Amazing Things, The Construction Biz, Thoughts and Musings1 Comment

Aged Bourbon

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I have told many people before that I lost all taste for bourbon after drinking a fifth and a pint of Old Crow in about 30 minutes one time, and eventually woke up in jail the next day. But that was when I was 16 years old. I just never could stand the smell, much less the taste of it after that. That was well over 50 years ago. I have several bottles that have been in the top of a cabinet, leftover from when the popular thing to do was hand out whiskey as gifts at Christmas time, in … Continue reading Aged Bourbon

Another Daily Happening, Crazy Times, My Sons1 Comment

We Raised A House Full Of Pretty Good Boys

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Raising five sons, we had relatively few major “situations” with any of them. Well excluding automobile mishaps. But even with those, they just tore up cars and never got hurt or hurt anyone else, so except for the high insurance premiums for many years we came out fairly well unscathed. We didn’t have any bad bouts of them drinking or drugging and getting too much out of hand. Of course they now tell us that there was a lot we didn’t know about. Of course there were things that I knew they did that I never even brought up to … Continue reading We Raised A House Full Of Pretty Good Boys

The Construction Biz, Thoughts and Musings2 Comments

Don’t Ever Talk Down To Your Crew When You Are In The Underground Utility Business

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There was a contractor that was laying a deep wastewater line around on the East Side of San Antonio. It was deep in the ground. The owner of the company would come to the job every few days and express his displeasure with the progress. No matter how many joints of pipe the crew installed, the boss man would complain. Finally the crew decided that every time he came out and tore them a new one, they would leave a few gaskets out of the next pipes they laid. When they finally got to the end of the line and … Continue reading Don’t Ever Talk Down To Your Crew When You Are In The Underground Utility Business

Crazy Times, My Sons, The Early Days, Thoughts and MusingsLeave a comment

It Was Perhaps The Worst Purchase I Ever Made

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It all came about because 38 years ago today, September 27, 1982 we welcomed our twins sons into our lives. We knew things would change so in an attempt to get things in order, in went down to the dealership and bought a new GMC Suburban. It was a beautiful thing. It had been the sales managers demonstrator so I was able to strike a good deal on it. It was a medium blue on the top and bottom with the center portion a dark midnight blue. Part of the paint scheme in those days was to have some wide … Continue reading It Was Perhaps The Worst Purchase I Ever Made

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

Loaning Out My Jeep

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There was a fellow, seemed like a nice guy that worked for one of my competitors. I’d see him at bid openings, but never really knew him. After working for that other company for a while, he decided to go in business. Bob knew I had started out on a shoestring so he came to me to get some advise. I gave him all the pointers I could think of. I felt it a compliment that the guy came to me. So we became kind of buddy’s. I wasn’t really looking for additional competition, but I was okay that his … Continue reading Loaning Out My Jeep

Aging, Amazing Things, Funny Happenings, Grandchildren, Thoughts and Musings2 Comments

The Girls and Their Music

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I never had the chance to be around teenage girls, since I was a teenager myself. Well except the ones my 5 boys managed to drag to the house with them as they got old enough to date. When I started getting granddaughters, (Holly now a couple of years out of college & Emma started her second year of college last month) the two older ones got old enough to really start getting into music and needing me to take them places, I was in for a real treat. I learned to cope with their music by buying albums they … Continue reading The Girls and Their Music

Crazy Times, On The Job, The Construction Biz, The Early Days2 Comments

Eavesdropping Through The Motel Wall

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Back in the late 70s, we decided to bid on a project for the City of Laredo. I usually traveled to these out of town destinations alone, while Kenny kept an eye on things back at home. But this time he accompanied me on the long road south. We left really early in the morning so we could look at the job site conditions and see what kind of productions we could expect. We checked into a Holiday Inn Motel in Laredo to finish up on a bid that would be turned in later that afternoon. We were staying over … Continue reading Eavesdropping Through The Motel Wall

Crazy Times, Kenny Lewis, On The Job, The Construction Biz, The Early DaysLeave a comment

The Contractor That Did It All

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One time we ventured off to Laredo to bid on a project, a new water line. This was way back in the late 70’s. The bids were turned in the late afternoon. We had to stay over until that night when the bids were opened and read at the city council meeting. I figured that was a ploy to get more hotel tax revenue. My brother, Kenny was with me for this trip. We got to the council meeting and saw where not only our bid was going to be opened that night but probably 6 or 8 other bids … Continue reading The Contractor That Did It All

Smithwick, The Early DaysLeave a comment

Color TV Made It To The Lewis Household

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All the way through high school we watched a black and white television. After I got out into the working world, but still hanging out mostly in Smithwick, I decided it was time we had a color TV. I went up to Crawford’s Appliance and TV to purchased a Zenith TV, a nice size one by the measures of 1970 TV. I brought it home, or possibly they deliver it. We never had watched all that much TV before, maybe an hour here or there. Having that color TV changed everything. Bonnie and Cecil were hooked. They watched it every … Continue reading Color TV Made It To The Lewis Household

Amazing Things, In and Around Austin, My FriendsLeave a comment

Making A Case For Eavesdropping

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It happened on the steps on the church house. Several of us were lingering outside the building after church one day. As I spoke with one elderly gentleman, two of our other members where close by having a conversation about a potential land dispute, with one of these fellows being an attorney and the other one owning a parcel of land. It seemed that the landowner was having difficulties with TxDot over what was a very tiny parcel of land. Several years before TxDot was expanding one of their highways and through right of eminent domain had taken this man’s … Continue reading Making A Case For Eavesdropping