The Message Forum is an ongoing dialogue among classmates. The goal is to encourage friendly interaction, including interaction among classmates who really didn't know each other. Experience on the site has revealed that certain topics tend to cause friction and hard feelings, especially politics and religion. 

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Bob Davidson

David,

Ron Stocklas seems to be a liberal's version of a Trump supporter, with that tinge of nasty snark that passes for humor among the humorless.

I have very mixed emotions about Trump's insults:  I voted for John McCain, but feel like I was conned by a Swamp creature, even though he was better than the alternative in the general election.  McCain destroyed any thought I may have had that he didn't deserve all the mockery, insults, and derision anyone can dish out when he voted against replacing Obamacare -- as a last act of pettiness and resentment by a man who campaigned for reelection on a platform of ridding us of Obamacare.  As far as I'm concerned, Blue Falcons do not deserve any loyalty. (I heard that term for the first time from a retired Marine I represented in his divorce -- he applied it to McCain and said it was the term he and his friends used for the man -- it means "buddy fucker," someone who will screw his cohorts when it's to his advantage.)

The rest of Trump's harsh humor seemed like it was part of the same abrasive personality that let him stand up to the constant smears that would have destroyed almost anyone else.  I don't see the media and their Democrat minions as having "sharp elbows" -- I see them more as Goebbles-level propagandists spewing hatred of anyone who disagrees with them.  Making incorrect opinions life-ruining is completely un-American. 

We had a Russian emigrant stove repairman a few months ago:  he was a nice guy with a delightful Boris Badinoff accent who was amazed that Americans believe our versions of Pravda.  I think he was on to something.

Lowell Tuttle

Abbott....(inHouston) Turner and Hildalgo...get Mr. Frantasy   please...

David Cordell

Bob D.

I watched a bit of a review of Rush Limbaugh's life that showed the State of the Union Address when Trump gave Rush the Presidential Medal of Freedom. One thing that caught my eye was Nancy Pelosi's behavior. I know we are supposed to love everyone, but let's just say I love her a lot less than almost anyone else on the planet.

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

David,

I can relate to your comment on Nancy Pelosi.  I loved Rush about as much as you love Nancy.  Oh and that remark about the freezing over of hell.  It seems that the freeze in Texas caused a hell for over 4 million folks, including you and your wife Martha, hence my comment.  Dark humor.

David Cordell

I listen to The Beatles Channel on Sirus XM sometimes. The other day they interviewed the assistant director of the Ed Sullivan show when the Beatles first appeared. Here's a little trivia. Also on the show was the cast of Oliver!, which was in the first few months of its run on Broadway. One of the cast members would go on to some notoriety. It was the actor who played the Artful Dodger, soon-to-be Monkee Davy Jones.

Marty Fulton

We certainly are living in extraordinary times.  I love being in small-town Texas, near the Red River.

I, too, had to endure some rolling blackouts monday and tuesday.  Have a n gas furnace, and twice my inside temperature hit 52 on tuesday.  However, since 8pm tuesday, I've had no interruptions.  I can take it - although

I almost went next door to warm up next to my neighbor's wood stove....  Living in Houston in 1988, I recall the deep freeze in mid-December.  Many homes built there before 1990 had pipes running in the attic.  If they were copper pipes, located near an exterior wall, then you probably would develop a cracked pipe.  Once mine thawed out, then I had to deal with a water leak.  The main problem was finding fittings for the fix - the hardware stores RAN OUT and weren't resupplied for about 2 weeks...

Not sure what the City of Houston said about 'dripping your fixtures' before this storm, but I recall that they said 'don't do it - it will reduce citywide water pressure too much'.  So then 10's of THOUSANDS of houses developed burst pipes, and no one had ANY service.  Great.

ERCOT probably needs to redevelop a cold weather plan.  Will they?  Probably not without a big expense.  And guess who will end up paying for that....  How much more should I pay to deal with this the next time?  ANSWER:  whatever it takes to retain INDEPENDENT control over the TEXAS power grid. A lot could be said about a root cause - kind of on the other end.  Electric heat, and why most of the new homes in this area are all-electric?  Because it's cheaper to install.  Folks keep buying these crackerboxes for $140 / sq.ft. (no garage) and then complain about their high electric (heat) bills.  Maddening.  Fireplaces and Natural Gas furnaces warm me up.  Electric?  Not so much....

Lowell Tuttle

Bought my first home (starter home) in December 1983, savings and loan crises.   When we did the inspection, the builder, inspector and I were standing in the middle room and the builder, shivering, asked if I wanted to turn on the water to test the plumbing.  It was about 20 degrees.   I said no, it would be good as a brand new Nash Phillips Copus house. 

Three weeks later I closed and went to the house.  When I arrived there were 10-15 laborers there tearing down the ceilings, sheetrock, walls, and re piping the house and over the attached garage.  Carpet was replaced…everything.   When they turned on the water, it was a disaster.

It was all fixed in two days.

I prefer electric heat to gas heat.  Gas dries me out too much.  We use electric space heaters instead of our furnace. 

Of course it was 45 inside the other day.    All we had was the fireplace.

That house only cost 74,500.   The builder paid 5% down (3700.00)   I closed and only paid homeowners insurance.   No down payment or closing costs.   All wrapped in together.  The deal also said I would get the 5% down payment if I paid my payments on time for three years.   (there was a 10% equity requirment caveat.) It took 13 years for there to be equity of 10% in the house.   But I had it appraised and requested the 5%.  It had been deposited in trust with the First Federal Savings bank of Thibedeaux, Louisiana.   Because the interest was so high, I think that 3700 grew to 7000 in that 14 years.   Amazing stories of finance....Most people walked away from homes in those days....I probably would have been better off...

I changed that to "many" people walked away from their mortgage back in those days.   I know none of us RHSer's did...right?

Bob Davidson

We got electricity back yesterday and water is up to about half pressure.  I got a shower, cooked in the light, and went to work this morning.  It felt like coming back from a long wilderness camp, but not volunatary so not fun.

Lowell -- I represented banks, savings and loans, and mortgage companies in the 80s, before I went to work for the FDIC cleaning up the mess from the dead banks.  I remember walk-aways from mortgages being concentrated in certain neighborhoods.  I don't know if people there overpaid or if it was contagious from people seeing their neighbors doing it. 

There was a time in my life when the first Tuesday of each month was spent at various courthouses auctioning off foreclosed homes.  I also had to do evictions of the people who wouldn't move out. Everyone who does that gets a bit cynical about sob stories.

Kurt Fischer

Lowell:

We bought our house in Plano in 1985.  Adjustable rate mortgage.  Started around 8% and the highest it ever reached was 13 %.

In the meantime, on an up-or-out basis, I left Arthur Andersen and secured a job at American Airlines, but at about a 20% decrease in compensation.  It was tough times.  My wife took a job throwing papers to try to make up some of the difference.  Boy, on Sundays she used to throw around 550 papers.  Tough work.

It was at least 15 years before our home value reached the point of what we paid for it.  But I never considered walking away from it.  

David Wier

Lowell - - - I love Mr. Fantasy - - hadn't heard it in years. Playing in 'Wedge', we used to play that song at the Burning Bush and all other places we played. I think I even remember playing it at what I remember was called 'Mother Earth'.

We bought our first starter house in Garland, in 1973 under the FHA 235 plan. I wasn't making much at that time. The government helped and the price went up as my income went up. We had one child and our second came 2 months after we moved in. It was Fox and Jacobs and suprisingly well made. Urban blight started creeping in about 1979 - a lot of law lessness (rape/theft,etc.) so we bought 5 acres in the country. That was fine for a while until a murder, a huge multi-acre grass fire and a kid who beat up our kids and vandalized our property. It also took about an hour to get into either Terrell or Kaufman even if what we wanted was a gallon of milk. 

After 6 months, we put it up for sale and finally sold it in 1 1/2 more years......we never walked away from a mortgage, but a few times, we were really close. Being retired now, it seems like everything I did, every house, and every job seemed to lead directly to the next better thing and I'm so happy to be retired now. I wish I was playing more but that amp is really heavy now!!

Steve Keene

Scott,

Thanks for the offer to send me rye bread.  No need to do that.  There are several places to buy it in Red Oak or Waxahachie which is about 35 minutes away.  My water came back on this afternoon and luckily I have no broken pipes from the freeze.  All is good now.  I saw David's picture of his pool with the pump problems and immediately recognized that Leslie's Pool Supply was the pure stock market play that no one has recognized yet.  Bought stock LESL today and am already up 7.5%.  

I tell you what I would like you to do for me when this pandemic is over.  I intend to put Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and New Guinea on my travel bucket list.  If you are there in Bali when I make that trip, I would love for you to show me the sights and we can talk about all the good qualities that I loved about your mother and the great qualities of your brother and my friend Royce..

Steve Keene

Jerry,

One of my favorite rock tunes.

Jerry May

Steve.......awesome song I had almost forgotten about! Got this one in my phone now!

This is not a song but a congrats' again to "Mr Clutch" on his entry into the Hall of Fame! Drew Pearson, the original #88 was one of my all-time favorites!

When I met Drew, he was doing some promotional work with us and during one of his breaks......I cornered him. I introduced myself, told him I was a lifelong Cowboy fan.......and that "Roger wasn't the only one who said a Hail Mary that day!"

I'll never forget the words: "Oh well, Jerry maybe yours is the one that did it!" I said:"Well

ell, catching the ball on your hip had something to do with it too!" We both laughed and visited for a bit.

David Cordell

Steve K.

A classmate sent this to me. I think it might have been posted before. Some may be new.

1. The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian .

3.  She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.

4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.

5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.

6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.

7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.

8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.

9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.

10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.

11.  Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

12.  Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.'

13.  I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.

14.  A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'

15. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.

16. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.

17. A backward poet writes inverse.

18.  In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.

19.  When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.

20.   If you jumped off the bridge in Paris , you'd be in Seine .

21.   A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, 'I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.'

22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and  says 'Dam!'

23.  Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.

24.   Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, 'I've lost my electron.'  The other says 'Are you sure?' The first replies, 'Yes, I'm positive.'

25.   Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.

26.    There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope  that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

Steve Keene

Jerry.

Most people don't realize that a loop of the riffs of that song is the Rush Limbaugh theme song. Chrissie Hynde the liberal head vocalist of the Pretenders granted Rush the right to use the song for an annual fee because her father, Mylburn was a big Rush fan. In the late 2000's her managers, agents and record label urged her to prevent Rush from using the song, because they were big Obama fans  She refused to jerk his theme song in honor of her father.

Another shining example of the saying and sitcom "Father Knows Best."

David Cordell

So, how did everyone fare in the weather situation? It would be helpful to say where you live.

I live in north-central Plano. We were without electricty for about 52 hours total. We have fireplaces so that helped. Bedroom got down to 45, but we have a really good down comforter.  We never had a water problem. No frozen pipes. The pool has some cracked pipes. Don't know about the pool equipment itself. Need to have the pipes repaired before trying to turn on the pump.

Our church (corner of Hillcrest and Spring Valley) had broken pipes and the water covered the froor of the sanctuary. Thankfully, it wasn't too deep.

Lowell Tuttle

North Houston.   Plants stored in the garage normal minor freeze damage.   I have 52 year old home with old galvanized pipes.   I ran the faucets until they stopped dripping and then shut off the water at the inline to the house.   Down here, the run the pipe underground to the edge of the house, then, up the wall into the attic and there distribute to various bathrooms, sinks, tubs.   I have had frozen pipes before, but escaped here.   My contractor guy says saving grace is the old steel pipes.   Several customers had damage one major....either PVC or copper pipes (too thin...)

Brother in law in the Heights.   63.  legally blind.   lives alone.   Retired teacher. Type 2 diabetes.  No power.   Wouldn't answer phone.  Susie called 911 Tuesday.  He refused to go in...Susie visited to get him to come home to us.   Refused.  Wednesday, no answer on phone.   His grocery driver guy went by as no answer.   He was collapsed.  Blood sugar was 600.   EMS took him to hospital.  He almost died.  On a breather now...still on three days later.   Has no POA...don't know if he has a will.   Don't know how long he coded.   Kidneys functioning.

Come on bro, wake up.   No visitors.   All alone. 

For those who do not know, basically, diabetes makes the veins very very thin and organs begin to shut down due to lack of O2 and blood flow. 

You can't do it on your own folks. 

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

Hope you brother-in-law recovers, Lowell.  Prayers for him!

On another note completely:

Biden's Commerce Sec., Gina Raimondo, seems to be waffling on whether to believe HUAWEI, the Chinese company, is a danger to the US.

 HUAWEI founder, Ren Zhengfei wants to meet with Biden soon, saying "We hope that the US government can have a more open policy for the benefit of American companies and the development of the US economy."

American attorney and Chinese history author, Gordon Chang, noted however, that HUAWEI "poses a MORTAL THREAT to the US economy."

"Beijing has been using their company for malign purposes, such as stealing US data, for quite a while.  For instance, from 2012 to 2017 (the year Trump entered office) Beijing, through HUAWEI servers, surreptitiously downloaded information from the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  HUAWEI is Beijing's 'mechanism for spying,' as Senator Marsha Blackburn told the news media in July 2019.

China could, with its manipulation of 5G technology, "spy and remotely manipulate the world's smartphones, cars, pacemakers, thermostats, and a multitude of other devices connected to what is referred to as the  'Internet of Things,''' explained Chang.

"In times of war, Beijing could paralyze critical infrastructure."

"So President Biden, what will you do to protect us?" Chang asked.

Biden is also under fire now for ending a requirement that schools reveal sponsorships from Chinese Communist Party-linked Confucius Institutes: a number of our top universities are involved, including Biden's home state university of Univ. of Delaware.

Also, messages from a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden, indicated Joe Biden knew of his son's influence-peddling deals and Joe Biden profited from those deals, as well as his son and other family members.  Many of those deals were made with Communist Chinese companies.

Is it any wonder that Joe Biden is interested in revving up US involvement with Communist China, even though Gordon Chang and many others warn of extremely dire consequences?

David Cordell

Janalu, how did the weather hit you?

Sandra Spieker (Ringo)

Lowell,

I hope your brother in law recovers and is able to return home.  My heart goes out to you and your entire family.  Susie must be sick with worry.  Please tell her to hang in there.

Hollis Carolyn Heyn

David:

Sorry to hear of Transfig's flooding.  I have friends just a few blocks west of there on Hughes who had heat the entire week.  

No blackouts here or frozen pipes.  Not our first rodeo.  

Steve Keene

Hollis,

Hot air from liberal professors often keeps things heated up.

Lowell,

I pray for your wife's relative.  I understand how pride somehow gets in the way of asking for help when you are old..  We all need to face the facts.  We are not spring chickens anyomore till we make it through the winter.

Janalu Jeanes (Parchman)

David,

My post #21553 told of our cold snap adventure.

It wasn't bad, just inconvenient.

I thought you had already seen it, so I didn't write of it again.

Wayne Gary

I live in Garland near Jupiter and Arapaho.  I never lost electricity or internet.   On Monday there was a water main break at the end of the block and it took about 3 hrs to fix. Only at thit time was I without water. I have Fios and Frontier had voice problems so I did not have land telephone service from Wed to yesterday. I did not have any burst pipes. My only concern was my front spicket. spigot  Had a fiberglass cover and the pipe did not burst.

David Cordell

I'm sorry about your brother-in-law, Lowell. What a sad situation. We have three widow friends in the neighborhood who we keep up with. They've gotten through the weather OK, except for the universal swimming pool problem.

I saw this a few doors down the street on my afternoon walk with Becky the Dog. I'm sure you saw a lot of that in Houston after the hurricanes.