Author: lewisotr

One Hell Of A Guy, If I do say so myself.
Amazing Things, Another Daily Happening, Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, The Jollyville Years, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

The Sideboards

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When I ran across the post below about the Bois D’arc tree, it conjured up a memory from more than 60 years ago. We were living down on the creek out of Jollyville. Cec, our dad bought a 3/4 Chevrolet Pickup. It had been a Texas Highway Department truck in its first life. So it was yellow with the huge logo sanded off the doors. Later on he even painted it green. Not a green anyone else on earth would have chosen for a pickup truck. It was something of a mint green, but not a true mint green. It … Continue reading The Sideboards

Kenny Lewis, On The Job, Past Angora Chronicles Stories, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Ken’s Pearly Whites

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Back in the fast and furious years of the late 1970s we had contracts with Lakeway to build a bunch of new streets. Kenny put a huge culvert pipe on a trailer behind his pickup that was needed to go in the middle of a big draw. When he got out to the project, no one else was around so he was going to unchain it and let it roll off the trailer. When he popped the boomer (the levered device below) the end of the handle hit him directly in the mouth with tremendous force. Over the Motorola 2-way … Continue reading Ken’s Pearly Whites

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, My Friends, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

It’s Funny How Things Happen

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Last night at Kenny’s viewing at the funeral home a good Ol Boy reminded me something. Let me start from the beginning to tell you the whole story from start to finish. I went out to Lakeway in the late 1970s and bid on a project. When I prepared the bid it came out to somewhere around $325,000. I called my bonding company and told them that the bid was going to exceed the amount I originally told them. At that time they were limiting me to a maximum size job of $300,000. I couldn’t convince them to raise my … Continue reading It’s Funny How Things Happen

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, In and Around Austin, Kenny Lewis, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Sometimes A Mistake Can End Up Being A Good Thing

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I was talking to a fellow, Ray, tonight at Kenny’s visitation at the funeral home. We, being Kenny & I, first met Ray well over 30 years ago. Kenny and Ray became very good friends, just about since they first met. I pretty much traveled in different circles afterwards that didn’t afford me the opportunity to be as closely connected, but I would see Ray occasionally. Ray worked for a very successful apartment builder and developer. Our meeting was on the first project that his company built in Austin. It was a time when I wasn’t very busy and I … Continue reading Sometimes A Mistake Can End Up Being A Good Thing

Aging, Kenny Lewis, Thoughts and Musings3 Comments

Looking Back On A Life That Was Well Lived

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I looked it up and the life expectancy for a male in the USA in 2024 is 73.5 years. Kenny made it to 74.02 years, but even though he beat the odds by just a hair, that’s not how he lived his life. He always went far over and above the average with everything. It didn’t matter what he undertook, he wanted the best and he achieved it. If you drove out in one of his pastures, he had the best looking herds of cattle. His boar goats were bred to all have markings as close to each other as … Continue reading Looking Back On A Life That Was Well Lived

Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, Kenny Lewis, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

About As Close As Kenny Ever Got To Getting On Facebook

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Not long after The Angora Chronicles got started, the following is a post that Kody made on behalf of his daddy. Actually Kenny did warn up to it all enough that he would occasionally send me a story to post. To tell you the truth, I’m pretty sure he wanted to get on FB, but was just that hard headed that he didn’t, after talking all the smack he did. I decided later on that it was much better that he stayed away from it all. When FB and company decided to start monitoring us all and taking down stuff … Continue reading About As Close As Kenny Ever Got To Getting On Facebook

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, In and Around Austin, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Cell Phones On The Cheap

lewisotr

After the prosperous years of the 80s came the real estate bust of the late 80s and early 90s. Kenny, Coy and I (of double tailed quarter fame) were teamed up again doing work together. The days of mobile phones had given way to pagers and pay phones. Mobile phones were very expensive in the early days. My average phone bill in the 80s was $1,000 – $1,200 per month. That wasn’t for the whole company, that was just me. I stayed on the phone constantly, conducting business and doing a fair share of BSing. Those costs just weren’t in … Continue reading Cell Phones On The Cheap

Aging, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Is There A Difference In Men and Women?

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I’ve been thinking about a subject this morning that I’m going to ease into, so as to not harm anyone’s sensibilities. The other day I was telling someone about me going in and having my uvula cut out. You know the little hanging down thing in the back of our mouth, where it goes down into your gullet. This was several years ago and I scheduled it 2 days before Thanksgiving. If you look way inside my mouth now, you would think that doctor used a mini-chainsaw to whaller out the back of my throat. By the time he got … Continue reading Is There A Difference In Men and Women?

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, In and Around Austin, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

EXCAVATING FOR A NEW BANK BUILDING

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Back in 1978, I think it was, my company contracted to excavate for the new Capitol National Bank. It was the largest job that of that type that Lewis Contractors had ever taken on. Considering it was excavating 30′ deep a full block square downtown Austin from 7th to 8th St. between Guadalupe and Lavaca and it was solid limestone rock it had its challenges. The only real way to accomplish a project like that was to blast. If I remember correctly, we did it in around 60 days. Considering the equipment we had to work with in those days, … Continue reading EXCAVATING FOR A NEW BANK BUILDING