Showing posts with label Oak Cliff. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oak Cliff. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Dallas After Midnight

 


En lieu of anything remotely resembling serious posting, here's another old hippy, Ray Wylie Hubbard. Remember him? All very dance at the pyramids with the Dead.

Nice, but for goodness sake, Oak Cliff Ray, time for a shower and haircut, eh? Reeking hippies aside, maybe Ray tells it like it is. Your call.

Be careful out there Kids,

LSP

Thursday, July 14, 2022

Patrolling

 


The day dawned bright, with the sun torching its way through the hazy air of a Texan July; time to go on patrol. So much better than lying and moaning on a post-op sickbed and after all, movement, we're told, is a sign of life.




The alley cats were out in force. They were on patrol as well, though much of this seemed to be about an ad hoc all round defense. Well, they are irregulars.




The Fuel Stop was up and running too. They've had bullet proof(?) perspex forever, way before the Covid craze brought sheets of see through plastic to our stores. Does the plastic defend against bullets? Perhaps. Does it stop a virus? Maybe as much as the vaccines themselves.




Then it was time to stroll by Cursed House. According to legend, Cursed House used to be a dental office and home to untold horrors, and for a fact it's seen a stream of unfortunate tenants over the last few decades. 

These leave, shrieking, and are mostly never heard from again. It's under new management these days, let's see if the renovation cleanses the place from its wicked spirits. And there you have it. A good morning, well spent.

Cheers,

LSP

Friday, August 30, 2019

Relaxin' In The 'Sprawl



As Jules points out on her engaging literary site, there's a background sound to Texas. It's mostly cicadas,  their static rising and falling in time to the waves of heat that roll in like air from a hot oven. Not unlike an insectoid alien early warning signal, when you think of it. 

Add in the squawking of ferocious birds defending their territory from barking, predatory squirrels, and the same squirrels hurling half-eaten pecans down on you like nutty shrapnel. You get the picture, a Texan morning in late August, and I enjoyed it, sipping coffee while the sprinkler watered Ma LSP's ferns.



You can say, with justice, that there's many things wrong with the 'Sprawl but her garden isn't one of them, and it's been good to set up here for a few days while she's in England celebrating the Brexit movement. Tranquil, despite the barrage of pecan nuts raining down like shells on the Chancellery of the doomed Reich.



To escape the barrage I drove to my favorite ghetto barber, which used to be called Senor Ramone's, they call him "Ramen" for some reason, and now goes by a different name altogether. 

A few years back someone went in for a haircut, had the cut, left, returned, and shot a barber stone cold dead. The shooter then fled the scene of the crime only to be gunned down (or was he  just arrested?) by Dallas PD in the alley behind the shop. None of the staff seemed particularly phased. I know, I asked them at the time.




Haircuttery over, return to base and stand in awe as a brisk wind kicks in, clouds roll over and it begins to rain. What is this, Skywater? And why did I water everything in the smothering heat of the morning? Must get more and better Weather Shamans.




Back to the country tomorrow. Blue #4 is nesting in front of the sink, curiously.

Be good,

LSP


Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Put Some Lights on The House


"So what do you do, when you go to the big city, so-called 'LSP'?" I hear you asking, with an edge in your voice. Good question, and I'll tell you.



These days, I mostly put up Christmas lights. That means clambering about on the porch roof to get the wreath in position.



Ground level is easier. Just put the lights on the hedge. Simple, and I think they look good. But that's just me.

Have fun getting your place ready for Christmas.

God bless,

LSP

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Advent Lights


We've done Hanukkah and it was awesome, but now it's time for some Advent lights. Well, I guess they're the same as Christmas lights that somehow turn on early. But I'm not complaining.



I like to stroll down to the Courthouse, which is all lit up.




Some of the other strollers might be lit up, too.




I take a pistol, just in case. The lights in Dallas are greater, but so is the threat level.




Is that Justin Welby, cruising the pawns?




So there you have it, Advent greetings.

From Texas.

LSP



Saturday, December 5, 2015

Walk Against Jihad



Everyone has to play their part in the war against global Jihad, and I did mine, by taking Blue EOD for a walk through the autumnal boulevards of ye olde Dallas this morning.



My K9 ordnance expert  wasted no time sniffing for potential IEDs and keeping a keen nose out for any random sleeper cells that were thinking of cooking-off for Allah.



He launched at a bus that roared by the 7/11, it wisely didn't stop, and at a Salvation Army truck. Come to think about it, I'll have to work on his threat recognition software...



Then, after a mile or so, the patrol was over and we found ourselves back at HQ. Unscathed. I thank God for that.

Mind how you go,

LSP




Saturday, December 19, 2009

Moving House

There I was, in Dallas, quietly standing outside a restaurant, reflecting on the state of the world and a magazine deadline when all of a sudden a house went by - on a flatbed. There it was, moving down a side street in Oak Cliff. You don't get that in England. Amazing country, Texas.

Anyway, a pleasant couple captured the thing on their smart I Phones and emailed me the shot. They were from Holland, I think, and wanted to know who I was and where I was from. So I rambled on about guns and England - much consternation in the Dutch camp.

Cheers,

LSP