Waving to you from near your much loved Turkey Shop. I'm catching up on old threads and saw your post. Today I protested my assessed value with much success. For some reason MCAD decided my house was worth about 18% more than the larger homes around me. It was practically painless -- they agreed with me, and one hour in their office will save me about $500 this year. With the new reductions on top of that I'm doing the happy dance.
Well, hello! I was having a "McLynnan" moment just the past two days, as a matter of fact.
Two things: a Grand Ole Opry star died and I had never heard of him, at least his name and songs didn't ring a bell, which surprised me. He was Billy Walker and one of his "famous" songs was "Cross the Brazos at Waco." Do you know or have you heard it? I can't place it at all.
Second thing was about horses, as I have become captivated with thoroughbred Barbaro's recovery process from his Preakness accident.
I'm not a horse person, but had tried through the years to follow some of the quarter horse events in the SW because my g'daddy had had an interest in some horses that raced in Ruidoso, a long time ago.
When I googled to see if I remembered the winner of last year's All-American Futurity, I ran across a horse who won the 1st two points of the Ruidoso Triple Crown for 2-year-olds, but finished 5th in the All-American. The article was touting him ("Leading Spirit") for the New Mexico derbies this year.
Anyway, he is out of West, Texas, which is what caught my eye. The owner is - former Texas A&M chancellor, Barry Thompson - Thompson Ranch. I probably wouldn't have guessed that. There just aren't that many people in West!
Thompson's partner had the same kind of unusual last name of an oilman I knew *of* in OKC who was famous for having been kidnapped - ransomed and returned unharmed, too - back in the 1930s by George "Machine Gun" Kelly. That got me curious and I got "lost in the Thirties tonight" last night!
Glad to see you and glad you got a reprieve on those property taxes! It *does* work. Say hello to the people in Willie's birthplace town of Abbott for me, lol.