ET

No not the extra-terrestrial, just East Texas.

Not feeling real wordy this morning, but once again was seduced by the fall magic in the East Texas piney woods yesterday.

I had to make a work run to Nac again, and this time I took Hwy 7 all the way in from I-35.

It was OUTSTANDING with the fall colors interspersed with the pine green.

Plus, I really enjoyed the yesteryear feel of downtown Crockett. They have done a great job at preserving and continuing to use the old buildings from 100 years ago.

I love that kind of stuff. Made we want to teleport back in time and ride through on horseback....

Supposed to was?

Today is one of those weird days. Too much I need to do, too much work to do to get to what I need to do. ;-)

Anyway, I was all set to head south to Alice, Texas, this morning for work. Yeah, I know, real exciting right? The goal was to get there and back by 4pm since the boys would be home from school for about an hour by themselves. Plus, their teacher Momma has to work a school function tonight.

So right out of the box this morning I am checking bank balances (payday) and what do I find? No transfers moved like I had them scheduled. And somehow, Chase Bank, in its infinite wisdom would not let me move money around online. I don't know about all of you, but Chase really hacks me off at times because they freeze your online account access, etc., all the time with no warnings.

Well, that pretty well killed my work plans, because now I had to stick around and wait until 9am when the dang branch bank opened up (although I did call Chase customer service promptly at 7am and give them an earful).

The customer service phone rep was nice and apologetic, but she still could not fix the original culprit of the problem: Gold's Gym.

Moral of this story alert: NEVER sign a contract with Gold's, any other gym or tanning place, and and NEVER let them auto-debit from your account or debit card. I cancelled Gold's last month and those turkeys have the audacity to pull the electronic bank routing information off my cancelled debit card (which I did to stop them) and then attach to my new debit card, which I DID NOT provide to them. I have my signed cancellation agreement and final payment receipt, which I had to pay to get the cancellation agreement. AND to top it off, they CANNOT provide me with the signed copy of my original contract. So really, they are illegally and fraudulently billing me for services no longer wanted, provided or contracted for.

This is why I am not on the road to lovely (sarcasm intended) Alice, Texas, for work, and instead have been home having to do more work that was not planned for today to resolve this sorry situation.

As of press time (right now), Gold's is still #1 on my sh-t list and once my attorney Eddy B. gets done drafting the cease & desist letter, I will be headed to the post office to certify 5 copies of this mailing to Gold's and its cronies.

If you feel the need to work and work out, do it at home. Don't do it at Gold's. Google them for billing and contract practices. You'll see what I mean and never want to set foot in there again.

Nac-o-somewhere

Forgot how much I enjoy the Piney Woods in fall.

DK, the boys and I went to Tyler and Nacogdoches this weekend for the SFA game. Some of the red oaks were already starting to turn colors.

I am constantly amazed by the depth and hues that nature gives us each fall. And the past two years here in Tejas have been amazing! The two red oaks in my front yard were awesome last autumn. Waiting for them to turn this year and hoping the red is as vibrant as last year.

Back to the Piney Woods. It is really peaceful driving in late afternoon. Color changes at 4 stories high. Slow swaying at tree top levels.

And no friggin' highway jam-ups on two-lane Texas highways! That's what I'm talking 'bout!

Maybe I should work for Texas Highways magazine. Then I could be on those lonely, peaceful, picturesque roads more often....well, at least until it's time to go home to DK and the boys.

Wayback machine

Last Friday was one of those days that I'd promised my wife I'd never do again.

At least until work "forced" me to do it (a 12% staff reduction group-wide, with 7 of our 23-member team included will do that to you).

Took the boys to school at 715am ct, and headed east to Houston, then Clear Lake, then Beaumont, Corrigan and finally back home at 8pm ct. Fortunately, I completed all my stops/assignments, and could relax over the weekend.

Now, the Wayback Machine kicked in at an outpost in Shiro, Texas. Yeah, I know, unless you are a farmer between Huntsville and Austin, you've never heard of Shiro. And you're not missing much either.

Anyway, stopped to fill up at the gas station-doubled-as-a-grocery-store. While setting up the pump, watched a half-jacked-up Chevy Silverado longbed hit the parking lot. Now here is the "flashback" for the Wayback: said truck had quadruple-sized knobby tires on the rear, and regular streets on the front.

For you city-bred types, the rear tires were big, ol' mud tires. The likes of which I haven't seen in damn near 20 years. Made me feel like I was pumping gas in Scurry on my way home to Kaufman, that little trailer outpost east of Dallas where I grew up. And yes, Scurry was smaller and home to more big ol' mud tires than Kaufman was.

I laughed a little at the sight of this truck, and even remembered Frankie V getting his red Ford F150 stuck out by City Lake at lunch time, with his big ol' mud tires.

Wayback. Wayback when.