New Braunfels, Texas WURSTFEST!

It's the best of the wurst. My wife and I have been out of town. That's why this blog has been inactive-- more inactive than usual. We visited New Braunfels, Texas and spent a little time sight-seeing there and sampling the Wurstfest. We rented a car and drove. What a drive! Speed limits are way up, like 75 to 80 mph. Truck traffic is heavy, too, thanks to the recent oil boom in this state. Ditto for campers and big RVs. Every town we passed through, going south, seems to be getting at least a little more prosperous. The only notable exceptions seem to be Lamesa and Tahoka, a couple of towns not far from Lubbock. They seem as dead as ever. One thing I can tell you, there is a population explosion in the hill country. We hit bumper-to-bumper traffic between New Braunfels and Boerne. The situation there is untenable. They've outgrown their water resources and no matter how much it rains (and they've had flooding recently), drought conditions prevail every summer. Developers are pretty much destroying that part of the Texas hill country. I would not live there if you paid me. It's already too congested, and it will get much worse until the collapse sets in. One thing that bothers me is that the Edwards Aquifer recharges and discharges very quickly. It is very porous and all the crap and pollution from surface run-off, which increases as the building boom goes on, with so many gas stations and vehicles and light industry, washes right into the aquifer. You are going to have illegal dumping of toxic waste. You are going to have oil spills. You are going to have more and more herbicides and pesticides in use on all those lawns, and ALL of that crap will be carried by the first heavy rain right into the aquifer. You can't keep it out. That limestone aquifer is also vulnerable to acidification and sinkhole formation. At any rate, I'm going to keep to my usual practice of posting black and white pics first, then the enhanced color, then the plain snapshots. Most of these photos were taken either at Wurstfest or in downtown New Braunfels. And they don't show the usual stuff most people like to photograph...

There will be much more to come.

The World Series!

More drek. More slop. More swill.

Red Raiders Take On Oklahoma!

Is there some way they could both lose? What a waste of time, money and energy. The NFL discovered that football is such a stupid, boring, excuse for a sport, that they had to juice it up. Have you noticed that most of the time, in any football game you care to mention, that nothing is happening? Kill the inane commentary, kill the crowd noise, kill the hype, and you've got not much left. And it means NOTHING. The games signify NOTHING. The sport proves NOTHING. The spectacle is pointless. Sound and fury. I've never been able to understand the appeal.

TTU Overview

Here are some pics overlooking part of the Texas Tech University Campus, taken from an upper floor at University Medical Center. You can see Covenant hospital across the way, and some of the high-rise dorms on campus, as well as part of the Marsha Sharp Freeway. 

Slaton Oktoberfest

Last weekend we attended the annual October fund-raising sausage meal in Slaton. There was a good crowd and by all accounts it was a success. Great German food! Slaton is kind of a "closed" community, in which a few old, founding, families dominate. If you live in Slaton and you are not a Catholic, doors close to you. And if your family name is not Kitten, or Heinrich, or Bednarz, you will never be a leading light. It's just like that. And if you are a member of one of those three prominent families, you will find that exceptions will be made for you. Banks will be more than willing to loan, local law enforcement will be inclined to look the other way. You are better than everyone else, and you will accept that as your due. I base this on my wife's experiences. She lived in Slaton and tried to operate a business there. She knows. She saw. She heard. Slaton is a nice place to visit, but I would not want to live there. That's just our opinion, but it's an opinion based on hard experience. Well, actually, to be honest, my wife's experiences in Slaton led her to HATE the town. She wouldn't live there if you PAID her. Having heard her side of things, I wouldn't live there either. But maybe others have better experiences...

Here are a few pics: