Category Archives: Misc
“As the Boots Turn” #3: An Episode of Road Rage (almost)
[cue the music, roll the opening credits, cue the announcer]
We join our intrepid hero as he is headed to dance practice. He approaches his trusty stead, a new Toyota Tacoma named “Tonks” on which he has only made three payments.
Smiling in anticipation of the drive, he carefully buckles up, adjusts the mirrors, looks behind and on both sides before backing out of the parking space, at the edge of the lot of course…we don’t want Tonks to get scratched up!
Approaching the exit to the parking lot, he slows, carefully looks both ways, and shifts into second, thus venturing out into the badlands… …otherwise known as the byways and highways of Dallas/Fort Worth. (Roads, streets and freeways for those who haven’t had coffee yet and didn’t catch the literary allusion!) 😉
Once out of the parking lot and onto the road he immediately encounters that orneriest of the ornery, the meanest of the mean, the rudest of the rude, the Scourge of the South, the nastiest critter in all of the West… a careless, distracted, self-obsessed driver, whereupon we hear our beleaguered hero declaim:
“Oh no she did-uhnt!”
Thus with a shake of his head and a well-timed Quadruple *SNAP* in Z formation, our intrepid hero begins his journey across town…. …only time will tell if he succumbs to base emotions and flips someone the bird along the way.
When Did Inconsiderate Driving Become Routine?!!!!
I’ve noticed a strange thing on the roads over the past couple of years. People are becoming routinely rude, inconsiderate and self-obsessed. Not everyone, of course; one must be careful with generalizations –there are still a range of drivers with behaviors running the gamut from steering wheel gripping beasts in the midst of a road rage episode to those who are friendly, courteous and law-abiding. But on the whole, the percentage of rude inconsiderate nuts on the road is definitely increasing. The ratio is shifting and not in a good direction. For those seeking real research and “just the facts” skip down to the Related Links and Articles section at the bottom of the post.
The rest of you who want some drama along with a chuckle or two, keep reading…
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“As the Boots Turn” #2, Sleep, Stress, and Number Two
[cue the intro music, roll the opening credits, cue the voice over]
At the end of yesterday’s episode, the hero of our tale had just paid a visit to the local watering hole. Feeling refreshed and generously buying a beer for the fella at the end of the bar, he left and headed off to deal with Number Two.
[cut the dramatic music with a screeching crashing sound effect; zoom in close on the face of our hero as he rides his trusty steed… …Uhmmm… drives his Toyota Tacoma about the streets of Dallas Texas]
“It is “Number two on the LIST! you idiot! Cut! Can someone get the voice over guy a script!?!? Maybe he can learn his lines before the next take?!?! Sheesh. Ok, everybody back to their start positions! Quickly, quickly, we’re losing the light and we’re over budget!”
Doth quoth our hero and director and screen writer! 🙂
Those who missed yesterday’s episode of “As the Boots Turn” and who want to catch up on the action so far, can find it here: A Disaster or an Opportunity? Glass Half Full or Half Empty?
Resting, Sleeping, and Repairing the damage…
When my life changed so dramatically and I was no longer going into work five days a week, the thing that hit me like a smack in the face, was just how tired I was. We’re not talking “oh, I’m feeling a little peaked.” We’re talking a… Read the rest of this entry
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“As the Boots Turn” #1, A Disaster or Opportunity? Glass Half Full or Half Empty?
There is this little neighborhood bar where I used to go occasionally. On my way home from work, usually on Friday, I’d stop off for one or two beers and play TriPeaks on the bar-top video game machine. It was a good way to unwind just a little, especially when the week had been very stressful.
Pekers is one of those places where the bartenders know all the customers by name, generally waving and greeting you when you come through the door, and they have your drink ready by the time you get to a bar stool. The customers all know one another too, and it is not unusual for folks to give one another rides home just to make sure they get home safe when they’ve had a few too many. Even if you are like me and only go in there once or twice a month, you eventually become a “regular” and everyone knows your name. Hmmm.. Why do I suddenly feel as if I’m a character in a Garth Brooks song? 😉 ♬♫♪♩ I’ve got friends in low places… ♩♪♫♬
The day I lost my job, I did what many of us would do when we needed to sit and think, I went to my local watering hole and I had a beer. My inner domestic diva was trying to sway me toward going to a park and consuming three or four pints of Ben & Jerry’s New York Super Fudge Chunk, but the beer won out. 😉
So, I walk in, Read the rest of this entry
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Travel Tips and Tricks to Competitive Dancing “On the Cheap”
In a recent post, Dancing: How much does it cost?, I described a sliding scale listing the costs of dancing which can range from almost zero up to thousands of dollars per year.
This is the first post in a series that will offer some suggestions on how to save money and make your competitive dancing as inexpensive as possible.
Start Small
So, you’ve taken a few dance lessons and you coach says “Hey have you ever considered competing?”. Well I have good news for you friends, neighbors and the six people who are actually reading this blog — <drum roll please> — It doesn’t have to cost you an arm or a leg. True, if you want, you can go all out, spend lots of money, then get a second mortgage or dip into little Monty’s college fund to support your dance habit, but then again, you can do it for a very reasonable amount. Read the rest of this entry
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How do you get to Radio City Music Hall?
![Radio City Music Hall [CC]](https://txcowboydancer.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/radio-city-music-hall.jpg?w=185&h=246 "Radio City Music Hall [CC]")
I feel like the butt of that joke :
“How do you get to Radio City Music Hall?” And the answer is “Practice!”
Well today I did just that and it was an AWESOME PRACTICE! I am such a “high” and want to share it with everyone! No, I’ve not been taking drugs. Hmmm.. Does an extra large diet coke from Jack in the Box count as “drugs”? Well, if it does then that’s it, and that’s all I’ve had! 🙂
But I digress… I do that don’t I? LOL
Ok, ok, I just got home from a most AWESOME practice with my fabulous dance partner Donna. We worked for just under an hour and a half on 40 beats of our Two-Step routine. I don’t know how many steps that works out to because there were some syncopations involved.
All we were doing was going through every step, every move, very slowly and thoroughly and applying what we already know! It is amazing how many things we were able to correct or fix simply by slowing down the process so we could dig through the memory banks and dredge up those things our coaches have already told us to do. And *ahem* [BLUSH] do what we’ve been told. Then once we figured out what to fix, we did it over, and over and over and over and over.
I may be putting some teachers out of business here by depriving them of repeat business from inattentive students…. Read the rest of this entry
5-6-7-8 Dancing My Way to a Healthy Me! 