MAROON

Depends if you are a beach or mountain guy. If Beach head for Charleston and the beaches near there. If a mountain guy - make the relatively short drive to western NC and hike, fly fish and hit up breweries - its only a 2.5 hour drive to Asheville.

Original Hooter's is in Clearwater.

we moved to Clear Lake City in 1965 from San Antonio. My Dad took a job with Lockheed - they had a contract related to mapping the moon, among other things. My Dad had two years of college and was working at the "Army Map Service" (I have no idea of the actual company or if it was a government job - he just always called it that). We lived in an apartment for about a year waiting for a house to be built. Right across the street they opened the new Clear Lake Movie Theatre and Chuck Conners came down for the grand opening - search lights, parades, etc. The area was mostly cattle land and oil fields (owned by Exxon). Actually Exxon gave the land that JSC was constructed upon to Rice University, who then either sold or leased it to Nasa. Exxon owned all the rest of the land and their subsidiary (Friendswood Development) constructed Clear Lake City. We would play at this playground just down the road We at first were buying a house in Clear Lake, but my Dad said the construction was shoddy, so he instead bought a house in League City. I think he paid $18k for the house. The neighborhood (Newport) was in the middle of a cattle ranch. The morning after we planted our yard we woke to a herd of cows out front eating the new sod. Newport was basically nothing but Nasa people. I think on our street every Dad except maybe one, worked at Nasa or for a contractor. My Dad would bring home moon maps, and also these cool 3D maps of various sections of the moon with potential landing spots indicated and all the craters named. He also brought home one of the original computer terminals so you could call into the NASA computer and run programs, etc. Mind blowing stuff for the late 60's. Of course we all had all the mission patches, and actually we got a little jaded with the actual space center. A groan would go out in the class when they announced another field trip to Nasa. But Nasa was the epicenter of everything. Heck my 8th grade Webster Intermediate football banquet was held in a NASA building. It was cool to drive down Nasa Road 1 and see that every major network had a permanent studio on top of the hotels opposite JSC. (Photo belo , you can barely make out the NBC Studio on the top left of the hotel A lot of the astronauts lived in El Lago and Nassau Bay. Those were the two upper end areas at that time. I went to school with a few astronauts kids, and lots of mission control kids. Kids were from all over the country at our schools, and new kids arrived daily, and each year would be interesting to see who showed up and who left. It was also interesting mix because you had the Nasa people, then you had the kids whose Fathers ran oyster and shrimp boats, or worked in Texas City at BP and Monsanto. There was very little in the way of retail establishments back then. The closest mall was finally opened in 1968 - Almeda Mall. The other option was driving to Galveston the the mall. Restaurants were actually pretty plentiful, and there were some great hole in the wall seafood places. What is now the Kemah Boardwalk was nothing but shell roads and seafood companies, with Jimmie Walkers restaurant on the end, and a bunch of dive bars full of shrimpers all wearing their San Leon Ropers - picture the bar in Airplane with the two chicks fighting. Anyway, it was an amazing place to grow up. I'm very thankful my Dad made the decision to leave San Antonio and take the chance on working at Nasa. This past week watching all the documentaries and listening to the podcasts has been really special.

Can you trace any of your family back to the UK? If so, find out the city and the closest EPL team. Just assume your relative would have been a fan, so it would be natural for you to be a fan. That's what I did a few years back when my Dad finished his side of the family genealogy study. His great grandfather was born in Manchester - Eccles to be more precise, which happens to be three miles from Old Trafford. United it was.

there is a great podcast done by the BBC called 13 Minutes to the Moon. I highly recommend it if you have any interest in the space program. They touch on this aspect - the average age in mission control was late 20's. One of the guys said the older engineers didn't work out well at NASA because they brought all their past experience which in a way worked against them in the space program. They were more conditioned to think this thing couldn't work, while the younger guys were like - "hell yes we can get to the moon". I just finished the segment where they told the story of the MIT team that designed the hardware and software for the Apollo LEM. It was the first contract let by the Apollo program and it was 11 pages long (one of the guys interviewed said today it would be 15,000 pages). Funny the word "software" wasn't even a term used back then. The contract mostly covered the hardware requirements and then threw in something like...and MIT will provide an operating program to make the thing run.

agreed - much prefer the Four Roses Single Barrel over the Small Batch

PBS is airing American Experience episodes this week called Chasing the Moon. I DVR's all three episodes when they were shown last week and have watched the fist. It is very well done.

Pavarotti - produced by Ron Howard. Very good documentary on the life of the great tenor. Even if you’re not an opera fan you would like this show. also Notable that it's the first Ron Howard flick which didn’t include Clint

if you read Jeff Lunhow's comments when he was sent to Florida from RR he all but confirmed this. He may have been sent to Florida at least partially to get him away from his high school buddies who he likes to party with in Austin. I'm sure as a 21 year old with some cash I would want to do the same thing. RR might not be an ideal location for him at this stage. "He's disappointed with how he's performed and I think this will be a good opportunity for him to take stock in where everything is and work with our pitching coaches and not be distracted by (pitching) 60 miles from his hometown," Luhnow said Wednesday.... https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/Astros-Forrest-Whitley-minors-injured-list-13904358.php

Surely Haas part company with this clown after this season?

Post Oak gave up zero runs in their sectional. That's really impressive.

You should have been around this bad boy. The bat of the check swing dinger to dead center!!!

https://www.unpage.org/texas/txe-dir2019.htm POLL won 10-0

WU won the 12s two years ago? Really? - I had no idea. I was out at that state tournament. Thought for sure PO represented district 16. That Lufkin team was great. We lost in sectionals our 12 year old year to a Pearland team. As 11s we run ruled Pearland in sectionals. The team they fielded that 12 year old year did not play Little League as 11s. It was an entirely different team of kids. They were one out away from going to Williamsport when a little kid from Lafayette La hit is only home run of the season to beat them. Interestingly none of those kids off that Pearland team played in college (that I'm aware of). It was full of kids who hit their peak as 12 year olds.

dodge, duck, dip, dive and dodge!

My son was part of the last group of 12s to win district for WU. We also won state as 11s and lost in the state finals as 10s. That class was loaded with really good players - two of which as I said are now with the Rays organization. Actually we probably had the two best teams in district that year, but the other squad lost a key part (their best pitcher- now pitching at Baylor) who broke his wrist right before the district tournament started. It easily could have been an all west u final like it was when were 11's. I watched the Woodcox boys grow up, as they lived next door to us when they were toddlers. Never seen a better skateboarder than Drew - kid was taking his board off jumps while still in diapers - not kidding.

WU is sort of a machine at that level. Because they have had so much success in the past even the high school players sign up for Seniors in hopes of making a run. It can be a logistical headache for the players and especially the coaches (who sometimes don't know who can make games). I know one kid who was playing for his select team in a big tourney in Missouri or Arkansas and then after the game had to fly private to Seguin to make the State Final game.The last WU team to win the World Series had two kids who just got drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in this years draft, another kid who pitches for Baylor and another who pitches for Texas State now, plus at least a few more I'm not recalling. The team a few years before them that won the World Series played a team from Aruba. All kinds of scouts there to watch the game. Kid on the Aruba team named Xander Bogaerts was getting all kinds of attention. Good competition

unfortunately LL screwed the pooch and moved the Senior LL World Series from Bangor to Easley SC a few years ago. I know a Dad who went to Bangor twice with his oldest and Easley with his youngest. Bangor - great facility, great beer, and great weather. Everyone stayed extra days for vacation after the tourney was finished. Easley - hot as hell, crappy facility, and you left as soon as the tourney was over.

pretty much a forgone conclusion that McAllister wins that sectional and Texas West every year. Texas East is pretty much either Pearland, Lamar, or Post Oak these days. The big leagues dominate.

Diaz has been on the shelf for over a month. Did the dude rip his hammy in half? - "discomfort" my ass!

We Regret... I think I've got a better chance of hitting the Texas Lottery

I do this with Flor de Cana. This is a great summer drink.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/texas-sports-nation/astros/article/Astros-insider-How-Carlos-Beltran-helped-to-14068517.php Carlos Beltran still contributing to the Astros. Somehow some way I want that guy on our staff. Someone get Lunhow on line 1.

Mom was an interior desiger http://www.ellaitaliandesign.com/about.html Step Dad was an artist, and the son of the owner of EE ranches - large horse breeding operation in Whitesboro. https://www.brianellard.com/about Man, I can't even imagine what the Dad is going through...well I can, but I don't want to.

https://www.navy.mil/ah_online/moh/murphy.html today is the 14 year anniversary of Operation Red Wings - one of the costliest operations in US special ops history. RIP