Rant... and Friday Five!

There used to be a Red Robin restaurant in Sunset Valley. They opened in a brand new building in 2005. It's been closed since last summer. A few months ago, the entire building was demolished and new construction started. I was utterly shocked. Such incredible waste!! Why, in these environmentally-conscious times, would a company be allowed to trash an entire building just to put a different building in its place? Ever heard of remodeling? It really irks me that we're each doing our little part every day by recycling and reusing the things we deal with in our tiny households, while corporations and cities are allowing entire buildings to be razed! And for what?

It looks like another restaurant is going in, and they didn't like the setup. A restaurant! Not even law offices or some other creative use of former restaurant space! Not only that, the new restaurant applied for a variance in the impervious cover restriction in the area, so they can create a larger parking lot. (It wasn't granted, at least at the time.)

I am completely appalled at the whole thing. Every time I drive by, it irritates me.

I'm tagging this post "Deep Thoughts" because I don't have a "RANT" tag.


Friday Five: Go Fly a Kite

1. When was the last time you flew a kite?
Last I remember was many years ago on the beach, I think in Corpus, with Lauren & Jeff. I wish I could show you the video of Lauren learning to fly a kite when she was 2-3. (I could, but it would take me hours of editing to extract it from the DVD.) Jeff got it flying and then handed her the string. Every single time, as soon as she looked up at the kite and was no longer paying attention to the string, she would let go. The thing would fly off with the string ball bobbling across the grass. It happened over and over! I was about to pee my pants laughing. "OK, now hold the string tight. Don't let go. OK?" ...Zing! Ahaha.

2. When did you last jump into a lake?
Eww. Lake swimming gives me the screamin' heebie jeebies. Algae and leeches and who-knows-what-else in there. Give me an ocean any day. I think the last time I was actually IN the lake was about 15 years ago at Lake Travis.

3. When did you last get outta town?
Last weekend we went to San Antonio with Scott n' Julie.

4. When did you last take a hike?
Too long ago. Last summer, Jeff, Kathy and I hiked McKinney Roughs in Bastrop. Just beautiful!

5. When did you last play in traffic?
I wouldn't call it playing, but Laura and I got caught in 5 o'clock traffic Monday on the way home from her doctor appointment. (CraZiest doc ever! The words "I have a unicorn to sell you" were spoken at one point. Just saying.) She had been told last week that she had to have spine surgery, but she doesn't! Whee! Despite our happiness and relief, we still whined about the traffic.