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mkultra25

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Everything posted by mkultra25

  1. mkultra25
    Nope, not a bar - the Center for Pursuit used to be located on Allen Parkway and was previously known as the Center for the Retarded, then as the Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation before landing on the current name: https://thecenterforpursuit.org/ Their main focus is adults with developmental disabilities but they provide some elder services as well.
  2. mkultra25
    When someone says "day care" the usual assumption is that it's in reference to children, so the "adult" qualifier is necessary. "Adult day care" is generally understood to refer to places that provide services to elder adults (often with dementia or requiring medical care) or those with developmental disabilities in order to give full-time family caregivers some respite.
  3. mkultra25
  4. mkultra25
    There are several major data centers located there (CenturyLink, Sungard, CyrusOne, probably a few others). I'm not sure what led to it originally transitioning from another shopping center development to a data center hub, but it must've happened some time in the mid-to-late 1990s, as that's where the Houston point of presence for Enron's broadband network was located for a year or two before Skilling and Fastow managed to drive the company into the ditch.
  5. mkultra25
    The Greenspoint area has been depressed for so long that many people don't have any memories of it ever thriving. It used to be very nice when the mall first opened in 1976, and all the development that followed (multiple hotels that made the most of their proximity to IAH, as well as all of the office buildings) seemed to be the harbinger of a sustained regional boom. Unfortunately, the oil bust kicked in a few years later, and the area never recovered (although if your only frame of reference was Facebook, you'd be led to believe that the proximate cause of all of Greenspoint's problems was Metro extending bus routes out to the area, thus bringing in the "riff-raff" that destroyed everything that was Good and Decent). Having grown up nearby, I'd love to see Greenspoint undergo a renaissance, but it probably will take something significant happening with the mall for any sort of revitalization to gain serious traction.
  6. mkultra25
    That sounds like the place I took my dad to earlier this year for the first visit he'd had to a barbershop since the pandemic started (not the first haircut, as my wife had cut his hair a couple of times in the interim). On Greens Road in the same strip center as Brown Sugar's BBQ, and the barber on duty there only spoke Spanish. Don't recall if they had bars on the window but they did have loud music and a pool table in the front of the shop. I think for a basic haircut it was around $15 including tip.
  7. mkultra25
    The County Judge race just got a lot more interesting with Martina Dixon throwing her hat into the ring. Humble ISD president Martina Dixon to challenge Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo in 2022 election
  8. mkultra25
    I had forgotten about The Book Collector when this thread started. I visited it a few times but was not a regular customer, not least for many of the reasons you mentioned. As far as Becker's, I haven't been there in years, but I had a pretty negative experience with an online order I placed with them through ABE for a fairly hard-to-find book related to local history. Ordered the book, order was processed, no book after a month. Emailed them, and got an apology for the package never arriving and a promise to send out another copy via expedited shipping. Three weeks later, the purported replacement copy had not arrived. Emailed again, another apology and a promise to issue a refund as they could not locate another copy of the book. Several days later, still no refund, emailed again, got a perfunctory response that they would be in touch if they ever located another copy of the book. I don't recall whether I ever actually got the refund, but the entire experience was enough to sour me on ever doing business with them again.
  9. mkultra25
    I have yet to be convinced that the haircut one gets at a "craft" barbershop justifies the price premium over the haircut one gets at any number of old-school, no-frills barbershops. To each his own.
  10. mkultra25
    Looking at recent posts on their FB page, it's pretty clear that like many other restaurants, they've been struggling with staff shortages for some time now. I certainly hope they reopen soon, as I would dearly hate to have to add them to the mental list I've been keeping of places that have permanently closed as either a direct or indirect result of the pandemic.
  11. mkultra25
    There was previously a for-lease listing for it on LoopNet indicating that it had been renovated in 2018. https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/2727-North-Loop-W-Houston-TX/3941083/
  12. mkultra25
    Therein lies the crux of the problem. Cars *have* become way too safe in a sense, in that the proliferation of electronic driver aids and more restrictive motor vehicle safety standards governing automobile design and construction have led to both atrophied driving skills and an increased sense of invulnerability behind the wheel. One used to have to have a significantly higher level of skill to operate a vehicle, when manual transmissions were far more common and there weren't any computers to provide stability controls and anti-lock brakes. Now that people have become accustomed to cars coddling them, they know they don't have to be too precise in their driving, so they get complacent in their heavily-reinforced steel-and-aluminum cocoons. Such complacency apparently leads to the mistaken belief that the laws of physics no longer apply to them, if the number of F-250s hovering right on the rear bumpers of the cars in front of them on an average day on any Houston-area highway is any indication. I have a friend that can always be counted on to put forth the spike-in-the-center-of-the-steering-wheel solution whenever the topic of dangerous driving comes up. I've always felt there's a case to be made for teaching people to drive in 1970s Porsche Turbos, where the new driver will quickly get up close and familiar with important concepts such as drop-throttle trailing oversteer and turbo lag followed by gobs of light-switch power. Perhaps all that's missing to fully impart respect and caution is the aforementioned spike.
  13. mkultra25
    It shouldn't be too much to ask that obtaining a driver's license should require demonstrating some level of proficiency in operating a vehicle instead of just barely adequate competence. This is the case in many other countries. But that ship sailed when the majority of people began regarding driving as a right as opposed to a privilege. Combine lowest-common-denominator licensing with selective amnesia when it comes to the responsibilities associated with rights, and you have a recipe for disaster.
  14. mkultra25
    There's gonna be hell to pay if the Tel-Wink gets gentrified.
  15. mkultra25
    If a traffic signal is out, it's supposed to be treated as a 4-way stop. But this is Houston we're talking about, where many drivers think nothing of blowing through a light that's been red for 15 seconds at 40 mph. Battery backup systems for traffic signals do exist, but I'm almost certain that COH signals do not have them. Old discussion from Reddit about this: Why don't stoplights have battery backups so that if the power goes out, they don't default to flashing red?
  16. mkultra25
    Quite a few copies listed at ABE in the $10-30 range: https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?sts=t&cm_sp=SearchF-_-home-_-Results&an=baxter&tn=a+line+on+texas&kn=
  17. mkultra25
    What @august948 said. You would be well advised to get professional legal advice before proceeding further. It's not necessarily a dealbreaker (there are more than a few houses in my area that are in the same boat, either with the house itself or a detached garage), but if Reliant needs to do construction or maintenance in the easement and your structure is impeding their access to the easement, guess who's going to win? Strictly anecdotally, I'm not aware of anyone in my area who's ever had a problem related to a structure having been built onto an easement, but that certainly doesn't mean that such problems never happen.
  18. mkultra25
    Assuming Lick is the Austin-based premium ice cream shop (which appears to have expanded to San Antonio, so a Houston outpost certainly makes sense if they're continuing to expand their Texas footprint). Their ice creams have been available at H-E-B for a while now. https://www.ilikelick.com/
  19. mkultra25
    "I'm a doctor, not a highway engineer!" said Bones, as he pondered the body of a redshirt who'd dared to venture onto I-45.
  20. mkultra25
    I wondered if there was a connection with Rice's Scientia Institute and the long-running lecture series it sponsors, but if there is, it's not readily apparent. https://scientia.rice.edu/ But this isn't Scientia Architects' first project at Rice, either - had to hunt a bit but found this in the background section of the firm's principal architect:
  21. mkultra25
    If there's ever an episode of Family Feud featuring the category "Sentiments Most Frequently Expressed by Houstonians", there's a good chance this would be the #1 answer.
  22. mkultra25
    Never underestimate the capacity of Houstonians to line up for premium ice cream. There's always a line out the door during peak times at Jeni's Ice Creams in the Heights, likewise at Tiny's Milk and Cookies in West U.
  23. mkultra25
    Well, there's this, but that's probably not exactly what you had in mind: Off-duty officer killed in shooting at Galleria-area restaurant, suspects still on the run
  24. mkultra25
    I'd bet some of the folks in this Facebook group would have more info about this building - might be worth posting a question there: Montrose Houston Hippie Tribe Pretty sure Bob Novotney's a group member, but there are quite a few others who have firsthand knowledge of many aspects of Montrose history dating back to the 60s.
  25. mkultra25
    I quit being surprised a long time ago at the number of people who still haven't figured out that it's far better to underpromise and overdeliver than the other way around.
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