"Mark K. Bilbo" <gmail@com.mkbilbo> writes:

On Mon, 27 Nov 2006 00:25:44 -0600, The Chief Instigator wrote:

"Mark K. Bilbo" <gmail@com.mkbilbo> writes:

On Sun, 26 Nov 2006 11:17:44 -0600, The Chief Instigator wrote:

"Mark K. Bilbo" <gmail@com.mkbilbo> writes:

[...]

I rather like being *from Houston but I don't think I could live there
(I guess "live there again" but we moved when I was all of one year
old, I don't remember a thing). All its life that city has been quirky
as hell. But, damn, the air has gotten bad.

It's not what it was when I was a newcomer, for sure.  It could be
worse, though - in the 1960s, you only needed a nose to know when the
wind was coming in from the southeast.  (When I was at UH, you also
got the benefit of being right across Calhoun from Blue Ribbon Meats.)

Even when I was a kid going to visit relatives, I'd get a sore throat
before we got past the airport (or where it would be... I forget when
it was built).
Yeesh...

IAH opened about a week after I turned fourteen (1969), and was being
built as far back as 1966, IIRC...

Okay then it was there. Definitely I remember exactly where I was when
we landed on the moon (glued to a tiny black and white TV in the living
room <g>). That was definitely after we'd moved back to Texas (not
Houston but close enough to drive instead of fly for family get
togethers).

I got to see it in black and white on a color TV...it's still amazing
that we went only four more times after that, and haven't been back to
Sol IIIa in going on 35 years.

I try not to think about it. It pisses me off. This country has become so
hell bent on pissing away its future, it's depressing.

I figure the alien archaeologists will someday be having long debates
similar to those that go on now about the Chinese abandoning exploration
of the planet. They just walked away.

Fortunately, while we've turned our backs on space, the ESA is forging
ahead...so maybe we'll actually get to another planet, even if not in my
lifetime.  

Oh and speaking of smells...

For the first year and change, we were in town in a rental house close
to a lovely creosote plant. Mmmm....

One of the regular occurrences of my childhood summers was the annual
trip to my father's side of the family in northeast Georgia - and in
those pre-Interstate days, either coming or going we'd have to pass
through Bogalusa, and we could smell the paper mill for miles downwind. 
That's one reason I'm still thankful that I-59 and I-12 are complete,
these days...

Interstates don't necessarily prevent such lovely experiences. Try getting
through Amarillo sometime...

I'll see that and raise you I-70 through Kansas City west of downtown...with a
south wind.

-- 
   Patrick "The Chief Instigator" Humphrey (patrick@io.com)  Houston, Texas  
        chiefinstigator.us.tt/aeros.php  (TCI's 2006-07 Houston Aeros)
              LAST GAME: Houston 6, Grand Rapids 1 (November 26)
                NEXT GAME: Saturday, December 2 at Omaha, 7:05