Author: Dick

Today is a day off from work. How novel that sounds after so long a period of not working. I have been trying to catch up with this and that on the laptop here at Rao’s bakery. But phone calls, e-mails, etc. interrupt just as if I was working.

With the time off and free Wi-Fi, I had hoped to catch up on some news but I’ve not been able to do much of that. However, I did come across an interesting news item about one of my favorite places in Southeast Texas — McFaddin Beach. This article from the Beaumont Enterprise speaks about efforts to combat the erosion problems and the prospects of reopening Texas Hwy. 87 from where the road abruptly ends at McFaddin to High Island and the rest of the Bolivar Peninsula. From there people can take the enjoyable ferry ride over to Galveston, or one day it will be replaced by a big long bridge over Bolivar Roads.

I tend to not favor that last suggestion. Why can’t people take a few minutes out of their time to enjoy Galveston Bay and the boids and the poiposses (yes I know those words are misspelled, damn you!)while riding the ferry?

The whole idea about rebuilding the highway linking McFaddin and High Island is one that I have very mixed feelings about. The beach can be restored but traffic will likely mean development and, I don’t have anything against capitalism, but I like a little wildness here and there.

Erosion on the beach is something that must be addressed or else we won’t have to worry about either a beach or a highway.

A fellow I talked to on the beach the other day said he believed the most harm to the beach was due to the Intracoastal Canal, just a few miles through the marshes to the north of the beach. I don’t know enough about the canal’s impact to make any kind of a judgment, but it something of which I would like to learn more.

Perhaps I will go to McFaddin this weekend. But I doubt I will do much learning. It’s just Springtime you know? Can’t do nothing but lay back and say: “Ahhhhhhhh!” Or something such as that.

Breaking News: Well, maybe I won’t do that!

Yesterday was the first day of my new part-time job. The work involves a lot of confidential dealings so I will not be able to talk about it here publicly. But it sounds as if it will be interesting, a challenge and the type of job I hoped for which would give me a halfway-decent, steady income while also allowing me the time to continue freelance writing. I have also made a vow to write a book, which I have never done before. I started a couple of novels, but they flew by the wayside. If I ever go by the wayside, I will pick up all of the novels I started (and which, for sure touched down from their flight) and, perhaps, make those into a novel. Is this a novel idea? I don’t think so.

EFD has to give thanks to the latest who have helped out during my fiscal crisis. Those thanks go to Valerie in the city of Charley’s Lake and to Bob the Bullet who lives in the Fort Worth area. Also, another round of thanks to Sarah who bought me dinner Friday evening. When I start making money again, I see a lot of dinners on the horizon that I will be buying. Thanks again mi amigos.

“That’s where it’s at. That’s where it’s at.”
One doesn’t have to love the late Steve Marriott and Humble Pie to appreciate those words, but it helps.

This is a rare Saturday version of EFD. I’ve got my laptop fired up once again and am being fueled by Rao’s House Blend as I try to throw out a few odds and ins.

Rao’s coffee rocks

Rao’s in Beaumont has atmosphere and one pays a little more for it. But their coffee is worth it and the fact they have free Wi-Fi seals the deal. Rao’s, which has been waking folks up with a cup o’ Joe and filling them up with with baked goods and gelato since 1941, has two locations.

When I lived on North Street in Beaumont, I lived around the street from their shop on Calder and 10th Street. A lot of people go there, especially in the mornings. However, I didn’t visit that location much. The cafe on Dowling is where I sit at this moment. This store offers Wi-Fi and the Calder site doesn’t. Quite a few folks are sitting around playing chess right now and a few using their laptops. It’s definitely a cool, laid-back coffee shop. It makes Starbucks seem like, well, Starbucks. If you visit Beaumont and need Wi-Fi and some coffee and pastries or gelato, come see.

Hero in our midst
When I have the spare time on a computer — which is rare these days — I like to check out the Web site for the paper in one of my adopted hometowns (one of three adopted hometowns — Nacogdoches and Beaumont, Texas and Gulfport, Miss.) In this case it is The Daily Sentinel in Nacogdoches. I once worked there and have friends working for the Sentinel who still put out a great little paper. Of course, the college students there and some of the contrary old geezers call it “The Daily Senile” as people sometimes do in mocking their local paper’s title.

Back on topic, I read a story this morning by Sentinel reporter Kyle Peveto (whom I do not know) about a particularly gruesome automobile accident. The angle applying to the Beaumont or Golden Triangle area where I live is that the a man from Groves, in mid-Jefferson County, rescued a teen from a burning vehicle after a collision. Kudos to Pitts and people like him. A true hero, Pitts shook off the H-word, but not everyone would risk life and limb to rescue someone in such a situation. A reluctance by some would stem, obviously, from fear or even someone worried about liability. Yes, there are people who would concern themselves with getting sued in an occurrence such as that. So Danny Pitts, you (are) the man!

Corruption, wrongdoing, evil, fear and loathing in the Bush administration. It seems as if everywhere one turns the fit is hitting the shan with respect to Gee Dubya’s bunch.

Valerie Plame Wilson told Congress that her outing as a CIA operative ruined her career and caused worry for her family and other agents. As most of you know, her name being revealed as a spook, led to the conviction of Vice President Deadeye Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter “Trash” Libby.

Of course, the true-believing Bushite GOPs buy or at least pretend to believe Libby’s story, which was he was so busy he forgot talking to someone about Plame-Wilson’s job in the CIA. It seems like a defense. Not particularly a good one, but nonetheless a defense. The Bushie cult wants Dubs to pardon Libby right now. It seems as if it is something he might do. If he is going to do it, perhaps he should do soon because there remains the outside chance his smug little ass might be thrown out of office due to impeachment. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, just that it seems a possibility. A chance of impeachment has existed for a long time, but didn’t seem within the realm of honest-to-Gosh possibility until the Democrats seized Congress.

One must remember though that scandals plague every administration. Well, maybe not William Henry Harrison’s because his administration had a short shelf life because of his untimely death.

Certainly U.S. Grant had his share of scandals. I finally finished the biography of the general and president I had been reading. He had a lot of bad things go wrong both as president and in his life before and after his triumph as commander of Union forces during the Civil War.

It stretches the imagination to think Grant could be as naive as he seemed about the scandals during his presidency and prior to his failures as a businessman. At least from reading about him, he seemed honest to a fault, and perhaps he was.

Most interesting in the Grant biography which I read was the description of the cancer-ridden, almost destitute ex-general and president, racing against time to finish his memoirs before he died.

He sought the completion of his memories of the Civil War so his wife and family would persevere financially. He was helped, strangely enough by Samuel “Mark Twain” Clemens in getting a generous book deal. And he beat the clock and produced well-selling memoirs which, according to biographer William McFeely, were extremely well written by the president alone, at least for the most part.

Well it’s time for me to go. I’ve typed as much as I can for the time being. I don’t know what I will do the rest of the day. I start my new part-time job Monday as a, well, I don’t think I can reveal that until I figure out my ability — as someone employed by my new employer — to blog about anything I desire. Until next time, keep the sunny side up and the top side open. Or just talk among yourselves.

First of all, whew. It’s nice to be off the Beaumont Public Library computers and on my laptop via Wi-Fi at Rao’s Bakery near Parkdale Mall. Here, I don’t have to contend with the over restrictive filtration system of the library which prevents, what I believe, are some of the most innocuous words from pizening all those little minds out there. I’m talking chillren.

Blood, kill, murder and, yes, even model, are among the words that I type but are made to go bye-bye courtesy of the censor-y-deprivation programs on the library computers.

But my old $250 Compaq Armada E500 and my lack of using it — and upgrading various programs — produces its own quirks. For instance, I am not able to play a video from a link sent to me from Kelli Perry. Kelli, as you may recall, is the mother of Stevi Perry, (pictured here).
Apparently, Stevi is in this video or has something to do with the video, else wise I am not sure why Kelli would send the link, which as soon as I get to a machine with the proper software I will view.

I must confess that I am not familiar with the artist in the video, Steve Azar. I am even less familiar with him than I am Cowboy Troy. But it means nothing, my lack of familiarity with those whom I have or have not heard. This is because I am not with it or happening or down with whatever you call in tune with the most up-to-date members involved with a particular segment of popular culture. I’m like square, daddy-o. That’s what they would have said of me in the olden days of wooden wheels and duck-ass haircuts. It’s funny. I noticed I could type “ass” and it would get published when I use library computers. Why does the censoring program think that “ass” is less dangerous to the minds of li’l chillren than “model” or “murder?”

Oh well, these are just things we shall have to ponder this weekend. Meanwhile, I am sure many will appreciate such a pretty face connected to my blog. Bonaduce to you.

So, I don’t know if I am doing something helpful here for all those Steve Azar fans but hopefully I am being good for the Stevi Perry fans as well as to Kelli, who has taken time to write or send me updates on her gorgeous daughter whom I am sure Kelli is most proud.

Was it the bard, the “Man in Black,” the late Johnny Cash, who said: ” … bad news travels like wild fire, good news travels slow … ?” That might be debatable with today’s rapid communication, an Internet here, a BlackBerry there, here an iPod, there an iPod, everywhere, an iPod, iPod … Well, you get the drift. Or so I hope because I am damn well confused. Oh yeah, good news.

No. 1. I apparently don’t have Parkinson’s Disease, according to a neurologist whom I saw this morning at the Houston VA Hospital. After performing a few tests with my hands and feet, the doc felt sure that what has been causing my hands to shake all over during the past year is a condition called essential tremor. You can read the description in the link from the Mayo Clinic, but essential tremor is kind of like the “Seinfeld” of movement disorders. It’s a tremor about nothing. The physicians speculate what causes it, but probably don’t have a clue so they just make something up in order that the disorder has a name. It’s kind of like people no longer dying of old age. That’s been cured. What kills is heart disease, respiratory failure, or Clara Harris in a Mercedes-Benz. But I digress.

No. 2. Awaiting the verdict of a background check, I have been tentatively offered and have tentatively accepted what appears to be a pretty decent part-time job. If nothing goes wrong, such as my background check turning up that I am really Vladmir Lennin, this job would allow me to survive somewhere else than inside my pickup truck. And the funds would also keep me going as I continue to pursue my real number one vocation — goat auctioneering. No silly, freelance writing.

It is a wait-and-see situation as to what effect, if any, this job might have on old EFD here. It’s not particularly time-wise but rather the position itself, which I will not mention. I mean, it’s not exactly like working for The Company or The Pope, but I still don’t know all the ground rules so we will wait and see. If push comes to shove, I might have to turn the blog over to one of my seldom-seen alter egos. But let’s just make sure I have the job and the cash starts rolling, rolling, rolling …

My sincere thanks to all those who have contributed during these lean times and remind you that the opportunity continues to exist for contributing. Once I begin work I will need things such as a roof over my head, electricity, running water, la, la … So it’s not to late to punch the little donation button and watch PayPal pay me. TTFN.