It's still summer in Houston. It's bloody hot, even the sun stings now, it's humid, and occasionally we have just enough rain to pop the humidity but not enough to water anything or make up for the 6 month deficit.
I ride, work out and try to weave although even that goes slowly these days as every time I pass the loom which is warped in cotton thread for lace effect weaving, I find yet another broken warp thread or two. The edges have been repaired so many times they look like they have been chewed on by rats but I persist in hoping that if I can just get enough twill woven to stabilize everything, then magically, the warp will stop breaking and I can commence on the next lace pattern.
In the last week, however, the summer doldrums have been enlivened by two bits of Texas silliness.
The first silliness is the tax free weekend which is this weekend. This event happens once a year, just before school starts and is supposedly primarily designed to help parents and students get necessary supplies for school. Over the years it has expanded to include a wide range of merchandise and provided the stores with an opportunity to increase their fall clearance of inventory by offering most of their merchandise for a discount which when added to the benefit of not having to pay the 8 1/2% sales tax, can mean some real bargins. This is, of course, for those who are willing to face the screaming hoards of bargain shopping parents and screaming kids trying to instantly gratify their needs and or desire for designer jeans, Guicci handbags, designer shoes and other "school worthy" items.
The silliness is not that this weekend happens, it is in the categories of what may and may not be classified as tax free. Belts with buckles are discounted, belt buckles are not. Sports shoes with cleats are discounted as are hunting boots, fishing waders and high heels, while regular sports and tennis runners are not. Designer jeans with name labels are discounted, cotton underwear, tube socks and regular Levi denim jeans are not. The list goes on. All I can envision is some teenage bippy somewhere pulling on her newly purchased at a discount synthetic silk underwear, eggs knee highs, designer jeans and top, adding her stylish new designers spike heels, covering it all up with her fishing waders and hunting boots and finishing off the ensembe with her deigner belt with buckle and Guicci hand bag. In Texas it could happen.
The second silliness is going national. Former Republican, leader of the house, and known as "the hammer", who is currently retired from politics because of two peniding criminal charges of misappropriation of campaign funds and other questionable moral issues has been invited to take part in the national television program "Dancing with the Starts" and will be dancing in the show's first episode in September. Now this slightly slimy looking Texas good old boy who has all the little white haired Republican ladies in Sugar Land and Fort Bend County going positively apoplectic at the idea that he would ever do anything so ungentlemanly as missuse public campaign funds, and who is capable of glad handing anybody without them noticing his hand in their pocket will be shaking his booty on national television.
The organizers have admitted that he tends to giggle when talking about being on the show, but say he likes to dance and thinks he is light on his feet. Let's hear it for Tom light in the loafers twinkle toes Delay and his dancing debut in September.
I ride, work out and try to weave although even that goes slowly these days as every time I pass the loom which is warped in cotton thread for lace effect weaving, I find yet another broken warp thread or two. The edges have been repaired so many times they look like they have been chewed on by rats but I persist in hoping that if I can just get enough twill woven to stabilize everything, then magically, the warp will stop breaking and I can commence on the next lace pattern.
In the last week, however, the summer doldrums have been enlivened by two bits of Texas silliness.
The first silliness is the tax free weekend which is this weekend. This event happens once a year, just before school starts and is supposedly primarily designed to help parents and students get necessary supplies for school. Over the years it has expanded to include a wide range of merchandise and provided the stores with an opportunity to increase their fall clearance of inventory by offering most of their merchandise for a discount which when added to the benefit of not having to pay the 8 1/2% sales tax, can mean some real bargins. This is, of course, for those who are willing to face the screaming hoards of bargain shopping parents and screaming kids trying to instantly gratify their needs and or desire for designer jeans, Guicci handbags, designer shoes and other "school worthy" items.
The silliness is not that this weekend happens, it is in the categories of what may and may not be classified as tax free. Belts with buckles are discounted, belt buckles are not. Sports shoes with cleats are discounted as are hunting boots, fishing waders and high heels, while regular sports and tennis runners are not. Designer jeans with name labels are discounted, cotton underwear, tube socks and regular Levi denim jeans are not. The list goes on. All I can envision is some teenage bippy somewhere pulling on her newly purchased at a discount synthetic silk underwear, eggs knee highs, designer jeans and top, adding her stylish new designers spike heels, covering it all up with her fishing waders and hunting boots and finishing off the ensembe with her deigner belt with buckle and Guicci hand bag. In Texas it could happen.
The second silliness is going national. Former Republican, leader of the house, and known as "the hammer", who is currently retired from politics because of two peniding criminal charges of misappropriation of campaign funds and other questionable moral issues has been invited to take part in the national television program "Dancing with the Starts" and will be dancing in the show's first episode in September. Now this slightly slimy looking Texas good old boy who has all the little white haired Republican ladies in Sugar Land and Fort Bend County going positively apoplectic at the idea that he would ever do anything so ungentlemanly as missuse public campaign funds, and who is capable of glad handing anybody without them noticing his hand in their pocket will be shaking his booty on national television.
The organizers have admitted that he tends to giggle when talking about being on the show, but say he likes to dance and thinks he is light on his feet. Let's hear it for Tom light in the loafers twinkle toes Delay and his dancing debut in September.
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