Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Always Be Fully Prepared To Improvise



Hello all,

Not much going on lately. I haven't flown anywhere in a good while. My airline as a result of the fuel prices has scaled back some flights on certain routes. One casualty was the 10pm red-eye which I used to take to NYC whenever I felt like a day-trip. Also the flights to Santa Barbara were cut back, so a calming day on Goleta Beach is much more difficult these days.

On the plus side, flights to Philadelphia were unaffected, so a day-trip there is now in the works. I can't wait to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, etc. And yes, I also plan on visiting some of the "Rocky" sites like the Museum, and the Italian Market. Another plan is go eat a Philly cheesesteak at "Geno's", then carefully wipe my mouth, walk across the street and eat a Philly cheesesteak at "Pat's." I should probably make my attempt at running up the museum steps before eating two cheesesteaks in succession.

I've been going onto the Wikipedia site lately, for the most part to look up certain of my favorite old-school Dallas Cowboys and see what they are up to these days, if they're dead yet, etc.

One of my favorite old-schooler was and is Walt Garrison. Walt was a real cowboy, a competitor on the rodeo circuit. He was drafted by the Cowboys in the mid-sixties and part of his signing bonus was a new horse-trailer. He played fullback and he was tough and strong. Don Meredith once said the following about Walt: "If it was third down, and you needed four yards, if you'd get the ball to Walt Garrison, he'd get ya five. And if was third down and ya needed 20 yards, if you'd get the ball to Walt Garrison, by God, he'd get you five."

During Hurricane Ike (the approach, the landfall, and the aftermath) Mom and I talked often about our visit to Galveston back in late February. The verdict was, "I guess we picked the right time to go." Watching some of the video of the storm was pretty daunting. While we were there Mom took a picture of me down on the beach. It was strange to realize that had I been in that same spot during Ike's approach, I would've been under about fifteen feet of water. Gaido's, the seafood restaurant we ate at while there, provided catered meals for all of the first responders. They had several hundred tables set up outside, complete with clean, white tablecloths. I found that to be rather touching. Considering the circumstances, they could've just made the guys line up while the food was slung at 'em. But for the police and fireman, they went the extra mile, which I thought was pretty cool.

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