A Saga of the Moores: Chapter 2.5: Texas!
Tonight, in John's head:
Oh come on... Why won't this stupid thing work... I might as well give up. Really. I've worked on this thing and worked on this thing and it's not working? Can't be. Let's see... What's this button do?
Oh hey... it's working!! Yes! Victory is mine!
If you're reading this, one of two things has happened. You hacked into the heumoore.com file registry and stole this, or the blog has been succesfully published for the world to see.
What is this, part three? It seems like I've been working on this for years and I'm only on part three? Actually, this hasn't been as hard as I had expected, though it was pretty hard.
It has come to my attention over the past few days that people will still want to be able to see the old blog posts. However, as I start my "normal" blogging (daily or weekly posts containing my random thoughts), the historical posts will be pushed off the page and into an archive, making them very hard to give directions to.
I recently found out that they're saved on my web server, so they'll be forever accessible to you.
Here are the links to the old blog posts.
Part One.
http://www.heumoore.com/2004/08/saga-of-moores-chapter-1-big-lake.html
Part Two.
http://www.heumoore.com/2004/08/saga-of-moores-chapter-2-from.html
And Part Three. (Chapter 2.5. You're reading it now)
http://www.heumoore.com/2004/09/saga-of-moores-chapter-25-texas.html
Anyway, those are the links that shall always point to the old blog entries.
So, from what I've heard, Alaska had a drought, then a bunch of rain, and now it's cold.
Well, this Texan ain't gonna be freezing to death any time soon. Nice weather here, 80's and higher. The only possible cause of freezing here would be Dad's having his way with the air conditioning. He has it set on 68 degrees, and it's come close a few times. 68 is way too cold for THIS Texan, just so y'all know.
I guess it has to do with relativity though, because in the winter in Alaska, 64 was fine with me, and in the summer, 74 was just about perfect. 74 down here is way too cold. WAY too cold.
So, you guys didn't come here to read about my frustrations with air temperature, but rather to see a bunch of pictures. I have the pictures, and I'd like to write a bunch of nonsensical text to go with them, but since most of you aren't even going to READ the text, I'll keep it short.
Just kidding, but seriously, last time I had to edit a whole bunch of stuff out, just to keep it flowing and smooth. I feel sorry for those of you who have to read it all, so I do try to keep it short.
What do I do when I'm writing all this stuff to keep from getting bored? I listen to good music, like Presence, The Reverend Mr. Black, and The Escape of Ol' John Webb. I'll talk about my musical favorites someday, but it's time for the pictures.
I really don't have a whole ton of material, but I'll do my best.
Alright, we left off with us boarding the plane. The plane took off.
I suppose that as a thinking individual (or group) you wondered how I took this picture if I was in the airplane. In truth, this is a different jet, but it's a cool picture all the same, due to the weird effect caused by the sun on the camera lens.
All's well and good, though we were exhausted, and sleeping on the plane was barely possible.
Soon we were over Texas.
When the airplane touched down, they let Texas air into the plane, and it felt hot and muggy. It was like someone was breathing on the entire plane.
We got all our carry-on bags off the plane, went inside, got the rest our luggage, met the rest of the Reins family inside the aiport, along with Larry and Tyler Schreiter.
Jack immediately asked Jeff Reins (an engineer) why the wings were so far back on the plane, and Jeff started drawing it out on paper, which drew everyones interest.
The Texas humidity was nearly driving me insane. Dad told me to go outside and wait with our bags. Outside was worse as far as the humidity and heat go. It was even overcast and I was baking.
So, we loaded up our bags into... well, into a car, but danged if I can find a picture of em.
Oh hey, here they are. The white jeep with the trailer and the maroon truck.
But wait, if the Jeep and Truck were full, what did we ride in??
Ah yes, I remember. Our new suburban, with a lot of really fancy looking buttons...
So, the family piled into the new suburby, and we drove to the hotel. We unloaded the masses of luggage and other stuff, and piled it into a hotel room.
But then we realized the room was far too small, especially with all the bags, so we moved everything back OUT and into the other room down the hall.
Sue Reins was smiling the entire time,
But Jeff was cracking up at the fact that we were changing rooms for the third time.
In the end though, we were set up in the room (or rooms, since we had two) we needed, and it was quite comfortable.
Well, we still had the Dog, and we knew we couldn't keep him in the hotel, not to mention we needed to go take a look at a house.
It's nice having good friends.
These guys got us from the airport to the hotel very quickly.
We have, Larry,
And Tyler. Thanks Guys!
Well, Larry and Tyler went home, while we went to look at this house.
I captured a gator moment...
The house was filthy inside. Disgustingly dirty. The outside was nice, but I don't have any pictures of that. I really don't want to fill up this blog post with pictures of a filthy house, but here are three or four.
The first is of the really cool mirror right inside the door. It's on the roof, as you can see.
Another is of the pool.
Yuck!
Andrea was very careful not to touch the walls or windows or doors or... anything. Period. Gross place I tell ya...
Oh, and one other interesting thing I saw while we were there. A weird fruit called a "Horseapple" because horses and cows nibble on it. Non-edible though really.
It's grapefruit sized and appears fuzzy like a tennisball at a distance, but they actually have a texture like brains. The juicy liquid on the inside is extremely sticky, and almost impossible to clean off anything.
From what I've heard, the horseapple trees have very very hardwood, but it's such a pain to mill and dry that they don't bother with it much.
And now ladies and gentlemen, meet the horseapple.
At this point, Jack was hungry and baking. Next stop, Jack in the box.
No, OUR Jack wasn't in a box. We'd never put him in a box unless it was to save on shipping.
Dad blessing the food; A wise thing at Jack in the box.
We were there for a long time. Jack got cold with all the air conditioning I could tell, because pretty soon, Jack wasn't in a box, but in his shirt.
After eating our fill, we left Jack in the box... Wait a second, I thought we got him outta there...
Let me rephrase that.
After eating our fill, we left the restaraunt, parted with Jeff and Sue Reins, and headed back for the hotel.
Gator making his bed at the hotel was absolutely hilarious, but I can't remember why.
A few words about the hotel. They had this breakfast thing going, so that if you were staying in the hotel you got breakfast for free. Problem was, it closed at nine, so we had to get up at about seven to be ready by eight to eat by nine.
Tiredness ensues...
Reagan was telling me that sleeping beauty was really lucky, cause she had an excuse to sleep in.
Just think, we were up at seven in Texas, that's four AM Alaska time...
Later in the day though we cheered up and went outside to look at the pool, and met the repair guy, who was working on the hottub.
At this point, we wished we had Tait with us, because this guy was either speaking spanish, or english mixed with spanish.
Kelly couldn't understand him, and asked me for help. I didn't understand him any better than she did.
Oh well, I guess that I'll just have to learn spanish now that we're in Texas. Oh yeah, and now that we're in Texas, we see the Texas flag in the hotel parking lot...
Ok, in this picture we're all...
Well, it looks like we're loading stuff up in the suburban. Is that cause we're leaving? Yeah. We must be. Oh yeah, I remember. This is the part where we go to rent a house to stay in until we buy one.
Andrea was excited as she packed up the remaining items in the hotel room.
Kelly was excited too.
Mom was talking to the Brophy's shortly before this picture.
We crammed our luggage into one suburban that Gerry Morgan loaned to us, and we all piled into another.
We also had a full trailer that was loaned to us by Jeff Reins.
Reagan was singing in the backseat during most of the trip.
A picture of a very rapidly moving Texas coutryside. Countryside? Texas is flat, it don't have no sides.
This is a picture of the Texas countrytop.
Well, we picked up the dog, whom we had dropped off at a kennel somewhere, and he'd had a bath.
He was still a little bit wet from the bath, so I walked him around outside a bit so he could dry off.
So we're driving down the highway, and we see a sign that says "Jack Russel Terrier Puppies for Sale!"
After asking the lady selling them a few questions, we went on our way to a resteraunt with a killer name.
Bullets.
David didn't really seem to like the food. At least, not after I told him that I had killed a cockroach inside the front door.
Ok, so we eventually get to the house we'll be staying in.
Here's a picture of the....
Front Yard? Back Yard?
Sorry, it's a picture of the Roof.
Yes, the house is underground. Dad was excited to be living in a "Bunker".
Those bubbles are actually windows to let light into the house. There aren't enough of them to let in a whole lot of light, but since they cost 1800 dollars each, I see the logic of using only three of them.
This is what you see coming in the driveway.
"John! Water the yard and the roof will you?" - Dad
Here's what you see when you get out of the car.
This is the front door.
This place has an indoor swimming pool too.
That's kinda neat. It's a lot bigger than it looks. It's huge. The only problem is it's only about 5 foot 8 inches deep, and yes, I have hit my head on the bottom. I saw multi colored spots all over, and I'm not joking.
There was a very nice collection of fake flowers in this place. With bugs like they've got here, fake flowers are a very good thing.
This one was prettier in real life.
Ha, my attempts at photography are pretty pitiful in comparison with Kelly's outstanding pictures.
Let me show you a few of her best.
This one is gorgeous though the flash almost ruined it.
In this one, the lighting was perfect as could possibly be.
Here's a few more of her shots.
Butterfly's.
And another flower, though this was not taken for photography purposes, but rather to find out what kind of flower it was.
Well, we were just barely into the house when it was time for Dad to do a conference call. We of course did not have our phones unpacked yet, so Dad used the only telephone available.
"Well, it doesn't work very well but I must say it's about the most colorful phone you'll ever see." - Dad
We began unpacking our belongings.
Later, the Reins family came to visit.
Jeff, Dad, and Mom at the dining room table.
The next day, the Reighard family came to visit. All the kids went swimming in the pool, while John, Tammy, Mom, and Dad all talked for a bit. Talking is one thing we're good at.
Of course, before talking comes the important part.
Sons always take part in the important things.
And of course Perry was telling me about all the things he was doing in his life, which was quite interesting.
After the Reighards and the Reins visiting, and unpacking and repacking, loading and unloading, moving and shuffling, we just barely had enough energy left for the important things in life.
I must say, I did enjoy myself.
But then, I was nearly dead of exhaustion.
Yes, I DID get a haircut shortly after I saw this picture...
I gotta tell ya, while we've been in Texas, I've noticed some things.
First of all, that my little sister Reagan is gorgeous, and I'm gonna have to help all my brothers and my Dad fight off guys when she gets older.
And the other thing I noticed was what an absolute clown my younger brother Gator is.
And he's also a soldier in the U.S. military.
All at the toothless age of six.
Yeah. We've had a lot of good times here at the Bunker.
We're still looking at different houses and stuff, and we recently saw a very nice house that we'll be looking at more closely.
Well, that's all for this time.
I know I said I'd do the history in three parts, but as of right now I'm up to current with what's happening around here. If I were to post any more pictures, they'd be of me blogging, and that would get boring pretty fast.
I'm gonna start my regular blogging now. Basically it's my random thoughts that I want to put out for people to read. It's like a one way form of communication.
Think of it as a non-private journal where you post thoughts, rants, raves, pictures, info, etc.
When we get moved in to a house I'll tell all about it, but for now it's time for my regular blogging.
You guys have about two days of peace before I start posting regularly. I won't be emailing you, unless it's a major post, (like the history or the Photography favorites) so your email won't get cluttered.
I'll also be doing my Photography Favorites post relatively soon, so pictures are MORE than welcomed.
Here's what I'm looking for, four or five (or more if you'd like) of your favorite pictures (of anything. subject content doesn't matter as long as it's family friendly of course), a reason you like each one, and an approximate date. That will really help me in puttin' 'em on the web.
I'll touch them up for ya too, so we both benefit from you sending them in.
Email your photos to me (preferrably uncompressed for the sake of quality), at JohnMoore@HeuMoore.com.
Don't forget to comment, and enjoy yawl's selves!
Oh come on... Why won't this stupid thing work... I might as well give up. Really. I've worked on this thing and worked on this thing and it's not working? Can't be. Let's see... What's this button do?
Oh hey... it's working!! Yes! Victory is mine!
If you're reading this, one of two things has happened. You hacked into the heumoore.com file registry and stole this, or the blog has been succesfully published for the world to see.
What is this, part three? It seems like I've been working on this for years and I'm only on part three? Actually, this hasn't been as hard as I had expected, though it was pretty hard.
It has come to my attention over the past few days that people will still want to be able to see the old blog posts. However, as I start my "normal" blogging (daily or weekly posts containing my random thoughts), the historical posts will be pushed off the page and into an archive, making them very hard to give directions to.
I recently found out that they're saved on my web server, so they'll be forever accessible to you.
Here are the links to the old blog posts.
Part One.
http://www.heumoore.com/2004/08/saga-of-moores-chapter-1-big-lake.html
Part Two.
http://www.heumoore.com/2004/08/saga-of-moores-chapter-2-from.html
And Part Three. (Chapter 2.5. You're reading it now)
http://www.heumoore.com/2004/09/saga-of-moores-chapter-25-texas.html
Anyway, those are the links that shall always point to the old blog entries.
So, from what I've heard, Alaska had a drought, then a bunch of rain, and now it's cold.
Well, this Texan ain't gonna be freezing to death any time soon. Nice weather here, 80's and higher. The only possible cause of freezing here would be Dad's having his way with the air conditioning. He has it set on 68 degrees, and it's come close a few times. 68 is way too cold for THIS Texan, just so y'all know.
I guess it has to do with relativity though, because in the winter in Alaska, 64 was fine with me, and in the summer, 74 was just about perfect. 74 down here is way too cold. WAY too cold.
So, you guys didn't come here to read about my frustrations with air temperature, but rather to see a bunch of pictures. I have the pictures, and I'd like to write a bunch of nonsensical text to go with them, but since most of you aren't even going to READ the text, I'll keep it short.
Just kidding, but seriously, last time I had to edit a whole bunch of stuff out, just to keep it flowing and smooth. I feel sorry for those of you who have to read it all, so I do try to keep it short.
What do I do when I'm writing all this stuff to keep from getting bored? I listen to good music, like Presence, The Reverend Mr. Black, and The Escape of Ol' John Webb. I'll talk about my musical favorites someday, but it's time for the pictures.
I really don't have a whole ton of material, but I'll do my best.
Alright, we left off with us boarding the plane. The plane took off.
I suppose that as a thinking individual (or group) you wondered how I took this picture if I was in the airplane. In truth, this is a different jet, but it's a cool picture all the same, due to the weird effect caused by the sun on the camera lens.
All's well and good, though we were exhausted, and sleeping on the plane was barely possible.
Soon we were over Texas.
When the airplane touched down, they let Texas air into the plane, and it felt hot and muggy. It was like someone was breathing on the entire plane.
We got all our carry-on bags off the plane, went inside, got the rest our luggage, met the rest of the Reins family inside the aiport, along with Larry and Tyler Schreiter.
Jack immediately asked Jeff Reins (an engineer) why the wings were so far back on the plane, and Jeff started drawing it out on paper, which drew everyones interest.
The Texas humidity was nearly driving me insane. Dad told me to go outside and wait with our bags. Outside was worse as far as the humidity and heat go. It was even overcast and I was baking.
So, we loaded up our bags into... well, into a car, but danged if I can find a picture of em.
Oh hey, here they are. The white jeep with the trailer and the maroon truck.
But wait, if the Jeep and Truck were full, what did we ride in??
Ah yes, I remember. Our new suburban, with a lot of really fancy looking buttons...
So, the family piled into the new suburby, and we drove to the hotel. We unloaded the masses of luggage and other stuff, and piled it into a hotel room.
But then we realized the room was far too small, especially with all the bags, so we moved everything back OUT and into the other room down the hall.
Sue Reins was smiling the entire time,
But Jeff was cracking up at the fact that we were changing rooms for the third time.
In the end though, we were set up in the room (or rooms, since we had two) we needed, and it was quite comfortable.
Well, we still had the Dog, and we knew we couldn't keep him in the hotel, not to mention we needed to go take a look at a house.
It's nice having good friends.
These guys got us from the airport to the hotel very quickly.
We have, Larry,
And Tyler. Thanks Guys!
Well, Larry and Tyler went home, while we went to look at this house.
I captured a gator moment...
The house was filthy inside. Disgustingly dirty. The outside was nice, but I don't have any pictures of that. I really don't want to fill up this blog post with pictures of a filthy house, but here are three or four.
The first is of the really cool mirror right inside the door. It's on the roof, as you can see.
Another is of the pool.
Yuck!
Andrea was very careful not to touch the walls or windows or doors or... anything. Period. Gross place I tell ya...
Oh, and one other interesting thing I saw while we were there. A weird fruit called a "Horseapple" because horses and cows nibble on it. Non-edible though really.
It's grapefruit sized and appears fuzzy like a tennisball at a distance, but they actually have a texture like brains. The juicy liquid on the inside is extremely sticky, and almost impossible to clean off anything.
From what I've heard, the horseapple trees have very very hardwood, but it's such a pain to mill and dry that they don't bother with it much.
And now ladies and gentlemen, meet the horseapple.
At this point, Jack was hungry and baking. Next stop, Jack in the box.
No, OUR Jack wasn't in a box. We'd never put him in a box unless it was to save on shipping.
Dad blessing the food; A wise thing at Jack in the box.
We were there for a long time. Jack got cold with all the air conditioning I could tell, because pretty soon, Jack wasn't in a box, but in his shirt.
After eating our fill, we left Jack in the box... Wait a second, I thought we got him outta there...
Let me rephrase that.
After eating our fill, we left the restaraunt, parted with Jeff and Sue Reins, and headed back for the hotel.
Gator making his bed at the hotel was absolutely hilarious, but I can't remember why.
A few words about the hotel. They had this breakfast thing going, so that if you were staying in the hotel you got breakfast for free. Problem was, it closed at nine, so we had to get up at about seven to be ready by eight to eat by nine.
Tiredness ensues...
Reagan was telling me that sleeping beauty was really lucky, cause she had an excuse to sleep in.
Just think, we were up at seven in Texas, that's four AM Alaska time...
Later in the day though we cheered up and went outside to look at the pool, and met the repair guy, who was working on the hottub.
At this point, we wished we had Tait with us, because this guy was either speaking spanish, or english mixed with spanish.
Kelly couldn't understand him, and asked me for help. I didn't understand him any better than she did.
Oh well, I guess that I'll just have to learn spanish now that we're in Texas. Oh yeah, and now that we're in Texas, we see the Texas flag in the hotel parking lot...
Ok, in this picture we're all...
Well, it looks like we're loading stuff up in the suburban. Is that cause we're leaving? Yeah. We must be. Oh yeah, I remember. This is the part where we go to rent a house to stay in until we buy one.
Andrea was excited as she packed up the remaining items in the hotel room.
Kelly was excited too.
Mom was talking to the Brophy's shortly before this picture.
We crammed our luggage into one suburban that Gerry Morgan loaned to us, and we all piled into another.
We also had a full trailer that was loaned to us by Jeff Reins.
Reagan was singing in the backseat during most of the trip.
A picture of a very rapidly moving Texas coutryside. Countryside? Texas is flat, it don't have no sides.
This is a picture of the Texas countrytop.
Well, we picked up the dog, whom we had dropped off at a kennel somewhere, and he'd had a bath.
He was still a little bit wet from the bath, so I walked him around outside a bit so he could dry off.
So we're driving down the highway, and we see a sign that says "Jack Russel Terrier Puppies for Sale!"
After asking the lady selling them a few questions, we went on our way to a resteraunt with a killer name.
Bullets.
David didn't really seem to like the food. At least, not after I told him that I had killed a cockroach inside the front door.
Ok, so we eventually get to the house we'll be staying in.
Here's a picture of the....
Front Yard? Back Yard?
Sorry, it's a picture of the Roof.
Yes, the house is underground. Dad was excited to be living in a "Bunker".
Those bubbles are actually windows to let light into the house. There aren't enough of them to let in a whole lot of light, but since they cost 1800 dollars each, I see the logic of using only three of them.
This is what you see coming in the driveway.
"John! Water the yard and the roof will you?" - Dad
Here's what you see when you get out of the car.
This is the front door.
This place has an indoor swimming pool too.
That's kinda neat. It's a lot bigger than it looks. It's huge. The only problem is it's only about 5 foot 8 inches deep, and yes, I have hit my head on the bottom. I saw multi colored spots all over, and I'm not joking.
There was a very nice collection of fake flowers in this place. With bugs like they've got here, fake flowers are a very good thing.
This one was prettier in real life.
Ha, my attempts at photography are pretty pitiful in comparison with Kelly's outstanding pictures.
Let me show you a few of her best.
This one is gorgeous though the flash almost ruined it.
In this one, the lighting was perfect as could possibly be.
Here's a few more of her shots.
Butterfly's.
And another flower, though this was not taken for photography purposes, but rather to find out what kind of flower it was.
Well, we were just barely into the house when it was time for Dad to do a conference call. We of course did not have our phones unpacked yet, so Dad used the only telephone available.
"Well, it doesn't work very well but I must say it's about the most colorful phone you'll ever see." - Dad
We began unpacking our belongings.
Later, the Reins family came to visit.
Jeff, Dad, and Mom at the dining room table.
The next day, the Reighard family came to visit. All the kids went swimming in the pool, while John, Tammy, Mom, and Dad all talked for a bit. Talking is one thing we're good at.
Of course, before talking comes the important part.
Sons always take part in the important things.
And of course Perry was telling me about all the things he was doing in his life, which was quite interesting.
After the Reighards and the Reins visiting, and unpacking and repacking, loading and unloading, moving and shuffling, we just barely had enough energy left for the important things in life.
I must say, I did enjoy myself.
But then, I was nearly dead of exhaustion.
Yes, I DID get a haircut shortly after I saw this picture...
I gotta tell ya, while we've been in Texas, I've noticed some things.
First of all, that my little sister Reagan is gorgeous, and I'm gonna have to help all my brothers and my Dad fight off guys when she gets older.
And the other thing I noticed was what an absolute clown my younger brother Gator is.
And he's also a soldier in the U.S. military.
All at the toothless age of six.
Yeah. We've had a lot of good times here at the Bunker.
We're still looking at different houses and stuff, and we recently saw a very nice house that we'll be looking at more closely.
Well, that's all for this time.
I know I said I'd do the history in three parts, but as of right now I'm up to current with what's happening around here. If I were to post any more pictures, they'd be of me blogging, and that would get boring pretty fast.
I'm gonna start my regular blogging now. Basically it's my random thoughts that I want to put out for people to read. It's like a one way form of communication.
Think of it as a non-private journal where you post thoughts, rants, raves, pictures, info, etc.
When we get moved in to a house I'll tell all about it, but for now it's time for my regular blogging.
You guys have about two days of peace before I start posting regularly. I won't be emailing you, unless it's a major post, (like the history or the Photography favorites) so your email won't get cluttered.
I'll also be doing my Photography Favorites post relatively soon, so pictures are MORE than welcomed.
Here's what I'm looking for, four or five (or more if you'd like) of your favorite pictures (of anything. subject content doesn't matter as long as it's family friendly of course), a reason you like each one, and an approximate date. That will really help me in puttin' 'em on the web.
I'll touch them up for ya too, so we both benefit from you sending them in.
Email your photos to me (preferrably uncompressed for the sake of quality), at JohnMoore@HeuMoore.com.
Don't forget to comment, and enjoy yawl's selves!
posted at
1:31 AM
