HouTex

Just finished Ep 2. Not bad. I’ll continue to watch.

It was. Great time to be at UT. Austin was around 350k. Perfect size and tons of activities. We were a fumbled punt away from winning a natty my senior year.

I’m about to watch Ep 2, but I’m disappointed with some of the reactions: I’ve always been a big Jodie Foster fan. She doesn’t usually do shitty projects.

You are about 8 years behind me. I was 80-84. I would have a very hard time getting more than three guys on a ski trip now that we are all around 62. Luckily, and knock on wood, my wife and I are still in pretty good shape. I hope to have 10+ years of good skiing ahead. But we are the exception.

Well, I prefer Elle.

Same here. Maybe I need 5 gloves for the year. I average around 65 rounds a year and much of that is in the Houston heat and humidity.

Costco gloves last more than 3 or 4 rounds—at least for me. My only issue is that I’m between a small and medium. And some of the mediums fit ok and some are too large. And same for the smalls. Seems like there’s a QC issue.

I don’t know where they nest, but Bald Eagles are seen around Houston all the time. At least one loves the 8th hole at HCC and is seen quite often.

Texas has somewhat unique rules on noncompetes. Here is the general rule: To be valid under Texas law, a covenant not to compete must be “ancillary to an otherwise enforceable agreement.” Then, the restrictions must be reasonable in scope. The “otherwise enforceable agreement” requirement simply means that both parties to the contract must have made binding promises. The usual case is when the employee signs the CNTC on day one of employment. Courts say that the employer must do more than just provide continued at-will employment for the "otherwise enforceable agreement" requirement. In this case, it's severance pay after the employment ends. I wouldn't think it would work. If I'm the employee, I take the money and fight about it later if he wants to compete--but it could be costly. If I'm the employer, I would probably make it an incentive payment(s) either at the end of a term or paid in installments. So if the employee doesn't compete the stated time, then he/she gets the money. If he/she competes, then don't pay. That might have a better chance of being enforced by a Texas judge.

Not sure if it goes here, but I just saw that Jackie Burke passed away today. He was 100. Godspeed.

The new Shingrix vaccine (a two shot vaccine over a couple of months) is very effective. I believe over 90% effective. It prevents you from getting shingles. If you had chicken pox you have a 1/3 chance of getting shingles. I was somewhat lucky when I got it. It was in a shitty (literally) location but it wasn’t as painful as it could have been. I caught it early and was given antibiotics and the pain was gone in a couple of days and the rash was gone in about a week. The new vaccine became available about 6 months or so after I had shingles and I got the shots asap. That was about 6 years ago and so far so good.

Correct, no power no hot water. But yes, I love my tankless water heater. We never run out of hot water and we did all the time with a conventional tank heater (very long showers by my wife and two daughters).

Ok, good one. But I don’t consider Grease as a HS movie in the same vein as the late 80’s-90’s HS movies by Hughes. Other than boy meets girl it doesn’t really get into the issues facing teens in HS in the late 70’s. Basically, it’s a feel good musical.

Texas weather!

I finally read the news story of today’s DOJ report from my Apple News feed. It says the “majority” of the victims were shot in the initial barrage before the cops appeared on the scene. After they appeared it seems that shooting was sporadic but it’s unclear. The cops’ lame excuse was that they were treating it like a barricade/hostage situation rather than an active shooter situation. I could not tell from the news report how many victims were shot after the cops arrived and how many victims might have been saved from bleeding out had the cops immediately engaged the shooter. It may be impossible to know. I’d like to know those things for my own curiosity, but it doesn’t change the fact that the cops didn’t do what they should have done.

My wife would need 100x that amount of water for a shower. Your 3 gallons would be fine for me.

I had the same HS experience except that weed (as well as beer) was everywhere. Most of my HS friends smoked pot every day. As for HS movies in the late 70’s I mentioned Breaking Away but it’s more of a post-HS movie about finding yourself. I don’t really recall any HS focused movies during the late 70’s. It was 20 years old, but Rebel Without a Cause was on network TV from time to time and it was somewhat still relevant to me.

Sorry to rehash the facts but I just heard a radio report about the DOJ conclusions. So the cops arrived just 3 minutes after the shooting began and did nothing for over 70 minutes? So is it correct that the cops continued to hear shots during those 70 minutes and still did not engage the shooter?

My problem was that I assumed there wouldn’t be any water in the valve if the water supply is cut off, the system is bled, and the valve is closed. So I never insulated the valve itself—just the PVC above and below the valve. It busted again during the last major freeze. This time, I wrapped the valve very well and it did not crack.

I did this during the 2021 freeze. But I still had a valve on my sprinkler back flow system crack. Even if that valve is off (I’ve since learned) and the nipple valves are bled there’s a tiny amount of water in the ball valve that can freeze and crack the valve. It wasn’t an expensive repair but the lesson is that there can be some water in the lines that can freeze even doing my best to drain the water lines. Now, I’ve become a dripper and I make sure all exterior pipes and valves are well protected and I haven’t had any issues.

Same for my tankless hot water heater. Mine is in my attic and so far it has been fine throughout the last 3 major freezes. The neighbor next to me (similar patio home design and construction) lost her tankless heater during the 2021 freeze.

Yes, I read the transcript of the show cause hearing in the NY court. The lawyer at fault was given chances to withdraw the offending court paper and didn’t until the court issued the show cause order. Opposing counsel initially brought it to his attention by asking for copies of the cases, letting him know that the cases did not appear to be real, and he basically ignored it. Later, he lied to the court about vacations and other stuff as an excuse for not fixing it. I never heard how he was sanctioned and/or disciplined. edit: I see from your link that they were sanctioned $5,000. They also could face disciplinary action by the state bar.

Was that the old shingles shot? The new one (double shots) has been out for 5 years or so and it also hurts going in. I also had cold/flu symptoms that kicked in around 12 hours after both shots. But it didn’t last too long and it shouldn’t prevent people from getting the shingrix shots.

In legal circles there’s a situation in NY in the last year or so where a lawyer used ChatGPT to do some legal research and write a brief to file with the court. He didn’t double check the case law that ChatGPT spit out. Turns out that ChatGPT fabricated some of the cases. Then he didn’t come clean right away and was in some hot water with the judge.

The water pipes coming into the house are in a basement or otherwise buried so as not to be prone to freezing.