Invited Guests...
The plain unvarnished truth is this. President George W. Bush and wife Laura call Midland, Texas home. As do Secretary of Commerce, Don Evans and General Tommy Franks of Afghanistan and mid-east fame.
Now the city fathers like to take advantage of these connections and rightly so. But I think they're pushing it now. Just this last Sunday night a big patriotic assemblage was organized. Rejoice! it was called. Held at our new public stadium with a private name, brochures, fliers and TeeVee ads were in abundance touting the event and the all star guest speakers list. Pictured prominently on the ads were George W., Laura, Gen. Franks and Commerce Don among other motivational and patriotic people of lesser ilk. The kicker to all this was the smallish print which read
......"Invited Guests".
Now I believe Gen. Franks and Commerce Don probably did RSVP in the positive and in fact, did attend, but the chasm between "hey I'll be there" and "Invited Guest" is huge. I really don't think George W. et ux, ever planned to attend. But there they were smack dab, big as life, on the poster as "Invited Guests". Maybe the city fathers thought that even though they hadn't commited to come, maybe, just maybe they'd be sitting around the White House on Sunday afternoon with nothing to do, and just pop on down.
George W. to Laura.

"Honey, there's not much going on in the world today, and the war with Iraq appears to be on hold, let's go on down to that Rejoice deal in the old hometown...what say baby? And maybe after we can call my old admin assistant Julie and we can go out for Baskin-Robbins"

I think truth in advertising slips fast and loose with the city fathers. But I like their marketing savvy. It has me thinking. This is bad.
So with the Rejoice! campaign as a model, I've decided to host my own event. I've prepared my brochure and flier material below.

And as a postscript to the city fathers and their fast and loose advertising I'd like to relay the following letter from a distraught reader and mother. Shame on you city fathers, you have destroyed a child's trust!

"Amanda was apparently the only person in Midland who thought that the Bush Family was going to come out to El Rancho Grande. The first thing she said when she walked in the door last night "I'm so mad! George and Laura didn't come tonight and the paper said they were." I wonder if you have to have a particular size of hair net to work fast food for the rest of your life... If I hadn't personally brought her home from the hospital, I'd swear she wasn't mine"!

Ms. J.B
[mother of little Amanda]

Train of thought....
I've recently become infatuated with shooting images of trains. I have always been intrigued with them, perhaps because my grandfather had been a vice-president with the Frisco Railroad and we were brought up with them. I used to ride the train for free as a child, and even remember the railroad tracks by the grandparents house in St. Louis, where occasionally a steam powered locomotive still ran. Probably one of the last, it was magic to listen to it go by late at night in their grand house near the tracks.
The new interest arose one night when Julie, her kids and I where out and happened to get stopped at a rail crossing. I had my camera and on a whim jumped out and positioned myself about 10 feet from the tracks as the train went by at high speed. The shots really didn't come out, but it was a real experience having the train go by so close at 50 m.p.h. So much power, the wind will almost blow you down and it shakes the ground. I was disappointed but went back to that same spot the next week and took some daylight shots one of which is seen at The Tracks East of Town.

So tonight with Julie and Jack, we tried once again, but were faced with the same darkness. Although tonight I did turn on the flash, which yielded some interesting results such as capturing individual cars and their colors. Unfortunately with digital photography I don't have the good option of slowing the shutter speed to capture the movement. The photo below is taken of a train going at least 50 m.p.h. with the lights of the city to the right.

RR "X"ing, can you spell that without any "R"s?

Money for schools...forget it!
Well the results are in on our big school facilities improvement bond election. The voters say resoundingly, "hell no, we don't want to fix our schools up!" The bond package was, admittedly large [up to $160 million], and somewhat convoluted in it's wording, but at it's core was the need to fix up our school infrastructure. Many of the schools are basically the same as when I attended them some years, OK, decades ago. The voters were asked to approve several different levels of work to be done, and if my addition is correct, they approved.......none. These are the same voters who just 3 short years ago had no problem in saying, "hell yes" to a brand new state of the art Sports Complex costing $48 million. What does this tell you?
It confirms my belief that most people are morons and the world is going to sports hell. My bumper sticker which goes into production soon follows.

Open Air Dreams
We have had several days of thunder storms surrounding our area, but alas only a modicum of actual rain on the estate. But the real beauty is that it has cooled dramatically. Summer is much too long in West Texas, sometimes starting in April and running thru September. But now it is changing. Today the high was only in the mid 70's and tonight, well tonight I sleep with the windows open for the first time in five months. It is going to be near 60° for a low.
Sleeping with the windows open is a treat as the house, which was built in the mid last century, has lots of windows that all open. And a large glass door in my bedroom that opens to the patio. And the beauty of this in Midland is that it is Quiet! In Dallas, or any big city, with the windows open there is a constant hum of traffic. Here the only sounds I hear are the crickets and in the morning blue jays and cardinals at the feeder.

And the trains. I love trains. Although the tracks are one mile away, I hear the trains as they come into town, blowing their whistles at major road intersections. And if the light wind is right, I can even faintly here the "click-clack" of the wheels on the track. Distracting to some, such as the famous author I had as a guest last year. He awoke and said, "did you hear those trains..they sounded right next door". Well not really, but coming from a railroad family I don't care, I love to hear the trains on a cool night with the windows open.

Waxing Nostalgic
I was watching Austin City Limits tonight and the featured performer was David Byrne, of the old Talking Heads fame. Now as I grow older I like the more "quirky" performers and David is that. Or maybe eclectic. And he's about my age. So I started walking down memory lane, thinking of the time several years ago I was asked to tour as a backup with several other quirky performers.

Merle and Me

Merle Haggard is a kind and soft spoken man who has seen it all and been thru some tough times. And like me has come out the other side a better man. I enjoyed playing this gig with him.

The Cocker!

Joe and I hit it off from the very beginning and I love his music, and being part of it. Strange since he wasn't one of my real favorites in the 60's when he was hot stuff. And like me he's over his "indulgences" in exotic beverages and has become a better performer for it. I love his moves. I was thrilled to hit these licks with him for the several dates we played.

Obsession.......Fore!
Being a fan of Minature Golf in real life, I have become somewhat attracted to this well put together cyber version. Well OK, obsessed. This Putt-Putt version is by some genius at Harvard so you know it's good. Not perfect, but good. I take exception to the ball action on hole #18. It doesn't seem to go where it, by the laws of physics, should. Coincidentally it's the hole that keeps giving me the most trouble and keeps me from beating my best all time score of 32. I'm aiming to get under 30, but this stupid poorly designed [by the laws of physics] hole is keeping me from it. So much for writing here.....I have to get back to playing, and so should you. Check it out. That's Harvard Putt-Putt Golf.

Google Cooking!
If you are like me [and I know that you are], you may be at that stage in your life where you have an ample supply of groceries in your pantry but nothing sounds good. You've used every recipe you have till your bored stiff with food. And even just throwing things together doesn't yield results. Well I have the answer for you. It's Google Cooking. Simply make a short inventory of several of the food items in your kitchen that have been there the longest, then go to search engine Google and enter these to retrieve an assortment of recipes from around the world. Say I have old cans of corn, beans, and a moldy squash. I would enter recipe* corn, beans, squash [the recipe entry keeps you from getting articles on corn and bean blight etc.]. And Voila...I find an enchanting recipe for Cranberry Beans with Corn and Squash , the perfect healthy dinner for me. Tomorrow I think I'll enter recipe*, bread, miracle whip, peanut butter. The gourmet world at your fingertips!

The demise of Pedro
Alas poor Pedro is gone, long live Pancho. These are referring to the change of my main email address. So for all readers, remember that it is now Pancho -at- this domain.com. I had Pedro for many years, so long in fact that many real world friends and some other worldly friends, had taken to calling me this. So I will miss Pedro, but the change was necessary thanks to all the criminal spamming scum of the world who wanted to sell me herbs, lower my mortgage or my Nigerian friends whom I didn't know I had but wanted me to send them $50,000 so they could give me $10 Million. In tribute to these fine Africans I, sometime soon, will post all the great letters they sent me........and possibly start a contest to create the best Nigerian criminal spam letter. The prize being a trip to Lagos.

Electronic Malfeasance
Well now, just when I am used to the DVD and the stereophonic magnificence of my surround sound speakers, my tuner which controls the whole system goes on the Fritz! It seems that some piece of digital minutia has gone haywire resulting in only one stereo channel working properly. This gets my goat! I like things to work properly the way they're designed to do. And this tuner is only 10 years old.....tuners ought to last for......well I'd say 50 years. And to get one fixed is almost as much as a new one. But I'm letting it rest in the hopes that it can cure itself. You laugh. I have had my computer do this, I have had this very BLOG do the same thing as documented here months ago [*archives:7/30/2002 10:18:23 PM] . Sometimes electronic things just get tired. Give them a break and in a week or two of good rest, they're as good as new.
But the real digital revelation today was that I saw the electronic device of my dreams. A 57" rectangular flat-screen HDTV. I gotta' have one. I think I could hang it on the wall, or maybe over the fireplace. That's almost five [5] feet of screen!! And if every person who reads this journal would send a mere $5US...I could come up with the $2300 for it very quickly. You would be invited to watch, of course.**

**Reservation necessary, bring your own popcorn.

DVD's and Me...
And now I wax poetic about DVD's. Being a digital guy it's no surprise that DVD's have finally caught up with me. But unlike some, I can wait a little while for most new technology.....not too long, just long enough that every teenager has it. I really hadn't been itching to get one....and in fact don't have a player, but Julie does. I hadn't checked in to pricing, but was astounded that they are so reasonable now. Julie got her's mainly so that we could watch We Were Soldiers, the true story of my pal Joe Galloway's book. And I know many of the real life characters. Some such as, Hal and Julie Moore, and Bruce Crandall, very well...they are good friends.
What was great about this DVD is that besides the movie, there are many hours of interviews with my friends, and with producer/director Randy Wallace who I've met and respect greatly. And then there is the sound......we have the player hooked into my stereo TV and thence into my home sound system. SoundSound combat action....it's truly amazing...and somewhat scary!

Public Service
It's been a busy week, performing Internet public service, and I have neglected my daily drivel on Streams. I have been working on two [2] websites for a non-profit group Midland Math Science Boosters Club and a church, True-Lite Christian Fellowship both of which are not complete by any means. A third for the Sibley Nature Center is yet to be started. I enjoy doing these "gratis" for people, but don't let the word of my kindness get around.......I have an image to protect!

My next Streams edition will feature my discovery of DVD! We watched We Were Soldiers, the true story of my good friend Joe Galloway's book We Were Soldiers Once and Young. Man o'man hooked up to my stereo system it was too much. More later.

A hot one....!
Well for the first time this summer, it's been hot. I mean really hot, hotter than a two dollar Mexican pistol. 105° in the shade today, and there ain't much shade. This is the part of the country where we have a town named Notrees. Named as such for a reason. But really, you know, 105° coupled with very dry humidity isn't all that bad. No it only felt like it was 103°. And with a strong breeze all day that was very iritating. Like having a fan blowing on you from your oven. The kind of day where, if you had cheese in your pocket, it would melt ruining your pants.

But then, much in contrast to the forecast, storm clouds appeared late in the afternoon from the West. These meandered over the city and some rain did come down, but mainly as virga, not hitting the ground. Well, nowhere except my car which was parked at Outback Steakhouse for Amanda's [Julie's daughter] birthday celebration. This in combination with the dust in the air did a fine job of creating big dusty sploches on my nice clean car. Then some thunder rumbles. And I have to say, that thunderstorms when it is that hot, create some very strange looking clouds. It was eerie.

This is the current church bulletin

Good Day Sir......May I cut down your tree?"
Direct marketing has filtered it's way down to the lowest echelons of the economy. One of my four trees in the front yard is showing signs of the drought, or possibly just old tree age, and has lost most of it's leaves. It's not a "good" tree, although all trees are my friends but I'm going to wait until next Spring to see if it might come back with more moisture from the winter snows. But I am prepared for the worst.

But what surprises me is the aggressiveness of our local "tree surgeons". In the last two [2] weeks I have had three [3] tree trimmers knock on my door and offer to cut it down and haul it off. "Good Day Sir, Just passing by and noticed your tree is a blight on the neighborhood and a personal reflection on your self worth.....want me to cut it down and haul it off?" These visits have all occured around five o'clock which is my nap time, but these look like hard working citizens so I have been pleasant enough.

But what is really starting to worry me is..."Where will this lead?". If a tire on my car is low or perhaps a little bald, will the Discount Tire guy knock on my door? "Good Day Sir, I'm Jim Bob from Discount Tires and I was just passing by and noticed that your tire is a little bald and will probably kill you...may I put a new one on for you?" Or my yard light burns out..."Good Evening Sir, I know it's 11 o'clock but I'm with Basin Electric and was just passing by when I noticed that your light is out....very dangerous sir, I have a supply of bulbs in my truck, may I up your wattage to the 200 watt model?" But I suppose that this is better than email Spam...at least I can look at these people in the eye and tell them to get lost.

Mosquitoes
This is purely a rhetorical question. but.......where in the damn hell do all the mosquitoes in West Texas come from? This is a semi-desert climate where so far this year we've gotten about five [5] inches of moisture. We have no streams, rivers, marshes or swamps. Yet when I step out on the patio for so much as 3-4 minutes I have 5-6 bites on my ankles. And this is serious business now what with that Wet Smile Virus going around. I think, perhaps, it's my slovenly neighbors who can't keep up their yard. They probably have five gallon Crisco cans strewn about their back yard with water in them.
I just might sue them......and I would too if he weren't the Assistant District Attorney!

LATE FLASH: RE BELOW......
I believe that Heather and I have worked out or differences and I have been reinstated per the latest update Into the Gloom! Therefore I have removed and edited some of the comments below as originally printed.

How I came to be banned from the Mirror Project
The image above has caused me to be banned from the Mirror Project by owner, Heather. I look for no sympathy here, nor do I apologize to you. The banishment came not from profanity, bad behavior, lewd sexual innuendo or off color comments. No it came because of humor, actually the lack thereof by owner Heather. To explain I must digress.

Last Saturday, I made some effort to achieve a picture of me taking a picture of me in the DiamondVison screen at our local ballpark [available on request]. The picture was great and although not fitting the technical rules of Mirror Project to the exact "T", it was a work befitting the spirit of the project. Well not to Heather, as I received a short rejection note from her. OK, her site, her discretion. But I thought other "rejectees" might enjoy a bit of humor about our rejection. Thus the image above with a short narrative something to the effect of "After my rejection, I thought I'd get back to the basics of the Mirror Project". No accusatory tone, no resentment on my part. Shortly after submission I received a note from Heather to the effect of "if you got a problem, take it up directly with me Squirt". Being not quite a moron I picked up an angry tone.

At this time I must point out, that over the course of my Mirror Project career, I have sent this same Heather a nice note almost everytime my photos were added, telling her thanks and how much I appreciated the work she obviously put into the site. But, I thought, "I've offended poor Heather". So I wrote a very sincere note of appology telling her that no offense was meant, that again I appreciated her work and that if ever I was in San Francisco she could kick me really hard. I think most people would accept this and move on....but not our Heather. Today I submitted a tame no frills mirror shot, only to receive a "Rejection" almost instantly. xxxxxxxxxx [deleted items]. I mailed back asking if there was a problem with the photo. No she said, "the problem was me, and she could reject anyone she damn well pleased". Again I detected some bitterness.

So that's it. International banishment. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX [deleted items]. Oh and Have a Nice Day :>]

A name to be proud of.......!
We in our fair mid sized city have a brand new High School football stadium, which costs the taxpaying citizens $48 Million. That's $480 per man, woman, baby and dog. So let's say around $700 per person not including non taxpaying baby's, dog's and a few women. I want my money back.
I didn't vote for this stadium...it was too expensive considering we need new schools, books, streets, more cops. But being a civic booster I had gotten somewhat used to it. We needed a new stadium, but perhaps not a Taj Majal facility.

Now, now I'm as you say.....incensed. The esteemed city council auctioned off the name to the highest bidder......someone named, Grande Communications Corp. They are not based here and haven't even really started in business here yet. And..a big and. They are an Internet company. As you know Internet companies are the role model for stability and staying power. And the Generation "Xers" at the City Hall didn't even make a good deal with them. $48,000/year. A stinkin' $48,000/year. A great deal for the Grande Bozo Co. They go out of business in two years and they're only out $96K.

This deal may have been legal, but it's morally wrong. Just plain wrong. This is a High School public facility. I think that we need more old geezers in our city government. I can't write anymore..I'm too incensed. Real really, I'm Pissed Off!

Best Seller........
My close friend and business partner, Joe Galloway, tells me today that his book "We Were Soldiers Once...and Young" is back on the New York Times best seller list at #3! An accomplishment in and of itself, this is even more amazing as it is the third time it has achieved Best Seller status. Once ten years ago when it first came out, then again as a paperback this year.....and now once again in the re-released hardback. Congratulations are in order to Joe and co-author Gen. Hal Moore. And once again a fitting tribute to all the soldiers immortalized in the book, and the feature film.
For the occasion I have been redesigning our website We Were Soldiers which involved reconfiguring the "Shopping Cart" mostly by hand coding. Whew! Don't try this at home.......without some muscle relaxants handy. I invite you all to visit the site and see the images that Joe took during the battle on which the book and Mel Gibson film are based. And after all my hard work........buy something!

Quorn's Abound!
The true value in the Internet is in information gathering. And now, alert reader Jen in Australia sends in the report of yet another Village of Quorn. Jen, like myself, a famous Mirror Project artisté, reports this Quorn to be in South Australia. The Village of Quorn in S.A. must be the hot bed of sports, or perhaps that is all there is to do in Quorn, Australia. Their website, Quorn Sports Central is replete with any sporting activity you might want to participate in on your next trip "down-under". I personally think I'll join the Lawn Bowling Club and the Gyro-Copter crew. They sound like an active lot, eh mate?

I feel that I am now one of the world's experts on Quorn. Both the fake meat and the Quorn villages of the world. I invite all readers to send reports of Quorn villages in locales yet unknown to me for further investigation and listing. I have aleady made the Town of Quorn, Leiceister, England my "Sister City" and hope to contact the residents of Quorn, NSW to bestow the same honor upon them.
Please send all information on Quorn's in your area to:

Quorn-at-biggolddog.com

Quorn Again
Alert readers, or even semi-alert readers, will remember that several days ago I brought up the issue of fake meat made from fungus, better known as Quorn©. Let me make it clear, I have nothing against fake meat, nor fungus. The combination of the two just seemed to me to be a little suspect. Well, not to make a judgement prior to full investigation, I went straight to the source. I cabled The Township of Quorn, England. Why, you ask? Well, it and the meat product were the only two entries to come up on my Google Search for Quorn©.
Well today my diligence paid off with a cable [actually an email, but cable sounds more dramatic] from Mr. Tim Rodgers, personal representative of the townsfolk of Quorn, England. The cable reads as follows:

------------------------------------------------
Hello Wallace,
Thanks for getting in touch with us here.

I think the product was in fact named after our village, but I don't think there is any real connection other than the name.
Certainly the company that manufactures Quorn©, Marlow Foods are not based anywhere near us.

As to gastric problems - no reports at all in the UK that I'm aware of - in fact, we had a Quorn meal in Quorn (if you see what I mean) just last week, and a bottle of Californian red made it disappear very quickly, with no dead animals complaining.

Anyway, should you visit us in the future, get in touch - it would be good to meet up.

Kind regards,
Tim Rodgers
Quorn Village Website


---------------------------------------------
I think that this dispells many of the worries that I might have concerning the ingestion of Quorn© as relates to the ingestors possiblity of death and diaherra. Additionally International reader Lisa of A Blog from A Broad actually claims to like the stuff. But, she adds, we in the US get the deep fat fried versions, while they, being cultured Europeans get the lightly breaded variety.
I would like to thank Tim and the townsfolk of Quorn for all their hard work in emailing their response, and wish them good luck in their Quorn© feasting. Actually the town of Quorn or Quordon, looks like a pleasantly quaint spot, a place you might like to stop to visit and feel right at home while in England. I urge you to visit their attractive website at: Quorn-the-Town-not-the-Meat.Com They have some interesting artists and the chocolate store will set your mouth to waterin'. And enjoy your Quorn©!

Thought for the day
Thoughts for the masses from my self help organization....

"It is a spiritual axiom that every time we are disturbed, no matter what the cause, there is something wrong with us.
When we speak or act hastily or rashly, the ability to be fair-minded and tolerant evaporates on the spot. One unkind tirade or one willful snap judgement can ruin our relations with another person for a whole day, or maybe a whole year. Nothing pays off like restraint of tongue and pen. We must avoid quick-tempered criticism and furious, power driven argument. The same goes for sulking and silent scorn. These are emotional booby traps baited by pride and vengefulness."
From: The Twelve and Twelve