Picture Monday-Ghost Signs, March 31, 2008

Monday again. More pictures. This time pictures from around Waco. Most are pictures of ghost signs; remnants of long past signs or ads painted on the sides of buildings. We start our tour in East Waco on Elm Street. I am not sure what the building was but I know they sold Fisk Tires.

Next we have two shots of the old Texas Fireproof Storage building on Mary Street next to the old railroad tracks through town.

Just across the way from Texas Fireproof Storage was the old Central Freight Lines building in it's signature green, also on Mary Street by the tracks. This is where my father worked for many years before they built a new terminal and offices in West Waco on Waco Drive. My father worked there a few years before passing away.

Next I have two pictures of and near the old Waco Theatre on Austin Avenue. In the first picture you can barely make out the the "Wac" near the fire escape stairs in this picture. The "o Theatre" is easier to see in person rather than the picture. This sign was painted on the side of the theatre. The linen cuffs and collars sign is on the building next to the old Waco Theatre. The Waco Theatre is now known as the Waco Hippodrome.

The next two pictures are not of ghost signs. They are of the ALICO Building. The ALICO Building was the home of American Life Insurance Company and American Amicable Life Insurance Company. The company was chartered in Waco, TX in 1909. There is a different American Life Insurance Company with general offices in Delaware. The one in Delaware was originally named Asia Life Insurance Company. I just thought they looked good and wanted to include them. The ALICO withstood the Waco Tornado of 1953 that completely tore down the old R.T. Dennis Furniture Company building just acroos the street on Austin Avenue.

The last picture is a close up of the American flag on top of the ALICO. I love it!

© 2008 Barry T HorstThis work is licensed under a
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Please visit the Giveaway of the Day at the bottom of the page for free software downloads daily.

What A Saturday, Wal-Mart T&L No More

Here I am, Back to my same old energy wasting ways. I am no longer green. You can see this because the print in the blog is now black again. Apparently there are not enough eco-friendly, green loving, quality of life conscious blog readers that read and enjoy my blog. I only got one response to my "GOING GREEN" post. They said they liked the regular posting better. In fact they said they liked blue better. I think I'll switch to a shade of blue for awhile.

This was a spur of the moment decision. I will search CSS code for a better shade later.

Now, to the doings from yesterday. Uhhh, that would be Saturday. I woke up bright and early. My agenda included getting the oil changed, washing the truck, rotating the tires, and getting the groceries procured. Upon later reflection these plans seemed rather optimistic.

First, I head out of the house on my way to get my tires rotated at Wal-Mart Tire & Lube (T&L). When I get there the man tells me that there will be about a 2 hour wait. Since I had other plans I tell him I'll leave and come back later. Away I go to my next destination.

I get to Genie Car Wash and get in line for an oil change. They get right on it and have ready within 30 minutes. Genie is great. You get a free car wash with each oil change. I'm certainly up for free. After I pay for the oil change I head back to Wal-Mart T&L. BIG MISTAKE!

Back at Wal-Mart T&L I pull up to the line again. The guy acts like he never saw me before. I reminded him that I was the tire rotation from earlier. (Now this is where it starts to go downhill!) I didn't really like the attitude or his way of talking to me. Anyway, I start giving him the information for the truck. Then he announces that he needs to look at the tires to see if they are OK. He pokes around on the tires, mutters to himself, and tells me they don't look good. They are worn on the edges. Now I think to myself, "That's why I want the tires rotated." He wants to look at the other tires. Then announces that this must be done because, "...it's my job and my family on the line." OK! He looks at the other tire on the front and said it doesn't look good either. Now he wants to get the "tire man". I suppose the tire man is a super hero of some sort; you know like Superman or The Tick or whoever. Anyway Tire Man comes over and he joins in on the chorus of doom and gloom. By now I am learning among other things that the tires are no good, they have dry rot, the tread will peel off if I drive 60 0r 70 mph, the side of the truck will be ruined, I will die, there are chunks missing from the tires, it's their job and their families on the line. I suppose they plan on sending their family with me somewhere next time I plan on driving 60 or 70 mph. ???

I tell them the tires have only 22K miles and 2 years on them. They can't have dry rot. They proceed to show me the tell tale evidence of dry rot. I tell the two men that if the tires have dry rot I will return to the dealer; after all, they only have 22K miles and 2 years on them. I am told that the dealer won't cover it. I begin to see what they see-$$$$$. I believe they want to sell new tires not a rotation. I move on and leave Wal-Mart T&L. In fact, I instructed my daughter not to take her car there for any automotive work.

I now take the truck to the dealer who performs the requested work and does a fine job on top of it. While at Allen Samuel's Chevrolet I discuss the problem of Wal-Mart T&L with the director of the service department. He came out and personally inspected the tires and listened to the dire reports had received earlier. He announced that tires "do not" have dry rot. The wear on the outer edges are evidence that the tires need to be rotated. DUHHH! Why couldn't Wal-Mart T&L figure that out. He said that the small chunks missing are from gravel, glass, and the softer rubber used in these tires. As mentioned earlier they performed the rotation, balance, and alignment. The only down side was I was without the truck until 4:30 PM.

I then go to the grocery store, HEB, and start on the groceries. I forget to go to the pharmacy and pick up my prescription. I go one night with out the prescription. I woke up this morning and was relieved. I was still the same person with no apparent ill effects of missing my medicine last night. No the medicine isn't for that. I take Metformin for my blood sugar. It was 115 mg/dl this morning. Not bad for missing my dosage last night.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day at the bottom of the page for free software downloads daily.

Retro Saturday, March 29, 2008

When I was younger my dad worked at the General Office of Central Freight Lines. They had a warehouse where they sold damaged merchandise every Tuesday at noon. It was called Central Salvage. The company would bring in merchandise that they were shipping that had become damaged in transit. The purpose of the sale was to recoup the claims they paid out for the damaged merchandise.

I can remember quite well my mother packing me into the car and driving down to my dad's office just before lunch on Tuesdays and meeting my dad. Salvage would open at 12:00 Noon for Central employees and their families. Later in the afternoon it would open to the general public. By noon the crowd was pretty large and there was always jockeying for position. When the doors opened it was a race to see who could get the best items. My parent's did much of the Christmas shopping there throughout the year.

When I was in junior high in the late 60's my father got me Mattel's Major Matt Mason set from Salvage. I had great fun with it; playing with the set endlessly. I had the Major as well as Sgt. Storm. I had the crawler, space cannon, and several other extras. I still have the set in the original box. Needless to say, it is showing it's age. Below are a couple of YouTube videos showing the commercials for the set.

© 2008 Barry T HorstThis work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day at the bottom of the page for free software downloads daily.

CPR, AHA, AED, And Other Letters

I had to take CPR training a few days ago for my job. It has changed quite a bit since the last time I took the training. When I first took the training the AHA suggested a 15/2 ratio of chest compressions/breaths. Now it is suggested to use a 30/2 ratio. This is a concession to AIDS and the fact that many people are not real excited about doing the breathing. I can understand. It is certainly not tops on my list of fun things to do.

They are now also emphasizing using the new Automatic External Defibrillators (AED). I got to learn how to use them. There is one a few feet from my classroom door, across from the nurses station. It is really pretty simple. They are computerized and walk you through the procedure. About the only you could get shocked is if you are actually touching the person that it is being used on. If someone is clowning around and decides to take it off the wall and slap it on someone and shock 'em just for grins they will be sorely disappointed. The internal sensors will detect a normal heartbeat and will not let it give a charge. That's good.

The high spot of the training was when a fellow teacher was practicing dislodging a foreign item from the throat of a baby. The training set the mannequin up and gave instructions and then placed the plug (foreign object) in the mannequins mouth. The teacher followed all the rules: placed the baby on her arm, began to use firm blows on the back with the heel and palm of her hand. After 2 or 3 blows the baby's face flies off. And then we all roared with laughter. I guess she was thinking about her 5th graders at the time.

© 2008 Barry T Horst This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day at the bottom of the page for free software downloads daily.

GOING GREEN

Did I miss something?

Apparently the color of choice has changed. I have always liked the color blue. The new color of choice is GREEN.

We got the April 2008 Country Living magazine in the mail recently. Green; REUSE; RECYCLE; REFRESH; The whole thing. On the inside it had The Country Living Green Guide; 50+ Ways To Make A Difference. I like #17 - Bulb Basics. It suggests that you drop the incandescent and go with the Compact Fluorescent. I've done that in part of the house. I don't like it. I turn 'em on and what do you think they do? They splutter and flicker and start out dim and have to warm up to get brighter. For an old man that makes it hard to see right away. They cost so much I feel like I need to use them instead of chucking 'em and starting all over again with the good old fashioned, heat throwing incandescents.

Same thing with the April 2008 issue of Metropolitan Home. This time Renovation Goes Green. They purport to have advice from top eco-experts. I don't know. I didn't read it. It wasn't my cup of Green Tea.
And now to top it all off I saw an ad from Wal-Mart touting Campbell's Tomato and Chicken Noodle Soup for Earth Day as being green and good for the environment. The label is green and the ad informs us that the can is recyclable; like it wasn't before? The ad also tells us that it costs less in packaging and to ship it because it is condensed. ????

It's always been condensed. So isn't it really the same as before?
I suppose that green is the new gold and if you advertise that your product is green then everyone will flock to it.
Sounds good to me. I think I'll try it!
For the rest of this week this blog is going GREEN in an effort to REUSE, RECYCLE, and REFRESH. By doing this Horst Household Happenings will now be eco-friendly, it will cost less to package and ship, and best of all save all coastlines of the world by keeping the polar ice caps frozen. Somehow the color green does this. I think it has to do with the way the heat energy from the sun is absorbed or something by the green instead of focusing it's deadly powers on the polar ice caps.
PS: Let me know by Saturday if you think I should keep the blog green or revert back to my tacky energy wasting ways on Sunday.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day at the bottom of the page for free software downloads daily.

Take 'er Apart And See What Makes 'er Tick

When I was a little boy the toys I had were simple and relatively inexpensive compared with toys today. When my kids were younger (20 years ago) their toys were relatively inexpensive compared with toys today.

Toys today are like expensive, especially when your toy is a computer and you like to take your toys apart. I did just that not quite a month ago. Refer back my post from February 26. I mentioned briefly my experience with dismantling an external hard drive. Apparently this runs in the family.

My daughter Julie (22 years old) brought something to me last night. "Hey Dad," she said; "Look what I took out of my laptop!" She shows me a wad of dust. Then she tells me that it's all over the inside of her laptop. Then she asks if I have any canned air.

I tell her, "No, I used it all when I took my computer apart last week to get rid of all the dust and hair." Then I tell her, "That stuff is expensive, just blow on it!"

Later, Julie comes in the bedroom and tells her Mother that she put her laptop back together and she had lots of screws leftover. Chris told her that maybe her Dad or brother would like to take it apart and try to find where they go.

"No thanks," she said. "It still works; except the screen!"

It turns out that a couple of nights ago one of her cats knocked the laptop off the night table. The tumble to the floor broke the screen off. Julie had taken it apart to she if she could get the screen to work again. No such luck.

Apple Ipod, look out. Here comes Julie.

© 2008 Barry T Horst


This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

Please visit the Giveaway of the Day at the bottom of the page for free software downloads daily.