Shooter41 wrote:
After seeing the attractive model clear images in all that construction gear, I'm headed for a cold shower. But first I have to ask you, how did you come up with the brilliant idea of buying the place you had lived in for twelve years and turning into The Playboy Mansion on a budget? Pretty savvy!
Well, an interesting inquiry. Like me, not the usual answer.
Many people have no clue as to the central issue about this location San Antonio, Texas. It is NOT the norm of South Central Texas. Unlike Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, El Paso, and some what Austin it is a strangely unique place.
Weather wise it sits in a near perfect location geographically. At the start of the Texas hill country on the north side of the city at I-10 and 1604 (1604 is a loop around the city that showed the need for loop roads around cities, it is exactly 101 miles and goes back a century, good planning), is the 'recharge' zone of the Edwards Underground Aquifer. So much pure water that it can't be measured. Rain that fell a hundred years ago is the most current addition to it, that is pure water. The water is at a constant 68.5 F degrees, so is the great Pyramid at Giza. The water for the San Antonio River is pumped out from there year round, that is why we have a truly wonderful 'River Walk". The effuse discharge for the location for the SA River is at the base of Roosevelt Park, I can see it from the front parking lot of the building and the corner of Roosevelt park begins at the corner of my place just across the street.
The park is named for Teddy Roosevelt, who over 100 years ago formed the Rough Riders across the street where the park is located. The rail road tracks toward the end of the road is where Teddy took the 800 plus men and horses/mules off the train to form the unit up. In my back yard is where he had his head quarters. That street is named Yellowstone and it dead ends into Mission Road. Across Yellowstone is a national historic and Texas registered home stead and griss mill the family provided cooking and laundry for much of the stay of Roosevelt. Needless to say, my garden is all above ground as the Fed restricts digging to 6 inches, but its ok, the entire property is asphalt covered. The property is grand fathered in as residential/Industrial manufacturing by city/state, to protect the area. Past my side walk on Yellowstone on my and the historic area have 6 inch concrete abatement a foot high to stop any heavy vehicle from entering either property.
Directly across Mission Road is the two city block long first coal fired electrical generating plant for the city of San Antonio. 4 stories high, built of red brick and not a single error in it's line. It is like my building raised up to handle the past problem of flooding from the SA River (now controlled by the recently 20 year plus completion of flood control of the eflus control that is a public park, which by the way has a train bridge built that has a side walk below that one can stand under with trains passing above!). The power plant was completed in 1901 and begun in 1895, belong to the city power company CPS Energy.
I lived her for some 12 years till the woman who owned it was compelled to sell the property. The location is now referred to as South Town, vary yuppie! LOL!!! It is now worth triple the value of what I paid for it (just over 100 thousand).
So what makes it so enchanting? This is Mission Road. Central California and San Antonio are the two locations that have a mission complex system in the US. This is a Roman Catholic City, it has a cathedral and a Bishop. Catholic TV is hosted from the cathedral complex and is carried across central America. Spanish is NOT a second language in SA, it is the other language. The two central catholic centers for SA are the cathedral and The Lady of Guadalupe in the Barrio across the rail road bridges on the real south side of SA.
So, what is so special about this Mission Road? It is the major lay line through the city. The intersection of this prime lay line is just down town at the Tower Life Building where the lines of all the lay lines through Central Texas meet. It is the base of the heart of the Earth Mother Goddess that stretches across the Americas. The top of the heart is at the intersection of I-10 and 1604. You have seen the top of the green copper top building if you saw the film Ghost Busters, all those gargoyles are atop the building and parts of the film were done there as well. It these lay lines and the placement of the Earth Mother Goddesses body that defines the reason for San Antonio. There is nothing mysterious about it, you just need to know what is the history. Any wonder that His Holiness, The Delia Lama has sent two expeditions of Tibetan Monks to purge bad energy from America, the sand from the life wheels were then poured into the SA River to cleanse the city.
On Good Friday the City shuts down and most businesses are closed out of respect for the Catholic events. On Della Rosa street (the way of the tears) to the left of the city cathedral there will be enacted the street theater enactment of the Passion of Christ, a young man plays the roll of Christ and drags a cross to the front of the cathedral to be symbolically crucified at 1:00 PM, done in English and some Spanish. But the real Passion of Christ is also enacted in the Barrio on the South Side at The Lady of Guadalupe Church, it is preformed in Spanish and Latin. Regular working family's play the roll of the 'street people' in these enactments and it is intense to witness, there is no phone baloney and the city police are there to keep thing under control, but I have seen people get so wound up that both men and women do flagellation.
I think the best part of the whole event is high mass at the cathedral when at midnight Saturday/Sunday when the purple lines covers on the sanctuary are pulled off the statuary in the Cathedral and young children and women pour out from the alter and give out Cascarones*, some breaking them and throwing them over people.
*Cascarones are eggs filled with festive confetti that is broken over a person in celebration of the symbolic re-birth of Christ. An old washed egg will putrefy, and the decaying egg is sulfurous and actual quite lethal in decay. The Cascarones represents that The Christ three days after death had not puttied in body but was alive and well and healthy, to be a celebration of life in death and transformation. Plus it is just great fun. HEB produces thousands of cartons of these and sells them at cost. Charles Butt and family if non-Catholic, and honors the festive nature of Easter in this way. I keep Cascarones at the studio, it might be fun to get Liz Ashly this coming Monday when she models at the studio!