Technically...

I think these kinds of things are popping up everywhere, but they definitely have them all over the place in Houston. It's a specially designated parking spot for a certain category of people. I suppose they are an extension of the usual handicapped parking spots, but they definitely aren't handicapped spots. Like my local Kroger that has spots reserved for expectant mothers. Or this one that I saw at the H-E-B the other day:

It was a big empty spot right near the front reserved for "customer with child parking".

It was a Thursday at 9:15 AM. All the kids were at school, right? There probably wasn't anyone coming to claim that spot...and it was just sitting there being wasted by not being used...and I'm pretty sure there's no way they can even punish me for parking there, because there's no law—they can't give me a ticket—it's just their own little thing they're doing on their own...and besides, I have a child, hell I have four children, so this parking spot is for me, right? I mean, okay, they're not with me right now, but, like, on a government form I could check the box that is marked "customer with child" if there was to be such a form—maybe a census form or something...so, technically...

In the end, I wussed out and parked way down at the end of the line. I'm sure that even if I did have my six-year-old in tow on this morning, I'm still probably not what they meant.

Update

I had to make this update to my last post, because it's starting to look like a fungal invasion. Found this bit of fungus in my refrigerator's fruit drawer!

If you're anything like my wife, you're probably retching right now--dry heaving violently. To that I say I'm sorry. I never was able to pass up on a joke, no matter how stupid or inappropriate it might be. It's probably one of the main reasons that my biggest achievements in life come from The Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, and not from the actual career that I spend eight hours a day at week in and week out.

Shrooms

I've never lived anywhere wet enough to have much in the way of mushrooms before. So, when I see things like this I'm amazed.

These mushrooms are growing in the garden boxes that our tomato plants had occupied for most of the year. The tomato plants had sucked. They'd grown huge, but given no tomatoes, so were not sad to see them replaced or anything. Look at these freaky, alien-looking things though!

I wonder if they're edible. I'll never try them, but it makes me wonder. Are they nutritious? Are they psychedelic? Are they deadly? I'll never know, because I'm not stupid enough to put my life on the line and ingest any of them.

We also have these ones growing down in the corner next to a different set of garden boxes.

They look like seashells to me.

Here in the Houston humidity, we're always getting tons of mushrooms. We had a whole bunch on our front lawn last week. They grew big, and then a bunch of hairy fibers grew off of them. When I saw the alien, yellow-green mushrooms from above and took pictures of them, I thought I'd get pictures of the ones on the lawn to include in the post, but they had all disappeared overnight. Maybe I'll do a follow-up post at some point or something.

Anybody else get weird mushrooms? Out west, in the desert, mushrooms are as rare as intelligent banter on the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, so I've almost never seen them. Almost any mushrooms would amaze me.

Costume Day

At my station, not a single person dressed up on Halloween last year. It kind of depressed me. Before I moved, at my old station, they had a big party and a Halloween costume contest, and I really loved Halloween each year. Here...nothing.

However, Astros in the playoffs, and every single person wears their gear. The newsroom is a sea of orange jerseys and blue hats.

I like the Astros a lot, though, so I'm certainly not complaining about that. And I have that costume at my house too, so I can join in.

I just wish there was some way to make Halloween a big deal too.

Incredible Creatures That Battle For Fun

My kids were looking through the viewing options on Netflix the other day, and I saw this show:

I don't know what the show is about, but all I can say is that if it doesn't involve fish with hologram stickers of wood, water, and fire battling it out in a never-ending game of rock, paper, scissors then I guess I'm not interested in watching after all.

More Knock-Offs

I mentioned a little while ago the generic Jawa costume that I found on the Halloween aisle at my local Walmert. Well, I found a new knock off today...in fact I went ahead and bought it. After all, it was only five bucks, much cheaper than legit merchandise. Behold:

Yeah, this is just a Houston shirt. It just supports the city. It's not trying to be anything else. Nobody in Houston would look at this shirt and think it is supposed to represent something else that you might have to pay way more money to get. It's nothing...

Yeah, just a total coincidence that all the colors are the same. Nothing to see here.

Co-Host?

I'm thinking about including this guy as a co-host on The Anklecast. What do you think?

I don't know. He's a relative, so I kind of feel obliged. His name is Big Ankylosaurus.