Ad Hudler's Blog, page 43
July 4, 2009
Fine Texan Panhandle Hospitality
The Budget Rent-a-Car office at Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport is true to its name. Instead of being housed with the other car companies in the terminal, it's in a shack about 100 yards from the terminal. And when it's time to turn in your rental on the day of departure, you drive up to the shack, where a lady greets you and says, "You can leave your bags in the truck. Come on in."
After printing out my final bill, she said, "Now let's get you to the airport. Can I have the keys?"
She
After printing out my final bill, she said, "Now let's get you to the airport. Can I have the keys?"
She
July 1, 2009
Texan tomfoolery
Overheard in Zach's Gym in Amarillo:
"... Next time you get stopped speeding, get that cell phone out and take a picture of the odometer the second you see those flashin' lights come on. And then, when you go to court and the trooper tries to lie about your speed and says "He was goin' 67 at 5:32 p.m.," then you can say, "Hey, judge, I've got a picture on my cell phone that shows I was going 62 at 5:32 ... not 67."
"... Next time you get stopped speeding, get that cell phone out and take a picture of the odometer the second you see those flashin' lights come on. And then, when you go to court and the trooper tries to lie about your speed and says "He was goin' 67 at 5:32 p.m.," then you can say, "Hey, judge, I've got a picture on my cell phone that shows I was going 62 at 5:32 ... not 67."
June 28, 2009
Texas Panhandle Journal: Post #2994
1. They don't have Texan accents way up here in this part of the state. They sound more like Coloradoans. (Incidentally, Colorado natives don't much like Texans. I remember when I was a Colorado kid, it seemed that every other person you ran into on a ski slope was a Texan. Hence the popular T-shirt: "If God had wanted Texans to ski he would have made bullshit white!"
2. The spot reserved for fresh jalapenos in the grocery store is as big as the banana section in my grocery store in Florida.
3. Th
2. The spot reserved for fresh jalapenos in the grocery store is as big as the banana section in my grocery store in Florida.
3. Th
June 27, 2009
Tasty treat in Greenville
... at a restaurant called High Cotton: a "hummus" spread using black-eyed peas instead of chickpeas. I will try to replicate this at home when I return from Amarillo and report back with a recipe.
OBSERVATION OF SOUTHERN CULTURE: Something you only see in the south: Men, on weekends, wearing pleated, pressed khaki shorts, penny loafers with no socks, fancy-leather belts and tucked-in polo shorts.
Gee....do you think their wives dress them?
OBSERVATION OF SOUTHERN CULTURE: Something you only see in the south: Men, on weekends, wearing pleated, pressed khaki shorts, penny loafers with no socks, fancy-leather belts and tucked-in polo shorts.
Gee....do you think their wives dress them?
June 24, 2009
Ouch.
I was following a car on I-26, headed into Asheville, N.C. when I came upon a car that was exactly like the one I had in high school: a 1982 white Cutlass Supreme.
And it had a North Carolina plate that designated it as "Antique Car"
And it had a North Carolina plate that designated it as "Antique Car"
June 23, 2009
Grove Park Inn SUCKS
Linc Menner, the protagonist of my novel "Househusband," is on holiday and reports the following:
We'd heard lots of great things about this historic resort in the North Carolina mountains (Grove Park Inn in Asheville) and finally am having a chance to try it out. Our surprises so far:
-Yes, there is a spa, but guests must pay another $55 to even walk into the thing. And it's very strange: a fake grotto with fake stone and fake waterfalls ... just WEIRD. It's like something out of an Austin Powers
We'd heard lots of great things about this historic resort in the North Carolina mountains (Grove Park Inn in Asheville) and finally am having a chance to try it out. Our surprises so far:
-Yes, there is a spa, but guests must pay another $55 to even walk into the thing. And it's very strange: a fake grotto with fake stone and fake waterfalls ... just WEIRD. It's like something out of an Austin Powers
June 18, 2009
On the road again ...
My posts will be infrequent these next two weeks. We're getting ready to take our daughter to summer camp, where she'll be a counselor all summer long in the mountains of North Carolina. And then I'm headed west on one of my writing jags. I periodically choose an obscure, fourth-tier city and go there to think and write with no distractions of home. This time, it's Amarillo, Texas, where I plan on buying a new pair of boots and doing my best to eat the 72-ounce slab of beef at The Big Texan Stea
June 17, 2009
Life Lesson #427271RRE
Be careful when sorting the clean gym clothes after washing. Otherwise you will mistakenly wear your wife's much-smaller shorts for that two-mile run and end up with inner thighs the color of raspberries.
Home remedy for chafed skin, anyone?
Home remedy for chafed skin, anyone?
June 15, 2009
How short should men's shorts be?
What are the cultural rules in America these days for the length of men's everyday summer shorts? I prefer mine above the knee, but some people think it obscene. You NEVER see men younger than 30 with shorts above the knee. More questions; Don't dads with mid-calf shorts look stupid? ... like they're trying to look all gangsta and young? What is the proper length of shorts for a 20-year-old? A 40-year old? Is there a difference between white and black and Latino culture?
More questions: Remember
More questions: Remember
June 14, 2009
Things I Did Not See Growing Up In Burlington, Colorado, #6559T
Spotted yesterday in Fort Myers by my health club: An automobile entourage from a black-American funeral home with royal-blue hearse and PURPLE police flashers on top.
