Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Wednesday's Digressions

It was skin test training day for a new employee and I was the guinea pig 

  • Recently I  visited one of our nation states great parks. While there, I walked out onto the end of a fishing pier and leaned against the railing whereupon said railing groaned, creaked and flexed an easy 6-8 inches outward. I presumed the whole thing was going over and I was about to get wet- ready or not. This was soooo true I did what every red blooded American would have done- I threw the hand holding my cell phone up in the air and hoped for the best. In the end disaster was averted but that railing was screwed up.  I reported it by attaching a pic and sending an email to the only name I knew in that park.  For some reason I regreted it immediately and I am still full of dread as I presume it will come back to haunt me in some way.
  • I am not sure what to make of that last sentence.
  • Honestly- why?
  • Update: The ranger emailed me back to thank me me and assure me the railing would be fixed. I'm now only slightly less sure reporting that issue will come back to haunt me. There is is still a little ball  of dread in my stomach. 
    This appeared on my desk one day then disapeared some time later just as mysteriously.
  • At KBobs in Raton around Christmas time I had some of the best catfish I have had in my life. It was top 10 I would say- 15 at worst.
    Years ago my nursing buddy bought a big 50 count bucket of these pens for 3.99. They were in top 20 of pens I have used in my life. This is the lone holdout. It feels cheap to hand but you forgive it as it writes so great.
  • I have not been to Red Lobster in years. I don't even remember what I used to order there.
  • My roommate in college and I would destroy buffets- just demolish them. We were pigs. We hung out a little after I left that school then we just lost touch. I even travelled from Texas back to Tennessee a couple of times to see he and his wife but yeah- we just lost touch.
  • We took an epic road trip for spring break. We drove his Buick Regal from Tennessee to New Orleans to Galveston and then up to my house in Decatur. It was a great time. Easily top 5 week of all weeks in my life. I still think about it at least once a year.
  • He is the still probably the best combination of fun, smart and kind person I have ever known- great guy. 
  • I am a better person because of him.

1 comment:

an Donalbane said...

Back around '85-86, some friends of mine, together with a bunch of yutes from their local church, went up to Lawton State Park to camp and do some rappelling.

Unfortunately, we got kind of a late start, and got to the park after closing time. Since one of my buddies had a jacked up early '60s Ford 4WD pickup, we figured it wouldn't be such the problem to drive over the 18" rocks meant to deter mere mortals from driving around the locked gate.

As luck had it, though, we were making such a ruckus that the Park Ranger paid us a visit. As he was questioning the driver - [let's call him] Bobby - I quietly slipped away to my Datsun, surreptitiously removing one Ruger double action .357 Magnum and quietly depositing it in the tall weeds outside the passenger door. We followed Smokey Bear back to the ranger station where he wrote us a citation for stupidity (I think it was like $50), and then drove into town and rented a motel room.

Being the oldest in the group, I claimed one of the queen size beds, and Bobby and our other friend took the other. One of the three or four yutes thought I was gonna share my bed with him, but inasmuch as they were acting like a bunch of ravaging homos playing grab-ass with each other, I told them they were gonna sleep on the floor - which they did.

Next morning, we paid for our campsite and I retrieved my .357 from the weeds where I'd left it. We spent most of the day rappelling, then around sundown went to set up the tents. We had a smallish campfire, and one of the idiot yutes thought splashing a bit of gasoline on it would improve matters. The resulting flames got dangerously close to my Datsun, and by the time we had doused the fire, the campsite was soaked and unfit for pitching tents. So, we had some grub, and I retired to my car to spend the night, the others piled into the Ford truck bed and cab, and maybe there was another vehicle.

About 2:00a, an Okie thunderstorm rolled in. The tarp that the idjits had placed over the truck bed filled with water before it gave way and drenched them. Moments later, onesuch moron was knocking on my window, begging for shelter in my car (which, the doors being locked and the weekend not having gone as I'd planned, I ignored for a couple of minutes). Finally I relented after delivering a stern warning. But, by 5:00, those who had no shelter were all whiny and stuff, so we loaded up our remaining gear and headed back to Texas.

The Red Lobster in Southlake used to have incredible seafood - apparently it was one of their test kitchens for new recipes/combinations, but it closed many years ago. The last RL I ate at was in Wichita Falls, just south of the mall on Kemp. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good either.

As a random thought, I wonder if the Chinese Buffet on the west side of 287 near the north end of town and Burkburnett/Sheppard cutoff used to be a K-Bob's?