Author: lewisotr

One Hell Of A Guy, If I do say so myself.
Crazy Times, The Early Days

The Crane Lawsuit

lewisotr

My first experience with being involved in a lawsuit didn’t take long once I got out into the working world. Sometime in late 1970 we leased a truck out to Charlie Evans Trucking. Mr. Evans had been a trucker in Austin for many years and decided to expand his business by opening a terminal in San Antonio. I had just turned 18 years old. I decided it would be a good adventure to go there and live in an old run down motel and make hauls all around San Antonio. The Spur Motel was just a block or so down … Continue reading The Crane Lawsuit

Crazy Times, On The Job, Smithwick, The Early DaysLeave a comment

A Loader Laying On It’s Side

lewisotr

In the early days we didn’t have the best equipment to work with. We didn’t expect anything to start without jumper cables or pulling or pushing it to start it. We had an old HD 5 Allis Chalmers Track Loader that we’d been using to clean out a stock tank down on our place. When we stopped for the day, on the before we parked it beside the road so we could reach it with a pair of jumper cables. There was a road cut with the bank about four feet tall that the loader was sitting up on. When … Continue reading A Loader Laying On It’s Side

Another Daily Happening, Cecil Lewis, Crazy Times, Smithwick, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Doing A Head-Plant In The Mud

lewisotr

I was 17 years old. Lake Travis was really low like it often is. We had a D-7 bulldozer and a Cat 12 motorgrader down along the bottom land adjacent to the water, cleaning up and leveling out so when the lake came back up. We knew it wouldn’t stay smooth but Cec had a good idea. Mainly something to keep me busy. My helper was David Jordan, my one day in the future brother in law. He was a couple of years younger than me. If I remember correctly it had been a fairly uneventful day, that is until … Continue reading Doing A Head-Plant In The Mud

Crazy Times, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Going Through Years And Years Of IRS Audits.

lewisotr

Saying that the IRS can be persistent is an understatement. Back in the 80s my company was under an audit for almost that entire decade. Starting with 82, then it became 83 and wrapped up in 89, I think. Of course sometimes we didn’t hear anything for months. In the end we had incurred tens of thousands of dollars of costs to my CPA firm. When it was all concluded with a small amount over payment being made by us, my CPA said we’ll go after them for the amount they cost you since it went on for so many … Continue reading Going Through Years And Years Of IRS Audits.

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

The Incident With The IRS Agent

lewisotr

This happened back in the early 1980s, way back in the days before cell phones but, we at least had Motorola 2-Way Radios. Our biggest project going at the time was building Jester Estates, out west of Austin on RM 2222. In fact it was the largest project we’d ever taken on. So knowing that if we didn’t put everything into that project, we could end up out of business. So I stayed out on that project a lot of the time. I had tried to grow the company too fast so we were stretched way too thin with manpower, … Continue reading The Incident With The IRS Agent

Aging, Crazy TimesLeave a comment

Sometimes You Shouldn’t Take No For An Answer

lewisotr

Yesterday I found myself involved in an incident that sounded easy enough to do, but it ended up taking 40 minutes to get a simple answer. Here is the premise. An elderly man’s phone was stolen. It is taking way too long to go through the cell phone provider to get some very basic information, like the brand of phone and the model. BTW: the fellow is unable to assist in recovering it himself. So I logged on to the company that I knew provided his service and went to work, “chatting” with what ended being a couple of different … Continue reading Sometimes You Shouldn’t Take No For An Answer

Amazing Things, Crazy Times, Funny Happenings, Marble Falls and the Area Around it., Past Angora Chronicles Stories, The Early Days, Thoughts and Musings1 Comment

The Quandary

lewisotr

I was late to the party on watching Breaking Bad. I started watching it after the series ended. Then I binge watched the whole thing in a matter of a few days. I can’t for the life of me tell you what sucked me into that show. It’s certainly in no way connected to my real life. Far from it. The premise is nothing that I should have enjoyed. Someone recommended it and my wife and I decided to watch it, probably close to 9 or 10 years ago. The spin-off, Better Call Saul, never struck me as something I’d … Continue reading The Quandary

Amazing Things, Cecil Lewis, Construction, In and Around Austin, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

What Life Almost Was – The Holland Page Construction Story

lewisotr

The year was 1964. There was an old Austin contractor by the name of Holland Page. My dad worked for Mr. Page for a few years in the 60s. His office and shop was just north of US 183 about 3 or 4 blocks on North Lamar. Kenny and I spent many Saturday’s there exploring around climbing on every kind of piece of machinery imaginable. Mr. Page was a very large man, or so it seemed. He was always nice to us. He didn’t seem to care what we did, he only cautioned us to watch for rattlesnakes back around … Continue reading What Life Almost Was – The Holland Page Construction Story

Crazy Times, The Construction Biz, The Early DaysLeave a comment

The Young Detectives

lewisotr

Our dad was working for an old time contractor by the name of Holland Page, installing a new wastewater system all around the town. This was in the summer of 1963. The project was in Gatesville, Texas. That summer we went there part of the time to spend with him. He had an apartment rented. They had a guy that had worked for them that was trying to make an insurance claim for a back injury that supposedly happened on the job. Cec knew that wasn’t possible because the guy had been too lazy to pickup anything. After talking to … Continue reading The Young Detectives

Amazing Things, Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, My Sons, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

Daddy, is you just gonna leave your twailer there?

lewisotr

Matthew was the age that he wanted to go with me everywhere I went. Him being the oldest son, with a new little brother at home. We left the house early that Sunday morning and was making the 8 or 10 mile trip to our Construction Office/Yard, where I was going to unhook from the rather heavy built shop-made bumper pull trailer we had on behind. Back then, in the 1970s you could drive around Austin without running across all that many other cars on the road on an early Sunday morning trip. Matthew, about 4 years old was standing … Continue reading Daddy, is you just gonna leave your twailer there?