Asleep at the Wheel....

As my photography "career" has progressed I've been blessed by good fortune and friends in being able to do "concert" photos for people ranging from Willie Nelson, Gary P. Nunn and Stoney Larue [twice].

Last Saturday, at the Celebration of the Arts, I had the opportunity to be onstage with one of my long favorite groups.....Asleep at the Wheel. And through a mutual friend to be able to spend an hour or so with their founder and 9 time Grammy Award winner, Ray Benson. I like interesting people, and Ray is certainly one of those. But the real thrill is being onstage with such talented people with mega woofers woofing while standing next to the drummer while he's drumming out some of my favorite Asleep at the Wheel tunes. It doesn't get much better...

Neither rain, nor hail, nor tornados, nor floods....

The US Postal Service gets maligned too much. Sure they've had their problems, but they have a huge job....and they are a government agency so, all in all, I think they do pretty well. In my experience, they've done just as well with fragile or sensitive parcels as has UPS or especially Fed-Ex.

Yesterday in Midland was one of those days I would have expected the Postal Service to suspend their sacred oath for just one afternoon. With floods, a tornado sighted, and skull denting hail about, it was pretty dangerous outside. In fact one woman was killed when swept away in her car. But.....at almost the usual time, there was Art the Postman delivering the mail with a smile. Art has been the postman in our neighborhood for decades and provides exemplary and personal service. In fact, he was the postman at my other residence, knows I moved and where, and brings my mail to me while the "offical" mail transfer is in progress.

Hail to you Art!

Change is Good..

Not only has this blog moved to a new location, thanks to Blogger no longer hosting ftp accounts through my own server, but other big changes have occured recently also.

I have a new home, a new dog and a new 30 year old Swedish girl friend. Well, actually I only have a new home and a new dog; the Swedish girl is wishful thinking.

Since my Mother moved to a retirement community, our old family home has been vacant. I had been planning on moving back into the house that I grew up in but dreading the work involved to do so. A timely and economically advantageous offer to buy my home on Bedford suddenly appeared and so the choice was made, and I'm glad it was. Moving is my definition of "hell" and it was an ordeal, but it's mostly done now, except for some unpacking and it was a good decision.

I had been intending to get another "rescue" dog after I moved in, so the present dog and a new one could meet on the neutral turf of a new house. But, sometimes our plans are intercepted by reality. During the initial stages of the move, I encountered a dog in need at a Midland High baseball game and so I acquired "Daisy". Another great thing for she now has a good home, and the senior dog "Daphne" has a pal. Amazing, in that Daphne has never cared much for other dogs, but took to Daisy like she was her own puppy. All is well now in the new home!

The new home....

The new dog.....Daisy

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Trust Me...

I see this actual ad on several large well known websites as I surf around...including The Weather Channel's, Weather.Com. Every time I encounter the ad I have to wonder what kind of creative process went into it.

Did a focus group of Madison Avenue Ad guru's sit around musing what graphic they could use to go with a mortgage ad. "Let's see now, in these tough times, what visually depicts safety and security in a home loan? I've got it....how about a picture of someone who looks likes Charles Manson. Great idea, who doesn't love and trust Charlie Manson".

Was that it...or are they just dopes? I think the later. I know I personally never do business with a company using Charles Manson as their logo.

Up and Coming..

Darby Ledbetter is an up and coming new talent in Nashville, he's also a Warrant Officer in the Tennessee National Guard. These two occupations have converged for Darby and he's now the singing spokesman for the Guard nationally. Oh yeah, and he's from Midland. We're planning on a visit from him when he returns from Iraq this fall.

Dog Gone It....that's interesting

As I was processing 100's of basketball photos Wed. night, I caught most of an interesting science program, The Human Spark, on Basin PBS. The show explored the evolutionary similarities and differences between human reasoning abilities and those of the great apes [gorillas, chimps and orangutans]. The show focused on decades of intense research, mainly at the Max Plank Institute. Amazingly the concrete reasoning abilities of the apes was at least as good as young human children and sometimes better. But the apes fell far short in connecting abstract relationships.

An example of abstract thinking pointed out by one scientist was the simple act of a human pointing at something. Even very young children made the connection that pointing at something meant to look in the direction for something of significance or meaning. But after 10 years of experiments, the apes just don't get it. And with intensive training....they could not be taught to do so. A pointing human finger may as well be a banana.

But, the scientist pointed out, there is one, and only one, animal species that gets the message of pointing. And that is.....the modern dog. Alan Alda, the host, seemed amazed and asked why this is. The scientist pointed out that other wild canines such as wolves and coyotes in captivity don't exhibit this trait and can't be taught, so it must be that modern dogs, having lived and working with humans for at least 10,000 years have had this genetically imprinted on them as a useful tool. She pointed out that some dogs naturally do this, but almost all the dogs they worked with could be taught fairly quickly to look where a human is pointing.

A special bond indeed.

Catastrophe: Al Gore comments..

Smithville, Tenn [AP]:

Former Vice President and Leading World's Expert Al Gore has issued the following statement. "Friends, supporters and neighbors in our global village, after evaluating recent weather trends, considering "cooked" climate data and noting that my 100 ft. houseboat, CO II is frozen to the pier, I want to emphasize that I stand by my recent predictions for a global climate catastrophe; with one exception. I believe that my comments have been misinterpreted. What I have meant to say is that we are all about to freeze to death unless something is done now!

Recent studies have shown that Polar Bears are now on the outskirts of Montreal, eating small Canadian children and the elderly. Glacial activity and blizzards nearly caused me, Al Gore, to perish while at the Environmental Conference in Copenhagen Denmark. I'm Al Gore I would not decieve you!! With the future of our planet, and my houseboat, at stake I urge you to drive around aimlessly. With your help we can produce a carbon dioxide shield that will once again warm our planet

Dear Al......

Dear Al Gore, where can I get me some of that Global Warming? I'm freezin' to death out here. And don't worry about the glaciers melting a little. A new one is forming on my roof.

Why I'm Freezing.....

If you get away from the frenzied dialogue of Global Warming, you probably know that the earth has been warming and cooling it's entire life. From the founder of The Weather Channel, an explanation.

A CHRISTMAS for CAROL

This will be the fourth Christmas I've spent with my Mom since my Dad passed away in November of 2006. Last year my Mom moved into the retirement community...to a nice little house just about right for her, but it's not the old family home on Douglas we're she had lived for the last 50 years. Those who have lost a close family member know how their absence changes the holidays. So, I've tried to think of ways to make our Christmas alone a little more special but, frankly, it's been a little hard and it hasn't felt much like Christmas to me.

My Mom has always been a hard person for me to find the appropriate gift to present to her. Being a child of the depression her answer to "what do you need, or want for Christmas?" has always been, "Oh nothing really, I don't need a thing". And now, later in her life being in good financial shape, this is all the more true.

So last year I was amazed when she volunteered that she had a present in mind for me to give to her. The present she wanted, and she brought it up several times, was ...........Stamps. Postage stamps. We both laughed, but she said she was serious. So, making me feel a tad ashamed, that's what she got for her present....and some festive flowers. But for several week I thought to myself, "great son....you give your Mom stamps for Christmas". But all through the year she brought up how wonderful it was to have these stamps. She is still a letter writer so she does use them.

And so this year she asked me with a gleam in her eye, if she was going to get more stamps. I said if that's what her heart desired, then stamps it is. But she added, "...and a Timex watch, I just need an ordinary watch". Today I went to buy the stamps, double the amount this year, and I bought her the most expensive Timex watch I could find. Total tab.....under $50. But you know, I'm going to see her smile broadly at these gifts which will bring a little more joy to me this Christmas.

Potholes.....kill or cost money

The story of potholes in Midland takes a costly turn.....
Mean Street Kick Ass

Mean Street Kick Ass.

We're back, were mad and we mean it!
MeanStreet Kick Ass

1 Billionth served....

Project "Honey Pot" is an anti-spam organization that I signed up with last year. People like me who have websites contribute to the "Honey Pot" by placing useless email addresses on our websites. These allow criminals to "harvest" these addresses with their computer "Bots" and so become part of a spammers hit list. What the bad guys don't know is that the future spam replies to these addresses go to the "Honey Pot" folks who then track and keep track of them.

I received an email this morning from them saying they had received their one billionth spam reply. They offer up the interesting spam stats below and you can see the entire stat sheet at: Honey Pot Stats Take a look, some very interesting findings.

- Monday is the busiest day of the week for email spam, Saturday is the
quietest
- 12:00 (GMT) is the busiest hour of the day for spam, 23:00 (GMT) is the
quietest
- Malicious bots have increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 378% since Project Honey Pot started
- Over the last five years, you'd have been 9 times more likely to get a
phishing message for Chase Bank than Bank of America, however Facebook is rapidly becoming the most phished organization online
- Finland has some of the best computer security in the world, China some of the worst
- It takes the average spammer 2 and a half weeks from when they first
harvest your email address to when they send you your first spam message,
but that's twice as fast as they were five years ago
- Every time your email address is harvested from a website, you can expect
to receive more than 850 spam messages
- Spammers take holidays too: spam volumes drop nearly 21% on Christmas Day and 32% on New Year's Day

Is it Easter yet......??

We Americans are a forward looking people.....and an impatient lot about our holidays. I sometimes miss the good ol' days, like way back 30 years or so ago and beyond. Holiday decorations were special then. Mostly people just did Christmas starting about 2 weeks before hand. Halloween decorations were few and far between.

I'm probably not telling you anything you don't know, but we apparently live for our parade of holidays. I was already seeing Halloween decorations in stores by September, and on November 1st the Thanksgiving decor goes up in the neighborhood. Some peopele even have Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations mixed up together.

And so now we come to Christmas. Some people in my neighborhood had their Santa's and lights up before Turkey Day, but Thanksgiving afternoon about 3 pm is when the Christmas season begins around here. You can see the flurry of activities as people bedeck trees, roofs and eaves with a dazzling display of lights.

But, alas, I'm now caught up in this cycle too. My neighbor across the street had her porch decorated by dark on Thanksgiving and I really don't want to be left behind in the decor race. Luckily all I have to do is flip a switch. For the last 5 years I'm prepared, leaving my small little twinkle lights in the trees around the front porch. I add a few wreaths and whatnots, but basically, it's just flipping the switch that controls the front porch circuits. Voila! It's Christmas.

However, every year I'm disappointed. You know they just don't make those Chinese twinkle lights like they used to. I pay top dollar, like $1.98 for 100' strings of those things which get left outside all year, you'd think $1.98 lights would last longer!

Nov 22, 1963 | Where were you.....?

In the last 40+ years it's become rather a part of the folk culture for those old enough to remember, to be asked, "where were you when Kennedy was shot". It's a fair question and one for which almost everyone has an answer. The Kennedy assasination was one of the most important pinpoint events of the 20th century in the US. Not like the depression or WWII that happened over a span of time, the JFK murder happened in an instant and changed so much.

Where was I? I know exactly where I was and remember it like it was yesterday. I was a Freshman at Midland High School in Coach Ed Nixon's albebra I class which was also my "home room" assigned class. The room is in what is now, the "old building" and one which I pass by several times a year when at the school.

Seated in front of me were Bonnie Craddick and Jimmy Cowden, behind was Margaret Crews. In those days we were model children who obeyed our elders even if they wanted us to sit in alphabetical order. Cowden, Craddick, Craig, Crews....you get it. I still email and talk with Bonnie, married in San Antonio, and trade occasional emails with Jimmy Cowden, an attorney in Austin. Margaret is in Dallas, I believe. Bonnie has always been a good friend and she was a brilliant student and "Miss Everything" at MHS. Over the years I've forgiven her for not letting me cheat from her in Algebra.....thus causing my life to go into a downward spiral. Bonnie is pictured here when she was running for Queen of England...as I recall the only thing she ever lost. :>]

So it was sitting with all these friends that, not long after the fact, we heard the news over the school's loud speaker system the news that JFK had been murdered in Dallas. That's all I remember of that day. I suppose they let us out of school early, though I'm not really sure. The next thing I remember was the following day.....because it was my birthday and the birthday of one of my best friends Ron Hunt. Ronnie and I got together the next day but there was little joy in birthdayville, the rest of the world being glued to their black and white television sets. I look into Coach Nixon's old room when I pass by now and I can almost see Cowden, Craddick, Craig and Crews sitting in the far right row from front to back. And I remember the day and think.....if only Bonnie had let me cheat, I might have made a "B"

Leaf Blower III....

I've been in my house almost 10 years and for the first year I used to rake and sweep tree debris almost daily for many months. The house is surrounded by large pecan and live oak trees. I will warn homeowners here; Don't ever buy a house with live oaks or pecans anywhere near driveways or patios. They have developed a delicate symphony of nature whereby one or the other of the species is dropping somes sort of crap on your property at carefully orchestrated and different times. Except for the 3 months in the dead of winter, there is always something falling.

But I digressed. Having raked and swept for a year, a good friend mentioned that in West Texas a leaf blower is not a luxury, but a necessity. I took this to heart and in the last 9 years rarely do several days go by that I'm not blowing something noxious off my property. I have been through two Toro Super Vac Electric Leaf Blowers in that time. Big brutes with about 500 h.p. creating winds in excess of 2,000 mph. But they were expensive, as they came with all that power and the leaf sucker upper vacuum attachment. I'll add that it looks like the life of a Toro Super Sucker is about 4.5 years.

Today I purchased leaf blower number three. Number two had been sounding "raspy" and losing power for a month or so but still working although sometimes I had to use a very sophisticated system to get it going after being turned on. I hit it really hard. It worked okay, until Tuesday evening when I was blowing debris after dark and noticed a glow coming from the air vent holes in the motor cover. I was rather surprised to find the glow coming from a lot of swirling flames. Not sparks, real genuine fire. But it was working so what the heck.....it lit the way and the fire eventually stopped. The next day I took ol' number two over to the other family home to clean up 20 year old dust left by the roofers after they installed a new roof. Number two worked fine and I was just finishing up when the smell of burning electricity and plastic filled the garage and number two ground to a smokey end. I suppose it's gone for good. I don't think they were designed to have fire in them.

So today, to Ace Hardware I went and found the Number 3 blower of my dreams. A smaller compact Toro with no sucker apparatus that was twice as cheap as numbers 1 and 2. The downside is that it only puts out about 1,200 mph winds, but it sure is a lot easier to use, quieter and in 4.5 years the flames shouldn't be as large when it blows up.

Veteran's Day.....We Remember

On Veteran's Day, I remember and pay tribute to all those I served with and who came before us. Most particularly my family members.....my Dad and my Grandfather.

The Marine Corps globe and anchor were my grandfather's, Charles Wallace Craig who was a Marine Corps L/Cpl who fought at the Battle of Belleau Woods, WWI, 1918.

The Army Combat Infantry Badge rests on the Sgts. stripes of my father, Charles Wallace Craig II, who landed at Anzio, in 1944, fought his way up Italy and then participated in the second "D" Day in Southern France in August of 1944. He later became a cold weather casuality in the Vosges Mountains of France.

The Kingston Trio...

The Kingston Trio was a hit group a little before my musical day, but they are considered one of the most influential sounds that shaped the coming rock n' roll years. Their sound evolved into "folk pop" which guided such stars as Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, The Byrds and The Mama's and Papa's. It was a pleaure to see and hear them up close and personal. Above, "Scotch and Soda" which is the most played Juke Box song of all times.

Good bye, city life.......

If you have ever heard the theme songs to Green Acres or The Addams Family...and not been able to get them out of your head, you have Vic Mizzy to thank.

Green acres is the place for me.
Farm livin' is the life for me.
Land spreadin' out so far and wide

Sad to note that Vic passed away this week.

Keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside.
You are my wife.
Good bye, city life.
Green Acres we are there.