Katrina

Well, as all of you know, New Orleans and the coastal regions of Mississippi and Alabama got hit pretty damn hard by the hurricane last week. Every opportunity I get, I try to see what the latest happenings are over there. There are so many displaced families. These people have nothing and there are parents that do not know where their children are at, coupled with children who do not know where their parents are at. People who have to live in the Astrodome or some other shelter because that security blanket called home is no longer there. Those have to be the worst feelings that anyone can endure. And to think, I fret over the little ripples in life that come my way....

But I see the people in these shelters smiling. They take the time to say thank you. Their eyes light up when you give them a bottle of water...What's this about?

Despite all their hardships and misfortunes, they smile? If they can smile and be thankful for a bottle of water and some instant potatoes that come from one of those MRE's they have been eating the last few days, why can't you smile? Why do the little insurmountable things in your life that do not go right have so much influence on your happiness? Everyone is guilty of taking the good things in life for granted and they are not happy until they get more of the good things. Perhaps, everyone should be stripped down to having nothing but the clothes on their backs and perhaps this world would be a better place.

And here's where I get religious. For those who know me, you know my ineptitude about attending church on Sundays, but I believe in a higher power. There has to be something or someone responsible for getting all this started. No matter how you worship your higher power; whichever paths you use for worship, the same themes can be deducted from all the teachings of all religions. Be good to your fellow and be happy with what you are given in life. The Bible, the Quran, the mantras of Buddhism; all teach this. I am a Christian and for Christians, the story of Jesus is he gave his life for the betterment of all of mankind. This is supposed to remind us to be good to our fellow man and to keep ourselves in check. This is the resounding sentiment that echoes throughout all denominations of Christianity. But, the question I ask is....

Did God stop this lesson with Jesus?

Perhaps the victims of Katrina were sacrificed to reiterate the message of Jesus. Maybe they are all mini- Jesuses. Their deaths were so that we come together to help our fellow man. Their sacrifices of not knowing where their families are, not having a home, and smiling when receiving a bottle of water remind us that its the little things in life that are important. Food, shelter, water, love and security. If you have that, you have everything you need. Remember that and you’ll be happy in life. I promise.

Adios mike p

Well, over the last few years, I have had the privilege of knowing Mike Mahon. He is an extremely cool dude that is one of the most computer savvy people I know. For the last 2 months, I joined him and Roberto up in ATX at the DPS. Mike took the brunt of the programming of the hard stuff up there and now I think my time has come. I guess I am going to have to become the programming guru that Mike is so I can help fill the void. TEA’s gain is definitely our loss. Good Luck there, Mike.

To celebrate Mike’s new venture, we sent him off Friday night in grand fashion. We started at 5 at Trudys. After wondering aimlessly around there due to their policy of not seating incomplete parties, the Trudy’s Nazis finally got us set up outside. We had a couple of drinks there and then we rode down Burnet to this shady place called the Poodle Dog. I was not a big fan of this place and especially after they gave Casey a counterfeit $10 bill for change. When he went to use it again, the bar bitch immediately declared it to be a fake and she couldn’t take it. What a convenient way to get rid of a counterfeit 10.

Next place that was blessed with our presence was this joint called Lala’s. This place was quiet when we got there, but after everyone got “loosened up,” it became noisy. I had the duty of designated driver, so I didn’t drink. The smoke that filled the air burned my eyes and nose and forced me to retreat outside and take deep breaths of the polluted ATX air.

After Lalas, we went downtown to the Red Eyed Fly. We got to see John Baron there from Yoakum. He is apparently a manager of the band that was playing that night and they were not too bad. We burned out of there pretty quick and went to this place called Habanas. This place was dead, but they had to go in there to get some kind of drink. We ended the night at Bar Austin and watching Mike P school everyone with his dance moves. We closed the place down and piled into the Ford for the venture home to sleep off a drunken evening. Thanks Casey for puking on the outside of my truck and not in it.

Peace

TRAFFIC

Well...

I have been dealing with a commute from New Braunfels to ATX for almost 2 months now. One would think that the distance is bad....but it isn't. I can get from my house to Slaughter Lane in less than 30 minutes. The bad part is Slaughter to anywhere in Austin.

As an avid Longhorn fan, I would have to assume that the engineers at the Austin office of TXDOT are all ATM grads. This city has to be the biggest clusterfuck of traffic in the world. The entire logistical infrastructure seems to be a patchwork of projects that just don't mesh well together. How else would you explain going from 50 to 0 and then back up to 50 while commuting in ATX. I also believe that ATX wants to set the world records for the longest stoplights.

Needless to say, I am not very patient when it comes to traffic and one day I will keel over from getting all worked up over that damn rice rocket that cut me off. Sometimes, I imagine I have a big Ranch Hand bumper on my vehicle and it was legal to push those bastards off the road. It that were true, I would love to commute.

Two ways to avoid the crunch:

1. Do a little offroading. as long as the APD isn't around, you can cut thru the ditches, hit the feeder roads to avoid the bottlenecks and then cut back accross the median to get back on. This action is not recommended if you drive a little rice rocket because they are fair game in the medians.

2. Follow ambulances. These nifty vehicles act like a fullback blocking for the star runner. Knocking holes in the defensive line of traffic and opening the path towards New Braunfels. I love these noisy vehicles and thanks to those people that are maimed or sick so I have a way to get through the traffic a lot faster.

Chumchal.com

Today, I did my part for the family reunion. Someone let the cat out of the bag that I am capable of building websites, so I built one for my family. I spent the majority of the afternoon putting it together and i think it turned out pretty good. You can find it at www.chumchal.com. Tonight we are going to grub on some groceries cooked up by Robertos brother G-Man. They smell good and the samples I have sampled thus far are the shit. Here goes the diet!

Peace

Getting my schoolin on

This week has me sitting in class at this place called New Horizons in ATX. The name gave me the impression that I was going to be going to a drug rehab or some type of psychological facility; however, it is a nice place. It is located up in Northwest Austin right off Braker, so the lunch runs prove to be good. Today we grubbed on some Mexican food. I am anticipating the return of the Misses. She has been gone since Sunday a week ago. It is kind of peaceful without her around, but I am ready for her to come back. I need to clean the house before she gets back so she doesn't think that she is married to a dirty bumb. I mostly got clothes everywhere becuase she asked me to clean out my closet and I actually did what I was told. Tonight, I plan on mowing the yard, washing some clothes and then scoping out the Astros tonight on the tube. They better win the wildcard, otherwise I am going to probably be pissed.

Peace...

Bobby

WTF

Yesterday, I decided to stay in ATX. We played some basketball after work and I ended up jamming my pinky. You would think that the pinky is not that useful, but it sure hard to write or type with a jacked up finger. Now, since I hurt my finger, I agreed to put myself through some more physical torture and went for a bike ride. Sounds relaxing enough, but we went from 51st street to Riverside and then back up to 51st. My poor fat ass was hating it on the hill that makes up Lavaca Street. The worst part of the whole trip was that damn bike seat. It felt like i was sitting on the skinny edge of a 2x4. Well, in the end, I accomplished the entire trip. It hurt like hell to get off that bike, yet it was the most relieving feeling i have had in a while. Lance Armstrong literally has an ass of steel. I used to be able to handle these things, but now I am like WTF afterwards. I have things hurting I didn't know existed. Well, this morning has my pinky looking like a big purple thumb and my ass feels like I was violated with the barrel of a Louisville Slugger.

new ride

about 2 weeks ago, me and mel went to go look at new cars. i said look. well....it turns out that we fell in love with this sweet ass mercury mountaineer....so we bought it. it looked good for about a day and then it rained on it. well, being black, it showed everything. with mel going to harlingen for a couple of weeks, she asked me to clean up her car. maybe i went a little overboard, but the result was purely spectacular. i washed and waxed that baby and put some sheen on all the rubber. i told mel to come check it out when i was done and you could actually see yourself in good detail in the paint. well...i hope mel appreciated the effort and i hope her friends felt special pimping that clean ass new car. i need to give thanks to the txdps for giving me a job to afford this puppy and a shout out to sacu for having faith that i will actually make the payments.