The drone flew about 80 feet above our heads, sounding like a swarm of irritated carpenter bees. My daughter Meredith and I were standing in an empty soccer field on a Saturday afternoon. We craned our necks upward as the drone, measuring about two feet across with the four propellers attached, darted to the right, then to the left, then rotated 180 degrees so its camera was pointed to the complex where I spend my work days.
I was operating the joysticks of the controller, seeing what the drone’s camera saw through the drone app on my brand-new iPhone. The Phantom 3 Standard was a Christmas...
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I am paying on the installment plan for my cremation: $499 down and $50 a month for the next 44 months — interest-free. My Beautiful Mystery Companion is doing the same. We decided to spare our daughters the stress of having to make funeral arrangements. And neither of us has any desire to spend thousands of dollars to be buried in a fancy box.
A nice fellow named Sal came by to make the pitch for his company. Sal looks like a Sal — pompadour combed straight back, a New York accent, nicely dressed in his late 60s but doesn’t look it. He arrived at 10 a.m. I warned him I had to leave at 11:30...
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The Texas Supreme Court met in Longview a few weeks back at LeTourneau University. It was fascinating to hear oral arguments in two civil cases, the nine justices peppering the attorneys with questions on stage in front of about 1,000 people in the Belcher Center.
The justices on the state’s highest civil courts are clearly intelligent and experienced men and women. As a newspaper publisher for more than a quarter-century, I met a number of justices as they campaigned during elections. Even if I didn’t agree with their views, I respected their legal minds. And I still do, though two decisions...
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AUSTIN — I spotted bluebonnets for the first time on March 1. It was along the Lady Bird Lake Trail, walking as a cool northern breeze swept away the mugginess of previous days. That means spring has arrived, no matter what the calendar indicates. It felt so freeing to be outside, after a few days of meetings, that I walked even longer than usual, pounding the crunchy trail for two hours. The bluebonnets were on the side of a hill that separates the trail from Cesar Chavez Street. As every fifth walker or so did, I stopped and took a cell phone photo. I have no idea why, other than to mark the advent...
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As previously discussed, we have acquired two kittens who are now about six months old. Tater and Tot are brothers in arms, or I suppose paws. Tater is the larger sibling, far more gregarious and mischievous. I named the water spray bottle “The Taterator” in his honor, since he is often on the receiving end for landing in places he should not be — such as the kitchen counter. Tot is smaller, fluffier and considerably more cautious.
We let the kitties go outside when we are home, always with an ear tuned to caterwauling. There are at least two mean — and full-sized — tomcats in the neighborhood....
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Today, Feb. 17, is my wife’s birthday, aka the Beautiful Mystery Companion. She acquired that title from my mangling of a Jackson Browne song that contains the line, “My stunning mystery companion.” I think “beautiful” works better, though Mr. Browne likely would disagree.
I am likely fonder of her birthday than she is. Here is why. Nine years ago, she reached a certain age on this date. I decline to say exactly what age, out of a strong sense of survival. Never guess a woman’s age or ask when the baby is due, unless you know for certain she is pregnant. I have made both mistakes.
Anyway,...
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My Beautiful Mystery Companion and I plan to plant a vegetable garden this year on a plot nearby that gets plenty of sunshine. Our own yard is filled with trees that make it impossible to grow even tomato plants. We have tried twice. But this plot will be perfect.
We are not planting the vegetables that now can be planted below the surface, such as onions, carrots and potatoes. We have opted for only above-ground plants — tomatoes, peppers, corn, okra, purple-hull peas and squash. That gives me a few weeks to buy some organic fertilizer and rent a tiller to break up the soil. Then it is off to the feed...
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I was talking to a fellow the other day who retired from the Made-Rite Company, which has been a sponsor of the Great Texas Balloon Race since its inception. That reminded me of the nearly two years I spent working at the soft-drink plant on Industrial Boulevard.
I finished my last semester at Longview High School by correspondence course so I could work full-time at Made-Rite and save money for college. I took night courses at Kilgore College in order to continue working full-time — newly married and on our own financially. That is the way I wanted it.
In 1973, Made-Rite still bottled...
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In coming days, landscape crews will descend upon this city and many others throughout Texas and the South, loppers in hand. The annual mutilation of crape myrtles will commence. When they have finished, assisted by well-meaning but deluded homeowners who think this is necessary, these lovely trees — they are trees — will be chopped down to ugly nubs. Eventually, summer blooms will disguise the nubs, but it is still mutilation. Arborists go so far as to call it “crape murder.”
Crape myrtles have boomed in popularity because they thrive in summer heat and bloom for months. They line...
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I bought a new iPhone on New Year’s Eve, after months of pondering whether I wanted to A) spend the money and B) deal with the inevitable pain of swapping out what is, in essence, my brain’s external hard drive. My actual brain’s disk is full, so without a smart phone I would be, well, even dumber than I am. The tipping point was that my four-year-old phone would not run the software for the drone I received for Christmas. More on that later. I’m still sussing through exactly how to fly this drone and use it to take photos and make videos.
Anyway, a phone upgrade required sacrificing...
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