Dave

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Friday, October 23, 2009

Friday: Rain, Pizza, Pasta, Fish, Church, TV's and Vagrants....

Do you remember earlier this week when it was just raining cats and dogs? Great Googly-Moogly! It just so happened that the timing was pretty awesome because my wife had tracked down one of those guys that sits on the corner in a truck with a flatbed trailer full of sod. So, she had him bring over a couple of pallets worth to cover the mistake we made when we tilled up the backyard only to make the weeds grow better.

Anyway, with the grass firmly in place, the sky opened up and we had two solid days of rain, and though that left for crappy driving and lots of closed roads, but the grass is starting to take, and I like that. I should have taken a picture to show here, but I didn't think about it until now and it is already dark outside. Sorry.

So anyway, it was during the first day of rain when I didn't fully appreciate that the tiny little break in downpour wasn't the end of it. I had suggested to my wife that we drive about three miles south on Culebra to that Joe's Pizza & Pasta place that I had misled people into believing was open. A drive that would normally take just a few minutes, even during heavy traffic took us almost half an hour. Of course, it is always fun to blame it on crappy drivers, but in fact, the street lights at both Westover Hills Blvd and Old Grissom were out. Not flashing Red or Yellow, just out!

So, we finally get into this Joe's place and get out of the truck in the now, once again pouring rain. We can see the lights on in the place and even can see tables with place settings on them. Sure enough, as I pulled on the door to open it, I could see taped to the inside of the mirrored glass the sign that says they are closed for two weeks.

The worst part of it is, as we were pulling out, another couple was pulling on the same door we had and reading the sign. I told my wife that I sure hoped they hadn't gone to try the place on my lousy information! They looked a lot hungrier than we did. 'Course, I generally look like I just ate a big meal anyway, so that doesn't mean a whole lot.

It doesn't end there though. We decided that heading back up Culebra with all the jacked-up traffic mess was not the way to go, so we decided to go west on Potranco toward Highway 151 in hopes of finding some vittles. And as we were driving, of course the traffic people come on the radio and tell us that there is a huge wreck at Potranco and 151. That would explain the back-up.

So we cut through Richland Hills, over to Wiseman Road and picked up 151 just before 1604. It occurs to me that readers unfamiliar with San Antonio have no idea what I am even talking about here. Suffice it to say, we took a big huge circle and another half an hour to get through the rain and traffic to end up at the new Pizza Hut on Grissom and Timber Path, not a quarter mile from Silver Creek 78250!

You'll recall we ate at this Pizza Hut before. This time, we decided to skip the pizza itself and split one of those special Supremo sandwiches. Do not, I repeat, DO NOT waste your time on the Supremo. I've had bologna sandwiches that were better. But we do love that cheese bread they serve. As we were sitting there waiting for our food, I looked across the street and could see Mr. Cod through the rain. I casually mentioned to my wife that we should give them another try, now that they have been in business for several months without closing down.

I guess that was the hint my wife needed because when I walked in the door this afternoon, she was ready for a fish sandwich. Instead of taking a long circuitous route around San Antonio, we drove straight from the house to Mr. Cod and both ordered the #5 which is a fish sandwich, fries and a drink.
I have to tell you, while it was a bit of a wait (they don't cook your stuff 'til you order it), it was a welcome surprise. The fish sandwich is huge and served on very fresh bread like a submarine sandwich or something. And it was fully cooked!
As usual, the place is remarkably clean and the owner recognized my wife from our first visits back when they opened.
The fries are different now. These are not what I recall as the "chips" they served originally. I guess that just didn't go over well. But they were hot, not over cooked, and good, especially with malt vinegar on them. Of course, as they say on the Internet, your mileage may vary.

Hey, I don't want to make a big deal of this and I'm only even posting it because I found the whole thing to be kind of odd - even strange.

I was on my way home from Home Depot (which I'll tell you about in a minute) and I was driving down Timber Path through Emerald Valley, The Commons, and Ridge Creek on my way to Silver Creek. Anyway, I saw several of these bandit signs dotting the landscape. Besides the fact that these signs are against San Antonio city code and against our HOA deed restrictions, I wasn't ready to pull over and start tossing them into my truck for later disposal.

But when I was at the stoplight at Tezel and Timber Path, I got a close enough view to read the sign. Apparently, this Origin Church is setting up shop at Fernandez Elementary School. Even then, I thought perhaps it was just some sort of rummage sale or something like that, but I went to the web page and sure enough, according to their own web page, Fernandez Elementary is their new home.

Now don't attempt to paint me as one of those separation of church and state people. It's crap like that that makes our students come home saying things like Winter Festival instead of Christmas or Fall Celebration instead of Thanksgiving. But are you serious? Has the North side Independent School District gotten so short of cash that we are now renting out the school as a church on weekends? WTF?

Oh, I had to stop into Home Depot today to grab some sheetrock for a project I'm working on. I always save time when I leave by driving back behind Home Depot and HEB and Party City so I can avoid all the traffic of people darting out into the parking lot and such.

There is this little patch of trees where I occasionally see panhandlers taking a break and sipping a quart before they had back out to the Alamo Ranch intersection at 1604 and Culebra to relieve you charitable types (fools) of your hard earned change. (I'm just kidding; I pass out five dollar bills to the unfortunate vagrants all the time.)*
Anyway, I spotted this TV parked up on that little clearing and thought to myself, I wonder where they plug it in. Strange.

*I was kidding the second time. Don't give money to these people, they really drive Cadillacs and drink better beer than I do.

8 comments:

Maureen said...

Just a hint....Joe's was not good when we had it. Mr. Cod looks a bit more promising, so we may give it a go. Pizza Hut/Wing Street??? They don't have wings! At least, as of last Sunday they don't...no fryer in the place yet. And one final restaurant gripe--we tried to eat at Porky J's tonight...got TOTALLY dissed for over 20 minutes and we finally left. Smelled great, though.

Maureen said...

Oh, and the church thing....that's nothing new at all....been happening for a while now at other campuses with other churches.

Dave said...

Hmmm. We had wings at the Pizza Hut/Wing Street both times we went. And they were good. This is the new one across the street from Mr. Cod, right?

Porky J's. What is this Porky J's you speak of? Just the name is enough to get me in there.

Church in school. I had no idea. It doesn't bother me per se (though the use of little bandit signs does piss me off), I'm just surprised that one of these ACLU types hasn't filed a lawsuit claiming that somehow NISD is getting Jesus Juice on the students by virtue of letting some people pray in the school gym (or wherever they hold the services).

Maureen said...

Porky J's....Bandera and Huebner-ish, in the tiny strip mall just beyond the Valero (heading towards 410)....good luck, I hear it's really good, but we were hungry and got COMPLETELY ignored after he told us he'd be right with us--seriously, it was 20 minutes and everyone around us (3 tables) was eating happily. Memphis-style bbq supposedly, but of course I can't verify! Smelled DELIGHTFUL!
We tried to get wings at PH/WS two weekends ago--he told me they had no fryer and would not have wings till next month. Weird.

AlanDP said...

Yeah, that church-in-a-school thing has become pretty widespread. I think someone suddenly realized that they had this big building sitting empty and unused all weekend and that there was money to be made. It has turned out to be a popular bandwagon.

I have nothing against it, either. As long as they clean up before they leave.

M2 said...

Hey Dave!

Did ya miss this discussion?

http://www.city-data.com/forum/san-antonio/754490-northwest-san-antonio-new-bbq-king.html

So Mr Cod's got their act together? I am hesitant to go back after my initial and very disappointing visit. Still, I love fish & chip so if I can't get back to the UK for some of the real stuff; I may have to give Mr Cod another try.

Cheers! M2

Dave said...

Did ya miss this discussion?
You know, I did see that. It just never clicked I guess. We are definitely going to try them out - hopefully we'll have better service than Maureen got.

Still, I love fish & chip so if I can't get back to the UK for some of the real stuff;

You will be disappointed with the chips - they were closer to the original (IMO) when they first opened. I guess they had to adapt to accommodate folks around here. But as fries go, they are good. As to the fish part, it was good in my fish sandwich...

Curtis Lee said...

Dave..when you mentioned that you went to home depot I was wondering..Does he know the back way there behind HEB? I know alot of people that live around here and every time I take them they wonder where the hell I'm going..that back was easily shaves off 10 to 15 minutes for a round trip to the store..

Also everytime I would go to Home Depot I would tell my wife about the tent city going on in the woods and she would think I was nuts..then one day i took her with me and sure enough there are all the guys in a circle sitting on that bench and chairs just relaxing.

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San Antonio, TX, United States
I love to observe the odd things happening around me as I go about my day. I especially like it when I can get a picture of people being themselves. Here, I attempt to report the various people and events I have encountered in my neighborhood, and my city. I'd also love to hear from you. Feel free to e-mail your experiences and photos of life in San Antonio.

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