1 Year

I’ve just completed 1 full year with having only 1 parent. I always got along in different ways with each of them. You know when you call home and mom answers the phone so you talk to her a while and tell her the stories you’d tell your mom. Then she passes the phone to dad and you talk about dad things like golf, weather and food. I miss having those conversations. They were never really deep but they were important. It was how I stayed connected. Of course I visited a few times during the year but it was the phone calls that were the most frequent interaction.

I haven’t been playing much golf lately but when I do, I think about making that call and recapping the round. Maybe I had chipped in for birdie or maybe I just played horribly. Either way, it was how we related to each other.

The word CANCER comes up every day. Either you see it on TV via the pink soled shows of an NFL player or you hear it out loud from nearby conversations. Cancer wasn’t new to my family but I was too young to remember how awful it was when it took my grandfather.

My mother has been incredibly strong in the year after losing her husband. It’s quite impressive actually. She has always been the strong rock of our family and that includes her brothers and sisters and in-laws. We talk a lot on the phone now. It had been a gradual increase in phone calls starting back about 5 years ago. I look forward to her next visit to Austin and to having her cook some meals around the holidays.

If you’ve lost a loved one to cancer or similar disease, I hope that you’ve found a balance between sadness and peace.

Botanical Garden

My Canon 7D arrived earlier this week and today I got my first chance to check it out. I had my 100mm f/2.8 macro lens and headed over to the Zilker Botanical Garden.

There were quite a few people walking around with everything from pro Canon and Nikon gear to the $150 ultra-slim portables that you throw in your pocket. We also a nervous bride who was trying to find some shade while not letting her husband to be see her in the dress.

There was an orchid show going on inside and a lot of blooming flowers in the garden, all of which made my eyes itch and my nose run.

Here are a couple of the shots that I liked. I haven’t had any time to edit, so be gentle in the comments :)

Timothy James Boyd (1948-2009)

Tim Boyd was born on September 22nd, 1948 and before the age of 23 he married my mom, Beth. 5 years later, I was born and my brother Brad followed 5 1/2 years after that.

 

With just a high school education and a year in a local vocational college, Dad only had 2 jobs after the age of 18. He spent 18 years working for the City of Opelousas Power Plant followed by 22 years as proprietor of B&T Kwik Shop in Nuba, LA.

In July of this year, mom and dad came to visit me in Austin. I was planning on putting my house on the market and they were gonna help me clean it up some. Dad spent 2 days with a pressure washer and a blower cleaning the entire outside of my house and clearing out my gutters. When he started a job he finished it and when he was done all he wanted was some cold beer and good dinner. I took them to a Brazilian steak house and they both enjoyed it.

Dad came to Austin about once a year for the nearly 10 years that I’ve lived there. Mom and dad even made a surprise visit for my 32nd birthday party and when I walked into the waiting area at Chuy’s they were both already there.

I wasn’t really aware of how bad my dad’s health was declining. Mom told me that his back was hurting him and he had lost some weight. My uncle Willy called me on Tuesday the 13th to tell me that I really should come home to see dad. I drove home on Thursday and I think the following image of my dad will be the one I remember forever. Dad was lying in his bed on his back. As I walked into the room he lifted his right forearm while keeping his elbow on the bed and pumped his fist in a motion similar to arm wrestling. His arms and legs were very skinny and the 30 lbs of weight that he had shed during the previous 2 months left him looking very aged.

On Friday morning, we got up and took dad to the hospital for some blood work and to do a bronchoscopy. Having to roll your 61 year old father in a wheelchair because he’s too weak to walk just 10 weeks after he seemed so strong and healthy was a heart breaking task. I’ve never liked hospitals and as positive and hopeful as I wanted to be, I knew there was a chance that he wouldn’t be coming back out of those doors alive.

There was one problem after another, either his platelets were too low or his heart rate was too high, so it would be 4 more days before they would even be able to do the bronchoscopy. On Saturday, dad was still very alert and they had started an IV to give him some fluids and nutrition. At times he would say a few loony things but he was on several heavy pain meds. I talked to him and tried to make him comfortable. He was worried about his store and kept asking questions about invoices and deposits. I told him that mom and Uncle Mike had it all taken care of and that he should rest. I held his hand and rubbed his head and tried to be strong.

I went back to Austin on Sunday with plans to return later in the week. When I got back on Friday morning, I spent a lot of time with dad at the hospital. His condition had worsened and he was almost too weak to make any sounds. I could understand some words but mostly I tried to do the talking. Dad was having trouble breathing and had been in and out of the ICU. On Saturday, they had to put a mask on his face to help his oxygen levels and he kept trying to take it off. A few hours later, they changed out oxygen masks and dad was still having trouble breathing. He didn’t want the mask on his face and I held his hand so he wouldn’t take the mask off and I told him that he had to have it on because it was helping him.

They again changed masks and this time to one that sealed around the edge of his face and really was pushing a lot of oxygen into his lungs. They took him back into ICU and were trying to get him to a point where they could begin the chemotherapy. Because of the limited visiting hours in ICU it wasn’t until 10am on Sunday that I got to see him again. I stayed with him until 1pm when they began the chemotherapy. They let my mom sit with him in the ICU. I had lunch with my uncles, aunts and cousins and then packed my car and headed back to Austin.

I got home at 10pm on Sunday night and was hoping to hear good news in the morning that the treatment had helped and that dad was showing some signs of improvement. Instead, the news was bad and I quickly packed my car with new clothes and headed back to Opelousas. I arrived just after 4pm at Opelousas General Hospital and with my mother standing between my brother and myself at his bedside we watched him die. The ventilator continued to fill his lungs with air and you could see his chest rise and fall but he was dead. The man that loved my mother, who taught me how to throw a baseball and taught me how to safely handle a firearm was gone.

These last 2 weeks have gone by so quickly and have left me with a heavy heart and watery eyes. I hated to see my dad in such a terrible state of health. He was a good man to so many people and he lived a happy and simple life. He loved me and my brother and I loved him for exactly the person he was, an honest, hard working, unselfish father.

  I hope my nearly 3 yr old niece will remember her Pa Boyd. She was his only grandchild and it was so amazing to see my dad spend time with her. He would play puzzles and games and read books with her and whatever she wanted she got.

I hope my mother finds peace in the absence of her husband. They shared over 38 years of marriage and have always provided for me and my brother with everything they had.

 

Dad, I love you and I’m forever grateful for everything you did for me. Rest in peace.

Ticket Stubs

I’ve had this box in my closet for years now. It started out as a big empty box and as of now it’s a big full box. You’ll find Christmas Cards from my mom, an old LSU Tiger stuffed animal, notes from girls back in high school and ticket stubs.

One of the things I like about blogging is it helps me to remember things I’ve done or places I’ve been or people I’ve seen. So I decided to create a Flickr photo set for all of my old ticket stubs. I’ve uploaded all of the ones that I’ve pulled out of the box so far and have even included my most recent one. Snow Patrol played at Stubb’s BBQ tonight and my friend Rachel had an extra ticket. I’ve never listened to any of their music but I did like the show and plan on putting a few of their songs on my iPod.

Here’s a link to my Flickr set. It starts out with an LSU vs. Tulane ticket from 1938. Obviously, I wasn’t at that game but it was found in a box that my grandfather had.

Enjoy,
Logan

I Remember My First Time…

I remember my first time in the new Dallas Cowboys stadium for 2 reasons. The first reason being that I was there less than 24 hours ago and the second and bigger reason being the 180 foot wide screen that sits above the field.

I drove up to Dallas early on Saturday morning to watch LSU beat Georgia in a last minute comeback.

Texas A&M was playing Arkansas in the Southwest Classic in what would turn out to be a blowout by Arkansas after A&M fell apart after the first 26 minutes of clock time.

As you can see from my iPhone snapshot here the video screen is very impressive. Even though I had heard and read lots about the size of this screen, it still very much shocked me with it’s size.

We had tickets in the club level 200 seats right at the goal line. When the ball was on our side of the field I found myself watching the field but as soon as the ball was beyond the 50 yard line and often beyond the near side 30 yard line, I found myself watching only the big screen.

The screen is great for replays and for seeing each down a little bit better if your seats are in the nose bleed. Stretching between the 20 yard lines, the screen measures 180 feet wide. Sitting at home and watching my 55” (diagonal measurement) flat screen HDTV, I feel like I now need an upgrade!

Summer’s Gone

Summer 2009 has come and gone and it was definitely in my top 5. I enjoyed so many days on the lake and nights in downtown Austin.

  

Austin is starting to make up for all of the rain that didn’t fall over the past few months. As central Texas starts to get colder and wetter, I’m starting to think of the places I’d like to go. I did get to travel to Miami and spend some time in the sands of South Beach. It was also the first year that I made 2 ski trips, getting to ski on the slopes in Lake Tahoe as well as Winter Park, Colorado.

  

I’d like to take some quick weekend trips and I’m planning on going to New York, Chicago and Baton Rouge in the next couple of months.

I don’t get to see my friends as much as I used to, so I decided to come up to Dallas today. With Randy and Barbara’s twins (Cecilia and Alex) being almost 6 weeks old, I figured it was time to come visit. I’d like to get out to North Carolina and visit Micah and maybe even get out to Germany to see Travis too. It all depends on work and money at this point but things seem to be going well. So let it rain and let the cold fronts move through. I’ve enjoyed the past few months so much and I’m looking forward to hitting the mountains for a couple of ski trips this year, just as soon as I find the right ski boots!

Turning 33.3333 years old!

On September 18th, 2009, I was 1/3 of a century old. I decided to make a t-shirt, invite a bunch of friends to go out downtown and make the most of this faux birthday celebration.

Thanks to everyone who came out to have fun. Here a few of the pics.

Logan is Cameron, Cameron is Logan

 
Alan Ruck...

Alan is the guy who played Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off

People fairly often point out that they think I look a lot like Cameron.

 

Nike+ Human Race, Austin, TX 8.31.2008

	Lance Armstrong at the start of the Nike+ Human Race 10K
Lance Armstrong cooling off as he runs past the Bob Bullock Museum	Sea of red shirts running through a cooling station on Congress Ave
Matthew McConaughey after the finish of the Nike+ Human Race 10K	Ben Harper playing after the race

Do I Look Like This Guy?

They say things always come in 3s but yesterday I had something happen twice. Maybe today it will happen again and round out my theory.

The first incident happened when my friend Randy relayed some information to me from his mom. She's been watching the Olympics like Billions of others have and apparently thinks that I look like Michael Phelps.

Now I'm a pretty good swimmer, heck I was even a lifeguard for 3 summers, but I have no gold medals to date for that.

A few hours later, while out at a customer site, a guy named Alan says, "you know who you look like? Michael Phelps" to which i proclaim, "that's the 2nd time today someone has said that"

For the past many years I typically get told that I look like Alan Ruck, the actor who played Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off but this Phelps thing is new to me. Personally I think he has huge ears and a slight speech impediment but I'm guessing most girls would overlook that at a chance to hold his 10+ Gold Medals!

I did my best to imitate him below, tell me what you think... Long lost brothers or just bizarre random coincidental thoughts.

 

Ils Sont Partis!

I spent Saturday out in Manor at the Austin Polo Club. It was an awesome day with weather topping out around 80 degrees and a cool breeze blowing through the polo field. Although the Austin Polo Club team didn't win, it was a good match. The field has been newly renovated and has 12" boards lining both sides. The only other match that I've seen didn't have the high boards so the ball goes out of bounds a lot. This field allows a team to advance the ball down the sideline. With a final score of 7-2 the match ended after 4 chuckers.

The grounds were set up with a large tent and seating for about 50. There was a bar and a buffet line serving chicken and brisket. Under the tent they had two 50" flat panel TVs. After the match we sat around and waited for post time for the Kentucky Derby. I chose Eight Belles as my horse and she ran a great race with a strong finish but not strong enough to catch Big Brown.

End of an Era

On January 11th, 2008 I lost my job... I had been at Rush Enteprises for nearly 7 years and now it was time to go do something different.

The following day I hopped on a plane to Guadalajara, MX with a 1-way ticket and decided to go see some places that I had never seen. I stayed 2 days in Guadalajara at the Intercontinental Presidente as I planned out the next few days of my journey. I decided to rent a car and drive to Puerto Vallarta on the pacific coast. On a Monday morning, I set out for Puerto Vallarta and with one small detour to the Jose Cuervo plant in the town of Tequila, I made it to Pto Vallarta in 5 hours.

I found a room at the Sheraton Buganvillias on the south end of Pto Vallarta on Priceline and booked it for 2 nights. The hotel was great and the room was nice. I slept with the windows open listening to the sounds of the waves and enjoying the ocean breezes. On my 3rd day when I was due to check out, I decided to stay a little longer so I booked another 3 nights. I wasn't ready to leave.

During the day I would hang out at the pool, playing pool volleyball everyday at 1pm. There was a family there from Salta, Argentina and the father and son took the game really seriously. The dad didn't speak english so we kept score in spanish. Each morning I would wake up to a combination of water aerobics and spanish lessons. I could hear "Manos Arriba, Manos Abajo" (Hands Up, Hands Down), "Pierna Derecha Arriba, Abajo" (Right Leg Up, Down) being shouted by the activities coordinator. It was one of the more interesting alarm clocks that's woke me up.

They had a ping-pong tournament one morning and I came in 2nd. I hadn't played the game hardly ever but for some reason I was killing the ball. Only 1 guy stood in my way to winning the free drink but my backhand and the wind persisted in letting me hit the ball onto the table. The guy that beat me and his brother were from San Diego. I ended up hanging out with them for a few nights.

We'd start out at a place called Cheeky Monkey where Beer and Margaritas were $1 until 10pm. The margaritas were AWFUL but for $5 they got the job done. After that, we'd bounce around to the handful of clubs that line the "Malecon" (Boardwalk). It was a pretty quiet time of the year for tourists so not a whole lot of people were out. We met some locals one night who invited us back to a house party but our better judgement convinced us it probably was best not to go wandering too far from the main drag.

I met a lot of Canadians in Pto Vallarta. Playing volleyball one day in a 6 on 6 game i think all but 3 of us were Canadian. I guess when it's -40 degrees at your house, Mexico looks like a pretty great place to be.

Being that this is mainly a tourist destination, the food was pretty cheap. I had dinner one night at a nice Italian place, La Dulce Vida, for about $15 and my favorite of all was Los Tacos for the Tacos al Pastor at 8 Pesos each (around $.72).

After my 5th day in Pto Vallarta it was time to move on. I enjoyed being on the coast and listening to the ocean at night so I decided to head south instead of back inland. I was originally gonna travel to San Miguel de Allende but decided a 700km drive to Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa would be a better place to land.

I set out on a Saturday morning around 10am and thinking the drive would take me 7 hours at most, I would certainly get there before the sun went down. Well, I had no idea how the drive would go. The mountains alone held my average speed to under 25mph for almost 2 hours. Countless tiny towns with the biggest speed bumps ever and hundreds of small bridges and curvy roads stretched out my venture to right at 10 hours. Twice along the way, as I was going through a small town, some young girls would stretch out a string with a small rag tied to it so that I would stop. Then they'd approach the car and ask for some money. I gladly handed over a few pesos, the string was lowered and I was allowed to proceed. It was 8pm when I pulled into the front of the Las Brisas resort in Ixtapa.

Las Brisas was a beautiful resort. The room was perfect and the hammock on the balcony overlooked a nice crescent shaped private beach area. The first night in Ixtapa, I went down to Carlos and Charlie's and ran into a huge group of vacationers who were there for an annual volleyball trip. I befriended several of the people on the trip who were all confused why there would be a 6'5" guy in Ixtapa who was NOT on their trip. For the 4 days that I stayed there I had to continually tell people that I was NOT a part of their group. By the 3rd day, people would say... oh you're Logan... I've heard about you, aren't you the guy that lost your job and now you're travelling the world! I must admit, it was weird to be famous amongst a random group of americans while in Mexico.

Jamaica

Sunday morning I had brunch with Rafi at a sidewalk cafe near his house. I ordered the buttermilk pancakes with bananas and strawberries but actually got the lemon ricotta pancakes which were very good. We had a big meal planned for that evening so brunch was perfect to hold me over til then.
Every now and then you see someone who's eyes are so beautiful that you can't look away. Well, a young girl and her mom (I'm guessing) sat next to us out on the sidewalk. The daughter had some similarities to Keri Russel with these light blue eyes that were perfectly arranged between her nose and forehead. She ordered a mimosa so she must've been at least 21 which made Rafi and I feel a little better that we weren't checking out a teenager :)
My head was hurting from Saturday night so we went back to Rafi's and relaxed. I watched a few recorded episodes of House. It's a show about a doctor with the last name of House who goes about treating his patients a little bit different but with good results. Around 5 o'clock we headed out down to Brooklyn for our 6:45 reservation at Peter Luger's Steak House. We showed up about 30 minutes early after changing subway trains 3 times. Going North or South through Manhattan on the subway is quite easy but once you have to get across town or over to the lower east side it actually takes quite a bit of time. I guess you can't really complain though, at $2 per trip no matter how many trains you take it's a lot cheaper than a cab.
We walked up to the host to let them know we were there and a bit early. They couldn't find Rafi's name anywhere on the list. I actually think the guy didn't believe us and tried to tell us that there was no way Rafi had made a reservation within 2 weeks for 6:45pm cause that slot fills up 1.5 to 2 months ahead. Rafi let me listen to the voicemail from Peter Luger's confirming our reservation and spelling out the date and time. Anyways, we got seated within about 20 minutes! We had a porterhouse for 2. It was a little more rare than medium rare but it was still good. The giant shrimp cocktail appetizer was very good as well.
After dinner, we went back to Rafi's apartment to try to find a comedy show to go to but they were all sold out. We ended up a bar called Prohibition on Columbus. They had a good band there playing covers of artists like John Denver, James Taylor, Bob Dylan, etc. Our waitress was from Sweden and had lived in New York about 7 years. For a Sunday night it was pretty dead so we had fun cutting up with Julia. We tried to drink enough so that our tip woudl help cover the $150 dress she bought that day.
Monday morning we had brunch at the Popover Cafe near Rafi's. Ham and cheese omelette for me and Rafi tried soem crazy Crab, mushroom, special... it didn't look good!
We went down to the giant Macy's to check it out. The place has 10 floors and takes up the entire block. I'd hate to pay the rent there. I towed my luggage down to Penn Station and saw that the next train that I needed was leaving in < 2 min so I ran down some steps and hopped aboard. I had a round trip ticket already in my wallet from the train ride in. My goal was to get back to ISLIP airport for my 4pm flight and it was now 12:31pm.
After stopping at every stop between Penn Station and the end of the line at Babylon, I got off the train. I had ridden 70 minutes in a car with no A/C and was sweating a bit. After getting off the train I realized that I had left my ticket on my seat so I had to go in and buy another 1way ticket to ISLIP. $2.25 later, I was good to go. Next train to ISLIP leaves at 2:26 and it was about 1:45. Hanging out on a train platform in the middle of no where with a bunch of people you don't know isn't all that cool but there I was. They had 3 platforms to choose from and I finally decided at the last minute to get on the train at platform 2 being that it departed at 2:26 and someone confirmed that it went to ISLIP. 5 stops later, I get off the train at ISLIP, the train pulls away and I look around and think... Ummm, where's the airport?
I stop a man who was also on the train to ask him for directions and help and he suggested that I call a cab. Well, without a cab phone number that wasn't going to be easy. A jamaican woman who overheard my conversation offered to help and said she would drive me to the airport. HOW NICE! She was a very nice, religious woman named Olive. We listened to praise music on the 20 min drive out to the airport and she told me all the good places to visit in Jamaica. In my limited knowledge I didn't realize that the town of ISLIP is different than the ISLIP airport and the two aren't even in the same place! It was now 3:25pm as we pulled up to the airport terminals. She told me that earlier that morning she had prayed to God so that he would let her help someone today and that I was that person. It was nice to meet a stranger who was willing to give her time to assist in my despair. I handed her a couple of $20s for the trip and she said she would give them to her church. Thank you Olive!
Boarding pass in hand, I now stood by my gate. The plane was delayed about 25 minutes so I wasn't really late after all. 1 stop in Baltimore and then a 3 hr flight back to Austin. My friend Miranda met me in Austin and drove me home.
7 days out of the office, 6 days in New York and some rainy fireworks over Town Lake. My 4th of July was quite fun and I definitely look forward to getting back to New York.

The Bodies

Friday morning I woke up with plans to see a few things. After turning on my computer to check email, work email, and get an idea of what subways to take to which stops I was out the door. The only thing that screwed me up is that my laptop's time clock is 1 hour behind so when I thought I was leaving the apartment at 9:04 it was really 10:04 and about half a block down the road I realized that this meant I wouldn't be making the 10am boat tour. There was another at noon so I settled on that one and figured I would go to the Empire State Building first.
I made my way downtown, stopped and had an omelette breakfast at some strange deli as well as one of these Black and White Cake cookies that I see everywhere. They're tasty! I found the empire state building by using my handy little NYC folding map but the line was HUGE and the wait was over an 1 hour. I decided instead to go down to pier 78 to catch my New York City Harbor Tour. $22 for a 90 min boat ride in the harbor with a guide and plenty of photo opportunities. Our guide was an older man in his 60s who had a few jokes that had been tried out on many boat patrons before me. The facts he offered as we scooted down the river were interesting though. I saw the empty air filled gaps where the twin WTC towers once stood, I saw pier 59 which is not much of a pier at all but it's significance being that it stood there waiting for the Titanic which of course never made it across the Atlantic.
We crossed under the Brooklyn Bridge, with the financial district on our port side and Queens on our Starboard we went a bit up the river crossing under the Manhattan Bridge and the Williamsburg Bridge. There were interesting views down the valleys which are lined with the tall buildings of downtown Manhattan. Through one of the valleys you could see all the way to New Jersey.
After the boat ride I decided to walk up the pedestrian path on the Brooklyn Bridge and look around. There were a lot of people walking, jogging and riding bikes up and down. I walked about 1/3 of the way across which was enough to get to one of the two arched pillars of the bridge. While up there I got a couple to take a picture of me with the financial district in the background. Talking to them a bit I found out they were Miss St fans from Starkville. I hung out with them for a bit and we went over to the Rockefeller Center to go to the Top of the Rock. There was not wait to get to the look out platforms on the roof and although not as high as the Empire State Building the view is very similar. You get a great feel for how large Central Park is in comparison to the city surrounding it.
I took the elevator back down to the ground level and said good-bye to my Mississippi friends. I headed a few blocks over to O'Casey's to meet up with Rafi and his work friends. We had drinks there before heading back up to Rafi's and changing and then back downtown. Of course it rained on us as we made it to the subway. We tried to get in to some club but it was sketchy so we changed plans. I found a good pizza spot on the way home and then a cab and the night was done.
Saturday morning we headed down to South Street Seaport to see The Bodies Exhibit. We had lunch at Katz's Deli along the way. I had a huge pastrami sandwich which was great. The have a sign hanging in the place that denotes the table where the famous faked orgasm scene from When Harry Met Sally took place. After lunch we walked down to the seaport. We met up with Ally and entered the exhibit.
The Bodies was an amazing exhibit of The Body! All of the bodies were of chinese men or women and were dissected in a lot of different ways. They had bodies that showed the skeletal muscle systems and how they attach to our skeletons. There were bodies that had been sliced perfectly in half leaving either a left and right side or a front and back side. Some bodies had been sliced into 3, 4 or more equal parts showing cross sections of our organs and bones. The coolest part of the exhibit that I thought was definitely the section on our circulatory system. They had a process by which they replaced the blood in the veins with a red liquid that hardens. Then using chemicals they were able to remove all other parts of the body leaving a life size web of veins! They had several pieces that were localized such as the hand or the heart or the lungs but the coolest of all was the one that was completely intact. I thought that I would be grossed out by some of the stuff we say but it was done in a very scientific way. If you have a chance to see The Bodies, I highly recommend it!
Saturday night I went down to the Village to meet up with An. We had a few drinks on the rooftop of Samba Sushi and then met up with some more friends around the corner at a small bar with live music. Kind of a cheesey cover band but they had a good sound and added a little touch of their own to the songs. We had fun there, danced a little and then headed home.
Brunch in the morning and a big steak for dinner tomorrow!

The Big Apple

My first 24 hours in New York... This is a big place, I mean in most downtowns you have a handful of buildings taller than 20 stories but here you can walk for 50 blocks and every single block has enormous skyscrapers.

We had dinner at a cozy little Italian place on Wednesday night near Rafi's apartment. He actually has a pretty nice place on the Upper West Side. I was expecting smaller, it's not HUGE but it's comfy. After dinner we had drinks at a bar across the street and an old high school friend from Louisiana School showed up to say hi. Linda Okereke, who was moving to Cleveland today, came across town to have a beer with Rafi and I. I hadn't seen Linda in probably 11 years since her graduation in 1995. We hung out for a few hours and then we were off.
I slept in a bit this morning and finally made it outside by 10am. I took a stroll through Central Park, the place is completely different than I thought it would be. You could get lost on the walking trails through there. They had a few playgrounds filled with kids and moms and on trail the entire side was lined with people reading or napping on blankets as if they were waiting for tickets to go on sale to a rock concert.

I had lunch with Rafi in Bryant Park. Snapple was doing a promotion on their light teas so they had 3 hot air balloons. They were more like round spheres of light gas with a harness and two guys on the ground holding ropes. People would strap in and be lifted to what seemed to be about 50 or 60 feet up. After my sandwich I tried to get in line to take a turn on the balloons but they were closed. Rafi went back to work and I walked around a bit more. I made my way back up to his apartment and crashed on the couch.

I got dressed to head out to the theatre. It was drizzling a bit when I got outside and i walked about 3 blocks to the subway. 4 stops towards downtown and I came back above ground at 50th and Broadway. By now it was storming! The homeless guy selling newspapers automatically turned into a homeless guy selling umbrellas! I waited for about 10 minutes as it stormed. People's umbrellas were being blown inside out by the swirling winds and everyone was getting soaked. I was wishing I hadn't worn my nice leather shoes but I wasn't gonna go back and change. The rain finally slowed and I went up to the street level and crossed to get to Ellen's Stardust Cafe. A touristy place where the waiters/waitresses sing show tunes. The food was fine and we made it over to the John Golden Theatre at West 45th to see Avenue Q.

The show was hilarious! The main members of the cast each played 2 different puppets. It's about finding your purpose in life and when you finally do how happy that makes you. Of course there was a puppet sex scene as well. The soundtrack was really funny including songs like "It Sucks To Be Me" where a Gary Coleman look a like who plays Gary Coleman makes fun of his life for having peaked before 15. A short subway trip home and I'm off to bed to get rested for tomorrow. I'm gonna try to go see a few things around town like Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty, Museum of Modern Art, etc.

Good Night!

California sans humidity

I found my way out of LAX and onto the 405 South. I was headed towards Long Beach and down to Ocean Blvd to the Hilton there. The hotel was really nice and had a massive lobby area. If you like sitting on stylish furniture in rooms with 30 foot ceilings then you would've liked this place. I had a room on the top floor, #15 with a good view, although this area is mostly industrial with lots of cranes and shipping containers.By the time I got ready for dinner all the restaurants were closing and it was only 9:30. I found a Sports Bar and Grill and had some Mac 'n' Chicken, it was OK.Sunday morning I woke up at 7:30 CST which was 5:30am in my room and couldn't get back to bed. I watched some TV and killed time until 11 and headed out for lunch and the beach. When I walked out to the valet stand there was a rolling luggage bag on the ground alone. I handed my ticket to the valet and he retrieved my car. I placed the bags I needed in the car and some towels and such in the trunk. After lunch, I got down to the beach and opened the trunk. I noticed a strange bag in there but for some reason it wasn't strange enough for me to investigate. I grabbed the towels and went to get me a strip of beach going. (Travis, that's for you!) The sunshine on the west coast in southern California is warm but it is countered by the wind which averages out the temp to about 75 degrees. It's fantastic weather until about 6pm when the sun gets lower in the sky and the temp drops into the 60s. About an hour of being lazy on Long Beach and I was ready for a change. I drove up the 405 towards L.A. and then headed down to Redondo Beach. Walking along the boardwalk, I found enough ice cream stands to satisfy a thousand kindergarten classes and for some reason people here really like chocolate covered frozen bananas! Picture this, you're standing in an open area surrounded by people you don't know and 1 out of 10 are eating a chocolate covered frozen banana. For me, California is the only place I've witnessed this.

Back to the part about the strange luggage. I finally get back to the hotel around 6pm and as soon as I walk in the room the phone is ringing. No one knows which hotel I'm staying at so I can't imagine who is calling me. I answer and its the front desk. They ask if I noticed a strange bag that may have been placed in my trunk. I laughed and said yes and told them that I had just given the car to the valet and they could retrieve the bag. Poor guy, I had his laptop and briefcase for over 6 hours. I'm sure he wasn't happy with the valet dude!

Monday morning I was up and off to Pico Rivera, a town just east of L.A. where one of our Peterbilt dealerships is located. I got there about 8:30 and found the crew of guys who were out replacing PCs. I met the GM for that store as well as the Regional GM and spent some time with them to make sure any issues that may currently have were being handled. I was able to round up a golf game and later that afternoon we headed back down to Long Beach to play at a nice city course there. At $25, it was quite a bargain, the carpet like greens were so plush, something I'm not used to in the blazing heat of Texas. I placed my clubs on the cart next to Pete Davis' and ironically my LSU Tiger head cover sat starting at his stuff USC Trojan head cover. We didn't talk about the season at all nor did we fight over who REALLY won that year. I drove the ball extremely well, finding the middle of the fairway on about 9 of the 14 driving holes. Putting was a different story as the soft greens were hard to read and hard to adjust to. I missed more 3 footers than I normally do but I walked away with an 85.

Tuesday morning I was off to LAX by 7:30 for a 9:25 flight. I filled up the tank of the rental car with $3.19 87 octane regular unleaded. Since I had changed my flight to return to San Antonio instead of Austin I wasn't able to Check In online and therefore ended up with a C boarding pass. (Southwest uses A, B and C groups for boarding, A is good, B is ok, C sucks!) I ended up sitting next to a mother and daughter who were both of reasonably small size so I was able to use my own armrests and not feel crowded. I'll land around 2pm in San Antonio and head into the office for a short afternoon of work. Back to the real world in the morning. It was a fun, golf-filled vacation. I made some new friends, have a standing invite to a USC game and got to play golf in California.
I'm off to NYC in 15 days.

36 Holes

As a young teenager, I would often play 36 holes of golf in a day and they would be separated by a cheeseburger served to me by Simon. Those days were half my lifetime ago, the course was Indian Hills CC in Opelousas, LA and Simon was our favorite bartender.

This day of 36 holes was different, we tee'd off on the first 18 at the Milwaukee Country Club at 8am sharp, after a good breakfast. I had blueberry pancakes, a favorite of mine, along with some toast (pre-trimmed edges!) and jelly. The course was tough but fun, the place is barely played as the 225 members are only allowed 9 guests a year and it's located in a state that only has 5.5 months of golfing weather. The greens had almost no ball marks and the visible ones had been repaired and rolled as flat as any part of the green. The fairway lies were like carpet in your hallway, flat, not fluffy, but comfortable and springy to walk on. I shot 44 on the front with 8 fives and 1 four. At the turn i grabbed a water and a couple of Ritz crackers with fresh peanut butter to spread between them. Much better than those prewrapped peanut butter cracker packs. I was still playing with the same ball when I tee'd off on the 10th. I try not to think about that much b/c it's a sure way to SHANK the next shot into the drink and then be digging in your bag for another Titleist. Another 9 holes of fast paced golf filled with some great views and we were done. 42 more strokes for me on the back to round out at 86. I had to par the 18th to finish with 85 but a duffed SW shot after a great drive kept me out of the money. We packed up our bags and were off in the limo to the Milwaukee airport. There we would grab a rental, say bye to Bill Hooper from Qwest and Scott and I were off to our next tee time.

We pulled up to Thunderhawk Golf Course in Beach Park, Il and were greeted by Scott's cousin Craig and his wife Cathy. Both are very good golfers. It was about 2:15 in the afternoon and we were up on the 1st tee about to start our 2nd round of the day. I hit the fairway on the first hole with a 270yd drive and I was feeling tired but good. At the turn I was sitting at 39, I'm usually in the low to mid 40's on each side so a 39 was good for me. The course wasn't easy but I just kept the ball in play and made a few putts. Still playing with the same ball from the morning that had encountered NO hazards and hence NO penalty strokes in the last 27 holes. I was thinking now about the possibility of shooting a sub 80 round. The temperature was dropping and was in the mid 50s with wind gusts approaching 20mph. Club selection was difficult, especially on the Par 3s. 1 double bogey on the back and I ended up with a 41 to shoot an 80. I missed my 70s round but was very happy with my score. 36 holes with no penalty strokes and no lost balls isn't something I do often. The highlight of the round for me was when I holed out with my lob wedge from about 25 yards. It was the first time I had ever done that on a fly. The ball came off my face with good loft and landed perfectly into the hole. It never even touched the edge of the cup as it banged into the flagstick and dropped to the bottom. Unfortunately it was to save Par as I had to punch out of the sand on the previous shot.

Craig and Cathy joined Scott and I at Outback steakhouse just up the road from the course for dinner. I had the chicken and shrimp fettuccine which was very good, I was also quite hungry so my stomach isn't as picky then.

After dinner we drove down to the O'Hare airport area and found our Westin hotel. Nearly 10pm we checked in and found our rooms. the Westin is always nice, i had a huge king bed with about 8 pillows, a shower with DUAL shower heads (soon to be my next purchase) and a comfy chair. I showered and changed and went down to the bar to get a drink. We found a sports bar around the corner but I learned a good lesson. If you want to have fun in Chicago, you gotta be downtown. There was NOTHING going on in the O'Hare area that we could find.

We decided to cancel our Saturday morning golf round due to cold/rainy weather. Good choice since I didn't rise out of bed ‘til almost 9:30. We got up and drove over to Hoffman Estates, Scott's old neighborhood. We drove around a few places, Scott's home that he grew up in, his grade school and high school and had lunch at Barnaby's A Family Inn. Pepperoni and Pineapple pizza for me which went well with my semi-hangover. Feeling all better now, I found my way to Midway Airport and am now waiting for my flight.
More to come from Los Angeles :)

Milwaukee in June

There are times in life when you're surrounded by a handful of good friends and everyone's having a good time and you'll remember the evening for a very long time, and then there are the experiences you have with people you'll probably only meet once. This weekend would be defined by the latter.

I'm sitting in my nice room at the Milwaukee Country Club on a Thursday evening. I had a great dinner of steak, potatoes, and chocolate cake tonight topped off with some Bacardi and coke and a little red wine. I flew up today with my boss, Scott to meet with Barry Allen, an Executive V.P. of Qwest Communications and basically the #2 guy in the company. I can't say that I have dinner often with the millionaire type but Barry was very engaging and a great listener. Qwest currently provides my company Rush Enterprises with a data and voice network that services about 60 locations across 9 states.

After dinner we took a quick walk around the club house and a few of the tee boxes and greens that we'd be playing on in the morning. The course looks tough but it's the kind of layout that looks like it's been manicured with a set of tiny shears. Every tree has a perfect circular edge traced around it as well as every sidewalk. The edges of the fairways have a perfectly even 4 foot wide strip of slightly longer, darker grass before becoming rough. I stood on the 10th tee box and looked down at a dog leg right par 5. I scoped at the sand traps on the left side of the fairway that sat about 275 yards from the white tees. The tips play about 7400 yards so we'll probably play one tee in front of that. We should have caddies in the morning, but the caddies are high school students and this being the last week of school in Wisconsin, we're not sure how many will be available.

After the 18 tomorrow, we're going to pick up a rental car and head towards Chicago. We're gonna play another round in the afternoon and then go at it again on Saturday morning. Then it's off to Los Angeles and finally back to Austin on Tuesday. I hope to keep a lot of mental images from tomorrow in my mind for a long time, but I'll also take some pics just in case I forget.

I-10

After a 3 day weekend in Louisiana for my cousin's wedding and a small family get together, I headed west on I-10 towards Austin. About 40 miles outside of Houston, the traffic on the interstate came to a halt and didn't appear to that it would be clearing quickly. I turned to the navi system to try and find another route. The only way around the mess that I could find was to detour about 17 miles north of I-10 to meet up with US-90 and then head west into the 610 loop in Houston. This detour took about 90 minutes but it did the trick and soon we were back on I-10.
I finally found a radio station with an update to the Houston traffic problem that mentioned a haz-mat spill. Traffic probably backed up for more than 50 miles by the time they started diverting the drivers. I'm just glad we were able to get around it and not have to spend the night in my car on the side of the road.
Further along as we're heading up TX-71 towards Austin and the last 90 miles of the 400 mile journey, we came across another bizarre scene. I was driving in the left of the 2 lanes and about 1/4 mile ahead in the oncoming traffic I saw one car turn into the median and then back onto the road. Another car followed closely behind him. My first reaction was that I was witnessing a police chase but as I scanned the area and didn't see any flashing lights, I ruled that out. As I was passing the scene I was able to see the problem. Lying on it's right side and covering both lanes of traffic and extending onto the shoulders was an 18-wheeler rig and trailer with it's belly exposed to the oncoming cars. The two vehicles I had seen had obviously not been able to stop and were forced to drive into the median to avoid collision. Several cars were already stopped but the incident must have just happened as there were no police or firemen on scene yet and there was no traffic backed up. It was a tanker truck carrying 7000 gallons of gasoline. No one ran into it and there were no big leaks. I'm glad it was on the other side of the road though.
We finally made it down to San Antonio after picking up some clothes at my house. We had to drive through the rain storm that had moved in and this added about 40 minutes to the normal 1:15 drive from my house to Martha's. I was asleep by 2am and at work by 8am ready for a new week.

Digital Photography

Well it was Christmas in February for me as I decided to upgrade my camera equipment. I decided to sell my old Canon EOS 20D camera body and get the new Canon EOS-1D Mark II N. My new Canon arrived on Wednesday and within an hour or so of getting the package at work I received an email from one of the companies that I shoot pics for asking me to cover an event this evening. I spent about 5 hours last night going through all the buttons and menus and making sure I knew my way around the camera so that I didn't show up at the event and not know how to use my camera.

The event was at the home of a lady named Nona Niland who is associated with the People's Community Clinic. Her home was gorgeous with a small pool laid out in the middle of a very large deck that surrounded most of the front of the home. They were holding a thank you event for their donors and I was asked to shoot candids and some posed shots of the guests.

Camera, flash and all worked flawlessly and pictures came out great. I even got to snack on some yummy roast and spinach tucked into a small roll.
When I got home, it was time to open the rest of my photography toys. I also treated myself to a Canon EF 300mm f/2.8 IS USM lens. I rounded out my purchases with a Custom Brackets flash bracket and some other minor accessories. The new camera and lens are gorgeous, I can't wait to get out and snap some pictures.