Guess what car this is?

I get to see some awesome stuff sometimes.....

Astros Win The Pennant

OK, not quite yet, but by the weekend for sure. They are only 2 and a half games out after making up 6 games in one week. They will beat the Cardinals in a one game playoff at Minute Maid Park. You heard it here first.

I'm at a motel on a lake in Texas. The view is beautiful but the gnats and mosquitoes are fearsome. I forgot what living on the water was like. My room is full of gnats. My coffee is full of gnats. My nostrils are full of...wait...achooo.... Well they used to be full of gnats. At least the river rats haven't climbed the balcony yet.

Weekend Wrapup

I know it's a longshot, but we said they have to sweep the Cardinals and they did in very dramatic fashion. Wow. I still believe the wild card is possible, maybe even the Division. Only 3 1/2 out and there are still 7 games to go....

The Texans weren't quite so fortunate. Ouch, ouch, ouch. They looked horrible.

On the college front, it was an ok weekend. Arkansas/Alabama was an interesting game. "Wide Right" ain't just FSU anymore...

On this day in 1775 Ethan Allen was captured by the British during the Revolutionary War while attacking Montreal. He recovered to start and lead a successful expensive furniture company. What I want to know is...Montreal is in Canada. Were we trying to capture Canada?

In 1956, the first Trans-Atlantic telephone cable was layed. The first Trans-Atlantic busy signal soon followed.

I'm on the move this week so postings will really depend on what the hotel means by "Internet accessible".

Look Up

The place I love to go (and I don't usually plug outside websites) is www.heavens-above.com. This website has all the satellite sightings, shuttle, station, flares, etc etc etc. It's amazing how much stuff, and time, is put into this website. If you get a chance go visit it. Wander around til you get to ISS (International Space Station)sightings and it'll show you in detail the best opportunities. It's an awesome reasource and always accurate. I've used it to see itty bitty satellites that I never knew existed. One night I stood outside for like 30 minutes and saw something like 8 things float by. I never knew you could do this. I was (and still am) amazed.

Here is a link to the best sightings of Space Station from Knoxville. (there is a good one tomorrow.)

Easy, Easy

I could hear the tension in your voices last Thursday and now I know why. AAARGGGH. Why do we always make Florida look like a good team? And I don't know thwe final tally but we probably rushed for negative yards. And sacks weren't the problem. Except for that last one AAARgh.

Overall we played pretty good. But the running game stunk. There were a few holes and we missed them. It was just sad. Fortunately Notre Dame lost so I feel a little better.

Texas A&M was the luckiest this weekend. They were ahead late over Army who had played very, very well. A&M went for it with 4th and 2 around their own 30 with about 2 minutes to go. (Why not punt????) Army stuffed them for a 5 yard loss. Army worked it down until a goal line stand saved A&M. Dumb, dumb decsion by A&M coaching staff. Horrible decision. Reminded me of a fake punt tried against Georgia that cost us the game 30 years ago.

Aaaaarghgh!

I "upgraded" to a fancier, newer version of blogger a while back and ever since I did posting pictures has become a real chore. Most of the time it acts like it's working, but never finishes. This has really impacted my desire to blog. It takes some time anyway, but trying to do it and having the software not cooperate is really frustrating. Hopefully it will get fixed soon. I just tried uploading a new cartoon and it won't work.


AAAAAARRRGH!!!!

Whew!

It's really nerve wracking to follow a game by only looking at the ESPN tickler on the bottom of the tv screen. You see us behind, then ahead, then way ahead and start to relax. Then all of a sudden it's almost tied. And then you cringe as the next update rolls around.

Glad we hung in there. We dropped to 13 in the polls but that is ok. We'll do better after beating Florida this weekend.

The Pig

Way back in 1979, ESPN was born on this day. Yes Virginia, there was a day when you didn't have eleventeen football games on tv every Saturday. There was the Wide World of Sports....and one game on Saturday. ...and that game was usually Notre Dame vs somebody or Army/Navy....it was a dark, dark time.

Yesterday, way back in 1916, the first self-service grocery store opened in Memphis Tennessee. Before that, you asked a clerk to go get your stuff. Now, you can get whatever you want your ownself. Was it a HEB? Kroger? Safeway? Randalls? Nope, it was my favorite chain...Piggly Wiggly. You can get official Pig t-shirts off their web-site. A great gift idea....

The smokehouse picture is from Lost Creek golf course. You overthunk it....

The Pig

Way back in 1979, ESPN was born on this day. Yes Virginia, there was a day when you didn't have eleventeen football games on tv every Saturday. There was the Wide World of Sports....and one game on Saturday. ...and that game was usually Notre Dame vs somebody or Army/Navy....it was a dark, dark time.

Yesterday, way back in 1916, the first self-service grocery store opened in Memphis Tennessee. Before that, you asked a clerk to go get your stuff. Now, you can get whatever you want your ownself. Was it a HEB? Kroger? Safeway? Randalls? Nope, it was my favorite chain...Piggly Wiggly. You can get official Pig t-shirts off their web-site. A great gift idea....

The smokehouse picture is from Lost Creek golf course. You overthunk it....

The Pig

Way back in 1979, ESPN was born on this day. Yes Virginia, there was a day when you didn't have eleventeen football games on tv every Saturday. There was the Wide World of Sports....and one game on Saturday. ...and that game was usually Notre Dame vs somebody or Army/Navy....it was a dark, dark time.

Yesterday, way back in 1916, the first self-service grocery store opened in Memphis Tennessee. Before that, you asked a clerk to go get your stuff. Now, you can get whatever you want your ownself. Was it a HEB? Kroger? Safeway? Randalls? Nope, it was my favorite chain...Piggly Wiggly. You can get official Pig t-shirts off their web-site. A great gift idea....

The smokehouse picture is from Lost Creek golf course. You overthunk it....

Mystery Shed

Anybody know what this is a picture of??? Where it was taken???

It's Here

Much to the chagrine of my wife...football season is here. I vow not to be glued to the tube this year, but I do enjoy an occasional game.

Looks like CN got off to a good start already with a 44-0 thrashing of Webber International. I thought those guys just made b-b-q grills.

I'm a little worried about Cal. This could be a really tough openener. Let's hope we got a few things figured out.

Feetball Preview

It officially starts tonight. High school and college games are all over the place. So it's time for the big Feetball preview. Here we go...

Big 12: Oklahoma reels from the loss of it's QB. It's enough to ruin their season. Nebraska is good but not quite good enough. Texas A&M likes their QB but nothing else. They pull together a nice, if not spectacular season. Texas dreams of a repeat, but there's no Vince. They lose three in a surprise. Baylor wins six in a surprise. So who is it??? Who wins the Big 12???

Texas Tech shines in all aspects. New QB sets records all over the place and defense is surprisingly good. Tortillas fly. Red Raiders win the Big 12 in an upset and make a fairly big splash nationally.

Nationally: Ohio State is good, but loses two. Notre Dame is a bust and loses five. That's right, five. The ROT returns to prominence and finishes second in the SEC to the New National Champion....Auburn.

That's it...enjoy the season

Last Year This Time

It's the one year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, if you didn't already know that. It's amazing how much damage that one storm did. It's also amazing at how many folks are still struggling after a year. But I suppose that shouldn't really be a surprise, considering the devastation. The whole thing is just unbelievable.

Rain, Rain, Rain

It rained hard, hard, hard on Saturday and I stayed wet all day. We had a soccer tournament among other things. It's like real futbol where you play regardless of the weather. It's just hard to move the ball when it's sitting in 8 inches of water. The worse part as a coach is that your feet stay wet all day. I finally ditched my socks and just went with shoes. But my feet hurt and were one big wrinkled mess.

I'm glad I was never a soldier and had to march for three days in the rain.

It did clear up enough for the balloon festival to continue. I'll post a few pictures in the next couple of days. This website has had some difficulty in posting pictures the last couple of weeks.

Still searching

I'm still searching for the perfect online information source for the Vols. It's not Knoxnews for sure. I may find it in a small town paper like the Wartburg Times or something.

We have a big balloon festival this weekend. It's pretty cool to see a hundered or so hot air balloons flying by at one time. I've taken three flights but I've retired from flying. I'm not real great with heights and I remember that shortly after we takeoff. My memory is better this year.

No Help

I'm sorry, but thanks for the suggestion. There's no way I could read the Nashville paper for Tennessee Vols news. First, it's Vanderbilt Country so they'd be biased not perfectly impartial like the Knoxville paper. Secondly, Nashville stole our Oilers so I can't act like I like them.

I could read the Maryville paper, if it contained any actual articles. How about the Chattanooga paper? I seem to remember they had good coverage of fastpitch softball. Do they cover the Vols too? Are they free?

Astros Woes

We are now like 7 games out of the wild card race. Which doesn't sound impossible except there are 45 teams between us and the wild card. Everybody in the National League stinks. We still have hope.

How's Big Orange football coming along? I don't get to read too much about it cause KnoxNews requires you to pay to read about Tenn football. Their whole site is free except for Tenn football. I can read about any worldly event, not just how our offensive line is shaping up.

The snake house isn't mine. It was a fellow employees house, they just wanted me to tell them what kind of snake it was. That's part of my job you see, snake handling. It is a rat snake. Apparently, the homeowner used to have rats.....

Texas Wildlife

Ever had a snake like this on your house????

Napolean!

Today is Napolean Bonaparte's birthday, stick one hand in your shirt day. And...way, way back in 1969 the Woodstock Music and Art Festival opened in New York. In remembrance of Woodstock, walk around in mud and don't wash your feet for three days.

Alex was 27 yesterday and he's still single. His momma cooked supper for him yesterday, and today he had to go to work. Welcome to old age dude.