Is There Anything To A Dream

(let’s hope not, at least in this case) This story is wrapped around a dream I had last night. It goes like this: A lady I know passed away a while back. Her family decided to not have a service, but maybe something will be done later. That’s not so uncommon, this day and time. Cremation has made it even more possible to delay things a bit, you know. But I walked in the cafe where I usually have breakfast and a fellow I know was sitting there drinking a cup of coffee. He invited me sit with them. After … Continue reading Is There Anything To A Dream

Riding On The Back Of An Elephant

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying anything disparaging about the fairer sex in what I’m fixing to write but you tell me there aren’t differences is in the two sexes. Back in 2005 we were over in Africa. One day we decide it was a great idea to go on an elephant back tour through the wilds of Zimbabwe. We got on at a big platform with me sitting behind my wife and the lady traveling with us got on another elephant sitting just in front of an Englishman, a stranger. We weren’t yet out of sight of the … Continue reading Riding On The Back Of An Elephant

Winterizing Your Pipes

Back in the 70s we lived in Houston for awhile. I would listen to a popular radio station of the day during the afternoon drive time just as many people did. I don’t remember the call letters but the 2 guys were Hudson and Harrigan. It was about this time of year. One said “Well it’s about time to think about winterizing your pipes with the cold weather coming”. Other one said “How do you go about that”? “Here’s what I do. I save up my newspapers and when it comes about this time of year I’ll wrap up my … Continue reading Winterizing Your Pipes

Taking Care Of Business

We have been procrastinating about something for a long time. Today we went to the funeral home to do a burial prearrangement plan. As we were walking in I looked down on the sidewalk and a credit card was laying there. I picked it up. It had the name of a friend of mine in Liberty Hill. I took a picture of it and texted to that friend. He had in fact lost it. He was getting DEF fluid down the street and some of it splash his card. He laid it on the running board, probably intending to reach … Continue reading Taking Care Of Business

Going Through Years And Years Of IRS Audits.

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.

The Incident With The IRS Agent

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

The Quandary

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

What Life Almost Was – The Holland Page Construction Story

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

Daddy, is you just gonna leave your twailer there?

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?

Our Dream Home

A story I wrote back in 2014. Wow almost 9 years ago. Times change, circumstances change. Just a while after I wrote this we sold this place and returned to Bertram to the home here that we dearly love. Moving back has afforded us so much more time with our grandchildren, well and our children too. We would have missed out on so much, had we not chosen to come back home. It seems that far too many of us don’t always see the value of family soon enough and miss out of life’s greatest joy. The joy of grandkids. … Continue reading Our Dream Home