Keeping Austin Weird

This weekend was the 3rd Annual Keep Austin Weird 5K run.
I was one of 4 photographers for the event and having only heard and not seen the event before I had no idea what to expect. The race got off to a 15 minute late start due to there not being enough police officers available to clear all the intersections on the race route. After the 2 wheelchair participants went by, the rest of the pack was let loose. In case any of you have ever run a 5K and if your like me not be able to get to the end in less than 30 minutes, one of the wheelchair racers finished in 29min and 44secs. Pretty impressive to go over 3 miles in that time with just the strength in your arms and upper body.
There were several thousand competitors that ranged from the thought processes of "I'm gonna be the first one to finish..." to "Don't I look really crazy with this hoolahoop".
I stood in the sun for almost 2 hours and shot about 2500 frames through my Canon EOS 20D. Seeing all of the effort that people put into this event as well as the huge age range just put a smile on my face. I think a partially closed minded Logan <-- me... would've thought this sort of thing was dumb at some point in my life, but I really have a great appreciation for it. It sends a great message from a great city that so many people would dress up in ridiculous clothing to walk for 5km in 100 degree weather in August just above the 30th parallel in the western hemisphere. Some of the best ideas/costumes for the day included one guy who literally hool-a-hoop'd the entire race, a pair of guys dressed as Bo and Luke with cardboard cutouts of the orange doors of the General Lee complete with 01 painted on the sides. Even a 79 year old woman was out dressed as an Old Lady as best I could tell and she finished the race in under 45min! If you get a chance, in the next few days, the pictures should be up and available at http://www.kreutzphotography.com/

Walkers and Tennis Balls

I'm sitting at lunch this afternoon at the nearby Whataburger and the elderly lady sitting across from me has a walker. Now, it's not uncommon to see someone with a walker nor is it uncommon to see that same person with tennis balls on the back 2 legs of the walker. So my question is this, if nearly every walker I see has retrofitted tennis balls placed on the back 2 legs to make it slide across the floor easier shouldn't the manufacturer ship them with a set of Penns? Maybe a coupon to walmart for a free can of Wilson Prostaffs?
What other everyday items do you know of that are often accompanied by some other everyday item in order to make them more useful?

Whole Foods

For those not familiar with Whole Foods, here's a brief history...Whole Foods Market was founded in Austin, Texas, when three local businessmen decided the natural foods industry was ready for a supermarket format. Our founders were John Mackey and Renee Lawson Hardy, owners of Safer Way Natural Foods, and Craig Weller and Mark Skiles, owners of Clarksville Natural Grocery. The original Whole Foods Market opened in 1980 with a staff of only 19 people
Ok, so they recently opened this GIANT Whole Foods market at 6th and Lamar in downtown Austin, TX. For the first few months that the place was open, I didn't even go in. It was crazy crowded. That's not the reason though, I'm not claustrophobic to crowds unless it's a crowd of giraffes or other things taller than 6'5". But, about a month ago I decided to go in one morning and see what the store was about. I hadn't really been told much or hadn't even overheard much about what was inside except for the people talking about how huge it was.
I walk in through the produce section which in simplest terms of square footage is probably as large as some grocery stores that I've been in before. It doesn't stop there, there's loads of fresh seafood, meats, pastries, breads and so far I haven't thought of a single thing that they don't sell. Well, trying to decide what to eat when you go to McDonald's is easy, in about 15 seconds you can go through the menu... Single Cheeseburger, Double Cheeseburger, Triple Cheeseburger, Chicken Sandwich, Salad, Fries... done! Not quite so easy here. See, inside the store there are 5 areas where chefs will cook your food to order, while you watch, while sitting comfortably in a semi-circle.
So what does all this mean? Well, for about $6-$12 you can walk in to this grocery store, be surrounded by great smells, pick out a meal from a huge assortment, watch it be cooked before your eyes or choose from something already cooked like one of the 3 buffet bars, get a LARGE bottle of water for $.49 and sit outside in the great Austin weather eating your meal next to a small man-made creek complete with changing color neon lights :) Don't bother picking up any food you drop because the birds that hang out there have claimed it before it even hit the ground.

Weekend

So, I found out that my Aunt and Uncle are driving up to Austin for a small part of the weekend to pic up a new dog and the person they're getting it from happens to live just a few miles from my house. So, I guess I'm having guests for tonight.
Saturday morning it will be off to the Big "D" and I don't mean Divorce. Kathleen and I are gonna drive up to Dallas to hang out with Randy and Barbara. We should make it up to Dallas around 1pm or so but not sure what all we are doing. As long as I get to eat at Hola, I'll be all good. We'll be back in Austin sometime on Sunday.
Doesn't look like I'll get any golf in this weekend but I do have an invitation to go play at Oak Hills in San Antonio sometime next week. I played yesterday out at Lion's Muni in Austin but after 3 holes with 4 shanks and losing to 3 kids who were all less than 15 years old, I was thankful for the lightning strikes that forced us off the course.
TGIF

Golfing

So, I've owned golf clubs for nearly 18 years now and I've yet to make an EAGLE! I went out to San Antonio tonight and played 14 holes before dark, I had 2 eagle putts on the Par 5s which yielded tap-in birdies. Hopefully, I'll get lucky on one of these 20' putts and have one fall in for the glorious 2 under! After that, it's on to my quest for an ACE.

Performance Upgrade to my ECU

So raise your hand if you know what your vehicle ECU is! hmmm, I don't see many hands.
Well, I decided to send my ECU for my CLK off to Speed Tuning USA for a rather inexpensive performance upgrade. It's a quick turn around job where you overnight them a part, they program it and send it back and you have it the following day. Well, this is what I did, and on the day I got the part back I drive back up to Austin from work, in a friends car, plug in the 5 wire harnesses that go to the ECU and attempt to turn the key. THEN... Nothing :( it won't start and I"m supposed to be driving home to Louisiana in like 5 minutes. Arrrrggghhhh
So, I packed my clothes in my friends car and left my Benz in the driveway. I took the ECU home with me and mailed it off via UPS on Saturday. I'm waiting for the part to get back to me either today or tomorrow since the guy send it via USPS and I just hope my car starts. It could expensive if not... tow truck, mercedes dealer... yada yada yada
Keep your fingers crossed.