Gary

I think that is too far.

LOL!

Maybe not all. Maybe some are. Where is TheNiche and his simple Venn diagrams when you need him?

Regardless, Why do you find a Dichotomy with those that feed the homeless and at the same time are concerned with their property values?

The propane fueled generators are simple, nothing more than a designed orifice or manifold that sucks the fuel into the manifold once it is started. Probably the most important thing to know about these new generators is the fact that all the engines are CRAP!.. Briggs especially, and Briggs did not warranty one single engine out of 100 we diagnosed, all had been ran low of oil and the connecting rods will break, every time! Check the oil every time you fuel and change it every other fueling, they scarcely hold a half a quart of oil in the crank case and you cannot over fill them or they will suck the oil into the carb. Thanks to our government who mandated crankcase vents routed back to the engine, they think they're cars ya know.. I'm staying with my 600 watt Honda and can manage with coffee, TV and a fan. I actually lucked out, my hot water heater is well insulated and I was able to bathe with reasonable warm water for 7 days before it ran out, then like pennies from heaven the 7th day the power came back on@

Were the warranties mainly new generators? I'm curious because mine was stolen and I'm once again in the market for a new one. I certainly won't buy Briggs now.

Thanks for the info usc619. I'll be forwarding to all of my Katy friends, as well as writing a couple of letters myself.

After mapping the address listed, I can't figure out where 9 plus acres exists there. I know there's a decent sized parcel next to the existing apartment complex, but it doesn't seem to be more than about 5 acres.

Awesome, maybe they will renovate some of the team while they are at it .

No Joke! I'd also ask that Mclain hire Phil Garner back.

Portland, SF and Seattle are beautiful...Atlanta?

I didn't see this post till just now:

A sex shop? In the age of the internet? Not likely to happen, but ok, I'll bite. There used to be a Zone D'Erotica near my current home, but that blasted internet drove it away years before I moved here. Now it's an Autozone, or maybe it's the Krystal next door. Either way, I don't care in the least. There's a headshop probably no more than a mile from my doorstep, but I really couldn't care less about that either. What really annoys me is having to drive through a 20 mph school zone (on a four lane road no less) in order to avoid the traffic hell that is 1960. When I'd initially located that shortcut to I-45, school wasn't in session. I MOVED HERE EXPECTING I'D NEVER HAVE TO DRIVE THROUGH A SCHOOL ZONE!!!!!! Bjtch, bjtch, moan, moan, whine, whine, etc.

You need to take a lude, man. If your not familiar with what that is, it's a late 70's/80's drug that will make you forget your problems, and quick. Oh, and with an 8 pack of "Little Kings", it'll keep ya there for the night.

Seriously, your taking this snob thing WAY to personal.

Seriously, can we lay off the 'bungalows as people' rhetoric? Your argument is that a 90 year old house, one of thousands in Houston and 10s of thousands in the US, is more important than the person who owns it, so important that the government may swoop in and effectively take it from me, merely allowing me to live in it, but only if I fix it up the way they say. It is all so disgusting, so reminiscent of a communist country. I mean, really, people stood up in public and said this district is 'for the greater public good'? It's all just about enough to make me barf in my historic spitton on my back porch.

Careful Red, you almost sound republican here.

You must have been in Southern California. The water temperature in San Francisco is currently 59.2 degrees according to NOAA.

As a former resident of So Cal, I can tell you that even in the middle of the Summer the water can be on the cool side. There's a reason why allot of surfers wear wet suits on the Pacific.

Sounds about right. Unusual things can happen when an oil bust leaves vast numbers of large, highly visible, and conveniently-located commercial properties economically and functionally obsolete, completely unmarketable.

One wonders what's going on in Detroit...

The oil bust was way before the time that I'm talking about. The music industry was kicking hard in Houston from around 86 through the mid nineties and started really going down around 2000. Of course there is the exception of Hip Hop (Screw) that did well after the turn of the century, but it to has died off.

Definitely lack of interest. It's all about demand. By way of contrast,I spent last weekend in New Orleans for a local jazz

festival. Two straight days with tons of of people out in 100 degree heat with very little shade, dancing like crazy. All for local acts. It's an unfair comparison, of course, but it really hits you what a difference a deep musical culture brings to a city. Their jazz and funk scene is one of, if not the primary reason we go there so frequently. I'd say on a yearly basis, we go to more live club shows there than we do

in Houston. Ridiculous when you think about it.

But progress comes even to NOLA: one of the latest battles in the French Quarter is businesses and residents attempting to

restrict street musicians to specific locations and hours.(i.e. move them off of Jackson Square and Royal St) Predicatalby, it's largely the new money/new residents with their suburban sensiblities who are pushing for the ordinance. It sounds innocuous, but playing on the corner for toruists is exaclty how Kermit Ruffins and Trombone Shorty and dozens others, especially brass

band guys, start their careers.

Good post, however, it doesn't seem to be that Houston has a total lack of interest, rather it has a lack of promotion. As I've said twice, there is very little civic pride where music is concerned here. It's very strange because at one time this place was hoppin. It seems to be more about business now than moving the industry forward which would help the clubs in the long run. Of course it's very difficult to compare Houstons scene to NO, especially where great jazz in concerned, but Houston was great as a multi genre city in the eighties and nineties.

By the way, Times Square is lame. Manhattanites avoid it like the plague... because of all the tourists.

By experience I can tell you that it's also a great place to get hit by a car.

Houston's wide spread club industry was a blessing at one time and had more large showcase clubs than any city I've played in, save L.A. At one time, I remember at least 8 in town. Now it's down to 3 and two of them are oversized for local showcases (Wharehouse Live & Meridian). I'm not so sure that Zoning or any law has to do with the downfall, I think it's a loss of civic pride in the scene.

Last week's Press ran a cover story that said the music scene here was particularly good, though I grant that was for more of what can be called outlaw country or Texas country. Is the quality of the scene here genre specific? I understand hip-hop, the blues and tejano also have a great scene here.

The Press is generally very politcal musically... What I mean is that they are locked into a certain musical camp each year and do little to move new/original acts forward, regardless of genre. That's not to say that they're doing nothing to promote the Houston scene, but they're mainly promoting the same peeps over and over. They've done very little for anyone locally that doesn't already have a regional following.

When I first got to Houston the scene was fabulous, in fact, one of the best in the country. Club owners were really pushing the good acts, not just here, but across Texas and Louisiana, and really took pride in the local scene. Now, not so much, if at all. There are still a few, but most have lost the civic pride that once existed. Even hip hop has taken a downward turn here.

Fortunately I've made enough money in Europe and Japan to last it through, but I'm settling down now into session work, and it's almost non existant here anymore. I'm not an Austin bandwagon jumper, but it looks like that's my next stop. I sure as hell don't want to go to Nashville.

Very true, it almost saps one's will to do anything. But so do ice and snow, and what's more they take many lives and endanger any more. On purely meteorological grounds, I think this city trumps many. On other grounds, it certainly doesn't.

I agree that the Summer here is similar to many areas of the country, save the humidity, but my main reason for leaving is the music industry. Houston is really in bad shape. Even Dallas, and I can't stand Dallas, has a much better industry right now. It's as if H-Town's club owners don't care about moving the cities bands forward anymore and that has not always been the case.

For the most part I've enjoyed Houston, but seeing how the local music industry has almost completely tanked, I'm looking to move. Love the cost of living here, but in my industry, that doesn't always matter. And, although I enjoy the heat more than bitter cold, it's getting to where I dread the Summer here.

These days with the complete lack of cleanliness in most of Houston's eateries that's not saying much. Utter filth.

What? I travel all the time and find "most of Houston's eateries" to be very clean compared to many cities.

I wonder how long until 99 Southbound to I-10 Eastbound will be complete. The feeder road trying to turn left to get to I-10E can get pretty backed up. But, looks like traffic is going to get even worse at that intersection. You'll probably be seeing a lot more people going to Katy-Ft. Bend and doing a U-turn.

The key to avoiding the northbound intersection (turning east on 10) is to exit Kingsland, go through the light and turn right on E Fernhurst dr. This takes you directly to the I-10 feeder road. I'm really suprised that more people don't recognize this.

Have you considered a pop up emitter? They work pretty well and eliminate the need for curb cutting. The only downside is, that during heavy rains the top can sometimes come off, but they don't go far.

I used them because it allowed me to make a much shorter run which saved me a boat load of cash.

Well, at least they're picking the two right ramps to build, but 479 days till completion?

"Construction is about to begin on the long awaited project in far West Harris County to build two direct connector ramps from IH 10 westbound to SH 99 southbound and from SH 99 northbound to IH 10 eastbound. The addition of these ramps will significantly improve the mobility and flow of traffic traveling through the IH 10 West/SH 99 intersection. Once complete, motorists who travel SH 99 northbound to IH 10 eastbound and IH 10 westbound to SH 99 southbound will see a reduction in travel time by using the ramps to bypass the signalized intersection.""Construction is about to begin on the long awaited project in far West Harris County to build two direct connector ramps from IH 10 westbound to SH 99 southbound and from SH 99 northbound to IH 10 eastbound. The addition of these ramps will significantly improve the mobility and flow of traffic traveling through the IH 10 West/SH 99 intersection. Once complete, motorists who travel SH 99 northbound to IH 10 eastbound and IH 10 westbound to SH 99 southbound will see a reduction in travel time by using the ramps to bypass the signalized intersection."

If true, this is a real shame. I've been going to Gertners since the old "Cody's" days. Back in the day I used to hang out there with Paul English, Herman and all the boys. Good times.

Great photos Wayne!! San Francisco is deffinately the prettiest city in the states.

Once we drain that miserable piece of real estate of all its oil and natural gas, we can finally let the people of the Middle East return to living in caves and shooting each other over well water rights. That day can't come soon enough.

Also, in your subtitle to this thread, you've implored us to please be respectful. Frankly, despite Islam's historical significance in helping to bring Europe out of their own religiously restrictive dark ages, I see very little in the religion to respect. So many times you hear from Muslims that Islam is actually not a religion of violence, that's it's a religion of peace, and that these extremists are a fringe minority, but I disagree. Fringe minorities rarely have such a stranglehold on their own political systems. Governments aren't run for long periods of time by the fringe. These theocratic governments exist because the people of those countries want them to exist. They have a mandate to exist, and when they do things like issue fatwas calling for Salmon Rushdie's head or, as now, criminally investigate whether or not they can issue an execution order for Mark Zuckerberg, it's not our fault. It's the fault of the dipshjt's who live in those countries and believe their retarded fairy tale so fervently as to demand their deaths for the crime of not being dumb enough to be duped by their hokey religion.

But, if it is true as the moderate Muslims say, and the extremists are the minority, then those moderates need to start talking a lot louder. Because, who cares how tolerant the religion may be if the people who put a public face on it also have a bomb in their underpants? I know I don't, and since it's too difficult to discern the good ones from the bad ones based on appearance, they're making the whole civilized part of the world retract into a medieval mindset where we've begun to discard our enlightenment values just to feel safer. If any moderate Muslim is reading this, know that the onus is now on you. You don't have a right to not be offended, and you definitely don't have a right to kill someone for offending you. If you truly are not an extremist, then you'll agree with that. If you aren't an extremist, then you need to find a way to fix your own religion. Otherwise, between our Christian nuts over here and the Hindu nuts in India, the Middle East may be blown off the map. That region, full to the brim with sacred sites and shrines, will never know peace. And if Islam's truly a religion of peace, then peace should be the goal.

We don't generally agree on religious and political issues, but that was a damn good post and couldn't have been stated better.

I actually saw Galveston water with a very clear-green color one time. It wasn't it's usual murky brown color. Was a couple of yrs. ago, in the spring/ early summer months, was still a little cool outside. My sister & I grew up going to nasty Galveston, we actually were out in the water, and on the beach, not believing it. Figured it had something to do with the weather, recent rain, and/ or movement of water into the Gulf, or tides. Was very unusual.

There are at least 30 to 40 days of blue water in Galveston annualy. As a fisherman you learn to wait for the Southeast winds to blow for at least 3 or 4 days, which brings in the blue water, which brings in the Specs. In other words, you have to have a strong Southeast winds for a number of days for the blue water to make it to shore.