Some people say Dallas “has no soul”, or that it’s “plastic fantastic”, but I say it’s a great place to live if you travel a lot. One thing I noticed right off the bat was that most women were blond, fake that is. Not that it’s a bad thing and I suppose if I were a woman with mousy brown hair or started to prematurely gray, I would consider hitting the peroxide bottle too. In fact the first joke I remember hearing in Dallas was.. What’s black and blond and black and blond and black and blond? A blond doing cartwheels.

Enough of that, on to the important stuff. Life here is actually pretty good. We have an over abundance of (deep breath) restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, clothing stores, liquor stores, car dealerships, bank after bank after bank after bank after bank after bank, tons of pawn shops, a bazillion car repair places, too many movies theaters, (3d, reg, drive-in, independent, etc..) at least a couple hundred sushi bars, tons of strip clubs, parks, lakes, walking and biking trails, way too many doggie day care centers, lot’s of airports, auto race tracks, sports teams, horse racing, massive arts community, the grassy knoll and way more Churches than you could ever imagine or want to see in one place. You could start your Sunday morning in a Baptist Church, walk to a Lutheran, Church, mosey on down to the Synagogue, skip over a block to the Mosque, drop by the Hindu temple on your way to the Vihara (Buddhist monastery) and wrap up at the 3rd Church of Christ Scientist (whatever that means) all within about one square mile. I’m not joking about that.. they don’t call this the bible belt for nothing and the lord giveth mightily to those willing to venture into the lucrative (and tax free) business of Religion.

Dallas is a great place for the workforce and for business. Texas has as massive economy, great airports, highways and rail systems so goods flow easily in and out. Tech is big here as well since space, bandwidth and electricity are plentiful and cheap. Dell is right down the highway, we have EDS, American Airlines and lots of other big Companies that call Dallas home.

Personally Dallas is a bit drab when it comes to things to do. Sure restaurants, movies, museums and the like are fun but if you want to get away for the weekend, you have to either get on a plane or drive at least (3) hours in any direction (but West) to find anything that does not resemble Dallas. It’s also hotter than hell in the Summer and it gets pretty cold in the winter. We had a full month a few years ago when the temp was over 100 degrees everyday with no rain. We’ve had (2) bouts of snow already this Winter and just saw 12.5″ which is a new record. In fact it was below freezing for at least (5) nights in a row. We can’t really complain though because having lived in NY, I know all too well how mild our Winters are in comparison.

One of my favorite things about Dallas is that I know my way around and I know lots of people. Even in a city of Millions, I find myself bumping into a friend or acquaintance at the market or movies or museum, etc. It’s also a great place to go for long walks if you have a dog (or even if you don’t) although I’m amazed at how may people prefer to sit on the couch when it’s nice outside. I’m not qualified to comment on traffic since I live less than 1mi from my office. That’s by design but I do know that any freeway here can and will become a parking lot at least once during a typical day (weekends included).

So there you have it. Dallas is a fairly new city, it’s mostly clean, fairly safe, nice roads for the most part, great to travel in and out of and most of all it’s economically stable with somewhat mild temperatures. I would have to give it a solid 7 out of 10.

Till next time ~ John

Well I love Mexicans.. so much in fact that I married one and have a permanent crew of Mexican friends. My sister even has one and calls him “husband”.

Now on to this true and startling story about a well to do, ignorant racist. My wife is 100% Mexican of Spanish decent and a 1st generation American as well. She completed the citizenship process around 2000 and enjoys dual citizenship. We have lived in Dallas for nearly 15 years and our home is 2 blocks from Highland Park which is the self proclaimed Beverly Hills of Dallas. It’s embarrassing but we actually have magazines called “Envy” and “Image”, both of which apparently enjoy robust circulation if you can stomach that. Anyway we are dog owners and our dog enjoys at least 2 hours of walks per day which are usually in and around Highland Park. Traffic is low, sidewalks are wide, homes are HUGE and you better pickup after your dog or else.  It’s a nice, safe and clean place to take a dog for a walk.

More often that not you run into the same people over and over and oddly enough, you find yourself remembering the dogs name but not the owners.  So anyway on one of our marathon walks we met a nice lady name Unice and her husband. Her name was easy to remember because he husband said “yea, her name is Unice and it’s spelled u…nice, but she’s not very nice” followed by a penguin-esq (wah wah wah). They seemed nice nice enough and obviously were very wealthy. Within 2 minutes of the conversation she was bagging about how they take their private jet to Vail. Good for them I say, no jealousy here and I’m happy for their success. We talked for almost an hour before we finally managed to pry ourselves away. We ran into Unice many times after that and she always had a way of making you stick around when you really wanted to leave. If you don’t know what I mean then you probably have that same problem. She was fun to talk to but she would not stop and we eventually started avoiding her from time to time because our dog needed a good walk more than we needed to hear the latest local gossip.  We would run into Unice at the grocery store, see her in traffic or at a restaurant. Unice is in her mid to late 70′s and is attractive for an elderly woman. She claims to have been a Neiman Marcus model back in the day and always makes effort to fix her hair, makeup and all that stuff.

Well the other day my wife who co-owns a successful business, provides jobs for people, pays lots of taxes and contributes mightily to the growth and prosperity of this Country, ran into Unice while walking our dog. They exchanged pleasantries and then Unice proceeded to tear Obama a new one about how he was costing them so much money that they had to pump their oil wells faster since Obama already raised taxes on the rich. My wife reminded her that no taxes had been raised yet but Unice was not interested in hearing about facts since she already knew everything. She asked my wife who she voted for and she told her “Obama”. Unice seemed surprised and then asked where she was from and she said “Mexico”. She then turned to my wife and said “It’s people like you that are ruining everything. Why don’t you go back to your own fucking Country and leave us alone”. Then she turned to her dog and said “come on Coco, let’s go” and stormed off.  BTW her dog is named after Channel, hence the Coco part.  My wife was in shock but started tailing Unice asking her what she was talking about and saying things like “‘Unice, I’ve known you for years and we have spoken for hours and I can’t believe that you are judging me because of who I voted for and where I come from”. Unice turned around crying and said “I’m sorry honey but we are losing so much money” and my wife said “why are you losing money, Obama has not raised taxes yet”. She had no answer because she obviously has no idea how the system works. Then Unice went on to say “well you don’t have money so how would you know?” to which my wife responded “what makes you think we don’t have money, we have plenty of money , we pay plenty of taxes, we employ lots of people so what are you talking about?”.

This went back and forth for almost an hour and over the course of that hour my wife proceeded to respectfully tear Unice a new one without raising her voice, using profanity or being an ignorant racist. Of course Unice never stopped to think about the Mexicans who manicure her lawn, repair her homes, built her homes, cook her meals, wash her dishes, iron her clothes, wash her cars, wash her plane, sweep up her hair at the beauty shop and god knows what else those awful Mexicans are doing to ruin this poor woman’s life. Who do they think they are? My wife explained to her that migrant workers don’t come here to steal jobs, they come here because Americans are as willing as ever to exploit them with illegally low wages so they can cheat on their taxes and make more money. So who is really causing the problem here? If the contractors, restaurateurs and anyone else exploiting them would stop offering them jobs and pay their fair share of taxes like the rest of us, they would eventually have to go away or go through the system and become legal. It’s funny but American people really believe that Mexicans WANT to come here.. when in fact they don’t want to come here at all. Seriously, would YOU like to have to leave your Country, your family and your friends, be treated as a second class citizen, walk across the desert, risk arrest and deportation all because you need more money to provide for yourself and for your loved ones?

I’m as white as they come and with a name like Cunningham it should be a crime to be anything other than bleached white. That said, I too felt discriminated against and was really upset that my educated, cultured, beautiful and amazing wife was disrespected by an old, ignorant, racist republican. Especially one that we knew and had built a meaningless but long lasting relationship with. My wife’s friends were upset, her parents were angry, my friends were angry and now Unice has been demoted from nice white lady to an ignorant, old racist who has probably never even left the Country. Talk about judging a book by it’s cover, we judged her in a positive way and could not have been more wrong. Maybe it was my wifes light complexion, total lack of Spanish accent or the German car she was driving, but Unice could not have been more wrong when she judged her. Unice’s husband was right and she is “not very nice” so we are done with Unice and feel pity for the misery that fills her life each day as she walks alone around Highland park with only Coco to complain to.

Now when Unice and Coco are out walking, we cross the street before we get close enough to say hello. We have chosen not to associate or even exchange pleasantries with someone as ignorant as her. Hopefully as her generation dies off a more well educated group will replace them.

BTW, we stole Texas and pretty much the entire southern part of the Country from the Mexicans anyway.

There was an interesting moment when a Z06 in the session before us blew his engine on turn (6) and dumped all his oil onto the braking zone which is the area right before the turn where you are supposed to finish all of your braking (in a straight line) prior to entering the turn. My car was first on the grid and while we waited for (20) minutes as they mopped up the mess I got a little nervous when it became apparent to me that I would be the first car through the oil slick. My instructor said to “go right through it” so I would know what I was dealing with on the next lap. Great advice and as expected I took that braking zone a bit slower than normal. My car has been hitting about 110mph on the short straight into that braking zone but I started braking sooner and slowed it down a bit more and when I came upon that area I just saw what appeared to be baby power all over the track. As I entered the slick all I could see was a HUGE white cloud in all three mirrors and then I was in the turn, car stuck like glue and all was well. It was funny speaking later to the guy (Mark) who was right behind me as he recalled watching my car disappear into a white cloud having no idea what was on the other side. Better him than me I suppose.

My instructor was Steve Amos and he gave me high grades for control, aggression, speed, awareness and that I was the fastest car/driver in my run group. On the last day I had an issue with my brakes that forced me out for the rest of the day and required new rotors and pads on the front. Thank goodness for my bumper to bumper warranty and that the dealer I bought from understands that my car was made for the track and actually appreciates that I drop the hammer from time to time. Plans are to use racing fluid and racing pads for any future events and hone my braking skills to prolong my brakes.

The next event is July 11-12 and Eagles Canyon and I’m pumped about this one as I already know the track pretty well. My 2nd and 3rd track days took place here and my goal is to get solo status with Drivers Edge so I can do the Texas Motor Speedway night driving event on August 8th. (2) of my (4) tracks days have been solo so I hope and expect to get cleared for this and future events as a solo driver soon.

Here is my buddy Karl tearing it up in his Supercharged Cobra (my wife says it sounds like a mosquito)

Now back to the iPhone issue:
My wife has a 3G and I have a 3GS, she needed the 3.0 update so she could copy, paste and a few other cool new features. She uses a Sony Vaio and I use a MacBook Pro so everything works differently when you have an issue. So I connected her iPhone to her notebook, started up iTunes, clicked the update button and watched in awe as it took a digital dump. Not only did it render the phone useless, iTunes could not see the phone at all. I tried reinstalling iTunes, rebooting the PC, restarting the iPhone, reinstalling the USB drivers, tried two different USB cables, used msconfig to stop all services except for ituneshelper and qtask and nothing. Having tried everything I knew and after scouring Google for answers I quickly realized it was going to be a long day and that I was NOT the only person suffering from the dreaded 1604 error.

This left me with no alternative but to call AT&T because I assumed that Apple would be unreachable only (2) days after the release of a new iPhone and iPhone O/S.

611 is the number you call from your cel to get AT&T support so I called and started navigating the prompts until I heard “for Apple iPhone support press 1″. Then I took a deep breath, settled back into my chair, took a sip of water, closed my eyes and reluctantly pressed 1. To my amazement within a single ring I was greeted by a friendly voice who appeared to speak English as a first language. He was friendly, calm, helpful and determined to resolve my issue quickly. We ended up doing basic troubleshooting and he quickly understood that I had a clue and had done everything correctly up until this point. He eventually confessed that Apple had no resolution for this error but said there was a work around and all I had to do was restore the iPhone on a different computer  and my Mac happened to be in my lap at the time. He stayed on the line as I did a quick restore and then plugged the phone back into the PC so it could sync again. It worked flawlessly and I was grateful but sure wish that tip had been in the FAQ on apple.com. It does say “try a different computer” but it doesn’t say “restore to factory settings on another computer and then sync to your normal computer” which would have been clear enough for me to figure it out without calling in. Either way my blood was starting to boil as I navigated the voice mail prompts but it quickly cooled off when this Apple rep (yes he worked for Apple, not AT&T) took charge and led me to the promise land.

Way to go Apple for excellent customer service and thanks again for not forcing me to speak with four different people who all call me Mr. John.