thus losing some of the sharp clarity of the cloud features. I should have taken one of my 35mm cameras with the panoramic lenses.

Cheetah lives.....!

While browsing the blog of my web friend Neo-NeoCon, I was amazed to see that the original chimp star of the old 30's Tarzan films, Cheetah, is still alive at the age of 74! Not only alive but apparently doing quite well with an art career to boot! If you're like me you haven't thought of Cheetah in a very, very long time and one would have to assume that the chimp star would have died many decades ago. Finding and seeing the picture of Cheetah again was like finding an old friend.

Easter.....

Whether you are a devout Christian or just a person trying to do the best he can in life, Easter is a good time to reflect on becoming a better and more useful citizen of humanity. For some reason this morning as I thought about the day, some of the old sayings and proverbs that have meaning started to come back to me. Some from the Bible, some from Alcoholics Anonymous. Here are a variety in no particular order:

Gratitude is an attitude

First things first

Where there is hatred, let me sow love

Let go and let God

Yesterday is a cancelled cheque, tomorrow is a promissory note, only today is cash in the bank.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy

Grant that I may not so much seek to be understood as to understand

It is in giving that we receive

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

This too shall pass

Acceptance is the key to my serenity

If you desire many things, many things will be seem but a few

And from Mark Twain these gems....

Let us not be too particular; it is better to have old secondhand diamonds than none at all.

The best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.

Wildflowers...

Today's picture of the day reflects Spring in West Texas. I have been intending to photograph this spectacular field of wildflowers every time I am at the Sibley Nature Center on business but have not had my camera with me when there. Today I made a special trip just to get the shot. Not entirely what I want as one day last week there was a beautiful thundercloud to the south which would have added a wonderful backdrop to the image, but the photographers life is never idyllic so I will settle on this early morning shot for now.

It is always nice when a family returns to Midland to visit their old home, a home were they lived as a young family just starting out on life's journey. Nice for the family and especially nice for the community when the family includes two Presidents of the United States and two state governors [don't forget Jeb].

President George H.W. Bush, wife Barbara and First Lady Laura Bush were all in attendance this afternoon when their newly restored home on Ohio St. in Midland was officially dedicated as The Bush Childhood Home. The Bush home has been restored to look much like it did in the later 1950's when they lived there for several years while President Dubya Bush was in elementary school. Much work and even more money has gone into refurbishing the home through funds raised privately within the community to honor not only the current President but also the senior Bush's for their service to community and country.

The dedication ceremony was nice with the Bush's and a few of their old friends from those days relating stories of the warmth and friendliness that Midland is reknowned for. A pleasant event. However here's a word for the organizers of the dedication. Next time you have an event don't put the raised media platform in front of the entire crowd. No one could see the speakers.

The Bush Childhood Home is only about one half a mile from the Bedford estate so we're hoping a few tourist drop by and notice our new roof repairs which, God willing, will take place next week.

Memories....

I mentioned a month or so ago that through the Internet I had found and contacted the two families who now occupy the homes in St. Louis where my grandparents lived and where my parents grew up. The current owners were nice enough and had promised to send photos of the homes that held so many memories for me. But, people are people, and to date I have received no images from them.

But coincidence does sometimes have a way of helping us along. While on my fraternity fishing trip last month I was reminded that of all things, one of my fishing buddies grew up in Webster Groves, Mo. Webster is the small township in St. Louis where my Mom grew up and is next to Kirkwood, home of my Dad. I asked my buddy if he still knew anyone in Webster who might take a picture or two for me. "No problem", Phil said, his sister Molly still lived there and he would put me in contact with her. And that he did.

Even more coincidentally Molly lives just one block over from the old home of my cousins and is a board member of the Webster Groves historical society. Stranger still she was born in the same hospital as my sister.....in Summit, New Jersey. Molly was more than kind in offering information about Webster Groves and Kirkwood, and was even familiar with my great grandfather's old homestead which is now an exclusive development known as Craig Woods. She said that she would love to take the photos, and that she did.

Here at 35 S. Rock Hill Road is the beautiful old home where my mother spent her high school days. And I suppose the front porch is where my Dad used to show up to take her down the street to the soda fountain. My parents met and started dating in high school. Met through my Dad's cousin Pat, who lived one block over from where Molly lives today. Strange.

Worth the effort.....

Like most photographers, I take pictures just for the pleasure of doing so, or to record moments I don't want to forget. The vast majority of photos never make it beyond my computer, a website or hanging on the walls of our home or my office, but sometimes things happen to make the effort all the more special.

Today I received an email from the secretrary of automotive racing legend Dan Gurney. Legend is a word too often thrown around in sports circles, but is the only word to describe Gurney, who for the last 50 years has driven sports cars, Formula One cars, NASCAR and Indy Cars with great success, in addition to designing and building cars and owning premier racing teams. He remains the only US citizen to win a Grand Prix in a car of his own construction. Dan is the first driver ever to win races in the four major categories of motorsports: Grand Prix, Indy Car, NASCAR and Sports Car. To this day he is one of only two drivers in history (the other being Mario Andretti) who have ever accomplished that.

What Kathy, Mr. Gurney's assistant, wanted to know in her email was whether I would sell them a photograph I had taken of Dan and the other luminary drivers that had attended the Chaparral Museum opening in 2004 here in Midland. A good shot of 7 of the sports premier figures such as Phil Hill and Gil de Ferran seated together on the panel with Gurney honoring Jim Hall. Apparently my Chaparral website had drawn their attention and Kathy got my email address therein.

I had to write back and tell Kathy that I was sorry that I could not sell the photograph to Mr. Gurney but that it would be my great privelage and honor to have one printed to give to him. And indeed it is just that......