mkultra25

My wife took a group of folks to the Amtrak station this morning to see it and said there was quite a large crowd. Almost an hour wait to board the museum car exhibit, and people were apparently having to park as far away as the Walgreens at Studemont and Washington. She saw EMS treating several people for heat-related illness. I was going to take the light rail down to the Preston station and walk over, but woke up today feeling under the weather and reconsidered.

Wouldn't it be nice if someone at TCEQ actually grew a pair and mandated meaningful consequences whenever the levels of carcinogenic compounds in the air exceed acceptable thresholds? Perhaps the KuukiBot Twitter account could finally be retired then. Yeah, I know, dare to dream...

I'm pretty sure it was Sam White Oldsmobile until sometime in the 1970s. One of my clearest childhood memories is sitting in the showroom with my parents while they closed a deal to buy a new '68 Delta 88. Assuming the property is redeveloped and the existing structures demolished, I'll miss the service department building, which is one of my favorite buildings. It's been there almost unchanged since the property first became an auto dealership almost 70 years ago.

ITYM "high-volume delta-8 extraction facility". At least until the Lege tries to outlaw delta-8 again. Maybe they should've called it "H-town Labs", where "H" = "herb".

Did not realize there were electric Mokes now. They pretty much look the same as the old, gas-powered models. Or the famous Taxi from The Prisoner: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini_Moke

It was Robinson Public Warehouse, basically a public storage facility. It was originally the first Sears store in Houston before the 1935 flood ultimately resulted in a move to the store on S. Main that is now the Ion. Some background from http://www.offthekuff.com/wp/?p=13755: I'd be surprised if there was any activity going on there during the years it was Robinson Public Warehouse that requires remediation now. My mother worked there for a couple of years in the late 1960s, and I don't recall her ever mentioning anything taking place there that would be outside the normal scope of what you'd expect at a storage facility.

Similar address but different buildings. Rice Food Market/Rice Epicurean was at 2501 Rice Blvd., Weingarten's was at 2512 University.

Findagrave has a picture of his gravesite. Alvin Jr is also buried with his parents: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39099844/alvin-scheler-moody Edit: dug a little deeper after noticing that Audrey Moody Ley was Alvin Sr.'s daughter. Her Findagrave listing provides more background info on the family:

Awesome. I can just imagine the howls of outrage from the tifosi that someone would dare to defile a Ferrari with a lowly Honda engine (ignoring the fact that Honda is arguably Ferrari's equal when it comes to engineering). Along opposite lines, Ryan Tuerck swapped a Ferrari 458 engine into a Toyota FRS/GT86, creating a potent combo that you don't see every day tailor-made for drifting: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ferrari+engined+toyota

Haven't seen any pictures yet, but it was mentioned in Houston Mod's email regarding the Mod of the Month that the Media Center was demolished this week.

A few years back I was driving down Main toward the Medical Center in a rainstorm. While I was sitting in traffic at a stoplight, a woman pulled up next to me and began gesticulating wildly in my general direction. I was momentarily worried, wondering if my car was on fire or something equally serious, only to discover when I finally rolled my window down to talk to her that the "emergency" she was pointing and waving at was that it was raining, and I didn't have my headlights turned on. I was truly at a loss for words, and didn't think to check for out-of-state plates on her car.

One can dare to dream.

I remember when the Museum District townhouses they designed were going up on Milford/Graustark in the mid-80s. At the time, there was quite a bit of buzz surrounding them.

2311 Bissonnet was the former site of longtime antiquarian book dealer Detering Book Gallery, before they downsized/relocated and Antica Osteria repurposed the building into a restaurant. Sad to see it go, it was a neat old house that I spent quite a bit of time in when it was still Detering. It had all sorts of interesting nooks and crannies, including a couple of hidden rooms accessible via bookcases that were mounted on hinges.

I have a friend with a longstanding tradition of circumnavigating 610 in its entirety whenever he buys a new car. Perhaps the sportbike crowd could properly inaugurate the new Elysian Viaduct by pulling wheelies across its entire span. In a relatively discreet manner, of course.

AutoWeek ran the same article yesterday. Sucks that Houston is losing an NHRA National event, let alone all of the other events that run there. It's hard to tell if the property owners got an offer they couldn't refuse, or if they just decided that 35 years was a good run and it was time to pack it in. I wonder if anyone else will decide to build another track in the Houston area capable of hosting National events, or if the economics just don't make sense anymore for new venues. NHRA teams have certainly had some sponsorship woes in recent years, and there's the uncertainty surrounding the looming transition in the automotive industry from internal combustion engines to EVs. EVs are certainly not lacking in speed, and the NHRA has a new EV class debuting next year, but it's sure not the same thing as seeing, hearing, and feeling a Top Fuel car going down the track at full chat. Update: Not long after posting the above, I ran across a new piece in AW with a lot more details regarding what led to the sale. A Belgian logistics service provider needed additional warehouse space, and had engaged the track owners in talks back in 2018, which ultimately led to a sale agreement in 2019 with a four-year leaseback provision which expires next year. There were apparently subsequent discussions about extending the leaseback another two years, but that ultimately did not come to pass. Why NHRA-affiliated Houston Raceway Park Is Closing in 2022

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Their website says John Georgalos owns John's Xpress Lube. Although I still can't remember it, I'm certain that the John of John's Exxon had a different last name. I checked HCAD but it looks like the John's Exxon property was owned by Exxon, so no clues on his name there either.

That is/was the site of the Family Bingo building. Not sure when they closed, but I'm guessing that the pandemic probably had more than a little to do with the closure.

I used to do the same, for the same reason, when I lived nearby. That was when it was still John's Exxon, way before it became Montrose Car Care. Can't remember John's last name now, but he (along with several of his employees) was Greek. It was one of several Greek-owned auto repair places in the area, along with Demo's and Poutous in the Rice Village, both of which are still around.

Be forewarned that this contains a bit of rough language from Yankees fans. Also be forewarned that you may not be able to stop laughing.

Glad to see that I'm not the only one who was focused on the really important issue at hand.

If Trevor Bauer wasn't currently a bit distracted, he'd probably be accusing Altuve of using steroids.

The Last Night at the Media Center

They held the final film screening there several weeks ago (Eagle Pennell's LAST NIGHT AT THE ALAMO, quite an appropriate choice under the circumstances), followed by an open house the following afternoon for anyone who wanted to pay a visit one last time before the process of prepping the building for demolition began. Inside the projection booth, former students, regulars, and other cinephiles had inscribed their memories on the walls.