Bag of Randomness

  • Total roadtrip miles this weekend . . . 747.8.  It all started from Lewisville to Lindale (dropping the kids off at the grandparent’s house), and then to Houston and then back to Lindale and Lewisville.
  • I grew up in a family situation in which I didnt’ have any grandparents to keep me over the weekend, so it’s always a bit weird for me to drop my kids off because I kind of feel like I’m skirting my responsibilities as a parent.  But hey, I’ve also learned that the grandparents want to be involved in their lives and sometimes welcome these opportunities.
  • Before the trip, I filled up at home for $2.99, but most of the prices in Houston, where the refineries are, were around $3.22.
  • A fun game to play on roadtrips as  you drive through small Texas towns is count the number of Dairy Queens vs Dollar Generals.  You can probably add the number of places called Donut Palace to the mix.
  • I noticed a lot of the newer paved country roads not only have those grooves that make that loud noise to wake you up on the shoulder, but also in the median.
  • I found a phone’s GPS doesn’t function when you are stuck on roaming, and here I thought GPS didn’t rely on cell phone reception.  Maybe ‘real’ GPS devices don’t need to rely on phone reception.
  • As we approached Houston around 3:30 PM we programmed the GPS to avoid traffic.  We were staying at the Westin Galleria which is basically directly west of downtown.  The GPS had us take the loop east, then sound of downtown, and then back up north.
  • At one point I was traveling east on West Street, and I passed a Long Street Road.
  • WifeGeeding had DJ duties for the trip.  On the way down there she just stuck with some old playlists we’ve listened to before.  On the way back, she decided we would listen to no music or anything else, for the whole six hours.
  • I’ve finally seen the 70-foot tall statue of Sam Houston outside of Huntsville.  I guess that’s something every Texan should do.  Unfortunately, there was an 18-wheeler accident right next to it as we drove past.
  • I shall declare that Sam Houston has to be the greatest Texan of them all.  He was the first and third President of Texas (per the constitution, terms were three years and could not be served consecutively), seventh governor of Texas, signed the Texas Declaration of Independence, and was Commander in Chief during the Texas Revolution.  And the man had integrity, he was thrown out of the governor’s office because he refused to swear loyalty to the Confederacy when Texas seceded from the Union.
  • Few people remember he was also a governor of Tennessee.  As a Texan, I’ll always be thankful to Tennessee for their help in getting our independence, and that’s how I feel towards France as an American.
  • While outside of Huntsville we passed a white bus that was full of prisoners, it looked like something out of The Fugitive.
  • I thought I picked a nice hotel, but I had second thoughts when a group of frat guys showed up booking a lot of rooms for an event.  Thankfully they were on the 14th floor and we were on the 22nd.
  • On the first night, around 2:00 AM, someone kept trying to enter our room.  I got up, cracked the door open (because of that sliding lock thingy) and in the most unpleasant tone said, “Can I help you?”  It turns out it was a younger dude, probably late twenties, with his girlfriend or wife, and I think I scared the living tar out of them.  In hindsight, I feel a little bad because he just got the wrong room and made a simply mistake, but on the other, it was our first night alone away from the kids and I woke up from a dream where I was eating crispy bacon.
  • The whole time we were in Houston it rained, and oddly enough, it was pleasantly cool the whole time we were outside.
  • In several places, we noticed the escalator to go upstairs was disabled.  I wonder if this is a city wide thing to save energy and/or fight obesity?
  • We did find the most interesting street sign near our hotel.
  • We attended a competitive improve club on Saturday, if you are every there, we highly recommend it.
  • My friend’s groom’s cake was something to behold for you Star Wars fans, it has the Deathstar on top with Han Solo in carbonite all around it.
  • I haven’t seen my friend’s father since probably junior high.  It’s always meeting these folks you remember as giants as a kid and now you are looking at them at eye level.  He spoke to me the longest time, but I got a kick out of it when he respectfully and comically acknowledge I’m a liberal (I guess my friends talks about me often) and then tell me how much the current administration has hurt his business.  He owns a company that supplies materials for deep sea oil drilling.
  • While at the wedding I couldn’t help but think why on earth this guy is still holding on to the little hair he has.  Seriously, that was the only place on his head in which he had hair.
  • Thomas Jefferson once thought the Constitution should be rewritten every 19-years because “the earth belongs always to the living generation.”  Article
  • Pictures of reporters physically rushing the printed version of the Obamacare ruling to their networks.  The one of the girl in the black skirt wearing sneakers cracks me up.
  • I didn’t know there was a rumor that Matt Lauer had an affair and a child with Natalie Morales.
  • People sure to love to wear Tyler’s shirts around here, I think they are a sporting goods place, and man, they either give away a lot of free shirts or people love ’em.
  • ‘Miss Holocaust Survivor’ contest held in Israel
  • The Army is developing a device that will shoot lightning bolts down laser beams.
  • Eighty Teddy Ruxpin dolls attached to the wall reading blogs 
  • My, oh my, it’s July.
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