Keeping Time with Apple

Apple watch - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by Trebor Snillor
TODAY

After 6 weeks of rain, snow and darkness the weather gods have graced us with beautiful weather. Not a cloud in the sky and the temp is up near 80. Praise be! My kitchen is about 85% complete – it lacks counter top and appliances. No one has worked on it in 5 business days – am having to exhibit the patience of Job waiting for workmen to come back. I think it will be beautiful – really too nice for a little East Dallas house.

CAFFEINE

I am probably the world’s biggest caffeine addict. I’ve been drinking coffee since I was 15, and mass quantities of it in adulthood. I like Starbucks Pike Place brand, and I also have a large selection of Keurig brews. In the last couple of weeks I’ve developed nearly a distaste for any of it – it tastes bitter after a few sips and gives me an upset stomach. I have no other known issues or illness, just a body that seems to be staging a caffeine rebellion. Seems very odd to me – maybe I’ll save money on lattes and I’ll visit the restroom less. For now I’m phasing off caffeine with root beer and mild tea.

APPLE’S LATEST GIZMO’S

Tim Cook recently announced Apple’s latest slate of new watches, skinny MacBooks and HBO Now. I’m enough of an Apple lemming that I am drawn like a moth to an over-priced flame. I will say that over the years I’ve said “No” to various things:

• G4 Cube – looked like a Kleenex Box, overpriced for what it was
• Apple Cinema Display – A high quality monitor roughly twice what ViewSonic would charge
• MacBook Pro – Cannot see spending $3K when HP gives same function for $1200.
• iPad Mini – Cute occupant of no man’s land between iPhone 6 and iPad
• Airport – Cool looking device with 1000 worthy, less pricey competitors

As you can see there are limits to my lemming-ness. I look for value in my purchases and I also still like some Windows products. I tend to use Windows laptops and Apple handheld gizmos, a very comfortable split. Each company has sweetened things with crossover offerings (iTunes for Windows, Office for iPhone).

Take off the blinders and you can enjoy the best of both worlds. I probably won’t be enjoying the Apple watch right away because I really only need time and date. The cheapest Apple watch is $350, too much for a gee-whiz technology thrill. The $10K version of the watch would go against everything I stand for (although I’d wear one if you gave it to me.) The new paper-thin, gold-colored MacBook is a beauty but annoys me on a couple levels. It’s too expensive, and it obsoletes all existing connectors with USB-C – a new USB standard. An existing Mac owner probably doesn’t relish buying all new adaptors and switching everything out.

HBO Now is very intriguing. It’s a stand-alone streaming service offered exclusively on Apple TV (starting this April). There are only a couple of HBO shows that interest me (maybe Game of Thrones) so I don’t know if I can justify my love. But – this is a step in the right direction for cable cutters everywhere.

So there you have it – my house is without a kitchen, my diet is with way less caffeine, and my wrist will only be sporting a Fossil watch for the time being. I may or may not get HBO Now – guess we’ll see.

© 2015 Snillor Productions

Lakewood

Now Showing - Pic courtesy of Wikipedia

by Trebor Snillor
My kitchen is still under construction and the house is torn apart as I write this. I won’t bore you with my list of complaints – I’ll just try to be optimistic about it all.

Mayberry in North Texas

When I moved to Dallas in 1983, I was 25 and fairly naïve. I came from Austin which was a sleepy college town at the time; I arrived here in Dallas which was somewhat intimidating with its giant sprawl, and its multiple town centers (e.g. Downtown, Las Colinas and the Galleria complex).. I missed the down-home simplicity of a smaller town.

In 1983 Dallas also had the image of J.R. Ewing plastered on it. The city had a button-down preppy image which Park Cities and SMU did little to dispel. I longed for the bohemian, liberal, diverse and yes, crazy attitude of Austin.

In my exploratory Sunday drives, I quickly discovered Lakewood and Old East Dallas. These neighborhoods are adjacent and blur into each other. The whole area extends from Central Expressway over to White Rock Lake, just south of Mockingbird. This area was and still is a find – it’s very much as if a piece of liberal quirky Austin were grafted onto Dallas.

How Do We Love Thee?

East Dallas / Lakewood is ethnically, historically, financially and culturally diverse. We have the stately mansions of Swiss Avenue, the Arts-and-Crafts bungalows of Lower Greenville and the gingerbread cottages of Upper Greenville. We have every manner of duplex, apartment, townhouse and condo in between. We have the decadent rich in Lakewood and much ethnic diversity in the lower M-Streets. We have many college students as well as recent SMU grads. We have the whole age spectrum well represented.

Somehow we escaped the type of zoning that gives an area an identity crisis. There are few tall buildings except maybe a Wells Fargo on Gaston that “soars” to eight stories. Commercial areas are well-contained on Mockingbird, Greenville and Gaston. There hasn’t been much of the zoning creep that turns houses into Hot Wings franchises.

Amenities and More

We have Glenco and Tietz Park withing walking distance to my house. We have White Rock, one of the nicest parks in the US, a stone’s throw away. We have neighborly businesses at Casa Linda and Skillman-Abrams. We have several award-winning public schools as well as a generous selection of private schools. We have block parties, May Day, Saint Patrick’s parade and many other festivities. Lower Greenville also has some of the best pubs and restaurants in the Southwest.

You might just live here and forget that you live in giant, confusing metroplex. There is a small-town aura that infuses the air. There is also a liberal acceptance (not merely tolerance) that gives a welcome feel. I think that variety is indeed the spice of life. I personally don’t ever want to live in “Beige World” – a suburban monotony conjured on Third Rock from the Sun. I want to live where freedom isn’t just a word on a political flash card but a personal way of living. And that place -- is Old East Dallas and Lakewood.

© 2015 Snillor Productions