Well it appears official. Summer has arrived if not a bit late this year. Landed at DFW this afternoon and stepped outside into a wall of heat and humidity.
The temperature is hovering right at 90 degrees but with the humidity the heat index is up in the mid 90s. And the good news. The pool warmed up this week and the water is now in the comfort range. And the algae has cleared up. Looks like a great holiday weekend.
I spent this week working in my old stomping grounds of Memphis. I got to enjoy plenty of Memphis “Q”, having tasted the dry ribs at both Corky’s and the Rendezvous. While the ribs at the ‘Vous were great they were no match for those at Corky’s which were moist and meaty. Hopefully I had enough to last me until my next trip.
I stayed at the Hilton in East Memphis (the old Hyatt). 
The hotel has been around under one name or another for over 30 years. In fact I attended the grand opening during my freshman year at Ole Miss. It has been the Hilton for a couple of years now and has made a fantastic comeback.The place has been renovated and the service was superb. The staff was extremely friendly. The hotel now looks like a completely difference place inside from what I remember of the old Hyatt Regency days. The rooms all have flat screen TVs and a great view of East Memphis.
Aspiring music mogul Ray Fuller or Crowley, Texas walked into a Fort Worth bank branch and tried to cash a $360 billion check. That is right, BILLION. Apparently the check was written on the account of the mother of Mr. Fuller’s girlfriend. There was no indication as to whether there was enough money in the account to cover the full check. At his arrest, the suspect was also reported to have a .25 caliber pistol as well as less than two ounces of marijuana.
According to an article in the Star-Telegram, Mr. Fuller was reported to have blurted out that he is starting his own record label and his girlfriend’s mother gave him the money to help him out. Fortunately, his bail was only $3,750. No word as to whether it was paid by check.
Summer is about here and I am facing a big algae problem. The weekly spring storms have dumped leaves and other flotsam into the pool and the algae problem has become pretty bad. Last weekend I dumped 4 large jugs of 6% bleach into the water but the algae just shook that off. I found the last remaining dose of polyquat from last year. Now it is off to buy some more and a bulk purchase of chlorine.
You have to love these stories about less-than-genius criminals. The fact that many of them operate at less than full wattage is what helps keep the odds in favor of us honest folks. The most recent example is provided by the Associated Press . According to the article a 19 year old carjacker in Cleveland was arrested shortly after demanding that the driver of the car he jacked pull over to ask a TV news crew for directions. The news crew called police and the young Einstein was promptly arrested.
Perhaps next time he will make sure the car he jacks has a GPS nav system.
Looking out my top floor window of the plush Hampton Inn (and Suites), I see this across the street. What appears to be a ladder truck, fully extended.
Today was the day to clean up the swimming pool as summer will soon be here. Unfortunately the pool was a mess of leaves, algae and some gunk from the BBQ grill. The gunk was the result of the severe storm blowing the grill over at the edge of the pool.
After cleaning up the leaves with a Leaf Master I dumped 4 large jugs of 6% chlorine bleach in the pool. Hopefully that will take care of the algae. If not I will hit it again in a few days. The water temp is very close to being swimmable.
In hindsight, things this week were not as bad as it first seemed. As for the storm, the only damage at Casa Couch was the aforementioned BBQ grill. Sure enough it was thrown over and down next to the swimming pool. The grill’s innards were a mix of jumbled metal. However, nothing was actually broken though a few pieces need a whack or two of the hammer. After lifting the grill up to its original location and re-assembling the parts, the grill fired up as good as new. Well, may only as good as just before the storm.
However, other Plano residence may not have been so lucky. Several neighborhoods to the southwest were littered with fallen trees and extensive roof damage was seen.
The first bit of bad news is the mass cancellation of American Airlines flights involving the MD-80. Of course that just happens to be the equipment used on my scheduled flight home Friday. So far there has been no official word as to the status of Friday flights. But news reports indicate the inspection progress and repair is going fairly slow. Therefore I am weighing options including just driving the rental car back to Dallas.
Then at 4:10 this morning I get a call from home. My wife was just emerging from under the stairs with the cats. Bad weather, likely a funnel cloud, had passed near (or over) the house with winds 70 to 80 miles per hour. The only known casualty so far is the BBQ grill which was thrown down, crushing some potted plants. Hopefully there is no other damage, but it was too dark out to do a full assessment.
The city of Memphis is still celebrating the success of the University of Memphis Tigers as they head into the NCAA Championship game on Monday night. But two recent articles, one by Geoff Calkins in the Commercial Appeal, and another by Mike Lopresti in the USAToday, detail the tragedy that befell the last Tiger team to make it to the Final Four. The 1985 team included Keith Lee, William Bedford and Baskerville Holmes (a charter member of the All Name Team). Lee and Bedford seemed like can’t miss NBA prospects, though neither had stellar pro careers. Bedford is now apparently a resident of the federal prison system.
Dana Kirk, the head coach, would soon be convicted on tax charges. Baskerville would later die in an apparent murder suicide and guard Aaron Price would later die as the victim of an unsolved homicide. Former Tiger hero Larry Finch, a member of the 1973 Final Four team and assistant coach of the 1985 Tigers, would later become Memphis head coach but suffered a debilitating stroke in 2002.
