Guardian of the Non Sequitur

I’ve been doing some genealogy work lately and came upon the details of the death of my great grandfather.  I’d heard he’d been “stabbed” or “shot”, and sometimes it was “in a bar fight” and sometimes it was “about a woman” and that my grandfather was a teenager at the time and quit school to support the family.  Well, about half of that is true.  It was a few weeks after (grandfather) Jesse’s 16th birthday – not sure about the quitting school detail.

I was quite interested at the details they included in the articles, many that would not be today.  And the fact that justice seemed swift back then – though I don’t have an article about the trial.

Five word summary to story: Stabbed in Heart with Icepick.  And if that hooked you in enough, here are the articles I found.

Dallas Morning News - 15 Aug 1923

MAN STABBED TO DEATH WITH PICK

E. L. Noble Charged with Murder Following Death of Stanley Label

Stabley C. LeBel, 44 years old, 1616 McCoy street, a salesman, was fatally injured when he was stabbed in the heart with an ice pick during an affray at 9:30 o’clock Tuesday morning at Main and Jefferson streets, near the Dallas County courthouse. Dr. W. R. McAdams of the Emergency Hospital, who was called to the scene, found LeBel dead when he arrived. Continue reading

My first exposure to the Sun City development north of Austin was via billboards in Austin in the mid 80s. They were really selling it up: lots of billboards.

Of course, at the time, there was a Steven Van Zant protest song of the same name. I recall it protesting some gambling city being run for whites only in an Apartheid environment.

(Ahh, the 80s, the decade of tepid protest songs: “We are the world, we are the children,…” what are we protesting? But, I digress.)

Anyway, I thought it was a quite unfortunate choice of names for this new development, and they still had time to change it. Well, they didn’t. And now it’s active senior haven: Sun City, Georgetown, Texas.

But more specifically, it will soon be my dad and step-mom’s new residence. They’re selling the Big Ol’ House in Canyon Lake, and moving to a reasonable sized, two-person residence in Georgetown.

So, good luck to them in the move and the hecticness of selling and buying a place. And I hope to get over there soon to check it out.

I was out for a bicycle ride in the neighborhood on Saturday. Actually, I was running up to the Credit Union on 19th. It’s always nice to check out what’s going on in the neighborhood.

I went close to Evan and Emily’s place. Just got their birth announcement in the mail, but I decided to not stop by lest they be trying to get some needed sleep.

I rode along some of the under-costruction rail-to-trails bike path along Nicholson. It’s mostly paved from 7th to 19th, the last few blocks haven’t been started. There’s some paint that looks like they may be doing some utility work first. Much of it has been sodded, and there were palettes of more sod along the path.

There was one yard worker parked in the mud that hadn’t been sodded. Big truck, bug trailer. And when I came back, he had left giant ruts in the mud. Moron. I almost said something to him on my way past; I should have.

The cute cottage on 9th and Beverly, that was crushed by a tree during Ike (likely because the McMansion next to it compromised the root structure of the large tree) was demolished and carted off. Likely new construction to begin soon. Expect gaudy.

I spent a nice evening watching the Astros with Cary Brock, Jim Henkel, and Tomas Escalante.

We started the evening at Inn at the Ballpark. A nice lobby to rangle a beer in preparation for the game.

A great game – a 2-4 4th inning. That was the final, a grand slam home run.

We had a nice traffic-scatter beer back at the Inn. Good conversation, a few strangers in on the conversation. And I think I sold Danielle and her “husband” on the roller derby in three weeks.

I’ve been listening to the Marfa radio since I got home, but haven’t heard Alderman David’s voice in the last 20 minutes. It’s recording, so perhaps I’ll make it available somewhere.

Yum.

Duvel.
Pan sautéed monk fish.
Crab stuffed calamari.
Purple finger potatoes.
Diced vegetable medley.

It’s not on the regular menu, so I couldn’t grab the description off their web site. Thanks for dinner, mom.

I guess it’s a typical – gather with various family groups over several days, then suffer their ailments for various days – kinda December. I suffered some of the lingering cold symptoms while at a “board game invitational gathering. Three days of playing games with new people – quite fun. And I got to play the monolithic Die Macher with 5 people – a six hour marathon.

I haven’t achieved any of the chores I was hoping to perform over the holidays. The cold knocked me down to a low activity level. I think I’m going to go take another nap as it is. Blah. And tomorrow back to work.

I did fit in a flaming dropping mirror ball at midnight last night, and today will kick off the new year with a few games with friends in the afternoon.