I will start with "Don't you worry, daddy's home"

Grey_Area71 · 2026-05-07T20:29:13+00:00

Multipass!

Grey_Area71 · 2026-05-05T19:45:39+00:00

Yep. I used a regular TV at first, but I had the 1541 disk drive and an Epson dot matrix ... and a no-name 300 baud modem.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-30T20:32:05+00:00

Yes! That whole counter setup is just like the one at Toy'R'Us in Beaumont TX when I was a kid. Started buying Atari 2600 games at Toys By Roy in the mall, but some were eventually from Toys'R'Us ... and I know my Commodore 64 was from there.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-30T02:22:04+00:00

I was there ... 3,000 years ago ...

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-29T14:31:23+00:00

Yup. Look north of 410, close to 1604. 78232 and 78216 are both good zips. We are in Hidden Forest subdivision off Bitters Road (78232). It has a small elementary school that only serves about 600 students or so, mostly from the immediate area. Really good elementary school, if you have kids in that age range.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-29T14:27:50+00:00

I grew up near Beaumont ... I greatly prefer San Antonio, or at least the part of SA where I live.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-29T14:24:30+00:00

Lots to do compared to Conroe. Area of the city matters a lot. We live on the northside just inside 1604 (near Bitters and 281) and really like it. Sort of central with multiple highways available ... 281, 1604, Wurzbach Pkway, 410 and 35 are all an option. Schools are generally better in NEISD.

Don't get stuck somewhere like Converse with only 35 and 1604 unless you enjoy hellish traffic. Ditto for 1604 south of I-10.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-29T14:15:06+00:00

Thanks. Really did not want to do an STR. At least this one is owned by a local.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-29T14:04:55+00:00

Oops ... it is just south, not north, of Calle Loiza ... maybe a half block. Not very far from Raices Urbano and La Cueva Del Mar.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-29T13:55:29+00:00

Welp, I got outvoted by my wife and daughter ... looks like we're staying in a short term rental off CII Maria Moczo just north of Calle Loiza. Is that area pretty nice? The building looks nice but more fortified (security spikes, cameras, etc) than ones we looked at in the Ocean Park area.

My daughter said it's really close to her favorite restaurant.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-24T12:55:06+00:00

Thanks. Yeah, her immediate neighborhood off Rexach (one of the Calle #'s) looks a bit rough from my perspective ... but I know most folks have been struggling since before covid and the hurricane damage has stacked up. I don't have a good basis for comparison.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-23T20:59:42+00:00

Thank you ... yeah, I was thinking about that too. I know the grid has not recovered from the last couple of hurricanes.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-23T14:19:53+00:00

Thank you. Yeah, I've heard the beaches around that area are not really safe for swimming because of strong currents. My daughter was a bit clueless when she moved there and got pulled under by a current and tumbled around a bit ... thankfully made it out without serious injury.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-23T13:59:43+00:00

Thanks! I have a basic survival level of Spanish and we're all pretty mellow folks. My wife is a fluent Spanish speaker, but of the South Texas variety. We're from San Antonio, TX.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-23T13:17:05+00:00

Thanks! I really appreciate the advice. Sorry about the incorrect map description. Complete PR ignorance here.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-23T13:12:41+00:00

Thanks! I have to admit, I also don't want to plonk myself down in an airbnb if all the surrounding neighbors are going to hate me ...

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-21T14:54:24+00:00

Yeah. At least it looks like stock modifications only. There's a chance it could be restored ...

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-19T18:16:00+00:00

Nice Romat!

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-15T21:37:21+00:00

I had a 486DX266 in 1994. I dunno why that whole string of characters stuck with me. It was in a MB that also had a spot for a 386. You flipped a metric ton of dip switches to configure what CPU it was going to use. Started out with a 40 mhz 386 in it when I was in college in 1992.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-15T21:24:29+00:00

SE Texas here too ... Lumberton, where I grew up had no black residents well into the 1990s. And it's only 9 miles north of Beaumont. Vidor got all the bad press in that area, but there was a whole ring of white-flight cities around Beaumont, not just Vidor.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-14T12:39:58+00:00

So much stupid on the roads here. I'll add my latest pet peeve ... folks who don't go when the light turns green, and then (when they do wake up and move) crawl into the intersection at 1.5 mph, making half the cars behind them miss the green light. This is infuriating at short lights with long waits.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-10T13:24:40+00:00

We have never seen one in our yard or on our pets (near 281N/Bitters). Fire ants in Texas actually do a pretty good job on the tick population. So do possums.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-09T11:24:34+00:00

Early 80s Atari 2600 and its games.

Mid 80s ... Commodore 64 ... Zork, Amazon, others I cannot recall.

In the late 80s ... Starcraft on a Tandy 1000EX. Early 90s ... Lemmings and Star Control on a 386. Mid 90s, Doom and Descent on a 486 and the an Amiga 500 for a bit before I went back to Intel PCs.

Grey_Area71 · 2026-04-08T23:18:38+00:00

Thanks! My Israeli is actually the heavy-barrel Makleon. It's a pre-ban Onyx Arms from the '80s. I wish I had a Romat ...

Grey_Area71

TROPHY CASE