All the cool kids at the back of the bus

Dear Al Gore,

Today marked the first time that I used the Houston METRO mass transit system. I rode the bus from my house to my downtown office. It kicked ass despite taking three times as long as driving my car.

The trip was cheap and easy. For a dollar, I was transported from my departure stop, two blocks from my front door, to my arrival stop, three blocks from the office. The walks were short and slightly invigorating and will probably be tolerable even in bad weather.

People watching was pretty cool as well. The bus wasn't filled with vagrants and scalawags like that bus to the south side of Chicago. It seems that folks have bus friends like back in elementary school. Speaking of which, school kids were on the bus which surprised me. I guess the cheesewagons don't go to their neighborhoods. Two old lady HISD crossing guards rode next to each other after boarding in The Heights; that was cute.

The route from my hood to downtown was interesting. We were on the main streets you'd expect for most of the trip with a few interesting side streets mixed in. For example, we took the Sawyer overpass on to Memorial once we'd reached the Sixth Ward. It was nice to see that area during the day instead of speeding through it at night. I also learned that I can bus over to The Loft or El Boliviano's as well.

Mr. Gore, I can't promise that I will be bussing into downtown everyday from here on out. Driving my car is still a passion because I like the challenge of cell phoning, surfing the InterWeb (thanks for inventing that by the way) and slurping my coffee all while weaving in and out of buses at 85 mph. But, I am glad to know that the mass transit option is available and so easy to use, which will be great for hangover days.

Sincerely,

JB el JB

What I did on my Christmas vacation

Let's be clear from the get-go. I don't like holidays. In fact, I can't stand them. It's a personal issue, but I am not a big fan of how pissy folks get about Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas. I don't like Christmas shopping and the escalation in gift buying that closely mirrors the Cold War arms race. I don't like driving back from Texas to Louisiana and despise airports during peak periods of tourist travel of any sort. Take your car keys, $20 of pennies and cell phones out of your pockets before you get to the metal detector, JACKASS!

But, I like seeing my family and friends. The key is spending the "right" amount of time with folks. Determining the right amount of time depends your mobility, the amount of constant contact and the number of like-minded folks with whom you can commiserate.

This year's Christmas vacation was short on QT with friends and high on the family factor. I did attend the 5th Annual Oyster Crawl in the French Quarter with the gang. But, I missed out on Panthers vs. Saints and New Year's Eve in general. Most of the trip was spent with Mom this year helping her migrate back to North Carolina and we are both still alive to tell the tale.

The short story is that Murphy's Law was in the house, literally, for most of the moving adventure. Stuff seemed to multiple as we packed up her loot. Apparently boxes multiply if you get them wet, which is tough when you get doused with over six inches of rain in a week. When we tried to head out the truck also got stuck in the front yard that was once packed harder than a diamond thanks to the rain. It was worth it to help Mom get to a happy place.

"They" say that the lessons are in the journey. Brothers and sisters, this was one hell of a journey chock-filled with lessons of all sorts like it's probably not a great idea to try to eat a chicken salad sandwich, adjust the volume on the iPod and change lanes in your 26' moving truck all at the same time. "They" also say that one may not understand the full extent lessons learned until much later in life kinda like when your parents give you shit for not doing your homework or drinking too much Coke. Thus, I am unable to articulate everything that I learned during the trip. I can tell you that I am officially off the helping you move market until 2020 unless you're moving some place cool like Fiji or Como.

Now hear this!

Brothers in Shirts, Part Deux
Originally uploaded by JaseMan.

Y'aloha, gentle readers - all three of you. My blathering got derailed by home buying, settling in, Houstonisting and beer drinking or some combination thereof. I was pleasantly surprised to get the "My wife is pissed that you're not writing anymore" feedback. You like me! You really like me!

I nearly went crazy about fifteen times during the close of 2006, but I've managed to hang on to the end of my rope by a fraction of a fingernail. Spamming the WebberNet with my ramblings is actually therapeutic and I'm glad to be back. 2006 was a decent year featuring a concentration of Italian travel, two surgeries and general weirdness.

Traveling to Italy twice in one year was stellar, but someone really needs to talk to them about fixing toll booths so that they don't break after every car. No one should ever be able to get out of the car, stand on the toll booth and take pictures of the traffic jam.

Fixing the cankle was big news last year. It's mending nicely but still not game ready, but that's another story entirely. I'm glad to not fall over upon standing. However, I still brace it when I'm out carousing or anticipating a violent doormat.

Weirdness was plentiful between the Saints and home buying. Who dat thought I would buy a house? And, who dat thought the Saints would kickass? Who dat wants to paint my house?

Buckle up, knuckleheads! Double oh seven will be interesting.