I just finished reading the novel What the Dog Saw: And Other Adventures By Malcolm Gladwell. I give it a medium recommendation for you to read, if you meet some conditions…
Category: Life
Hey Running Buddy
Cool thing happened while running today. This happens occasionally, but not very often. I crossed paths with a runner early in the run and then miles away I came across her again.
My jogging routes meander all over the place but usually take the form of “big loop that starts and ends at my house.” I don’t like passing near my house anywhere in the middle because it tempts me to stop. I left before 6:30, came across a lady jogging on one side of a neighborhood and then 3 miles away saw her again along the sidewalk in a commercial area. She was the only other runner I saw in the whole 45 minute run. The circumstances were such that we could only have met at those two places if we were both going for long runs on these particular routes. I thought it was pretty cool, maybe it was that running daze that you get in, so I hope she didn’t think I was too enthusiastic when I shouted “HELLO AGAIN!” the second time.
It’s going to be a good day.
-Steven Gangstead
What they don’t want you to know about signs
So last week I was at my favorite place on earth in the afternoon for their feature, Shiner Sunday. The extremely talented talent was Zane Williams.
Zane had been doing a particularly nice job and he was even playing through the natural sounds of the area. The weather being habanero-fire-ant-bite hot was causing us, nay forcing us, to drink lots of beers. Zane really went above and beyond. He played past the simulcast air time on KHYI, he played a bonus set with the band, and then he played a bonus-bonus set solo as the sun started to set.
When we went to leave I did a sobriety check on the breathalyzer and found that I was a .09%. The wife was a .10%. Every time I tell anyone I keep a breathalyzer in the car I always get asded about the details of my DUI. I’ve never gotten a DUI. I got a breathalyzer to forfend the taxi with the white door that takes you directly to the hoosegow.
So even though we felt fine we’d rather be safe than hoosegowed, so we went on a little walk down parking lot lane. As we ambled I noticed at the base of one of the large signs that shines like a beacon over the highway a little light switch. Not any fancy heavy duty light switch, but just a household light switch with no cover. It’s about 3 feet from a car door when the parking lot is full. I thought there was no way this is what controls the sign. Those things have locks or are controlled inside or something. At the very least it takes some heavy duty switch, this isn’t the bulb in the attic after all.
There are certain things that just bring joy to your life and you can’t explain it. This was one of those things. We were giddy. We immediately had to check all the signs. Each one was similarly fool-proofed. Luckily a fool had found it.
I had never noticed these switches before. One of them didn’t even have a switch. It had an open hole where a plate had been once and a rats nest of wires poking out. I wasn’t touching that. One of the things I learned getting my Electrical Engineering degree was “don’t stick your hand into a rats nest of live wires.” I’d hate to be the Hooters employee who turned off the sign every night.
For the record: we returned all signs to their original state and the lights were off for only a second or two. I don’t want anyone thinking that some trucker didn’t get his 10PM alfredo fix because we darkened the Olive Garden. We were sadly unable to relight the LA from ANTIQUE LAND, but that was out before we got there, and the store had a permanently out of business sign on their door anyways.
I guess these business don’t need crazy security for their signs because A)No one even bothers to notice and B) By flipping the sign off and on we exploited that find to the maximum possible extent. Darn those punk kids who lowered our carbon footprint. Darn you all!
It was a good way to kill a half hour and when I got back to the car I blew a .075 BAC and was confident in my ability to drive home.
I hear that train a coming…
I was at my favorite place on Earth this Sunday, Love and War in Texas. It’s a Texas themed restaurant that has an enormous patio with live music most nights. On Sunday they have an afternoon concert. It was hot as blazes out there, something I’m sure they arranged so they could sell more beer. There is a train track going right alongside the building and sometimes you are lucky enough to get a freight train barreling down in the middle of a performance. I’m convinced the train operators can see the crowd and honk the horn for all it’s worth.
Needless to say this is very loud as the train is 20 feet away. All good performers at L&W will bust into a train song, usually “Folsom Prison Blues”. The Zane Williams band are true performers and promptly busted it out.
Another great day at Love and War. Next post I’ll tell about the revelation I made after I left that night.