Texas Archives - Page 5 of 5 - Bay Area Houston Magazine

Get Fit With SunFit

February 2nd, 2015

Whether You Want To Get Hot Or Healthy, SUNFIT Is For You!!

By Patty Kane

Are you thinking of making 2015 the year to get really aggressive about working out and getting a great tan? Have you, in the past, tried those corporate exercise locations and didn’t really like them? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a small, local place to exercise and tan without all the complications of a large over the top contract and obligation? Well, now there is just that…. SunFit Tanning & Fitness. This is a great place to get personal attention in a friendly home like atmosphere. It’s a one stop shop for getting fit and a glowing tan!

Owners Matt and Mindy Duhon, have created a great concept to make exercising and tanning a more positive experience Customers have the option of a month to month contract, or if you want, for additional discounts, you can sign up for multiple months.

Tanning packages and workout packages are available or you can combine them and have it all. Matt and Mindy will work with you on a plan that suits your needs and lifestyle.

You can workout at your own pace. There is no pressure to excel beyond what you are comfortable with. Matt and Mindy can assist you with setting goals and have a reward system when you meet that goal. Guidelines are available or you can progress as you like.

Conventional tanning beds are available or if you prefer spray tanning, SunFit has a top of the line VersaSpa spray tanning machine. VersaSpa is the new state of the art generation of automatic sunless tanning systems designed to give your skin a natural, vibrant tan. You’re going to love this alternative way to get a long lasting glow in just minutes.

Everyone knows that regular exercise has many beneficial effects on the body such as improving the function of the musculoskeletal system, the cardiovascular system, respiratory system, metabolism and the brain. Engaging in regular exercise is one of the best things you can do to prevent heart disease so during the month of February, in honor of the Go Red for Women Luncheon, Matt and Mindy will donate a portion of the cost of each new membership at SunFit to the American Heart Association. Not only will you get fit but you will be helping find a cure for heart disease in women.

SunFit is a great example of small business success in the Bay Area. As Matt says, “It’s not work when you have a passion for doing something you love and it’s amazing what you can accomplish if you try.” Matt and Mindy started out buying a tanning salon which was a distressed business and turned it into a success. They recently decided to renovate the original tanning salon space, and turn it into what is now SunFit Tanning & Fitness. Matt and Mindy, along with their manager and close friend Jacqueline Gross, worked as a team updating, renovating, painting and designing the new décor. The result is an example of entrepreneurship at its best.

SunFit Tanning & Fitness is located at 607 Kirby Road in Seabrook. For more information call 832-864-3459, visit www.SunFitSeabrook.com. or come by. Matt, Mindy and Jacqueline will be glad to show you the facility and answer any questions you may have.

Tags: Gyms in the Clear Lake Area Texas, Gyms Seabrook, SunFit, SunFit Tanning and Fitness, Tanning Salon Clear Lake Texas, Tanning Salon Seabrook, Texas
Posted in Business, Community, Health | No Comments

The Zen of Sushi

February 1st, 2015

Masa Sushi’s Michael Zhou pours his heart and soul into every dish

By Rod Evans

It’s hard to imagine, but not too long ago, one of the Bay Area’s premier sushi chefs didn’t know a California roll from a dinner roll.

When Michael Zhou, owner and head chef of Masa Sushi, first came to the U.S. from his native China 30 years ago he was already an accomplished sushi chef, but he faced a steep learning curve in mastering how to prepare American style sushi.

“A Japanese restaurant opened in my hometown in 1985 and I became a chef there,” Zhou recalls. “They made traditional Japanese food and didn’t even have California rolls. When I came to the U.S., I didn’t speak English and didn’t know anything about American style Japanese food. I didn’t even know how to make a California roll, so I had to learn quickly how to make all of the rolls.”

Zhou’s on-the-job training paid dividends as he progressed quickly from being a chef to part-owner of a restaurant. Zhou came to the U.S. in 1994 and went to work at a Japanese restaurant in Tampa Bay, Fla. He moved to Houston in 1995 and went on to become head chef and part owner in the popular Mikado restaurant located on Woodway. After building a reputation as one of the area’s top sushi chefs, Zhou and his partners closed Mikado and Zhou opened Masa Sushi in Clear Lake in 2004.

With the original Masa Sushi, located at 977 NASA Parkway, and the Dickinson location, which opened in 2007, Zhou continues to dazzle diners with his creativity and passion for sushi. He has earned praise for his uncanny ability to make eating sushi and sashimi, an amazing experience by blending cultures to produce food that is a “fusion” of flavors and textures. Masa—which means “graceful” or “elegant”—is unique among sushi restaurants because it intertwines traditional Japanese recipes with dashes of French culinary flourishes.

“We combine traditional Japanese sashimi with Texas style sushi, and because my wife is a French chef, we also incorporate French cooking into many items. That’s why we call ours a fusion restaurant,” Zhou says.

The French influence can be experienced in several menu offerings, including the grilled lamb chops appetizer and numerous sushi and sashimi entrees featuring baked salmon. As for the “Texas style” of sushi, Zhou says the term refers to more than just the taste of the entrée.

“With some traditional Japanese items, Americans cannot eat them because they are not used to those tastes, so we try to change the taste a little bit, but the big difference from traditional Japanese sushi and Texas style is the portion size,” Zhou says. “In Japan, the portions are very small. If you go to Japan and eat sushi, you could put the whole thing in your mouth. But our sushi is cut into very big pieces because Texas style uses big fish.

Americans like center cut meats; big pieces of steak and big pieces of fish, so we give our customers big portions and charge reasonable prices. That’s our style.”

Of course, good tasting, fresh fish is the key ingredient to making good sushi, and a family connection helps Zhou secure some of the finest tuna. His cousin owns a fish company in Honolulu, Hawaii and provides Zhou with a steady stream of yellow fin and the rarer blue fin variety.

“Yellow fin tuna is very plentiful almost everywhere, but blue fin is not. The best blue fin comes from Hawaii and isn’t sold in very many restaurants in the U.S. In Japan, people pay high dollar for blue fin tuna. My cousin keeps one for me every week,” he says.

In addition to getting fish from Hawaii, Zhou sources seafood from a variety of locations. He gets salmon, snapper, flounder and sea urchins from California. Super white tuna from Australia and eel from Korea are menu favorites, while squid, octopus and yellow tail are shipped in from Japan.

Fish sometimes weighing in excess of 100 pounds are cut up fresh each day by Zhou and his team of chefs.

While sushi is the restaurant’s calling card, one look at the Masa Sushi menu reveals just how skilled Zhou is in creating delectable sashimi. The thinly sliced fish is served in a variety of fashions ranging from traditional Japanese to Texas and fusion style.

“We create lots of our sashimi fusion style. In the traditional Japanese style, sashimi is only fish, but an attractive presentation on the plate is very important, but I create fusion style with things like our black pepper sashimi and we add our special soy and wasabi sauce as well. We also have a Texas style jalapeno yellow tail sashimi and our Costa Rica style sashimi that’s lightly seared and includes garlic and green and white onions,” he said.
Zhou has not only taken extraordinary care to produce outstanding food, but he’s also put meticulous thought into the décor of both restaurants. Both locations feature expansive bar areas that are ideal for solo diners, along with warm, intimate booths and art and lighting fixtures that combine old world Japanese themes with modern touches.

“When we opened our restaurant, we wanted it to have an atmosphere that’s warm and welcoming to everyone,” Zhou says. “We thought about every detail, including even which direction the doors face and used feng shui concepts throughout.”

Zhou says he chose to open his restaurants in the Bay Area because of the diverse population that includes many people who know what good Japanese food tastes like.

“Lots of our customers have been to Japan and know Japanese food. When I first came here, there weren’t too many sushi restaurants. Now, they’re everywhere, but we keep getting more busy because people try other restaurants and the ones that know what good sushi is always come back,” he says.

One thing Zhou hasn’t had to be concerned about is hiring new chefs. He says many of the chefs at Masa Sushi’s original location have been there since it opened and the staff of the Dickinson restaurant has remained unchanged since it opened. Such stability, Zhou says, results in unmatched consistency in food preparation and service. Likewise, Zhou’s philosophy on the key to making great sushi hasn’t changed over the years.

“You have to put your heart inside the food,” he stresses. “It doesn’t matter what kind of restaurant it is, if you want to make good food, you have to use your heart.”

Tags: Masa Sushi, Sushi, Texas, Where to eat good sushi in Clear Lake
Posted in Business | No Comments

Posterity’s View

February 1st, 2015

By Michael Gos

La Porte, Texas

Socially, he was a flop. He had trouble getting along with people and was basically irresponsible. Rather than face life and the everyday problems that go with it, he often just ran away, leaving others to deal with the consequences of his actions.

His problems started at an early age. As a teenager, when his family expected him to pull his weight and help with the chores at home, he ran away to live with the Indians rather than engage in work he found unpleasant.

As a young man he tried life in the army but quit after a short time when he couldn’t get along with his superiors. Next he tried marriage. That lasted for a mere 11 weeks and afterwards, neither he, nor his wife, would talk about what happened. (Sounds suspiciously like Kenny Chesney and Renee Zellweger, doesn’t it?) Then, rather than deal with the consequences of his actions, he ran away to once again live with the Indians. This time, he became so enamored with whiskey that the Indians named him “Big Drunk.”

Given yet another chance in society, he again messed up when he assaulted a prominent politician, beating him senseless with a stick. He was arrested and tried.

Then he tried marriage again. While this one lasted longer, it ended with the same result—divorce.

Trying the Army again, he rose to a leadership position only to have his troops come close to mutiny because of the decisions he made. He survived—barely.

Given yet another chance at a responsible position, he was elected to office but decided he would vote according to his own convictions, refusing to represent his constituents’ desires. He was drummed out of office.

I think we all know people like him—someone who just doesn’t fit in; someone who is socially inept; a misanthrope. It doesn’t matter how well they do their jobs, the inability to get along with others makes them social outcasts. Most tragic is the fact that people like this just don’t see that it is a problem of their own doing—and they don’t learn.

We were touring the San Jacinto Battleground historic site. I had lived in Texas for 22 years and heard all the stories about the Texas Revolution. I had driven over the Fred Hartman Bridge hundreds of times on my way to and from work. I could see the monument off in the distance, several miles away but I had never found my way to the battleground itself until today. I was surprised to learn that the memorial structure is the world’s tallest column exceeding even the Washington Monument by 12 feet. But it makes sense. After all, everything is bigger in Texas (except maybe the deer).

Walking the grounds and finding the spots where various events occurred, I couldn’t help but be impressed with the thought processes that went into the selection of this site for the historic confrontation. Sam Houston had led his troops in a month-long retreat from Gonzales to this position 165 miles away. They almost didn’t make it. The rag-tag band of “soldiers” believed that Houston was showing cowardice by retreating. Even his employers, the ad interim government of the Republic of Texas, agreed. They wanted him to stay and fight. Houston, however, wanted to use the time to gather more fighters, to drill the troops and to find a more favorable spot for the confrontation. Today, we all know the result. It wasn’t so clear to his men, and frankly, he was lucky to get as far as this position and maybe even to have escaped with his life.

About ten years later, as president of the Republic of Texas, Houston succeeded in his effort to get Texas to merge with the United States. Many today might think that was a huge mistake, but Houston had the support of the bulk of his constituents at the time, something rare in his life.

But that support was short-lived. In 1861, as governor, he tried to stop the state’s secession from the union in the run-up to the Civil War. The people of Texas were strongly in favor of joining the Confederacy, and as a result of Houston’s taking a position against the will of the people, he was removed from office and spent the rest of his years as an outcast.

Of course, this was hardly his first time in this position. Starting with his running away from the work at home, his failed marriages, his drunkenness, his violent temper and his inability to get along with people, Houston spent his life in a state of dissonance. His accomplishments are unquestionable, but his personal behavior made him incapable of playing well with others. And to the end, he never changed.

Being somewhat socially inept myself, I can relate to Houston’s difficulties. I don’t ever feel comfortable at parties, and while I am perfectly relaxed, even thrive, speaking to a group of 100 people, my knees turn to jelly if I have to approach someone for a one-on-one, or even a small group, conversation. I remember one of my professors in grad school telling me that when she first arrived on campus she asked several of my classmates about me. She got one universal answer—“I’ve been in classes with him for four years, but I don’t know him.” I told her the only way to get to know me is to read my writings. She wasn’t impressed.

But there is, in Sam Houston’s story, something to give me hope. In the century and a half since his life, we have come to see a very different man than his contemporaries saw. Today we don’t see the short-tempered, anti-social drunk. In fact, many people are not even aware of that side of his story. Driving up I-45 through Huntsville, you can’t help but notice the enormous statue of him at the side of the highway. That is the Sam Houston we see today.

I think there is a lesson in Houston’s story. Nothing about you matters less to posterity than whether you gained social acceptance in your lifetime. I’m glad. I guess that means there is hope for us misfits after all.

Tags: La Porte, Michael Gos, Texas
Posted in | 1 Comment

Losing Illusions

January 5th, 2015

The “kitchen” at Clyde’s Barbeque

By Michael Gos

Corsicana, Texas

There are any number of things that can make a place memorable for us. Maybe someone we know and love is there. We might have had a great time there. Or maybe it is a place that so perfectly matches our souls that we instantly feel at home there (for me, that would include places like Luckenbach and the Terlingua porch). None of these things were so in the case of Corsicana, yet it will forever be carved into my memory as one of those special places.

I was just moving to Texas and driving a 24-foot U-haul van trailering my car behind. I was on a mission. On an earlier trip for a campus interview with the University of Houston, (my first trip to Texas) my soon-to-be colleagues told me that barbeque was a religion in Texas. Back home in Indiana, barbeque meant the three H’s: hot dogs, hamburgers and a hibachi. They assured me Texas barbeque was something very different. Since I flew in for that interview and had a full schedule the entire time I was there, I didn’t have a chance to find out for myself. So on this long overland journey, pulling all my stuff behind me, I decided that when I finally reached Texas, I would find a barbeque restaurant and have lunch.

I was told to avoid driving down 59 with such a huge load and to stay on the Interstate all the way to Dallas, and get on I-45 there. I trusted the advice and made Dallas just about lunchtime. I hate cities and the last thing I wanted to do was try to drive in town with my enormous “rig,” so I waited to find a lunch spot till I got well away from the urban mess. About 50 miles south of all that, I began looking for a barbeque restaurant. The first sign of one was just that—a road sign in Corsicana for a place called Clyde’s. I followed the directions on the sign and came to a stop at a tiny, run down shack that was probably a house back in the 1950s. Surely this couldn’t be what Texans call a restaurant! I didn’t know much about barbeque back then.

Because my van and the trailer together were more than 40 feet long, and the four parking spots in front of the shack reached barely 10 feet, I pulled around to the side of the building and parked in the weeds and gravel. It was then that I saw an even smaller, dilapidated shed about eight by ten in size. Through the open, well-rotted barn door I could see that this was where the cooking was taking place. By then I was just about sure this was a serious mistake, but the smell of the mesquite smoke (something I had never experienced) made me just crazy enough to take a chance. With a smoke-induced high, I was feeling a bit better—until I opened the door and walked in.

The place was even smaller than it looked from the outside. It could maybe seat 12 in a pinch. And it was clearly a dive. None of the tables matched and the chairs ranged from wood, to chrome to the steel folding variety. I sat at an old, four-seat Formica table much like we had at home when I was a kid, and I waited.

After about five minutes, a girl came up to me and told me I had to order at the “window,” which was nothing more than a card table set up in the doorway that separated the front seating area from what looked like an even smaller back room. I ordered, and about three minutes later, my love affair with barbeque began.

But that’s not why Corsicana stands out as a very special place to me. It was the other thing.

It was fitting that at this time I would be starting a new life in a new place because I had recently become a new person. When I was in my twenties, I was an immature kid with a major attitude problem. My thirties and early forties were a learning time. It took me 12 years to move to where I was that day in Corsicana. Mostly, I had to go from seeing myself as a helpless victim kept down by the powers-that-be, to that day where I understood that if I just kept fighting, I could beat “them” and be successful in spite of anything they might throw at me. After all, I had successfully completed grad school. I knew they don’t give you a Ph.D. from a top-rated program because you are smart, but rather, because you are tenacious. Few are thrown out of the better programs. Most people who don’t succeed just give up. That day, feeling like I had it all figured out and I had won, I moved on to my new life.

Blame it on Texas. Maybe it is the air, or the barbeque, but as I worked my way through that plate of ribs and brisket, I started getting the feeling that I had gotten it all wrong. And that left me with an uneasy feeling.

When you spend two days driving alone, you have lots of time to think. I had spent almost all of that time going over the 12 years of learning and the final lesson I had taken from it all—if you hang in there, you can beat them. And yet, in all that driving, I had thought about several people who took time out of their lives to try to help me find my way. Sometimes I listened; mostly I didn’t. I remembered every success along the way (because they were so rare) and realized that, almost without exception, they came after the intervention of someone who cared—an intervention I chose to listen to.

One thing led to another, as our stream-of-consciousness thoughts usually do, and as I was eating the last rib it hit me; I had gotten the lesson wrong. I didn’t succeed by beating “them.” After years of struggling, I just stopped beating myself. The unfinished rib dropped to the plate with a bang.

Corsicana is forever stamped on my heart not because of a special someone, not because I had a great time there, and certainly not because it suits my soul. Corsicana will always be special to me because of what happened to me there. I made a life-changing discovery.

I had spent 12 years finding truths and had a much better life for it. But this was not what was important about that day. And it wasn’t that I finally realized I only needed to stop beating myself. Those were just steps along the way. The crucial event there in Clyde’s Barbeque was learning a far more important thing—something life changing. Losing a single illusion makes us far wiser than finding a multitude of truths. I had lost the illusion of victimhood—of a “them” that I was fighting against. And life is so much better today as a result.

Besides, Corsicana began my obsession with barbeque. A man has to be thankful for that!
(Gastronomic note: Today, Clyde’s is called Big Man and Lil’ Mamas. And the barbeque is still terrific!)

Tags: Corsicana, Michael Gos, Texas
Posted in | No Comments

The Truth About Triusms

December 1st, 2014

Wimberley, Texas

One of the finest swimming experiences in Texas is at Wimberley’s Blue Hole. It is a spot on the Cypress Creek that I am convinced has to be everyone’s idea of the great swimming hole up in heaven.

It was early October, sunny and in the 80s but the park was closed; it was out of season. However, through smart thinking and persistent effort, the organizers of the small conference I was attending had managed to arrange for us participants to be given private access for the afternoon. There were only thirteen of us there and it was as perfect an afternoon as you could ever hope for. But now, as the sun was dipping lower in the sky, it was time for dinner, so I went to my favorite Wimberley restaurant and watering hole, INO’z.

A bit downstream on the creek, in the heart of Wimberley, INO’z has an absolutely magnificent location.

The huge outdoor deck sits on a hillside that overlooks parkland with huge trees. Many of the trees have faces. (I’m serious! Some of the shops in Wimberley sell carved wooden mouths, noses and eyes for attachment to tree trunks. Apparently the city has chosen to support local business and add a bit of whimsy to their parks at the same time.) The deeply shaded hillside slopes down to the creek below. In the distance, it glimmers silver in the few patches of sunlight. Only the Chisos Mountain Lodge at Big Bend National Park can rival the view. The beer is cold, the food is good, but it is the view that brings me back every time.

He was sitting at the table next to mine and apparently was in a playful mood. He tried the waitress first and she humored him briefly but had other tables to get on to. Then he turned to me. My eye was immediately drawn to his broken front tooth. It was hard not to notice given the way he grinned.

“I’ll buy your next beer if you can give me a truism that I can’t produce an equally well-known opposite truth.”

I didn’t understand and I told him so.

“You know, those little sayings that people have that capture some philosophy. Tell me one and I’ll give you its opposite.”

I realized he probably was referring to what I call aphorisms, but terminology wasn’t important so I played along.

“Okay, ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.’”

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Want to try again?”

I had to think about it for a while. It wasn’t as easy coming up with these things as you might expect.

Eventually, another one came to mind.

“Opposites attract.”

“Bird’s of a feather flock together.”

I wondered what would possess a person to spend time thinking about something this obscure. I’m not shy—or proud. I asked him.

He said he worked at the Wimberley Zipline Adventures and that he had lots of downtime spent up on his stand in a tree. Patrons ride down to his station and stop. He unbuckles their harnesses, hooks them up to the next line and then sends them on their way. And then he waits. He described his job as 30 seconds of work followed by ten minutes of sitting. It gave him lots of time to think about a lot of things. I now suspected the broken front tooth might be work-related. He had probably caught an errant body part.

“Okay, try this one. ‘Absence makes the heart grow fonder?’”
“Out of sight, out of mind.”

This was starting to feel like a game and, being the competitive person I am, I was getting drawn into it.

“How about ‘Haste makes waste?’”

“He who hesitates is lost.”

It didn’t look like I was getting that beer.

I never really thought about it before that day, but after playing the game with him, the concept stayed on my mind for the next few weeks. After giving it lots of thought, I had no choice but to conclude that he was right. For every one of these sayings, there does indeed seem to be an opposite statement that is equally valid—equally true. That’s an anomaly in our world. The way things usually work is very different. The opposite of a true statement is something that is incorrect—a false statement. If I drop a book, it falls down to the floor. That is a fact and hence, a true statement. Its opposite—that it will fall up—is false. If “he is alive” is true, then “he is not alive” cannot be true. But in the case of truisms, that’s not the way it is at all. So what make these sayings so different? Why do they violate this simple rule of opposites?

It took a couple of weeks but I began to suspect there was something else at work here besides the idea of something being true or false. I was beginning to think the essence of this conundrum lies in the fact that there is a difference between something being true and something being a “great truth.” An aphorism, or truism as he called it, isn’t just a fact. It is a short, concise statement of a great truth—a philosophical statement about the rightful working of the universe, what the Buddhists call “dharma.” The opposite of something true is indeed false. But the opposite of a great truth is often another great truth. As a result, truisms standing alone are really only half-truths. In order to capture the whole truth of reality, they always need to be paired with their opposites. It is simply a case of Yin and Yang. That is one of the fascinating mysteries of the universe we live in and that is the idea this guy had somehow hit on.

It was beginning to look like I was going to lose this game. My beer was close to empty and it was time to order another. That meant we had to determine once and for all who would be paying for it. I decided to give it one last try.

“How about, ‘it’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all?”

That seemed to puzzle him. He looked at me strangely, sat quietly for a minute, and then said, “You’ve got to be kidding me! That statement is so ridiculously absurd that no one could ever take it seriously, let alone bother to write an opposite.”

But he bought me that beer anyway.

Tags: Cypress Creek, Michael Gos, Texas, The Truth About Triusms, Wimberley
Posted in | No Comments

Responsibility

November 1st, 2014

The shady seating at Harry’s Tinaja in downtown Alpine.

Alpine, Texas

After a long day at the ranch, we were sitting outside at Harry’s Tinaja in downtown Alpine. Harry’s is a bar with a small, rustic outdoor courtyard under the trees and since it was a truly magnificent west Texas autumn day, I wasn’t ready to be indoors. This was the perfect spot.

I was visiting a friend who is an outstanding cowboy poet and a real 21st century philosopher. Like most artsy types, he needs a day job to pay the bills. For him, that means ranching. He owns a section of land north and west of town and he and his ranch hands had been working cattle all day. They spent the better part of it on horseback doing a variety of jobs as the need arose. I followed along watching, trying to get some sense of what ranch life was like.

I was particularly fascinated by one of his cowboys who seemed to be the very best at everything he did, and yet, on this beautiful October day, in this magnificent place, he was just plain grouchy. He seemed to really hate every aspect of his job. As we nursed our beers, I asked my friend about the cowhand and why he seemed so unhappy. The answer sent me off on a whirlwind of soul-searching that still haunts me today.

My friend told me that this man was born and raised right there in Alpine. He had spent more than 20 years, all of his adult life, as a ranch hand. He was well paid, had a nice house on a mountaintop and a beautiful wife and two kids—and he hated his life. My friend said he had once overheard the man telling the other ranch hands that he was sick of the life he led. He claimed one leg was shorter than the other from 40 years of first playing—then working—the mountainside. All he wanted was to go somewhere where the ground was flat and where he’d never have to look at another cow or horse again.

Of course, being a city boy by birth and a resident of college towns and suburbs since turning 18, I didn’t understand how anyone could tire of a place this beautiful, and I said so. My friend, ever the philosopher, had an answer.

“Some are born to the mountains but will never be mountain men. And then there are lots of city people who are doing the mountains a grave injustice by not being here. That’s you.”

My immediate response to his explanation was to take it as a compliment—like he was saying I was a natural. I said, “Thank you.”

He answered, “Really? Why?”

I thought about it for a second, considered elaborating, but quickly suspected I was missing something. In an attempt to avoid embarrassing myself further, I said nothing, and the subject was never brought up again.

That was almost a year ago and since then, my thoughts have been all over the board on that conversation. I thought for a while that maybe it was a reprimand, an accusation that I was somehow letting someone, or something, down because I chose to live somewhere based on how much money I could make there. But then I decided that couldn’t be right. This man is one of the sweetest souls I have ever met. I can’t imagine him attacking someone, even in such an understated way. And yet, his response clearly indicated he didn’t intend it as a compliment. What did it mean?

A hiker overlooks the terrain at Big Bend National Park.

In trying to understand it, I went back and looked at many of the things I have said and written over the years on the topic of choosing the right place to live. In the last five years I’ve talked about picking a place where the spirit can be free to function at its highest level. I’ve also argued that we should choose a place where our creativity is unleashed—and again, where we can do great things with minimal effort. In re-reading those old essays, I noticed that all these ideas about choosing a home had one common thread: they were self-centered. I was arguing that we should pick our spot on the planet based on what is best for us as individuals. But here, staring me in the face was a very different perspective. Maybe I have responsibilities beyond myself.

Of course, we all understand that idea on one level. We have responsibilities to our families to provide a good, safe environment, an adequate income and an opportunity for happiness. Clearly we understand it is not always all about us. But in my friend’s words, there was something different. Maybe that responsibility extends beyond taking care of our loved ones—perhaps far beyond.

Most secure online casino invites players on an exciting journey into outer space, where they can feel themselves a part of incredible events and challenges. Like a responsibility to your family, playing this casino will make you feel that your capabilities and luck are not only revealed in your driving, but also in unpredictable space adventures. Casino winnings not only add excitement and excitement to your life, but can also to provide sufficient income for a happy and comfortable existence. It is an opportunity for travel, education, entertainment and fulfilling the needs of the family. Being able to provide for your family, you can enjoy the joy and gains that monetary gains provide. This makes it possible to be a strong support for loved ones, giving them a happy and safe life.
Receiving casino winnings not only becomes a source of income, but also opens up new opportunities to achieve the dreams and goals of the family. They create financial stability and the opportunity to enjoy life next to loved ones.

I have always been aware of the comfort I feel when I’m in the Big Bend area. Sure, every Texan loves the national park, but my comfort extends to Marathon, Study Butte, and especially, to Terlingua. I go there as often as I can, and it is never often enough. I make every one of those trips for me—because it feels good.
Now, months later, I’m starting to think my cowboy friend might have been saying that in return for all I’ve gained, I have a responsibility to those mountains, to the Big Bend area, and that up to this point in my life, I have been shirking that obligation.

Is that possible? Can we have an obligation to a place where we don’t even live? It may be arrogant, but I have always thought I did my part in supporting all the communities I have lived in over the years. I volunteered for civic projects, served on various city boards, and even chaired a few committees. But now I was hearing that I might have an unfulfilled obligation to another place. I struggle with this. It seems very conceited to think that the mountains suffer because they lack my presence. They’ll be just fine many centuries after I am gone. And surely, we have to go where we can make a living, don’t we?

But philosophers and poets are strange birds. Maybe in their view there are things more important than a job or a career.

Sometimes, I wonder if we just think too much!

Tags: Alpine, Michael Gos, Responsibility, Texas
Posted in News | No Comments

Business Buzz

November 1st, 2014

Houston Mayor Annise Parker, third from left, stops for a photo with Clear Lake Area Chamber officials including, from left, Chairman Jamieson Mackey, Good Shepherd Church Pastor Dr. Jan Sattem, Business Division Chairman Janette Alford, President and CEO Cindy Harreld, Program Chairman Charity Ellis and Stuart Cayer of luncheon sponsor Kelsey-Seybold Clear Lake.

Mayor also wants to save the Dome

Houston Mayor Annise Parker thinks the Astrodome can be repurposed.

“It would be a great place for an indoor amusement park . . . but it’s going to take dollars from the private sector to do it,” she said, speaking at the Clear Lake Area Chamber’s monthly luncheon at the Nassau Bay Hilton.

It’s clear, she added, that Harris County is not interested in putting large amounts of money into the Dome without a major donor from the private sector.

That was one of about a dozen subjects she updated the crowd on, including the need for a change in term limits to two four-year terms.

NASA extends its Barrios JSC contract

NASA has exercised an option to extend a contract with Barrios Technology Ltd. of Houston to provide support to International Space Station activities at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.

The cost-plus-award-fee and incentive-fee contract modification increases the overall value of the contract by $83 million to almost $154.5 million. With the extension, the contract now ends Sept. 30, 2016.

Products and services provided under the current contract support mission and program integration and necessary infrastructure operations functions for the space station. It includes the potential of supporting other NASA programs or projects via task orders.

Barrios will perform work under the contract at Johnson. Subcontractors include Ares Technical Services Corporation of Burlingame, California; Booz Allen Hamilton Inc. of McLean, Virginia; Summit Technologies and Solutions Inc. of Alexandria, Virginia; and VeriCon Technical Services LLC of Houston.

Galveston port plans expansion

The Port of Galveston has gotten the OK from its governing board to expand its 90,000-square-foot Cruise Terminal No. 2 by 60,000 square feet to allow for more and larger sailing vessels and for more seating for cruise passengers.

Webber Inc. of Houston was awarded the $11 million contract.

LyondellBasell CEO to retire

LyondellBasell has announced that Chief Executive Officer James L. Gallogly will retire from the company in early 2015. Gallogly will continue to serve as CEO and chairman of the LyondellBasell management board in the interim to ensure an orderly transition pending the selection of his replacement.

The LyondellBasell supervisory board of directors has formed a committee to choose Gallogly’s successor.

Clear Lake Shores was well represented at the Clear Lake Area Chamber luncheon at the Nassau Bay Hilton featuring Houston Mayor Annise Parker as the keynote speaker by, from left, Councilwoman Amanda Booren, City Administrator George Jones, Mayor Vern Johnson and Police Chief Kenneth Cook.

SJC given grant to train mariners

Texas Workforce Commission Chairman Andres Alcantar recently visited the San Jacinto College maritime training center to present a $368,173 Skills Development Fund grant for maritime job training.

The grant will fund training for 195 mariners from Buffalo Marine Services, G&H Towing Co., Higman Barge Lines Inc., and J.A.M. Distributing. Since the start of the San Jacinto College maritime program in 2010, approximately 2,500 U.S. Coast Guard certificates have been awarded to mariners. Having a local maritime training center saves companies travel expenses. In the past, mariners were sent out of state for similar training.

In the near future, San Jacinto College will expand its maritime training program with the opening of a 45,000-square-foot Maritime Training Center along the Port of Houston.

Unique retailer coming to area

League City and Pinnacle Development Group have partnered to bring a very unique retailer to League City. Cabela’s Incorporated, the World’s Foremost Outfitter® of hunting, fishing and outdoor gear, announced its plan to build a 72,000 square-foot store in the Pinnacle Park Development at I-45 near Big League Dreams Parkway in League City.

League City has new engineering director

Earl Smith is League City’s new director of engineering. Earl Smith, who has over 27 years of public sector engineering experience and most recently worked as public works director and city engineer for the City of Decatur, Texas, began work Sept. 22.

“I look forward to working with the city staff, elected officials and residents to continue the projects and initiatives that are already established and to discover new opportunities to enhance service to League City’s residents,” he said. As engineering director, he oversees municipal engineering, the city’s capital improvement program, project management, traffic engineering and operations and land development related activities.

“We are pleased to add another talented individual to the city’s staff of professional and experienced employees. We believe Earl has the skills to work with our team to continue addressing some of the city’s most important needs, more specifically those needs related to infrastructure,” said City Manager Mark Rohr.

Tags: Business Buzz, Cabela's League City, Texas
Posted in Community, News | No Comments

Batteries Plus Bulbs

August 1st, 2014

Batteries Plus Bulbs has everything you need for your business, home or project.

Batteries Plus Bulbs is the nation’s first, largest and fastest-growing battery and light bulb franchise.

Beginning with a single store in 1988, there are now over 620 stores throughout 46 states and Puerto Rico. Offering thousands of batteries, energy-efficient light bulbs and accessories for almost any use imaginable, Batteries Plus Bulbs lends its technical expertise to both residential and business customers. Now offering in-store repair services for mobile devices, customers have somewhere to go to get their smart phones, tablets and mp3 players professionally fixed without having to buy a replacement.

The Webster Batteries Plus Bulbs store is located at the intersection of Texas Avenue and Bay Area Boulevard. It opened in August of 2013, and is the newest store in the network of 7 Houston-area Batteries Plus Bulbs locations owned by a local group which includes Arthur Romero. Romero has been in the business for over 10 years, having opened his first store on Gessner Road back in 2003. Since then he has helped to grow his business through product expertise and a commitment to customer service. He appreciates the opportunity to offer assistance in solving people’s battery and light bulb solutions, putting a smile on each customer’s face every time they walk out the door.

Another focus of Romero’s network of stores is servicing numerous commercial accounts. Partnering with other area businesses to provide them with high-performing power and lighting products that they rely on every day is a value that these local Batteries Plus Bulbs stores are pleased to offer. Romero has made it a priority to introduce himself to the local business community throughout the last 10 years, informing them of the numerous commercial services his local stores can provide.

“Most people aren’t initially aware that we are more than just a retail store,” says Romero. “Our volume pricing, along with our billing and shipping capabilities, make us a viable vendor for area businesses as well. We can ship by the pallet or truckload and provide access to commercial products like backup power supplies, ballasts and emergency lighting kits. With the support of our nationwide network, we essentially offer the personal, friendly service of a local store with the ability to provide large-scale shipping and distribution options with competitive bulk pricing.”

Romero and his franchise group have worked with all types of businesses throughout his career These businesses include municipalities, schools, hospitals, government and military entities, warehouses and many others. Besides the range of battery and bulb products that they are able to offer, recycling services and custom battery pack rebuilds are other popular offerings for both commercial and retail customers. Maintaining EPA-regulated disposal and recycling procedures, Batteries Plus Bulbs is happy to help customers with a convenient drop-off spot for their spent batteries, light bulbs and other electronic devices. And rebuilding power packs for cordless tools and UPS devices – on-site, with no appointment necessary – is another convenience that these local stores offer.

Owner Authur Romero

For your home and business, Batteries Plus Bulbs in Webster wants to be the one-stop-shop for all of your battery, light bulb and mobile-device repair needs. Offering superior product knowledge, unmatched customer service and reliable technical support, Batteries Plus Bulbs wants local consumers to know that they are a trusted source for providing all power and lighting solutions. Rather than being the place customers stop when all other options fail, they want to be the first stop you make to get every thing you need right when you need it.

“In the ten-plus years that I’ve been in this business, I’ve seen just about everything,” Romero recalls. “In almost all cases, we’re able to troubleshoot and find a solution. That’s what makes this job so enjoyable; no two problems are ever the same and to be able to help a customer when they thought all hope was lost is a really rewarding feeling.”

There is an abundance of batteries damaged by the high heat of a Texas summer. Since heat is the number one killer of batteries, Romero encourages everyone to stop by one of his area locations for a free battery test and systems check before its too late. If it’s determined that you need a new battery, a Batteries Plus Bulbs technician will likely be able to install a new battery, right away, for little to no cost at all.
For more information and the Batteries Plus Blubs location in your area, go to www.batteriesplus.com or visit the Bay Area store, 599 W. Bay Area Boulevard, 281- 332-1150.

Tags: Batteries Plus Bulbs, Batteries Plus Bulbs Bay Area, light bulb store Bay Area, Texas
Posted in News | No Comments

Battle Rifle Company Now Open in Webster

August 1st, 2014

Chris Kurzadkowski, pictured right, with some of his knowledgeable staff at Battle Rifle Company.

Battle Rifle Company recently celebrated its 4th anniversary in business at its new facility in Webster. At its grand opening and open house they greeted a large group of supporters from local law enforcement officers, hunters, tactical and competition shooters, as well as other gun enthusiasts.

The Battle Rifle Company was developed and created by local entrepreneur Chris Kurzadkowski, who along with his wife, Debbie Kurzadkowski, also own Lone Star Delivery Service. Kurzadkowski, a former Army infantry man, commissioned National Guard and Army Reserve officer, has always had a passion regarding firearms, especially rifles. His son, Nick, also shares his father’s interest and works alongside him in building AR rifles.

Battle Rifle Company is a unique arms store. It offers a variety of AR style rifles, accessories and a small shooting area where you can test or try your new firearm. Customers and clients can discuss their needs to experienced armorers and receive custom rifles made to their individual needs.

“Many of our clients are experienced military, law enforcement officers, hunters and individuals both men and women looking for personal protection,” said Kurzdkowski. “Because our AR rifles are custom made, many women prefer them because of their light weight, ease of operation and low maintenance needs.”

Firearm enthusiasts like the AR rifle for competition target shooting, hunting varmit (such as feral pigs, wild boar, rabbits and coyote) and personal protection.

“Our goal was to not invent a new AR rifle but significantly improve the technology and enhance its accuracy and performance. The AR rifle has been around since the Vietnam War. We also have a unique process of Crynogenically treating the rifle barrels which definitely makes a difference in our guns performance,” stated Kurzdkowski.

Battle Rifle Company clients come from around the country. In fact, Webster Police Department has already purchased 25 Battle Rifle AR rifles. Sugarland SWAT and other agencies are also getting ready to place their orders.

Another attractive selling point of the Battle Field Rifle is its competitive price. A basic AR rifle will begin at $995 and sell up to $1800 depending what you have included on the rifle. Battle Rifles are available in local retail stores such as The Arms Room, Lock and Loaded, Big Country, Outsider Fire Arms, Triple G and Best Shot, to name a few. The Battle Rifle Company is also a retail outlet located at 1056 Hercules Ave., Houston, TX 77058. They sell a large variety of accessories such as gun cases, ear plugs, ammunition, technical equipment, AR rifles and more. Law enforcement is always given priority and walk in service is available.

Battle Rifle Company’s focus is to properly training individuals, introduce more people to the sport of target shooting and safe use of the AR rifle. Stop by Battle Rifle Company today; its worth the visit and tell Chris and Nick that Bay Group Media sent you.

For more information, call 281-777-0316 or [email protected]

Tags: arms store Webster, Battle Raffle Company Webster, Battle Rifle Company, Texas
Posted in Business, News | No Comments

Bay Area Houston Magazine