Can't Hide

She has indeed taken over everything. 

Good Spot

I have been parking in this spot for sixteen years...since the 90's! Today is the last time I'll be able to park here. Tonight the entire parking lot will be fenced off and turned into a contruction zone. They are building a new high school. That building there will be razed next summer...that's my classroom window there in the center. It was a great spot. I could see my car from my classroom. It will be even sadder when my classroom goes the wrecking ball. But progress must roll on!

sigh...

 

So the meetings have begun. And there will be time when the scene above will float into my head. This scene will help me stay alive. 

End of Summer

Gotta go back to work tomorrow. I love my job. But knowing I'll be spending less time with my family is always a bummer. My wife actually had to return to work last week. It's been a fun week with me and the boy. So knowing tomorrow work begins again we went out and played tennis. 

It was a fantastic summer. First year as a Table Leader at the AP grading in Utah. Spectacular vacation in St. Croix. Camping at Cooper Lake State Park, traveling to Indiana and Oklahoma to visit family, and getting a ton of projects done. Went by fast. Too fast. 

We are blessed to have fulfilling jobs and time to spend with family. Tomorrow: time to get back to work. 

Kansas City BBQ

Texans love to brag about their barbecue. Since I moved to Texas I have done my best to convince my Texas friends that they haven't had real barbecue until they've had KC BBQ. Eighteen years in DFW and I haven't found a barbecue joint that comes close to Kansas City barbecue. 

Finally two of my buddies took me up on checking out KC BBQ for themselves. These guys are really into their BBQ. And they are hardcore Texans. They were pretty skeptical. So we decided to make a mad dash, one night trip up to KC. Eight hours is not a long trip for KC BBQ. 

We got up to KC around 7 pm and went straight to Gates BBQ on The Paseo. I was a bit worried that maybe it would not be as good as I remembered. Maybe I was living off childhood nostalgia. It had been twelve years since I had last tasted KC shortends. But as soon as we opened the door I knew my memory had not failed me. The aroma was intoxicating. I ordered shortends. They ordered ribs and sausage. Just a couple of bites in and they had to concede that it was the best they had ever had. It was so good I almost cried. 

The next day we had an early lunch at Johnny's BBQ in Mission. Johnny's was my Dad's favorite BBQ place when we were living in KC. As kids we used to complain about how often we ate there. It's located across the road from my old high school and was just a little dive. But Guy Fieri's show featured the place a few years ago and they've become so popular they've opened a second Johnny's. It was nicer inside then I remembered. And the ribs were also amazing. Better then anything I've had in Texas by far. Soon there was a line out the door. 

We took off back to Texas feeling quite satisfied. I'm telling you, if you dig BBQ, a quick overnight trip to KC is worth it. 

Athena

Two weeks we rolled over to the animal shelter and adopted Athena into our home. She is wild. Always moving. Two weeks and she thinks she owns the place. 

St. Croix and so on.

Been a long time since a rock and roll. Everything, by which I mean everything, cooks by so fast. Another school year passes off very nicely. Then I'm off to Salt Lake City to grade AP exams, this year as a Table Leader, by which I mean I lead a table of graders. Then home for three days. Then off to St. Croix of the U.S. Virgin Islands. Oh my gosh a nice place. A spectacular place worthy of many a platitude that don't do justice. Back in the Mainland for three days and off to an East Texas lake for two days for a vacation from our vacation. I take my vacations seriously. 

Doomed

Great. SI has put Kansas City on their cover. The season is over. Nice run, Royals. 

Bye Dave

So you have to understand, I modeled my entire junior high persona after David Letterman. Back then I had to record Late Night on our VCR and watch it after school. It came on way too late for a seventh grader. Channel 4, at that time the NBC affiliate in Kansas City, shoved in Wheel of Fortune in between The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman. So Letterman didn't come on until midnight.

Letterman back then was bizarre and weird and edgy. His humor was even more caustic in those days. Being snarky and sarcastic seemed the perfect defense for a seventh grader who wasn't the fastest, tallest or best looking kid in class. So I loved Late Night. Watching that show made you feel like you were part of some inside joke told by cool weirdos.

Then Letterman got shafted out of the Tonight Show gig and watching him on CBS was like thumbing your nose at Jay Leno and the establishment Leno represented. I always thought Leno personified the dumbing down of America. He was a corporate stooge in my eyes.

I was a junior in college when Letterman moved to the Late Show. Things were definitely different at the Ed Sullivan Theater. He tried to broaden his appeal and some of his edginess softened. The Late Show was great but it rarely reached the bizarreness of Late Night. After I got a real job and a kid we only watched the Late Show during the summers and then only sporadically. It seemed to have grown a bit repetitive to me.

But I will miss Letterman. He's a part of my early adolescence. I adopted his demeanor and style of humor for many difficult years in the jungle of junior high and early high school. It is truly the end of an era for many of us who grew up watching him. Bye Dave.

Meadows

The Meadows Building on Central Expressway is one of my favorite buildings in Dallas. It's a mid-century classic. I imagine it's where Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce would office if Don Draper lived in Texas. 

Daze

For the first time in weeks I feel as though  I am finally coming out of a daze. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Family emergencies are settling down. My spring grad class is over with the required ten-page paper done and in the books. The school year is wrapping up, my seniors are already gone. I finally am beginning to exhale a bit easier.

Random thoughts:

Yesterday's biker gang shootout in Waco is disturbing on so many levels. So many of my friends belong to peaceful motorcycle groups that when I see large packs of bikers it does not cross my mind that they could be a criminal gang. I see bikers and I see guys just having fun on the road on cool rides. I had relegated biker gangs to old movies. Naively, I didn't even know biker gangs still were active. I feel terrible that groups of guys who now ride for fun will possibly be looked at in fear or concern as they roll down the freeway. I have been at that very shopping strip in Waco a couple of times. I've eaten at the next door Panera Bread with my family and gone to the Starbucks right by the Twin Peaks. That exit has always been a great place to stop when traveling between Austin and Dallas. Now, to see such violence at that same place is unsettling.

Royals still in first place.

Rain rain and more rain. Early Sunday morning we got another three inches according to my backyard rain gauge. Wish some of that rain would now head west to California. But it is nice to be out of the drought that has plagued our area for so long.

And oh yeah, Salman Rushdie mentioned me in a tweet!

Ball

The past month has been weird. Tons of rain, hospital stays and other out of the ordinary craziness. But one thing that's gone very well is J's baseball debut. After years of soccer he started baseball this spring. He got the game ball after his first game with a 2 for 3 performance. Then he topped that this past week going 3 for 3 with 3 runs and 4 RBI's. His coaches are great and his team full of great kids. The Southside Bombers have been a bright spot in a stressful few weeks. 

Future Classroom

Our high school is building a new building. The old one will soon be torn down and a new gleaming facilty will take its place. Probably be a year or so before I have to relocate. 

I have mixed emotions being that I've been in the same classroom for the past fourteen years. I love my room. It's big, near the teacher's lounge, and has a window that overlooks my parking space. It's quirky and feels like a second home. 

My new room will be smaller as all newly built classrooms are. It won't have carpet and will probably be on a second floor. I'm sure it will be high-tech. But it will probably be sterile in a modernist way. 

So I'm making plans for its decor. I'm going to deck it out like Indiana Jones's classroom in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Old artifacts and big desk. Vintage posters and globes. I need to find an antique flip chalkboard. 

Irony. The new mod Apple Store looking classroom transformed into an old school prep school or Ivy League lecture hall. 

Please keep your eye out for that rolling flip chalkboard!  

New Blog Post

I haven't blogged lately. So in order to get the ball rolling again I just decided to post this...this post about nothing in particular. This photo has no correlation to this post. Just posting for posting sake. 

Tesla

We are raising an entire of generation of kids who think Tesla is a car and not a 90's rock band. And apparently the rock band was named after a guy who discovered electricity or something. 

...like a dog

 

Actually saw someone try to defend Brian Williams saying that the difference between Williams and other news anchors is that he confessed his lie. 

Well, he did indeed confess...after he was caught. Does that really count? Because if he hadn't been ratted out by the pilots of the helicopter and Stars and Stripes, do you seriously think he would have confessed?

And they're right...those Fox News Anchors have a lot, I mean A LOT, of confessing to do.

Triplets

Can you tell which one is me?

#triplets

Perspective

Sheep

I was listening to sports radio this morning. ESPN's Mike and Mike to be precise. Mike Greenberg was expressing his shock that despite being the most watched TV show in history he couldn't believe that more people didn't watch the Super Bowl last Sunday. Despite pulling a staggering 49 rating Greenberg could not fathom that over 2/3rds of Americans did not watch what he described as a piece of Americana. He implied that it was almost un-American NOT to watch the game.

At that moment I resolved to not watch next year's game.

Of course if the Kansas City Chiefs miraculously make the game I'll go back on that.

But I got caught in the great trap. I watched a game I cared nothing about. I had no rooting interest in the game. I even watched the commercials because I wanted to be able to talk about them the next day. I didn't want to be left out of the conversations the next day. I was glad that I watched the most ridiculous call in the history of football so I could skewer Pete Carroll along with everyone else in America.

I suspect that most of us watch the game because we don't want to be left out of a huge cultural event. So there's pressure to subject yourself to commercial marketing that glorifies materialism.There's pressure to watch a game that causes unbelievable harm to the participants. There were at least three major injuries in the Super Bowl and untold concussive effects on just about everyone on the field. We are peer pressured to support a league that sweeps murder (Ray Lewis), spousal abuse (Ray Rice) and child abuse (Adrian Peterson) under the rug. Those are just three examples.

I'm conflicted. I'm a football fan. I was entertained on Sunday. I keep up with the news of my favorite team. But when I stop and think and look at things from a distance I question why I support such a corrupt system. Caught. We've all been caught in trap. I am a sheep.

Six More Weeks...

So apparently he saw his shadow this morning. Six more weeks of winter. Nice. 

And oh yeah, about last night...

Worst call in the history of the universe.