Betting the farm

Well, that did not end well.  My heart goes out to all my Broncos friends.  I had high hopes that they would preserver, but it started out badly and kept going downhill.  

Normally, I don't get into all of the big game hype.  Our team has been so far out of the hunt, they were looking towards the 2014 season back in November.  I am not a die hard fan like a few friends of mine who live, eat, sleep and poop the team colors.  I'm not going to name names, but those green and gold colors really stand out.  

I do watch some of the game to catch all the advertising hoopla.  Some of the commercials were funny/interesting, but, in my mind, most were lame or just plain dumb. Besides, I had already seen a number of them the internet.  Still, it amazes me on how much money it costs to do a 30 second commercial during that game.    

Speaking of costs, a lot of people lost a good chunk of coin on that game.  The one that I found interesting is a local businessman down here.    

To set up the story, I need to give you a few background details.  We have a local guy who owns a furniture place on the north side of town who has been a cultural icon down here for years.  Jim "Mattress Mac" McInvale owns a little place called Gallery Furniture.  He started out with $5000 and his own pick up truck back in the 80s selling furniture on the north freeway in one of those places were you can get your bean bag chairs, lazyboys and discount mattresses.  He now has a massive warehouse/showroom on the north side where he is selling a ton of furniture every day.  He has a sort of a carnival barker sales approach and is always at the store running promotions.  Back in the 80's, he bought some airtime on the local tv stations to run ads for his store to run late at night.  At the end of one of his commercials, he was frustrated with trying to come up with some catch phrase and wound up pulling some bills out of his pocket and jumping up and down on a mattress saying that "Gallery Furniture will save you MONEY!!!".  Seemed campy at the time, but it caught fire and stuck and gave him a cult like notoriety.  One of his key selling points is that, if you find something you like and buy it today, he can have it delivered the same day (Buy it today and have it in your home TONIGHT!).  His huge warehouse store has a restaurant (free food), ice cream for the kids, several big screen TVs, and a huge playroom for the kids.  He is a pretty savvy business expert who has built a huge business and is often speaking at the local college or event on how to get ahead in life.  He is a big supporter of the USO and donates a lot of items and money for returning veterans (big points in my book).  I've met him a few times and, despite all the hype, he is a real nice guy.  He is big into the community and is always donating furniture or money to people in need or organizations who need it.  He has helped with scholarships at the rodeo, sponsored charity events, and always been an interesting character to follow.

Now that we got that out of the way, let's go back two weeks ago to the championship games.  Mac made an interesting proposition:  if you come to his store and buy $5000 worth of furniture and have it delivered before the championship games, you can bet on the two teams who will win the championships.  If your two teams win, you get your purchase for free.  Turned out that almost 80% of the people who participated bet that the Broncos and Seahawks would win.  And Mac lived up to his promise.  Wound up costing him $600,000 that weekend.  That bet was not covered by insurance so it came out of his pocket.  Needless to say, there were a lot of people questioning his motives or his sanity.  Afterwards, he was a good sport about it and took it in stride but did say that he didn't expect the turnout to be so great and wouldn't be doing that again any time soon.  

Well, never say never.  Mac must have had a change of heart or drank too much because starting last week he came out with a new bet:  If you come in and buy $6000 worth of furniture and have it delivered by game time and, if the Seahawks win, you get it for free.  No strings.  Needless to say, that bet did not come out as he had hoped and this weekend's game wound up costing somewhere near the $7 million mark.  As with the prior weekend, Mac was upbeat about it and has been doing a number of interviews with the local media.  Mac was quoted as saying:  "It's great,It's the perfect outcome for our customers.  In the long term, we made a lot of happy customers and that's what it's all about: building customers for life."  I gotta give Mac credit, he is living up to his word.  Of course, he is getting a lot of free publicity an outcome. 

BTW - this is the place where we got our couches a few months back.   

Break in the action

Last time we checked with our hero, he was exploring the exotic far off lands of Asia.  Adventure!  Drama!  Suspense!  Comedy!  Yea, right.  Sorry for the pause in the action, but things got a wee bit crazy around here (story of my life) and I am trying to wrap things up to head out of town for a extended weekend.  This weekend is the start game of our football season and I have a parking pass and tickets to the opening game.  Will be good to get back into the weekend football rhythm.  Maybe I can get someone to autograph a football for me...  

Trailer is already loaded up, bags packed, bills paid, land barge is topped off, dogs waiting by the back door.  Momma has to stay home to watch over her mother and cannot make the run this weekend.  Bummer.  We had plans to head up to Austin on Sunday to visit with our offspring and his bride, but those plans got cancelled.  So it will be just me and the dogs in the trailer (that's just asking for trouble) this weekend.  

I was trying to wrap up my synopsis on China.  The last hotel was nothing like the first two - nice room, but after the Grand Hyatt, everything seems a bit pedestrian.  Food over in China was good, got to sample some unique Chinsese dishes (dim sum, Peking Duck, Dragon Fruit, lasagna).  Funny how, in Shenzen, because of the typhoon and the rain, we wound up eating in the evening and the Italian restaurant turned out to be our favorite.  I've spent a good part of my week writing up the audit report and getting ready for the next one.  And, yes I have another one that dropped into my lap.  This one popped up on the radar at the last minute and I "volunteered" to lead this one.  This will involve another looong flight to get to/from the place, but, due to the location, I have my motives for this one.  Details to follow.....

In the meantime, I hope to test out my new toy this weekend to see how it works on the road.  

Weekend road trip

Busy weekend.  Took off Friday to get a jump on the weekend.  Took advantage the start of the fall football season and headed north for the game for a long weekend and trial run in the new rig.  As with most new toys, there is a bit of a learning curve on operations, but nothing I couldn't handle.  This is the first test run with my new trailer and it gave me a few ideas for things to add to my shopping list.  The rig is a good 5 feet longer and 1500 lbs heavier than my last one, so it handles a wee bit differently.  Overall impression, it was a great run and the trailer worked better than I expected.  Nice to have a real bed for each of us instead of a gaucho couch.  And a real adult stand up shower and holding tank to match.  The last trailer had a tiny (footlocker size) shower that would be cramped for anyone over 5' 8" and a very small holding holding tank that filled up fast.  This one is about the size of a small phone booth, but works great.  Lots of room.   

Ready to ride

On site with the new rig

Our tailgate set up

Even the dogs gave it two paws up.  They were impressed and had a blast.  A weekend outside with a whole campus full of new people to lick/suck up to.  Weather was hot (~100) on Friday but a front broke through and dropped the temps to a nice frosty 70 on Saturday night.  Almost had to put on a long-sleeved shirt.      

Watch dogs 

Hot dogs

Friday night we attended a concern that opens up the season.  Last few years they have held it in the arena but this year they decided to hold it in the football stadium.  Interesting venue, but it did work well.  Got to listen to Robert Earl Keen, one of my favorite singers and an Aggie alumni too boot.     

Robert Earl Keen

After the concert, they hold a midnight yell practice in the stadium to fire up the team/student body.  This was taken at 2300 after the concert, but by midnight all three decks were full.   

5 seconds of fame

Looks like this week is turning into an all dog theme.  I took the dogs up to college for the last two football games. No, not to the games, but to our camping spots on campus. My brother and I have reserved spots on one of the parking lots where we camp out in our trailers. Football at A&M is serious business. Our little stadium can hold a few fans (stated capacity is 83,002) but we’ve been known to exceed that number by a few bodies. Football weekends are a massive phenomenon starting with various events on Friday nights and culminating in the game on Saturday afternoon/evening. We’ve been doing it for years since my brother’s oldest son went to school (long since graduated). It’s become our weekend tradition during the fall. The RV slots on campus are hard to come by and have sold out for years, so we tend to make full use of the sites every home game.  

Water dogs

Anyway, the dogs like going out camping in the trailer. To them, it is another adventure. I’ve been taking my dogs up to the games since we had Shadow and they have a blast. Two weeks ago, I took them up for the weekend and there was a charity walk being held at the Veterinary Center (A&M has one of the best Vet schools in the nation). The Vet school was opening a new Cancer Center for animals and to commemorate the event, they held a 3/5k Walk to collect money for cancer research BTHO (Beat The Hell Outta) Cancer Pet Walk or Paws to the Pavement walk. I have always been a sucker for 5ks and figured the dogs like to walk so, I signed us up. Was kind of weird – I’m used to participating in these kinds of runs with lots of runners and warming up before the start, but not when you have the same number of dogs as people. Big dogs, small dogs, skinny dogs, fat dogs, tall dogs, short dogs, shaggy dogs, hairless dogs, purebreds, mutts. Not sure who had more fun - the 2 legged or 4 legged participants. When the starting cannon sounded (note to organizers: you might want to rethink the idea of having a cannon signal the start of a DOG event), everyone hit the trail. Good walk. Some ran, some walked, and some peed. I wasn’t sure how Claire would handle the walk since she is a wee bit old and heavy, but Grayson wanted to run the course. Was a bit hot at the time so at the 1.5 km mark they had water bowls and a kiddie pool for the dogs to drink out of.  Of course, guess which dog had to lie in the pool?   Both dogs made the course fine, if not a bit hot. We got to see both Reveille VII & VIII (A&M Mascot) and there were lots of pictures taken. That’s where the story should end, but there’s an interesting addendum.

BTHO Cancer Walk

Reveille VII & VIII

I left the dogs with my parents (they don’t make it into the games anymore) and went up to the stadium. Scored a really good seat on the 20 yard line in the 2nd deck. Typical A&M game – lots of noise, big crowd, mucho excitement. Throughout the game, they post pictures on the giant video scoreboard (12Man TV) – a monstrous 75 ft x 55 ft TV screen on the south end of the field. The kind of screen you could sit back in our trailer (1/4 mile away) and watch the game. In between broadcasting the plays, they normally post up various factoids and activities and the occasional sponsor (hey, somebody’s got to pay for that screen). In the middle of the 3rd quarter, they start showing things around campus like – student activities, sports, different schools, current events. One of the events shown on the big screen was the BTHO Cancer walk held that morning. Among all of the shots taken of Reveilles, runners/walkers/dogs, up pops this shot of a golden dog with the bright yellow bandanna around his neck walking. Took me a few moments to recognize that it was a good 5 second close up of Grayson on a 50 foot screen. No sign of Claire or me. Everyone else saw him told me about if after the game. He’s famous now. Great. One more thing to give him a big head.

Today we are headed out to the Golden Beginnings Golden Retriever Rescue annual picnic. This is the 12th picnic and a chance to see all the old GBGRR alumns. We are expecting 250-300 Goldens plus a few people. Pretty impressive display of fur. Pictures to follow.



GBGRR Picnic 2010



Football weekend

Another superb weekend.

Weather was fantastic. Road trip went well. Got to attend an outstanding football game Saturday. We were playing a ranked team on TV and I was honestly expecting to get shellacked but the boys stepped up and played some seriously good ball. I love going to a home game at Kyle Field, but the way the guys have been playing, it can painful/exasperating. Attendance would have been higher at the game but this weekend was opening day of deer season down here and a lot of old Aggs were listening to the game out on the deer lease. We actually beat up on a #11 ranked team and there was pandemonium in the stadium.

Took my trailer up to the game. There are two RV parking lots for big rigs. Not your typical generator lot where someone pulls up with a rented trailer and a hot tub and runs the generator all night long. Ours is a quieter lot that has families who have been there for decades. It is very hard to get a slot in these lots. It is a very close knit group and the list of people who have first right of refusal on these slots has been established many years ago and the only way to get a slot is for someone to give it up or die. I know, it sounds a bit morbid, but there have been situations where someone passes away and the family will retain the slot for future generations. One of my friends has taken over a slot from a couple that the husband passed away last spring. People take these tailgating gigs seriously. Anyway, the deal is if you cannot make a game, there is a website you can post up your slot for sale. First come, first served. Typically, the powered slots don’t last more than 4 hours after they’ve been posted and that was the deal with my slot. I scored my pass from a guy across town right after he had posted it. Was a nice weekend outing. I took momma and the dogs for the weekend. Grayson has done one of these last year, but this was a new deal for Claire. My parents and brother have two slots up there and make it a regular party every home game. All you have to do is show up and you are welcomed like family. A lot of student relatives (cousins, nephews) have figured out this routine and will show up for good food and plenty of libations.

Anyway, took both dogs just to get them out of the house. For a brief moment, I was worried if the activity and action would overwhelm them. HA! They were in doggie heaven. Lots of food, new smells/sights, people to meet, lots of attention. Both dogs were well behaved in the crowd and did not cause any many problems. Ok, if sitting at your feet with mournful eyes and licking your hand is a problem, then they were incorrigible. These two quickly figured out how to work the crowd and get a morsel and a head scratch. You could not tell this was their first time. Both dogs were the hit of the party and momma and I surmised that we were just there as the support crew.  

I took the opportunity to run both dogs over the weekend through the adjacent fields/woods in the morning. Grayson loves open field work and will run until his legs fall off. Claire is a bit more restrained and will typically stay closer to me, but she roaming a bit flushing some dove & quail. Both mutts came back thoroughly exhausted, dirty, smelly, and full of thistles but loved every minute. Good weekend for all.

Hope ya'll remembered to set your clocks back.