Yo, Dawg!!

Bumped into this very cool dude out on the Town Lake Trail a couple of days ago. This photo is taken on the Lamar Street foot bridge over Town Lake. It is like he is saying, "I'm just way too cool to actually look into the camera."

This sign is on the door of the passport office in the 6th Street Post Office. Looks like Tony Soprano might have some competition with executions only running $30 here in Austin.


Is anyone else tired of the tangle of wires around your computer. Snaking across my desk are power cords for a computer, monitor, router, printer, plus a couple of ethernet cables and several usb cables. Until today, there were also cords to a mouse and keyboard. Of course, it is all hanging down in a huge tangle at the side of the desk.

I have been thinking about getting a wireless mouse and keyboard for a while and finally found one at Walmart yesterday, at a price I was willing to take a chance on; $16, which shows you how much of a gambler I am.

After using it for a day, I can honestly say, I am about ready to go back to the wire. Keyboard is a little difficult and misses a letter here and there. Plus, the mouse does not have enough resolution. Maybe if I paid $70 for one, it would work better. Anyone have any ideas on that? Also not all that happy with a mouse that contains two AA batteries. Makes it a little heavy and bulky.

Big cold front due in this weekend. Super Bowl party to go to on Sunday, then we are out of here for the Rio Grande Valley until it warms up a little.

By-the-way, anyone reading this in the Austin area might want to consider Carolyn Wonderland at the Saxon Pub on Thurday. It is pretty amazing to see her show in a room with only fifty other people. If you have never seen her, she reminds me of a mix of Joplin and SRV. If I am not mistaken, this is her last week at the Saxon. We have gone the last two Thursdays and will be there this Thursday.

And it Continues

It has been four days since the peak of the big ice storm here in Austin and, while the ice has now melted, the unseasonably cold weather continues. If you would like to see some more photos of the Austin ice, Jo Hunter has some new photos on her blog that are very nice.

Peggy and I went to the monthly dance in Lago Vista last night and had a great time, as usual. I learned something last night that I don't quite know how to take. Our friend Joy, who works for the State of Texas, gave me the URL of a web site that features a publicly searchable national database of all driver's license records. It includes a digital image of your actual driver's license, with photo. You do have the ability to opt out of the public search and only have it available to law enforcement which, to me, makes sense. If you want to remove your record from the public search, here is the link: National Driver's Licence Records. Just pull up your record and click the button labled "Make Private."

Well, I just had a couple of things I wanted to mention today, so I will sign off and see if I can go for a run without freezing my lungs in this cold air. Ahh, what the heck, I should probably, at least, throw in one gratuitous photo of a grand kid. How about two for the price of one; this is Allysa and Robin taken at xmas. Aren't they cute!?

An Austin Blizzard!

Can not remember when the last time was that I saw traffic this light on 183. Last time was probably around 3:00 in the morning. As you can see from this TX DOT traffic camera, we are having quite an ice storm here in Austin.

If I remember correctly, the last major ice storm we saw here was in 1985. I remember it so well because Peggy and I thought we HAD to drive in it that day. Little did we know! We were living in Leander at the time and had a closing that day at Stewart Title in Austin. Rather than call first, we drove all the way in at a top speed of about 20 MPH and found the title company closed, sooooooo, we turned around and made the hour and a half drive back home and waited for the thaw.

Today, we are riding out the blizzard downtown at Pecan Grove in our RV, and staying warm most of the time. Just returned from a three mile walk around the lake and got a little chilled. One of our propane bottles ran out this morning. It was nice that it waited until after we got up to do that.

Even though we have another full bottle of propane, I decided to go fill the empty one at the propane dealer just up the street. Got there just as they were locking up at just after noon. They filled my bottle anyway but, I was the last one to get propane from them today. These Austin propane dealers are not as dedicated as the ones in Arlen, Texas. Hank Hill would never abandon Strickling Propane on a day like this. Hank would consider this a propane emergency and probably spend the night on duty.

Just spending a lazy day playing some music and watching the TV on mute. I got a new guitar and Peggy is learning to play keyboard. Looks like we are in for a lot of snow tonight. If it happens, I will post some photos of it tomorrow. Today, I took the lazy way and captured a photo off a web cam.

Actually, here is a better idea for some good weather photos, just check our friend Jo's blog here. She is a professional photographer and you will find better photos than I could ever produce. In fact, I would suggest you should check her blog every week or so.

Happy New Year!

I imagine I am doing something now that a lot of other bloggers are doing today, saying Happy New Year to our readers. Peggy and I want to wish you the very best 2007 you can dream up.

Last night Peggy and I saw in the New Year in a very calm (for us) manner. I can't tell you how much we love living downtown at Pecan Grove. It makes everything so easy. We had dinner at Manuel's over on Congress with our neighbor, Karen. While we ate the First Night parade was coming down Congress. Then we all walked around downtown for the many First Night events which were going on.

Later, Peggy and I walked over to Sixth Street and stopped in at Friends where we heard just a kick ass blues band. If you get a chance to go see Walter Higgs and the Shuffle Pigs, you owe it to yourself to go. They are great and I can't wait for them to show up Antone's where there is a pretty good dance floor for Whip and West Coast Swing. The whole time I was listening to them at Friends, I was thinking to myself, "It just goes to show how many fine musicians live in Austin (the live music capitol of the world) that a band of this caliber is here playing for tips."

Here is another photo I have been anxious to get posted in the blog. Below is another Pecan Grove neighbor and good friend, Jim, the Balloonatic, Dickson. I get the biggest kick out of the many unusual ways folks here at Pecan Grove make their livings. Jim has one of the most unusual I have come across in that he makes balloon animals. Be sure and check out the link above to his web site. This photo is in front of our trailer and features Jim on his new electric bicycle with Loose Lucy riding in the basket.