One eleven 2016

Wildcard American football, cold weather, travel plans progress with flights booked and idiot sightings & alerts. The weekend report and commentary is up next.

Greetings Fans from a frigid McK. Arctic blast aka ‘polar vortex’ arrived and it is berry cold.

Saturday afternoon was the Second Saturday Art show at local brewery Tupps. Concurrently with the art show was a dog show. Adopt a ‘pet’ which happened to be rescued dogs. My booth was positioned nearer the stage, about equidistant from the yelping pooches & the band stand. I was GREATLY RELIEVED when they took all the little yappers out for it was too cold. Heaters for the barking demons were blowing circuit breakers repeatedly so they were suddenly gone. The cold inside didn’t seem to bother the big dogs but the open door at the far end of the building had some scratching their respective heads. Yours truly included.

Patty came over and we watched wild card games. She with much more interest than I. She gets salty watching on telly much to my utter amazement.

We watched an incredulously Cincinnati v Steelers game unfolded Saturday night. Speaking of idiots, Cincy players. Actions by a couple of specific Bengal players cited and fingered in the media were embarassing & disgusting. Yahoo news Sunday carried a report of a ‘fan’ in a Bengal hoodie urinating on a fan in fornt of him in the stands. ED: I mean WHAT can one say? The story said subject fan was from Kentucky which is no excuse for pissing on someone.

The penalties enabled Pittsburgh to get within field goal range late in the game & kicked the game winner to advance and ended the season in Ohio. Such is sports in America. Add alcohol, ALL BETS are off as well as sensible behavior & decorum. Forget about role models for kids. These players are THUGS pure & simple and maybe 15% belong in a Federal, State or local prison somewhere. And watching players heads snap & jerk on replays over & over makes me ax the question … why?

Sunday afternoon we took a step toward Mexico by booking air travel. After considerable research including contacting American Express Travel for consultations, a savings of nearly $300 was realized by departing & returning out of Houston v DFW. And flights were direct (aka non-stop) from IAH.

Apparently the travel conspiracy network ASSUMES the Dallas market can afford & tolerate slightly higher fares so they bump them up a bit. Even one-stop flights from DFW had drawbacks. Like the favorable return flights were very limited. Think long layovers in Mexico City even on

AeroMexico which won out for the business on the last trip. Just couldn’t do it this time.

So we can give FB a C note to eliminate the parking for drop-off & pick-up afterwards.

Tomorrow & in the upcoming week, call AmEx travel again wrt renting a jeep. Tips & tricks and pay with points. We plan on taking more time with lodging. We are traveling in the ‘low’season so in addition to lower rates also expecting more availability. So we figuring acquisition of secure lodgiing on the fly in country. Right now we are expecting few if any problems. Plus Patty is more adventurous as a tc and much more emotionally mature than the last one which can only be classified as a natural disaster.

Plan at one time was to travel to Italy, the Italian Riveria & cinque terra with that mistake. Muslim refugees have all but removed Europe from any future travel plans.

Also tomorrow, drop att in favor of FIOS & Verizon. Special being run is a rebate/refund of $400 to 650 for switching. Att just is not getting customer service to my liking. Hidden fees, data limits, features not used, needed or wanted that CANNOT be removed and cost to keep updated.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THAT PICTURE ?

AM I THE ONLY ONE THAT SEES IT ?

So as the trip to Mexico progresses, there is truly something to look forward to. Planning the itinerary with ruins, some beach time and driving sightseeing. Patty is fluent in Spanish AND can drive a standard tranny. That’s TRANSMISSION in this context. AND she WANTS to share driving duties. Looks like I’ll be going with the best travelling companion (tc) to date.

As an example, she was looking at my passport & noticed it had expired. She KNEW hers was so both need to be renewed. This is my action item. The Plan is for Yours truly to hand carry both passsports to consulate in Houston sooner than later to walk-thru the process of renewing the passports. ED: Early Monday phone call update that due to time frame, renewal MUST BE done US Mail. Oh bouy !! Why is counting on two (2) federal agencies so worrisome ?

Last time the tc did it by mail & it nearly forced cancellation of the trip. Only quick thinking on my part got the document back in time to travel as scheduled & on time. I contacted my Congressman, Sam Johnson & his staff nudged it along and we got it about a week before.

Have a great week since I am expecting down time. The only thing that might change things is a stampede of the idiots and this CAN happen and usually does.

But for right now, things are good, quiet and everything is going according to tides. Rolling in & rolling out.