Bay Area Houston

If you like crawfish there are a number of places to eat and eat all you can eat. As always remember that when eating crawfish wash your hands BEFORE you go to the bathroom. Here are the best opportunities:

Carlos Beer Garden. All you can eat (AYCE) on Thursdays and Saturdays 6PM-9PM. $30. Carlos Beer Garden has been around since 1978. Great garage bar. Always a fun place to hang outside, grab a beer (or more) and enjoy a burger. Crawfish crowds usually are big so you might want to get your tickets early.

Floyd’s Seafood. 5 lbs for $25. It’s been my experience the crawfish are on the larger side. Call to verify. Locations are in Webster and Pearland.

Barge 295. The old “Turtle Club”. Happy Hour 2-6PM Monday-Thursday 5 lbs for $24.95, 3 lbs for $16.96 1 lbs for $5.95. AYCE for $29.95 on Tuesday from 5-9PM. Great place on a floating dock on the lake in Seabrook.

Cabo Clear Lake. Sunday special. 8 lbs for $38 1 lbs for $7.99. Another place on the lake. I haven’t been there yet but my neighbors love the place!

Bo-Shay’s Cajun Smokehouse in Baycliff. Sundays 5 Lbs for $24.95. I have not been there. They have a big variety of menu options.

There are other places in the area but the prices above are the best! I’ll update as other locations start bringing their prices down.

OMG how much can AT&T suck?

Background
I was with AT&T when they were called Houston Cellular with the flip phones, then Southwestern Bell, then finally AT&T. That was decades of loyalty. That ended last year when I moved to T-Mobile and although there are a few hiccups, I haven’t been happier.

I had Uverse TV, AT&T Internet (only 50mps) and 4 cell phones with unlimited text, data, and calls. I now have T-Mobile Cell service with unlimited texts, calls, and data. T-Mobile paid off the balance of my phones. I have T-Mobile 5G Home Internet which is at 300 mps and I have YouTube TV. T-Mobile pays for my Netflix and gave me Paramount+ and Apple TV for a year.

Comparing Costs
With AT&T my TV and Internet service was just fine. It did everything I expected it to do which is connect to the Internet for email and browsing and let me stream movies. Cell phone coverage was fine and pretty much free from problems. For all of this I was paying $420/month.

After I switched to T-Mobile and YouTube TV I am now paying $260. $177 for T-Mobile Cell and Internet and $83 for YouTube which includes $14 for HBOMax. Total savings of $160/month.

Comparing Customer Service
What is the difference? Customer service. When I call T-Mobile a person answers in about 2 minutes, takes my info, then forwards the info to someone who will solve my problem. They are local to Atlanta, Georgia and have been excellent the few times I needed them. With AT&T I once was on hold for over 3 hours and then they hung up on me, multiple times. This wasn’t a one time event, it was multiple times. It was the most frustrating, cussing, yelling experiences I ever had in my life. T-Mobile is just so much better.

Comparing Service
T-Mobile has its issues as did AT&T. My service in Blanco Texas when I have a cabin is spotty, but adequate. There are a couple of dead zones in the area although I haven’t really noticed much. Internet service is much faster than AT&T and less expensive. YouTube TV provides all the channels I need, in fact way to many and even with the additional services of Netflix (paid for the T-Mobile) and HBOMax it is still very inexpensive. The user interface needs to improve but I am happy with them. I no longer have to rent AT&T equipment and handle an extra remote. YouTube TV requires only the TV remote and it syncs with my surround sound system automatically.

Bottom Line
The bottom line is that I am saving $160 and I am getting better service and better customer service. What can possibly go wrong?

Last year I bought 8 boxes of contact lenses for about $110.00. They lasted me two years since I only use one lens in the right eye. This year I was pricing the cost of 8 boxes of Acuvue for Astigmatism. The cost is now over $200. Most of the online companies advertise a low price of about $110.00 for 8 boxes plus another $160 for “insurance, fees, and/or processing”. It’s hard to imagine what kind of fees and insurance cost more than the actual price of the lenses but that is where we are.

Here is a list of companies and their prices. Some actually fold in their fees into the cost.