Some people don't let their kids watch television, thinking that it stunts their academic growth. Anderson, on the other hand, is not going to be lost for words at the water cooler. Rather than growing up on "Elmo" or "Sponge Bob", Anderson knows his Sportscenter anchors already and is a fan of late night television. I figure that there are studies that show "Baby Einstein" leads to dumber kids, but there are no studies about late night Cinemax. So it can't hurt, right? Anyway, this is good bonding time for Dad and Anderson. Just don't tell Natalie.
This weekend we took a road trip to Houston. More precisely, we went to Pearland, Texas, which is home to Matt, June and Rivers Kolesar. Rivers is named such because Matt is deep down a hippie, even though he assists in slowly killing off the earth by working for Exxon. He insists that there is a big misconception that Exxon is evil, and that it's really an ethical company. Right ...
Never heard of Pearland, Texas? Here's a little more about Pearland from Wikipedia ...
The area that is now Pearland had its humble beginnings near a siding switch on the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway in 1882. When a post office was established in 1893, the community was originally named Mark Belt. The name was changed to Pearland in November of that year because of the abundance of pear trees in the community. Pearland was promoted by some developers as an "agricultural Eden." The Galveston hurricane of 1900 destroyed most of the fruit trees and slowed growth for a considerable period of time, as well as desertificated the area. In 1914, with agriculture rebounding and the end of desertification, Pearland had a population of 400, but a devastating freeze in 1918 was another setback to the local farming enterprises. Oil was discovered nearby in 1934, though this did not spur a large amount of growth, as the population fluctuated from 150 and 350. From the 1960's the town has grown steadily to today's population. Today even though officially a suburb, the town is culturally rural.
Hmm ... one paragraph and "destroyed" and "devastated" both come up. And it's rural culturally, which explains why visiting The Kolesars is like going to see Jed and Granny Clampett. Anyway, here's their home in lovely Pearland/"Mark Belt" ...
It was a great visit. A wonderful example of what it was like in America 200 years ago, or what a visit to West Virginia is like today. June cooked a great dinner and the next day we went out for Mexican food for lunch. And Matt actually ran a few miles with me. Of course, Anderson was a terror all night and neither Natalie or I really slept, but that's okay ...
Here's a few pictures ...
Anderson smiling, even though we've rotated him and the rest of the world 90 degrees ...
Rivers and The Evil Corporate PigDog
