Rita Final from Spring BranchThe pictures are just back from the PPU. Not many survived the rigors of the gusts generated by the continuous RITA coverage from Houston’s Television stations. I don’t often pine for the olden days but during the time of hurricane Rita’s approach to a Texas landfall I remembered favorably the early days when Houston had 3 TV stations and they were all snowy if you were more than 20 miles from the broadcast tower. In those days we went outside and checked the weather. Most of the stick-built homes in the Houston/Galveston area are constructed to survive hurricane force winds. They would get shingle damage and broken windows but they would stand. The only real and present danger from Rita was the storm surge and rain caused flooding so those people needed to get to higher ground. And as long as they were moving they might as well go inland to escape the wind damage to any shelters. We know that and knew that while the TV folks were spewing death and destruction. Couple their warnings, fear sells, with a couple generations of public school drones with a deadened ability to distinguish fact from perception and the resulting carefully, publicly crafted inability to process information to a meaningful conclusion and you get panic. Blind, irrational panic that refuses to listen to reason or even allow one to think while fleeing. Because of the TV induced panic there have been at least 32 deaths in the area attributed to Rita. Deaths, needless deaths, during the evacuation and after the storm passed inland. I have no injuries or hurts from the storm or else I would engage a lawyer and sue the living hell out of every TV station in town. This picture shows the horrifying damage we received. I suspect roomie will require counseling for a year or so. She was just devastated by the sight of the poor leaves and twigs ripped from their sheltering mother tree by the heartless Rita winds. In fact she was so inconsolable that she had a hard time chewing her salad. She said the lettuce reminded her of the killed Tallow leaves.  I was more bothered by the water in the wheel wells of the cart visible on the right. The amount of water showed we got less that a quarter of inch of rain from Rita. We had to suffer the TV doom-sayers and didn’t even get any rain. Sounds like a slogan for a Tee shirt. The picture below doesn’t show any damage. The lattice had sagged long before Rita from the heat and piss-poor construction. But I am considering, being a dishonest lazy rich American conservative, filing an insurance claim. I mean that screen assembly cost me dozens of man hours to conceptulize, tens of hours to plan and valuable minutes to actually construct. The material costs easily exceeds $20. Factor in pain and suffering and the humiliation of poor workmanship and the total loss is much more than $1000. Seriously, why would an insurance company even think twice before paying that paltry a claim.  This last picture contains graphic images of broken twigs and mangled leaves so if you have a tender heart do not look. This picture shows the worst damage we sustained here in Spring Branch. We were deprived of use of the path from the house to the pool deck for a whole 30 minutes while Rene Sabatorius, world renowned disaster photographer, documented the evidence. He gave me written rights to use this picture in this post so don’t copy it without drinking something and mentally thanking Rene. As soon as he finished I set my crack team of yard boy Enyaw Nostrebor to clear the path. Eventually roomie timidly made her way out to the pool and did a jubilant cannon-ball. Storm over, life rebounds.  The path naturally undulates. I felt the feng shui was better it the stones followed the dragon’s backbone curvature. Plus the swaying during the walk to the pool seems to reduce the sea-sickness caused by the typhoon-like waves near the pools water returns.  Leavenworth Times, The--Leavenworth, KS Teachers are nominees for award By JOHN RICHMEIER, Times Staff Writer
Schukman represented the Leavenworth public-school district in the secondary level in the Kansas Teacher of the Year contest. Patty Nicholson, a fifth-grade teacher at Howard Wilson Elementary, was the Leavenworth representative for the elementary level. The paper also has a poll about Tom DeLay indictment. Those folk in Kansas surely have all the info they need to make that decision. Gaah that is something the Chronicle would do. I am glad to see teachers getting rewarded. Sometimes though those are self nominated rewards. This one does not sound that way. Good job Ms. Schukman! Arizona Business Gazette-- Phoenix, AZ Food City to add a Mexican eatery Store in Chandler testing idea; other locations may follow Jessica Wanke Arizona Business Gazette Sept. 29, 2005 12:00 AM The state's largest chain of supermarkets catering to the Hispanic community is expanding from simply selling south-of-the-border foods into also preparing and serving them. Food City, a chain of 61 supermarkets in Arizona owned by Bashas' Inc., opened its first in-store restaurant this month at its Chandler location, which has had a $2 million remodel. The restaurant, Su Cocina Dos Ranchitos, has late-night dining, a stage for mariachi music and foods from all regions of Mexico. At first blush this sounded like a nutty idea. How many Mexican restaurants does Phoenix have now? Hundreds? Then I realized how fresh the produce would be and eating there would be one sure way to cut down impulsive spending in the store. I wish our Fiesta Grocery Store had a restaurant. Cedar Hill Sentinel-- Cedar Hill, TX This no longer exists as a newspaper. It is now a science fiction site maintained by Lou Antonelli But wow the stories. I included this story in its entirety as published to whet your appetite. I am a SciFi junky. They Call It Time by Lou Antonelli Friday, SEP 30, 2005 "Our laws of physics don't apply there." "Fascinating! It was worth it, then, to send our emanations such a long distance." "Surely, even though it is impossible for us to penetrate the boundary of the white hole. But we can ascertain many of its properties from its effects on adjacent space." "I understand you've learned the laws of the normal physical universe don't apply!" "Indeed. The most common and widespread electromagnetic force causes attraction between components of matter, rather than repulsion. That's why the white hole is so dense. Matter conglomerates into solid structures!" "Can you imagine? Solid, impenetrable objects in constant contact with each other—as opposed to our wide open, expansive and elegant universe! It's quite a concept. Can anything escape such density?" "Actually, information escapes the event horizon of the white hole continually in the form of communications created by the sentient creatures within." "There's intelligent life amidst that crush and clutter!?" "The agglomeration of matter compelled into solid masses by the unique electromagnetic force found in the white hole produces its own peculiar structures and life forms. For example, we have captured and translated communications among the life forms on a planet they call Erth, nearest to our side of this white hole." "Do they have any idea what lies outside the hole?" "Goodness, no, they just suppose it's an absence of their accreted matter. They have no idea how the white hole—they call it a galaxy themselves—presses down on the fabric of space. They assume the unusual strong impulsive electromagnetic force only found in the white holes—they call it gravity—extends beyond the event horizon of the while hole." "Well, truly, how would they know different?" "I'll give credit where it is due, though. They do seem to be aware of how much of the universes' material is unaccounted for in their own scientific calculations." "That is actually is very perceptive. Perhaps one day they will understand the true nature of the universe." "There's always hope, I suppose. They do understand that the salient characteristic of their universe is the luminosity produced by the crushing proximity of all that dense matter. They call it light. Conversely, they are aware enough to understand there is matter they cannot perceive from their universe, so they call it Dark Matter." "Which is 95% of the universe—where we reside! Are they aware there is no gravity and no light—at least, as they would know it—between their white hole mini-universes—their galaxies?" "Yes, but they apparently believe—in that kind of simple self-centeredness so common among primitives—that their white hole universe is the norm, and the area outside is the anomaly." "And not the other way around. Amazing!" "But they are aware their universe has a boundary. And there does seem to be a peculiarity to that boundary, at least internally, that we still don't understand. Since it is a phenomenon of the white hole, we can't study it, and we really don't understand what it is—at least from the information we've retrieved." "That's interesting." "It's a concept we are completely unfamiliar with. They call it time. Apparently it's a peculiarity produced by the distortion created in the fabric of the universe by the density of a white hole. Now please excuse me, I must vibrate to Priest Professor Hawkins and impart some of the information we have been exchanging among ourselves." "That's right, I had forgotten. He had bet you nothing could escape the density of a white hole—and as you have just said, it is possible for information to escape. What was your wager?" "He agreed he would rationalize my carrier wave." "Sounds very enjoyable. I know he'll comply, he's a good sport." "Afterwards, perhaps we can integrate and work on the puzzle of what this time is. Then again, after monitoring the creatures in the white hole, I'm not quite sure they understand it themselves." ~ End ~ Story by Lou Antonelli ©2004, Texas. Originally published by Alienskin magazine, Dec. 2004. Whew! Give me more. This one goes at the top of my favorites as 0000sf.  Click for WEBTV version
 Astros lost to the Cubs last night 2 to 3. This is the last series of the year. We have 3 more games against the Cubs. The Astros had one of their signature games. Good pitching, lousy hitting and just a little shoddy defense. I am almost certain we will make the playoffs.  Hejtmanek Insurance Agency |
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