On The Job, The Construction Biz3 Comments

When You Can’t Buy It, Just Build It.

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For many years we would be working on projects and an idea would pop in our head of a better way to do something and with a good team of fabricators on board with us we’d just build it. Not everything we built worked as well as we hoped, but when we got a winner, it was the real deal. Below was something we built that allowed us to set a large diameter pipe one it, the larger rollers were hydraulically powered and would slowly turn the pipe while the hydraulic pipe saw would move down to the correct mark … Continue reading When You Can’t Buy It, Just Build It.

Crazy Times, In and Around Austin, On The Job, The Construction Biz, The Early DaysLeave a comment

The VW Bus Was Parked In A Bad Spot

lewisotr

I wasn’t long out of school, probably had just turned 18. One of my first jobs was driving a haul truck for Nelson Lewis, a cousin in the utility business. He had just landed a project in downtown Austin, laying a wastewater line up West Ave. It started down at 7th St and would continue up to about the 24th block on Rio Grande St. Right up in the middle of the University of Texas Campus. The first piece of equipment I hauled to the job was an old White-Oliver Rubber Tired Backhoe. It was a beast, 4 wheel drive … Continue reading The VW Bus Was Parked In A Bad Spot

Aging, Crazy Times, Thoughts and Musings7 Comments

It Set There All Day

lewisotr

When Kenny had a ranch in Mexico and was going back and forth a lot, so he bought a helicopter. He also used it to look at projects around the state. It was pretty handy. I had a lease agreement with him, so when I’d need to get around to take care of business it was at my disposal. To make sure I was as cool as my brother I built a helipad at my house. The pilot would fly in, grab me and we could leave Bertram and be in Arlington, Tx in an hour and twenty minutes. One … Continue reading It Set There All Day

The Construction Biz, The Early Days2 Comments

Learning To Fly

lewisotr

In my younger days in the construction business I had a bookkeeper, G.K. , that was always after me to take up flying. He wasn’t a pilot but claimed he almost was. He told me how we could fly to faraway destinations to look at and bid jobs. How we could head out to the coast and go fishing at the drop of a hat. I was a little queasy about me flying an airplane, but I finally figured that I’d get used to it, as many people had. Why would it be different for me? Finally one day I … Continue reading Learning To Fly

Crazy Times, In and Around Austin, The Construction BizLeave a comment

Harold wasn’t known as a man with a stellar reputation

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Sometime in the later 1970s Harold showed up in Austin as an underground utility contractor. There have been a bunch of them that have come and gone in Austin over the past almost 50 years that I’ve been around. But none like Harold, that would cause you to feel like you needed a bath, from just having a conversation with him. Okay that last sentence is a little bit of a lie. There have been several others that gave me that feeling. Harold had a gift of gab and you knew he was a bullshit artist the second he started … Continue reading Harold wasn’t known as a man with a stellar reputation

Crazy Times, Thoughts and Musings5 Comments

Sam From Sales

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We were talking a day or so back about Radio Personalities and the chemistry some have together. I found this (and many more) YouTube clips of an afternoon skit that Hal Jay (the in-studio DJ) and Dick Siegel (helicopter pilot flying around doing traffic reports) and one of the news guys that would pose as Sam From Sales. At an appointed time, “Sam” would come in and spend a few minutes telling a story about something going in his life. In the background you could always hear the whirrrr of Dick’s helicopter, and the almost constant distinctive laughs of both … Continue reading Sam From Sales

Marble Falls and the Area Around it., The Early Days8 Comments

Melvin Wright and The Country Store

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You know you haven’t strayed too far from your early years when you can go to the refrigerator and make yourself a sandwich with ham, jalapeño cheese and Best Maid Sandwich Spread on plain white bread on a Saturday Night and it tastes just like Melvin Wright had made at the Country Store well over 50 years ago. Of course I’d always get me a bag of BBQ flavored potato chips and a quart of Superior Dairies Chocolate Milk. The milk was to wash it down and the chocolate part was my dessert. It tends to make me feel a … Continue reading Melvin Wright and The Country Store

Aging, Amazing Things, Marble Falls and the Area Around it., My Friends, Thoughts and Musings17 Comments

Let Me Tell You About John And About Friendship

lewisotr

John and I had many parallels in our lives. We both arrived in Marble Falls the same year, in the 8th grade. We both graduated five years later, in May of 1970, as did each of our future wives. All four of us were merely 19 years old when we married; both couples have been married every since. John went to college and I went straight on to work after high school. Very soon we each were in business. Therefore, neither of us really worked for anyone after just a short time, spending our whole lives in business for ourselves. … Continue reading Let Me Tell You About John And About Friendship

Crazy Times, Marble Falls and the Area Around it., The Construction BizLeave a comment

Just About The Most Insane Thing I’ve Seen

lewisotr

And I’ve seen some insane things. Seeing the video’s yesterday of the big wind generator blades coming through Marble Town, after coming up Texas 71 out of Austin, then turning on on FM 2147 and going through Horseshoe Bay and turning north on US 281. The question was raised of why didn’t they just turn at the 281/71 intersection? That would the seem the most logical, in anyone’s estimation. Nice loop around out there get from one highway to the other. But it has to do with permitting. All highway construction is marked on a master map at TxDot so … Continue reading Just About The Most Insane Thing I’ve Seen

Amazing Things, Thoughts and Musings7 Comments

The Fox and the Ravens

lewisotr

A few days ago I was enjoying a nice spring afternoon sitting on the front porch swing. Sudden I heard the sounds of what appeared to be a couple of Ravens. They were close by. When I got up to go see what all the commotion was about, I saw them sitting in a live oak tree just outside of the yard. Not the actual bird, but one like it. The sounds of the common raven Just then I saw Oliver the Cat sticking his head through the net wire pasture fence that runs along the east side of the … Continue reading The Fox and the Ravens