What I Heard This Week! 08-29-2019
What were you doing two years ago? People on theTexas coast were bracing for what would become one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the U.S. Hurricane Harvey made landfall about 10 pm on Aug. 25, 2017 on San Jose Island as a Category 4 storm with maximum winds of 132 mph. It quickly made a second landfall near Rockport, crossed over Copano Bay and made a third landfall a few miles north of Mission Bay in Refugio County.Harvey then moved inland northwest of Victoria where the storm stalled for days, funneling an unbelievable amount of moisture into SE Texas. Torrential rains broke records, producing as much as 60.58 inches near Nederland which resulted in devastating floods.After nearly five days, Harvey moved east of the region, ending the rains.During this time, there were 57 reported tornadoes, at least 107 confirmed deaths from drowning, lightning and wind-related deaths, along with such situations as heart attacks, house fires, electrocutions from power lines, vehicle accidents on wet roads and more. Flooding took weeks to subside. Approximately 336,000 people were left without electricity and tens of thousands were rescued from the more than 300,000 structures that were flooded. Approximately 32,000 people were displaced in shelters across the state by August 31st.More than 210,000 people registered with FEMA for disaster assistance with around$120 billion in damage. On a fun note, nine months later, some hospitals in Texas saw a spike in birth rates, with a 17% increase in births reported at Corpus Christi Medical Center. A similar, larger baby boom also occurred after Hurricane Sandy in 2012.😊
TACO CAT spelled backwards is TACO CAT. Thanks, Sylvia. You made me laugh and repeat.
Anne-Elisabeth and I jumped out of bed on Saturday morning and headed to Waco to celebrate my mom’s 84th birthday. AE was in-between projects at UH and felt that she could take the time off if we went to Waco and back in one day. I was totally excited because I love being with my kid and I absolutely welcomed the company. We talked, reminisced, listened to music that has meaning to her and talked more. At age 20, this parent wants to hold on to every single moment. Her maturity and realization of life was fascinating and continued to creep into each of our conversations…sometimes to the point that I felt I was seeing and hearing this brand-new adult person for the very first time. These were the same feelings of awe that I experienced when she was sitting behind me in a car seat about 18-19 years ago, babbling about all the new things she had learned that day, whether it was a new letter of the alphabet or just blowing mouth bubbles. She was very good at mouth bubbles. Every moment of our time together was the best…even the 6 hours that it took us to get home because of night construction in Houston. We were stuck in traffic for two hours with an 1/8 of a tank of gas and both of us wishing we hadn’t stopped at Starbucks on the way out of Waco, but we made it home safely, just a couple of hours later than we expected…great day to spend with my much taller, smarter and sophisticated daughter.
After WWI, brothers, Sylvan and Alfred Goldman opened Goldman Brothers Wholesale Fruits and Produce in Breckenridge, Texas. Years later, the brothers were intrigued by a new type of grocery store, the supermarket, where all products were sold under one roof. They opened their first supermarket in 1920 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. One year later there were twenty-one markets throughout the state. In 1929 they sold the Sun chain to Skaggs-Safeway, then in 1934, purchased the faltering Humpty-Dumpty grocery chain. In 1936, Alfred Goldman invented and patented the Folding Basket Carrier aka grocery basket aka shopping cart which was inspired by a folding chair. It is estimated that over 1.25 million shopping carts are manufactured each year and nearly 2 million carts are stolen each year, translating into a per-store loss of about $10,000 annually…and that’s just grocery stores. Retailers estimate that the annual cost of shopping cart theft is almost $800 million worldwide. Just a tiny bit more useless information that I love to provide for you.
RECENT BIRTHDAYS:Boxing promoter Don King is 88.That hair. Writer, producer, director Walter Bernstein is 100. TV weatherman Al Roker is 65. Movie director John Badham is 80. Saturday Night Fever. Filmmaker Marshall Brickman is 80. Annie Hall. Actor Anthony Heald is 75. Hannibal Lecter’s jail nemesis, Dr. Frederick Chilton, in The Silence of the Lambs. Rocker, bassist, actor Gene Simmons is 70. KISS. Rock singer Elvis Costello is 65. Country singer, actor Billy Ray Cyrus is 58.
Actor Sean Connery is 89. Model Claudia Schiffer is 49. Talkshow host Regis Philbin is 88. Filmmaker, artist, writer Tim Burton is 61. Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sweeney Todd, Dark Shadows, Frankenweenie, Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, Batman and Batman Returns, Planet of the Apes, Big Fish, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.Country singer Eddy Raven is 75. Rhythm blues Ivan Neville is 60. Actor Matthew Perry is 50. Country singer Clay Walker is 50.
Tennis Hall of Fame and ophthalmologist Renee Richards is 85. Richards had been dressing as a woman since she was a child because she said she was born into the wrong body. In 1974 Richards underwent sex reassignment surgery but she was then banned from tennis. A lawsuit she won allowed her to play tennis again. Richards says she has never considered herself an activist so much as a star athlete and a devoted doctor. “I realize that being the pioneer for other transsexual people or for other downtrodden, disenfranchised people of any time is very important, but it’s really a very small part of my life.”
More than 20 cats were found abandoned in a Houston home after renters moved out and left them behind with no food or water. At least one died; some just days old. They were taken to the Houston SPCA and investigation is underway to determine if criminal charges will be filed. Of course, there should be criminal charges. I have a better idea, but it’s illegal. One suggestion I heard was to spay and neuter the renters. Why do we let people get away with being so cruel to the helpless animals and children. Our job is to protect them. Grrrr. On FM 521 in Matagorda County, there were 47 dogs recently rescued from a breeding house. When officers forced open the door, they found horrible living conditions; a dog giving birth in a cabinet, eye infections, and dogs sitting in their own filth because they were never out of their kennels. Outside, dogs were in the heat, water was green, and food covered in ants. This woman had been turned in to animal control in May, but nothing was done. Unacceptable.
116-year-old Harley-Davidson is the country’s oldest and best-known motorcycle maker. The company is targeting a new, young, affluent, urban and ‘eager to adopt to new technology’ audience, with their first production electric vehicle. That’s quite a switch from large, expensive, gas-powered, cruiser-style motorcycles referred to as HOGS. It’s called the Harley Live Wire. No hot exhaust pipe, clutch or gearshift, it’s much easier to ride, eco-conscious and whisper-quiet. Per charge, the Live Wire can travel 146 miles city or 95 miles city/hwy combined. Retail price $29,799.
Thanks to Mark for the suggestion of brewer’s yeast for fleas. Gonna try it. Thanks to past-neighbor, Jay Bart Luce of First State Bank, for catching me up to date on family happenings. The drivers in downtown are still a little put-out that they had to drive around us.Thank you to Tri-City Auto for securing my taillights without an appointment, then busting it a week later to get my daughter’s car out in time for her to scoot off to college. You’re the best!Thanks, Corky for taking the time to sit with me on the front porch of my office and watch the traffic go by…talk a little trash…that was fun. Hope we get to do it again soon. You have been my customer since the beginning, but you have been my friend for so much longer.Thank you to Gary Burkhart for sharing the terrific story about Mrs. Wiseman, best teacher in the whole wide world. Thanks, readers. We love you. Lisa
