The Show was held at the Studio Movie Grill at Town and Country Center in West Houston and the well attended crowd enjoyed all of the musicians in attendance that evening.  Here are a few shots from the night:

Frank McComb during sound check earlier in the evening

KPVU 91.3 FM DJ and Program Host Jeff Kelley

Some shots of the Opening act – this was a GREAT band!

Frank McComb’s opening set

Houston’s own Kyle Turner stopped by and joined in:

I didn’t do that and I have ended up paying “stupid tax” so I hope by sharing my story, you don’t make the same mistake.

I checked  several dealerships in the city and ended up going to Standard Auto Sales in Northwest Houston off Hwy 290 between Jones Rd and West Rd and the following is only my opinion based on my experiences with this company.  I called after driving by and seeing their sign advertising cars for $495 down which sounded too good to be true.  after going by and speaking to one of their salesmen, I discovered that the majority of the cars are between 7-10 years old or older (I ended up with a 1998 Nissan Altima, which was one of the better vehicles on the lot.

I took the car to a separate mechanic to get it checked out and found a host of issues.  I gave them the list and they attempted to fix them but there were still problems.  I paid a down payment of $750 and they allowed me to split the TTL into two separate payment of $330 each and then my monthly payment is $325 a month for 29 months (yeah, i know).  Well, after not getting my license plate in time after the temp tag expired, i called and inquired and no one knew where my tags and plates where, which led me to believe that they were not processed in time and they didn’t have them.  so I was then told to bring my car in so they could “check it out”.  “I thought you already fixed the issues”  I asked.  Well they just wanted to be sure, which I think was a stall tactic so they could get my plates.

they gave me a “loaner car” with bad brakes and that needed an alignment so I couldn’t drive it too far without risking an accident so I had to wait two days to get my car back.  Once I get the car back, less than 48 hours later, my transmission starts to leak…and leak bad (remember they were supposed to be checking it out?).  So I had to take it to the shop – NO WAY was I taking it back to them!  Turns out there were some cooling hoses that needed to be replaced so i had the transmission serviced while i was at it.  Of course, Standard Auto Sales took no responsibility for the problem because it wasn’t leaking when they had it….yeah, right.

By my own admission, I thought my payment was due on the 15th of the month, but it was due on the 30th, so at the date of this blog post, my payment was late.  As part of the application process, they get SEVERAL phone numbers from you and now I know why.  Some guy called and claims he called me four times which he did not because I only had one call on one cell phone and another call on the other and chances are that they called my work phone, but i was out of town taking care of family and didn’t take either phone so I saw the missed calls and got both voicemails.  While listening to one voicemail, they called on the other cell and I answered.  The guy who spoke to me (I don’t even remember his name and don’t care) was extremely rude and talked to me like I was some type of deadbeat.  Yes I know I am late, but only 10 days late, not 4 months late.  As he disrespected me, I got angry and disrespected him as well so it was not a good experience for either of us, but i was not going to be intimidated.

Long story short, if you need a vehicle, PLEASE do not do what I did.  Save your money and get a cash car and take it to a good mechanic and keep it running until you can get something better.  If you choose to go to a dealer and finance a car – DO NOT GO TO STANDARD AUTO SALES!  Just because people have bad credit, it does not give anyone the right to treat them with disrespect as though they are second class citizens because most of us will get better with our finances and improve ourselves.

If you are reading this and did a Google search or used another search engine (Yahoo, Bing, etc.) for Heater repair, or furnace repair, or AC repair in Houston, Texas. Or if you did a search for Houston Admiral (which is what I should have done before calling them), I am sharing a very bad experience that happened to me because of this company. While you may not get the same treatment, I would advise you to be more careful in your choice of someone to make repairs on your home. As a business owner myself, customer service and integrity are very important to me. It is equally important when I am on the client side of things. When I am selling my photography services, I express to my clients how my service is worth what they are paying so that they see that they are getting a good value for their investment. I expect the same from the places I spend my money on. Unfortunately, that did not happen when I got ready to get my home furnace repaired during the recent cold snap in Houston.

As my grandmother used to say, “Always follow your first mind”, and that is what I should have done. My downstairs heater unit went out and I placed a call to Sears home repair and scheduled them to come out on a Monday, but, not wanting to wait, I looked for another company and while driving to a photo shoot, I saw the truck for Houston Admiral and decided to call them. They were able to come out the same day and their service charge was the same as Sears, so I thought, why not?

After looking at my unit, it was determined that a circuit board needed replacing (the furnace unit in is the attic and I suffered damage from Hurricane Ike last year, so I knew it was going to need repair and that God, I was covered by State Farm insurance. I was given the cost (over $1300.00) and when I was about to decline and get a second opinion (which I should have done), the Technician told me, “you can give us a check and we’ll just hold it until your insurance pays”. In my gut, I knew something was wrong with that, but I did it anyway. He took the check and wrote on the envelop, “hold until contacted by customer” and the part was repaired.

Fast forward three days and I go to get gas and my debit card is not working. I check my bank balance and discover that I am $800 overdrawn and further discover that they cashed the check!!! I contact them and let them know what I was told and Roy, the office manager tells me that he is going to take care of it by giving me a check to make up the difference. I call back the next day, and the day after that, and the day after that, and… (You get the idea) and each time someone was supposed to call me back.

By the time I reach someone (no, no one called me back), I am told there is nothing that they can do because the Technician should not have told me that and they changed their policy after this happened to me (basically, they were only helpful until they were sure they got their money then it was screw the customer). I tried reasoning with Roy and explaining that this was not the way to treat a customer, but without taking it any further, he told me again that there was nothing he could do. After State Farm paid on the claim and I deposited the check from them, I recovered most of my money except for the NSF fees of over $200.

Since they did not offer to help me and basically lied to me and strung me along, I let them know that as an unsatisfied customer, I would let others know not to use them and would not be referring them to anyone that needed heater or AC repair. Since I also work for a very large homebuilder, D. R. Horton, Inc., I also let them know so that is they tried to submit any bids for work; they would be rejected because if they cannot take care of one small customer, how they can take care of a major business.

In this economy, it’s sad when a business places more importance on money over the customer not realizing that if they take care of the customer properly, the money will come.

Special catered functions are held in Cohen House in the area described above, on weekday evenings (Monday through Friday), Saturday during the day, and Saturday evening. Receptions, open houses, and cocktail parties are often held for 50 to 350 people with an hors d’oeuvres/cocktail buffet, and seated-served luncheons and dinners for 40 to 225 people. Cohen House is the general caterer, directed by Manager Ann Swain, with a professional kitchen staff led by Chef Cari Clark. Fully licensed, the Cohen House will provide most any combination of beverage service desired.
For further information, please contact Office Manager, Frances Zientek at (713)348-4000 or by e-mail: club@ruf.rice.edu

I had the pleasure of shooting a wedding at this location this year and here are a few shot so you can get an idea of the layout and what they offer

The can accommodate up to 350 people:

there is an elevated dance floor with plenty of room for a band or DJ

Fast forward a few weeks and I come to check on the progress of my upstairs area and notice that a water hose (not mine) is going through the hole in the fence and my neighbor is watering HIS yard with MY water!!!

After calming down, I confronted him and once we got past the language barrier (he spoke Spanish and acted like he couldn’t speak English – yeah, right).  I was tempted to take him the bill, but I figured it wasn’t worth it, but just to be on the safe side, i took pics of him on my property.

It’s kind of sad that in this day you have to watch your neighbors rather than your neighbors watching out for you…

My neighbor disconnecting his water hose from my faucet

The planks missing from the fence that he stepped through to help himself to my water…

from the University of Houston Cougars vs.. Texas Tech Red Raiders

My Favorite shot of the night!!

I just love this shot – reminds me of a Mother’s Day Hallmark card