G&S Construction awarded bid

- Howard Gordon -

At tonight's meeting, Rotan ISD board members voted 7-0 to approve a bid submitted by Howard Gordon, owner of G & S, for the Hobbs school campus.

Jeff Branson, of Williamson-Branson Real Estate, was on hand with contract papers for Gordon to sign.

Gordon indicated he has multiple ideas for use of the campus, but nothing set in stone, yet.

Hobbs campus bid on RISD board agenda tonight

-Cotton coming in-

I went by the Rotan ISD administration building this morning and saw on the school board agenda that Howard Gordon's bid of $261,500 for the Hobbs school campus will be considered at the meeting tonight,  6:30 p.m. in the Learning Resource Center on the RISD campus.

Asleep at the Wheel to play Lumberyard tomorrow

Read all about it as Edwin tells it - Roscoe Hard Times: Asleep at the Wheel to Play Here Friday Night.

Also, Ray Benson will be interviewed live on KXOX radio tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. Tune in to 96.7 FM/1240 AM and hear what he has to say to the fine people of Sweetwater and the Big Country.

Hydraulic fracturing lessons

A primer to frac'ing, click this: Barnett Shale Energy Education Council.

Howard Gordon bids on Hobbs Campus

I just read in the Rotan Advance Roby Star Record that the Rotan ISD Board opened a bid from Howard Gordon for the Hobbs School Campus at a June 11 meeting. The amount Gordon bid was $261,500. The board will act on the bid at a meeting scheduled for July 25.

Frickin' Fracin'

Okay, when I imagined fracing a well, for some reason I thought of one truck with a long, wide hose-type deal running into the casing head. I did not imagine 120 vehicles ranging from SUV's to 18-wheelers, including fast-moving belly-dump transport trucks, overrunning a small site.

Yesterday, I had to drive slowly by the RPQRR  well that was recently drilled because there were vehicles and company men everywhere. I time-warped to 1977 when I saw a hand wearing a red zip-up up jumpsuit with a hard-hat and Andy Griffith boots. Anyway, that was no problem and interesting. The problem was with the belly-dump transport trucks. They were driving very fast, one behind the other, and as I met them face-to-face on the narrow FM road, they kind of wobbled, like they were grabbing the wheel and trying hard to stay in the lane. I passed several trucks on FM 611 that morning and also coming back in the afternoon, and both times I had to hit the ditch to keep from being run over.

The red tanker truck in the photo belongs to Advanced Stimulation Technologies.

I've also noticed vehicles from Red Diamond on site.

The crazy dump trucks appear to be from various sources.

Funeral set for Dale Cave

Services for Dale Cave will be Saturday, 1:30 p.m., at Cross Roads Baptist Church. Visitation will be Friday, 5-6:00 p.m., at Weathersbee-Ray Funeral Home in Rotan.

Cinema!

We went to the movies tonight and Cinema Snyder is looking pretty good. New seats, sound and screening made it the best experience I've ever had at that theater. I heard that the lobby will be renovated soon. I wonder if they'll leave the bathroom door handles that were cast as small replicas of hands. They always scared me if we were watching a horror movie, or, on one occasion, a weird apocalypse propaganda film. Very strange. Anyway, nice upgrades to the cinema.

Wistful and relieved

I pulled the kids' old toybox from the storeroom a few weeks ago and finally got around to cleaning it out this week. It's about time, considering my children are full-grown adults, legal to drink, should that be their choice. Once I removed the larger grime-encrusted toys, there was a thick sludge of McDonald's Happy Meal toys, Hot Wheels cars and like-sized detritus and child dust. I could practically see the memories floating up out of the toy ooze. I could smell some memories, too, but they were very musty.

I can still see their little overalls and tutu clad (the girl) bodies leaning in to find whatever particular item was important to them at the moment. So sweet. But I can also remember the screaming, the way the boy tortured the girl by taking her toys away from her and laughing as he sailed them across the room, the red fingernail polish smeared all over the living room and their sleeping father, and me crying in the supermarket because my hand itched to swat bottoms but I couldn't do so in public for fear that I might kill them (don't tell me you haven't felt it, too, because I won't believe you).

Oh, man, there were a few beautiful times when they were little that I wouldn't take a million dollars for, but I enjoy them much more as adults. I found living life with wild, feral, bottle-sucking, in-potty-training humans to be difficult. Now I can take a nap anytime I want.

Roscoe Hard Times: No Roscoe Hard Times this week

 Mrs. Laura Fay Duncan of Roscoe died this week at age 105. Edwin Duncan has made a tribute to his mother on his website. Please follow the link below.

Roscoe Hard Times: No Roscoe Hard Times this week: There will be no regular issue of the Roscoe Hard Times this week due to a death in the family.

Thank you Steve Cochran

My Outlook Express has not been allowing me to send email since February, but I finally found the solution today. A guy in this Windows forum had the answer. Or maybe I finally figured out the key words to make the answer come up. Anyway, maybe this will help if any of you are having the same problem.

Nice people, but this costs too much!

-For What?-

We had need of medical assistance this past week. We were treated well, above and beyond, but I still left the hospital feeling like a big welfare jackass.

Everyone in my family works. I own my own house, my car is paid for and I pay taxes every year. Yet, when I explained that we had no insurance, I was directed to go to the hospital business office and apply for indigent care. They considered us to be poor, needy, impoverished, penniless and destitute, I guess, because that's Merriam-Webster's definition of the word indigent.

We ended up making a payment arrangement, but why is it so much work? Why is there not one formula? Why can't I pay for my x-rays with a pig? I'm thinking about keeping a voodoo queen on retainer for future medical needs. I bet it would be cheaper.

A mess o' fish

-Not in Texas-

When I see fishing adventures on television or in magazines, the scene is serene and organized. There's usually a nice fisherman wearing waders, tossing a line in the air, or a bass boat full of lures and coolers. Texas back-country fishing is a very different activity from either of those.

The first boy I went fishing with was very emphatic about the rules of fishing. When we got to the fishing spot, there was to be no talking, and one must crawl to the edge of the creek, lest a fish should spot a shadow. Hooks were to be gently lowered into the water, in the case of catfishing.

Getting to the fishing hole is a very big adventure. Usually some ledges and lots of face-slapping trees or brush is involved. One foray led us across outcroppings from a sheer, dripping wall with a creek below where snakes would periodically swim out.

And there must be a legend. The catfish that no one can catch is a good one. Every shadow in the water will inspire the imagination to believe a fish of giant proportion has been seen, adding another inch to the fable.

The grand prize is a large, inedible fish that could rival the Loch Ness monster. If not that, then a big mess o' crawdads.

By the by, one trap full of dead crawdads taught us that they have to come to the water's surface to breathe. Live and learn, right?

Hobbs Campus up for grabs, for real (estate)

There's a Notice of Sale of Real Property in the Rotan Advance Roby Star this week, notifying the public that the Rotan Independent School District will take sealed bids for the Hobbs School until June 11. Minimum bid is $200,000. To look at the property, call Jeff Branson at 735-2992. A bid package can be obtained through Branson or the RISD administrative offices.