Notes from Me

Well I've done it. Ditched the Buick and went over to the dark side, that's right I bought a rice burner. Well really a thousand year egg burner. A Genisis, a Lexus look alike on the inside and a Mercedes under the skin with the Full Monty electronic package just to make it tick. The Buick was faithful for over ten years (I don't buy often) and 150K+ worth of + comfortable travel. Tires and brakes were the only maintenance outside of a plastic water joint which was problematic on Buicks for years. So I figured to upgrade and stay in the Luxury cars. The major upgrade item was the interactive Cruise control system. Dynomite, set it and forget it. I was running up I35 from San Antonio to Austin and had the CC set to 77MPH and as traffic slowed in front of me my CC applied brakes to keep me 138 feet behind the car in front. This was done over and over again as we passed an accident in the ditch. It controlled my speed down to a complete stop and back up to 77 without me having to touch the brake or the gas at all. Really spooky, but I like it. The only problem is the 138 feet is more than enough room for someone to swerve into my lane and slam on their brakes at which time my computer would slam on my brakes to keep the spacing. Neat anyway.

The grand kids are coming down next week for a few days and as usual I'm at a loss of how to keep them entertained. It doesn't help that the weather is a string of 100+ days and a trip to the bunker is out of the question. We may go down to Galveston for the cool and to see what they've done for the Pleasure Pier. It was destroyed in one of our hurricanes and rebuilt and reopened so we shall see. On the way down we will go by NASA to see what they have done for their displays. The GKs have been to the Smithsonian and the sights around DC so this may be wimpy but they have been raised well and should not complain. (too much)

Going, Going, not gone.

No posting for the past couple of months because the bunker was being looked at by a prospective buyer. I had mouthed off in a line at a BBQ during the cowboy poetry gathering about maybe selling it and Dang, someone said, "How much?" Well there I am, on the spot again. I know that my plans for finishing the bunker will never be realized and it's getting harder to make the trip. The odds of finding a buyer are pretty slim so I gave him a price that was low enough for the XO to spin around and say, "What???"
Long story short we agreed to meet the guy and his wife at the bunker in a few weeks. They liked it and could see its potential. We didn't make a deal on the spot but he kept the deal open and we left it there. Weeks later they called asked to see it again as they were traveling to Arizona so I told them where the keys were and waited for them to call back. One week, Two, no call and it occurs to me that I should drive out and see if everything was still there. It was. So we are back where we started and no-harm no-foul.
While we were in the neighborhood we ran down to Study Butte to see an old friend that has a neat mostly off grid place. John Wells is a new pioneer from New York and like a lot of us loves the desert. Spend some time on his blog for a look at how life can be out here. His latest avocation is silversmith. We bought a couple of his bars to help him buy feed for "the boys". Be sure to go back in his blog at least a couple of years to read the story of Benita and Ben.