CHRISTMAS IN RUIDOSO

We had a great Christmas because we had three children,

ages 8,5, and 1 to share the time. Jim and his wife, Mandi, invited her mother Nancy and me to be with them in a great home they rented in Ruidoso. The home was owned by Smiths from Norman, OK. It had two stories and located on the side of a mountain. Nancy gave me BROKE by Glenn Beck and I spent most of my time reading the book. The Wilcoxs went skiing. First time for Mandi, Chris and Brent. Chris snowboarded but Brent and Mandi learned to ski. Jim was an old hand and helped everyone.

On Christmas Eve Jim put up a tree and the boys helped decorate it. It had to have Jim's electric train running under the tree. Chris used the Christmas packages to make tunnels for the train. There was a wood stove in the living room and I helped the boys get a fire going the first night.

On Chrismas day we enjoyed the children with all of their Santa gifts and later opening all of the exchange gifts. I was amazed by the XBox games that the boys got with a Kinetic controller that uses laser beams to recognize the boys as they stood in front of the big TV and interact with the screen characters. What they won't think of next!

Faith at one year old was a charmer. She was everywhere and loved to open her packages. She has a cell phone and was talking up a storm, but I couldn't understand a word. On Christmas Day we went to the Inn of the Mountain Gods with a Hotel, Casino and buffet restaurant run by Mescalero Apaches. I was surprised that the menu included Chinese food under the label of Chow Chow. We stuffed ourselves. Jim took the kids back to the house while we visited the casino where Nancy and I each lost $5 but Mandi ended up making $60.

I opened my gifts and was surprised to get a LM shirt and a Kindle from Mark and Kathy. I have always been interested in ebooks and now I have a reader. It came with Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. I couldn't connect to the internet until I got home but it worked with my router at the house. On the way home on Monday we read our devotionals in the car on the way to Post. We stopped at George's restaurant in Post. We stopped for gas in Synder and from there I read the autobiography to Nancy all the way to Halsell Hill which made the drive a lot shorter.

The morning we left we saw our first wild life. As I started the car to get the frost off a mule deer was just across the street. Then as we went out to leave a huge elk with enormous antlers flopped down on the driveway of the house across the street. I will try to post my photo of him.

IKE CELEBRATES 88 YEARS

Yesterday was Ike Neal's 88th birthday but we celebrated today with a cake brought by Sue and a meal prepared by Nancy. We invited all of our families but the only ones who could make it were Sue's number one son Al and his wife Jeannine. Originally Nancy's son John was coming but he had to cancel. Nancy made chicken cacciatore, German green beans, macaroni and cheese and cranberry salad. We had great chocolate birthday cake with whipped cream.

(The other photos are of the decorations in the living room.)

After a discussion of church's beliefs (Al is pastor of a Cowboy church in Cross Plains) Al regaled us with stories of his getting married to a Turkish woman and her brother's taking Al out into the night life of Istanbul riding in a closed car with friends smoking hashish. Turks like to fight and he saw a lot of it with his new family. He met her in Germany but they went back to her home to get married. I didn't ask if it was an Islamic wedding. He also told about driving his truck of produce into Montreal where they speak French. He was late and the vendor spoke to him in French. He replied in German so they agreed to communicate in English. He hated going into Canada because the highway signs were all in French. We always enjoy hearing Al's truck driving stories. He also told about one trip hauling cattle across the Mexico border and was hassled by the US guards coming back into the country. He says he won't go across either border anymore. This week he made a trip to Nebraska. Said they had some ice but none of the snow we have been seeing on TV.

We are looking forward to Sunday School tomorrow.

CHRISTMAS PARTIES KIWANIS AND SUNDAY SCHOOL

I am behind posting to the blog. December 3 was the annual Kiwanis Christmas party for Cross Plains. The weather was perfect and in spite of my lack of preparation the event went off very well in my opinion. All of the Kiwanians pitched in and made it work. We serve a stew supper with cornbread for $4 that with donations made more money than the cost of what we give away. We make photos of children with Santa that we give to each child with a bag of candy. We gave away 12 large frozen turkeys, 10 gifts of $20 in a drawing. This year we had to pay for a new printer for the photos and we covered everything with some left over to help other children projects.

The next day I got up and left early to get to a Kiwanis clinic held at the 4-H Center at Lake Brownwood. Our Lt. Gov. owes me one hour. He said the meeting would be 9 - 3:30. I got there at 8:40 and only he was there. I asked where everyone was and he tells me the meeting was at 10 but he said 9 to get us there early. I apparently was the only one with that message. I used the time to make a phone call to Ken Davis. He is at home but using a walker. He was in the hospital for several weeks. I enjoyed meeting other Kiwanians from Abilene, Comanche, Coleman, San Angelo, Breckenridge, Granbury and even one from Oklahoma City. I touted Cross Plains Robert E. Howard and the best small Library in the US. Told them that we would have an international rocket launching contest next year also.

After Sunday School class we held our annual SS Christmas party at my house. Nancy made all of the food and hor'd'oevrs. Members brought desserts with Russ Miller bringing sweet potato pie from potatoes he had grown and pie he had made. Nancy started with armidillo eggs, bacon wrapped artichoke hearts, wonton wraps filled with refried beans and cheese called Mexican Hat cups with lots of dips and chips. I lighted about 20 candles to brighten up the room. We had chairs and tables for everyone to eat the ham and potato casserole, green beans and cranberry salad and then the many desserts.

Jane Bonner had prepared an exchange of the gifts where we all stood in a circle and passed them from right to left as the story used the words right and left. It was a lot of fun that we all enjoyed. I gave my 25cent tours of the house for most of the attendees had never visited me before.

Thursday I met with Mark for lunch before meeting with the doctor that performed my colonoscopy. Mark had gotten up at 1 a.m. due to his work at Lockheed. And that night he and Kathy were hosting the monthly dinner for the parents of patients at Cook Children Hospital where they have served as volunteers for many years. I met with the doctor and she explained how I should eat a lot of fiber, which I do. She listened to my heart and lungs and told me that I was in better health than she was.

I admit that when I ate with Mark I have started having a problem with my right hand being a little shaky the last couple of weeks. I thought it was just stress and it may be, but it is aggravating to have to hold my right hand with my left to get a spoonful of liquid to my mouth. But what do you expect at my age?

Tonight I called Faith Wilcox to wish her a Happy Birthday. One year ago she was born while I was having my first date with Nancy. We will be with them in Ruidoso for Christmas, the Lord willing.

DECEMBER IS HERE!

I finally finished reading Elmer Kelton's last novel. A good finish to his set of stories about the early days of the Texas Rangers. Unlike so many authors he doesn't have his Rangers pursue some of the famous outlaws of the day. He has them tackle the many problems related to feuds between land owners that lingered from the Civil War. He brought in a new Ranger that was from the old school of shoot first and ask questions later. He has a little romance but that was always hard for Elmer to write about.

Nancy and I are involved in getting ready for December events. This Friday is the Kiwanis Christmas event held every year for Cross Plains. We serve a stew supper to raise a little money to pay for the gifts that are given to the community. Each child gets a free photo of their visit with Santa. We give away 12 frozen turkeys and four cash gifts. We have a program of Christmas music to start the season.

Then Tuesday night Nancy and I are hosting my Sunday School class. Nancy is preparing all the food except for desserts that others are bringing. We decorated the artificial Christmas tree I bought at the Lord's Acre and Nancy has brought out all the other Christmas decorations and tables. The piano has a creche on it with figures from her collection. We moved the painting of the cowboy riding the fence line from the bedroom to over the fireplace. It now matches the painting over the piano of the young woman out in the field in a western scene. And Mary Barton's painting looks good over the bed. We are looking forward to having a large crowd for the party.

Nancy has also asked her children and mine along with Ike and Sue, Al and Jeannine to come for a meal December 18. Her son John and his wife Carol is coming but Vicky says she can't make it and haven't heard from her other son, Ernie. Don't know what the weather will be by then. So far it has been great.

GOOD NEWS HIPS AND REDBIRDS

Wednesday Nancy had her six weeks checkup a week late and her hip replacement surgeon said she can now bend 90 degrees and since then she has been picking things up off the floor and feeling good. He wrote a prescription for physical therapy. She talked me into getting a membership in the Fitness center and while she had her first meeting with the therapist I tried out several machines to work on my upper arm and abdomen. Nancy reports that she is feeling a lot better after doing the exercises since then.

We came back to Halsell Hill for this Thanksgiving week and I had been feeling bad that all of my song birds in the back yard were gone. I have always had cardinals since I have been here and the last month they have been gone but this morning while we were eating breakfast I saw one young cardinal. There are also a few chickadees and tit mouse but they have quit coming to the feeders on the house eves. I wonder if a blue darter has been hanging around and killing them. There are a few feathers in the yard.

We had a good Sunday School this morning with visitors from California, Diana Miller's parents, and a new visitor who it turns out is a new Cottonwood resident. She and her husband retired about six weeks ago from the USAF in San Antonio and are building a home on a place they bought four years ago. We are growing a new community of newcomers who have followed that pattern. Seems like half of our church members have come in the last five years in the same way. Retired people coming both from the cities and from careers in West Texas and New Mexico.

We looked at the first 9 chapters of 2 Chronicles that describe the 40 years of Solomon's reign. He asked for wisdom and knowledge and was given that plus enormous wealth. He built the Temple of the name of the Lord and also built a huge palace for himself and his wife who was the Pharoah's daughter. We will learn how his son messed up next week.

Nancy is decorating the house for Christmas including the Christmas tree I bought at the Lord's Acre. Lydia helped me bring the heavy metal core tree in and set it up. She replaced the limbs that had been pulled out taking it through the doors of the church and my front door. We have brought in decorations from the garage and from her house. We are preparing for having the SS class come for the annual Christmas party Dec. 7. Nancy has prepared a menu for all of the food and when the class members asked what they could bring she said desserts. I need to send the directions for getting here.

CATCHING UP

Nancy is healing rapidly and decided to come to Halsell Hill for this weekend. We came home Thursday afternoon and stopped to eat lunch at New York Hill where we first met eleven months ago. Friday we made a trip to Abilene to restock my fridge. We ate lunch at Cypress Street restaurant and then visited Texas Star where I bought Elmer Kelton's last book. I had a recall notice on my Avalon in the mail. I called to schedule a repair but their computer was not working and was promised that they would call me, but haven't heard from them.

Sunday I taught Sunday School where we read the Chronicles version of David bringing the ark to Jerusalem and his wife watching him dancing in front of the parade and didn't approve. Then we read about Satan leading David to ask for a census that was abhorrent to God. And the punishment was pretty bad. We are moving right along in our study. I also had to substitute as Worship Leader and helped serve communion.

I have been disappointed with my wildlife. I think while I spent all week helping Nancy my song birds decided I wasn't taking care of them. Although there was plenty of food, there was no water in the bird baths. I have always had lots of cardinals in the back yard until now and there are none. Today we saw a few chickadees, tit mouse and a goldfinch. Maybe they will come back but they aren't eating the bird feed in the feeders like they have for years. The deer are not coming in. I blame that on the hunting ranches on both sides of me providing a lot more feed although I have fed all year long. We did see a doe cross the road near the Halsell House Sunday morning when we went to church. But they haven't come up to the house like they used to. I have seen no turkeys and no swallows. The hummingbirds are gone and I have taken down their feeders.

This morning I went to the Library board meeting. Tomorrow I will get back to my job as president of Kiwanis and then we will go back to Nancy's.

CATCHING UP

I got an email wondering whet happened to my blogging and didn't realize I hadn't posted since Oct. 9. I have posted a report on the Rodenberger tombstone to Lou's blog and posted photos on that blog today to show the tombstone in place. I also sent copies of the photos to people at TWU to let them know that she was recognized as a regent and had a TWU plaque in place. Her father's stone has a Methodist circuit rider plaque and we thought Lou should have a plaque also.

I want to thank Sue for being there doing the installation because I was in Granbury taking care of Nancy last week. Kathy and Keith came in this weekend and while Keith was sharpening the blades on the Deere mower, Kathy and I went to look at the tombstone. I will also post a photo here.

Nancy is recovering well from her hip surgery. The doctor keeps her on coumadin for four weeks to insure that blood clots don't form. She will be through with that this week. She will be able to ride in the car soon and we will get back to Halsell Hill soon and I can get back to Kiwanis. I have been home every weekend because Nancy's children take care of her and have taught SS except for the surgery weekend when I ended up in the hospital and had my colonoscopy on Sunday Oct. 3. I am healing from my fall and pulling the ligament in the my left leg.

WALKING WEEKEND

I left Nancy with her granddaughter this weekend and came home to 10 days of mail and bills. Took me a while to sort through all the stuff. I went upstairs and worked on paying bills. I got the plumber to come install the new kitchen faucet and instant hot water dispenser. I used it for my tea this morning. I ran to town just before 5 to cash my LW check and pay some bills. I saw the rotating barber pole and stopped to get my hair and beard trimmed before Ray went home. It was one of the first times I have stopped when there was no body else in the shop. Ray is having a tough time since his wife died and said he is having a problem eating trash food all the time.

Kathy and Val came last night. Val got on my computer and mapped out a four mile run up FM 2228 to practice for the marathon she is working on. We visited and turned on the attic fan to cool the house down. This morning Val took off running and Kathy followed and walked back with her. I walked over 2 miles up past Spring Mesa gate. I got back to the house just before our visitor from TWU who is working on Lou's paper for her research project. We had lunch together and after a nap Kathy and Val went with me to the Cross Plains community Cancer Walk. I walked with the American Legion group wearing my vest and cap for the first time. We bought memorials to Lou and came home so I could work on my SS lesson for tomorrow. We did watch the first half of the A&M Arkansas game before we went to town.

STUMBLEBUM

Tuesday I went to Walmart to buy some Zicam for the cold I caught plus some groceries. I had a couple of bags in my hand and was walking too fast, didn't see the sidewalk step-off and fell flat on my face. My felt hat helped cushion the blow but my face hit the pavement so that my glasses cut my nose and my sunglasses hit the pavement and popped one of the lens out. Several people came over to help me up and told me my nose was bleeding. I felt like a dummy, got up and got to the car where I looked at my nose in the mirror and there was a slight cut. I used a tissue to clean the little blood and drove back to the house. There Vicky used her football trainer skills to clean up the blood, put a small bandage on my eye, bandaged my knee that wasn't bleeding but was scraped.

This morning in the beautiful weather I walked for 30 minutes up and down the road to the highway. I counted my steps to calculate the distance. Using my military pace of 5 feet every time my right foot hit, I counted 132 so I can calculate the distance. I can walk to the road and back in 5 minutes. I walked again tonight before supper for about 20 minutes. Then being a true stumblebum I tried to help close the recliner Nancy was using and used my left leg that cramped like the Devil. Vicky got me a couple of Alleves and it was all right after a supper of sweet and sour pork that Vicky made. Nancy directed me to make a lemon pudding with fruit salad to put over the cake that Yvonne brought yesterday and was beginning to dry out.

I am sure that a good night's sleep will make everything well. The Zicam is working for removing the cold symptoms. I should be healthy for going home for the weekend so I can teach SS.

ONE TO GO

I had the colonoscopy this morning and finally got released from the hospital even though one doctor wanted to keep me because of my creatin score. I explained to her that I have had that number for 12 years but she insisted I talk to my family doctor and then released me after 6. Nancy missed her time to be released and will come home tomorrow. She is under the prayer quilt that the Methodist church gave her several weeks ago and the prayers have been answered. She sent it down for me to use before I went for the colonoscopy and it worked for me. Prayers are amazing!

TWO IN HOSPITAL

I came to Granbury to be with Nancy through her hip joint replacement surgery. She is doing great. Today she walked again on her new leg and then got a good day's sleep after they kept waking her last night.

What we never expected was for me to go down to the ER and am now in a room one floor down from Nancy. Yesterday I woke up early and when I took my morning sit on the pot I found blood in the stool. I ate breakfast, washed dishes and took my computer to the hospital to stay with Nancy. Her son John came in. When Nancy's lunch came she sent us to the cafeteria to eat lunch. After lunch I again went to the pot and passed a lot of blood and what looked like clots. I considered driving to Abilene to my doctor and hospital but Nancy and John convinced me that I would be better off going to the ER here and checking myself in. After a lot of conversation with the doctors about my situation I came to the conclusion that my normal routine of straining to have a BM may have ruptured a little spot. They suggested that I needed a colostomy that I had told my doctor just Monday a week ago during my annual checkup I wouldn't have until I saw blood in my stool. I had never had any before. Now that I have seen some I have agreed to one because they can schedule it tomorrow and I can go back with Nancy to her house and help take care of her starting next week. Her daughter Vicky had planned to work from Granbury next week to be with her mother during the first worse week of healing. She has offered to help get my car back to Granbury and use her mother's van to get her home. She will go home either tomorrow or Monday. I am guessing she and I both will go home tomorrow.

Today John brought Nancy down to my room in a wheelchair to see me. Then this afternoon Vicky brought me some causual clothes to replace the open back hospital gown and I got to go up to Nancy's room and visit her. The hospital required that I ride in a wheel chair but I went. I walked from the door of the room.

Right now I am taking the required two liters of MoviPrep that is moving my system to prep it for the colonoscopy tomorrow. And I am chapped!

NANCY'S SURGERY

Today we got up at 3:30 to be at the hospital at 5:30 to be first in surgery. Nancy's son John and his wife Carol drove us in their van. Due to a goof they rescheduled her for 10 a.m. surgery and she was complete by noon. Her doctor said that she did as well as with her first hip surgery but had two anaesthesia procedures so she is still very groggy. Like last time she had some nausea problems. The nurse gave her a shot that took care of the nausea and made her very sleepy. Her daughter, Vicky drove me home and when we left at 7 she was sleeping.

We had a good relaxing day yesterday started with coffee and donuts with the Hightowers, did a little last minute shopping at Walmart and ate at an excellent chinese buffet, the China Cafe in Granbury. We got a good nap before checking our email. John and Carol came in from Oklahoma and hadn't eaten so we went to Montana's for a late night repast. Nancy and I split an appetizer to keep them company and got a good night's sleep. I got a new cell phone Tuesday and used it for the alarm clock. I think we both woke about every hour wondering if the alarm would work. It has been a long day but I feel pretty good.

Kathy called on my way home to tell me to turn on the TV to watch A&M play my alma mater, OSU. I am watching that as I try to review my email.

Thanks to everyone for their prayers for the successful surgery.

TRIP TO STRAWN

Friday we spent the morning visiting Nancy's doctor's office and the hospital to get ready for her hip replacement surgery September 30. We got finished about 11:45 and drove to Strawn, TX to eat at Mary's Cafe. I had heard about this legendary restaurant for years. A couple in our SS class ate there recently and we said we were going to see it. We got there about 1 and it was crowded. People were leaving and more coming in. We found a table way back in the building. The waitresses were very effecient and the menu was a lot more than I expected. I had always heard about their chicken-fried steaks and we ordered the small ones.

There were a lot of people eating a lot of food. Almost everyone did like us and took food home in a carry-out box. We drove through a heavy rain between Ranger and Eastland, but it was clear in Cisco where we bought some groceries.

Last night I woke about 4 a.m. and heard the rain falling. Then when we got up it was still raining. We had rain until 10 when I went to the mail box. My electronic gauge said 2 inches but my large rain gauge had 2.5" in it. What made my day was the water was running through the creek. I have been waiting all year to see that.

We planned to mow today but I needed to spend the day working on the September Flame and finally got it printed this evening. Monday is the day to mow and the grass is growing due to all the rain.

FIVE DOLLAR BILL

I went to my barber Tuesday and told him I wanted my beard to look like the face on the five dollar bill. He took one out and looked at while he trimmed away my mustace and hair on my lower lip. So now I feel a lot better and my daughter will probably approve. I should look a little younger in her eyes. The down side was that this morning for the first time in three months I had to use my razor. Someone came into the barbershop and told me I needed to buy a black high hat. That may be going a little too far.

BEARD DISGUISE

After I posted the blog on my birthday I received a call from my #1 grandson, Jim, wishing me a happy birthday.

Sunday we decided to attend the First United Methodist Church in Granbury where my friend of 52 years, Chuck Herndon, is a member. After church I walked up to him and he had no idea who was behind the beard. His wife, Pat, did recognize me. I introduced them to Nancy. They are going on a mission trip for the church to New Mexico next week. They go every year. They invited us to the church hamburger dinner, but we had already decided to drive to New York Hill Restruant. Their special was a 12 oz rib eye like we had the day before in Salado. We split another one and added 10 grilled shrimp that we split. I am going to have to diet this week. My rain gauges had over 3 inches of rain in them. The lawn looks great.

Monday I went to the Library Board meeting to hear about one of our Cross Plains friends who had a seizure Saturday, but was in good shape Sunday and wanted to go back to work Monday. They did say she couldn't drive a car for 6 months. We also were told about a gift from the estate of one of our board members of a complete collection of Hummel figurines and plates. We will try to price them so that we can help the Library the most. If anyone is interested call the Library.

Monday afternoon we drove to Abilene where I signed the contract for the tombstone. We then shopped for a new kitchen faucet to replace the one that is dripping. Nancy had me add an instant hot water faucet like she has at Granbury so that she can get an instant cup of tea. Now all I have to do is get them installed. Lydia came to clean and cleaned out the stuff under the sink so that we can get it done.

Today I went to Kiwanis and the Sears repairman came to the house and cleaned out the plugged drain line so it ought to work for another 30 years. He also put a screw in the handle on the fridge in the Halsell House so every thing is cool. We drove back to Granbury this afternoon.

GREAT BIRTHDAY

Today has been a great birthday. I have spent the week in Granbury. Thursday Nancy and I were treated to lunch at the Fire Oak Grill in Weatherford by two people from UT-Arlington. Dr. Larry Chonko, who is a chair professor of Business Ethics, and Julie Brown who is a fund-raiser for UTA Business College met with us to explain the new course they are creating for Freshmen business students to introduce them to business planning and ethics in business. They will have the students divide into teams to prepare a business plan for some area that they have some knowledge about. They will present a written proposal that will be sent to business people to evaluate. The business consultants then will come to campus for an oral presentation and to evaluate the students work from a business perspective with their feedback. This is the type of program that I used at A&M for the capstone design course in Aero and the design courses I taught in graduate interdisciplinary classes. They want to recruit a couple of hundred business people to assist. They may even invite us after our meeting, or not.

We left from there to drive to Salado where Nancy had reserved a room for us to celebrate my birthday by having dinner today at the famous Stagecoach Inn. When we got there Thursday night we discovered that all of Bell County had suffered a devastating flash flood with Salado being especially hard hit. Over 65 homes were flooded and the hotel was full with persons escaping from the their homes. We drove across the river and saw the trees that had been uprooted and devastation all along the bank. However the little mermaid statue was still there but the park around it was gone. Water had gotten into the basement level of the Inn and knocked out their ice cream machine and some other equipment.

We spent the three days looking at the shops in Salado and buying very little, but Nancy bought me a map of Callahan County from a shop that had a lot of old maps. Then today she bought a picture frame to put it in. At the Stagecoach Inn for lunch we really enjoyed splitting a 12 oz. rib-eye steak capped by a chocolate pecan pie with a dip of ice cream with chocolate-cherry syrup with one candle burning in the middle of the pie. One great meal.

I got my usual birthday phone calls. First this morning Val called from College Station where she and Vanessa are going to use Kathy and Keith's football tickets for the game tonight. K and K are having the grand opening of a new location for Window World in Austin and couldn't make the game. Kathy called me and Mark called later after we got back to Granbury. This morning my brother Walt called from Marietta, GA. I told him about Nancy talking me into walking shorts and sandals. He said he had done that 5 years ago. I asked him if he had a beard like mine and he said no that he had shaved his head. I haven't gone that far yet. My bother Robert called both yesterday and today he called while I was driving. He was a highway engineer in charge of safety and when I told him I was driving he said he would call back later because he didn't want me to use my cell phone while driving. I got some nice email greetings and will probably have a bunch of cards since I haven't read my mail this week. We are planning to attend the Granbury Methodist Church tomorrow on our way back to CP.

I have losing another battle with raccoons here in Granbury. I bought a squirrel-proof bird feeder for Nancy's back yard and it has been knocked off of the holder three times now. Once they drug it back into the woods. I haven't seen the coon but know that the squirrels didn't do it. Nancy also has a fox in her back yard. It is more silver colored than the ones at my house. At home the other day I saw an unusual event when there were 5 hummingbirds all drinking together at the feeder in the back. Normally no more than one can feed. They must have been all family.

I am looking forward to seeing how much rain registered at home. Nancy had 4 inches Thursday morning and another inch when we got back today. I looked at the radar and it is raining south of Cross Plains tonight and may move my way. We will see.

I am also looking forward to hearing the stories from the five women in our church at CP who went to Glenn Beck's Honor Day celebration 8/28 in Washington. Three were in my SS class. Mark gave me Beck's latest book The Overton Window for my birthday and I finished it in Salado. It is a novel a lot like a Clancy novel but really scary because it could very possible considering the current events in our country. Like Beck says he hopes that it won't happen. He didn't say that God could change things but that is my only hope. I started another book that really looks good called Ultimate Proof of Creation. It explains how both evolutionists and creationists can look at the same scientific data and come to different conclusions due to their starting world views. I am looking forward to reading it.

SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS

I haven't posted lately because I wanted to have something weighty to report on and I have a fairly mundane life. But our SS class has been learning a lot about a major Bible figure. David started out by defeating Goliath and playing the harp for Saul and seemed to be the great warrior and musician. But after Saul died and David became King of Israel he developed more personal characteristics. Last week we learned that he fought the surrounding enemies and consolidated the empire, he sought out Jonathon's crippled son, brought him to the palace, restored all of Saul's land to him and took care of him and his son who would have a claim on the throne because of being Saul's grandson.

But then he looked down from his palace and saw Bathsheba taking a bath. Now we learned that David had his human nature. He took Bathsheba to bed, she got pregnant, he had her husband killed in battle, married Bathsheba and God was so angry he caused their baby son to die to punish David. But he was forgiven had another son by Bathsheba named Solomon. We are looking forward to learning more about this poet, singer and ruler.

CREATION EVIDENCE MUSEUM

Nancy and I found the Creation Evidence Museum on my GPS as a tourist site nearby and drove to Glen Rose on Wednesday. We found it and it is closed Sundays and Wednesdays. We went back Thursday morning to view the exhibits and listen to their video about the fossil discoveries that show man and dinosaurs living concurrently. They hypothesize that before the flood man and dinosaurs lived together and their tracks were fossilized in the Paluxy river.

One of their experiments that I heard about years ago was to build a hyperbaric chamber to simulate the conditions prior to the flood to see how the climate conditions affected growth of plants and animals. They had a small chamber that found that the higher oxygen and carbon dioxide and pressures did change the venom of copperhead snakes and lengthened the life of fruit flies. They are building a much larger chamber and want to simulate the magnetic field as well as atmosphere. They ran out of money to buy the large amount of copper wire they need to wrap the chamber that is long (I would guess 50'). They need at least another $250,000. I didn't see an agressive plan to raise the money. They didn't even take the names of visitors or ask for contributions. I did buy a new book GEOLOGY IN THE BIBLE by Billy R. Caldwell, Ph.D., a professional geologist from Fort Worth. Someone I would like to know better.

Nancy's second hip replacement surgery is scheduled for September 30 and we are doing doctor's appointments until then.

PEACHES AND RACOONS

My peaches are getting ripe and yesterday a racoon family with three little coons came looking for dinner. They checked the tree with small peaches but came down and went up the tree with the large freestone peaches. I went out and yelled and a couple ran away but two stayed in the branches. I got my walking stick and started a battle. They didn't want to jump out. I hit one hard enough that he fell out and ran off. The other one took a lot of blows and wouldn't fall, so I quit and presume he came down. I had picked three bags of peaches off of that tree a week ago and it is still loaded with large peaches.

Then this morning about noon I looked out and a lower branch had broken off of the tree. It was loaded with large peaches. I got a large brown bag out and picked all the good looking peaches off the limb leaving those with little flaws for the coons. I hauled the limb out to the woods.

I then picked a bag of the small peaches that were easily pulled off. I gave them to Jeff Ramsey who is repainting my front porch. He spent the morning rebuilding a complete section of railing that was dangerous. I have really appreciated him coming to help. He does all sort of handyman work and has offered to weed-eat for me. I need to mow at the Halsell House lawn but didn't get to it today.

Nancy is walking better every day and walked up the stairs to look at the painting on the upper porch this afternoon. She will meet with her doctor Wednesday to discuss the hip replacement for the other leg. It is the one that hurts now when she walks. I will be involved with the Kiwanis District Convention in Abilene Friday and Saturday and she will have her son visiting her from Kansas this weekend.

When we were in Granbury last week we visited the Granbury Live auditorium and got the listing of the events. We ate lunch across the street at the Nutery?. That was after I took Nancy to Carswell Air Base to obtain a new military dependent ID card that she had misplaced. They took her photo and produced a plastic card that is indefinite in time and her photo looks good. I asked if I could get an ID card as a veteran and found out that you have to have 20 years service to get one. So much for my service in WWII and the Korean scrape. Of course I didn't get overseas so I don't count. And I didn't spend that many years in service. I did buy a GI bill farm as a perk. Got me started in owning West Texas land.

CATARACT REMOVED/ BEARD PHOTO

I had the cataract removed on my left eye Monday morning. I had my daughter, Nancy and her daughter, Victoria all there to make sure I lived. The surgery went well and quickly. I had to go back to their new offices for a post-op look and instructions. By then we were all starving and went to IHOP for a brunch about 11.

I have been growing a beard for over three months after hearing that they wanted to celebrate Cross Plains Centennial next year with beards on the men. I have never, ever had a beard so thought this would be a good time to see whether I could grow one. I have had lots of comments, like "I hate beards" or "you look 90 years old" from my daughter. Nancy took this photo so you can decide.

CELEBRATING INDEPENDENCE DAY

When Nancy and I drive from Granbury to Halsell Hill we try to stop at New York Hill restaurant to celebrate our first meeting Dec. 6, 2009. So last Thursday as we came I took the opportunity to give her an engagement ring that she had picked out as appropriate for the occasion.

Nancy beams

In this next photo taken during the Rodenberger/Taylor reunion party I had to show Christopher's climbing capabilities. He can climb the walls. He climbs the trees our front as well. I missed taking photos of the watermelon spitting contest of Christopher, Brent and Jon-Marc.

Christopher climbs the wall.

We had a great time Saturday. From the Rodenberger's Robert and Tommie came from Antlers and spent the day before driving to their family reunion with their grandson, Cody in Vernon. The Wilcoxs were represented by Keith and Kathy and all of their children and grandchildren. Of course the latest addition, Faith, who is learning how to crawl was the main attraction. I have her with her Aunt Valerie and Uncle Jon-Marc.

The Taylors had Sue, Ike, Diana and Kent, Mandi and Doug Hodel representing Louann. And we all had a lot of Keith's BBQ plus salads, onion pie, and lots of desserts!

1963 DIARY

Last week Dawn Letson returned my 1963 Diary that had gotten into Lou's documents taken to TWU. I have been fascinated by reading it. I shared some of the pages with Nancy when I came in Sunday night. In the first two months I wrote about meetings with Bob Gilruth who was the NASA director during the Apollo flights and a frequent visitor to our department at A&M. We also had Johnson, the CEO of LTV speak at a meeting where I handled the Q&A. I made a trip to the IAS (Institute of Aeronautical Science that later joined with the American Rocket Society to become the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) in New York City at the Astor hotel. I ate at Jack Dempsey's restaurant and went with some friends to Greenwich Village and ate at O'Henry's and walked back to the hotel. I was a member of the Education committee chaired by Ray Bishplinghoff.

I came back and the next day Saturday Jan 26 President Rudder's house burned at noon. Later in the diary I tell about going to work for NASA in Houston, but the diary is very incomplete for the summer. I think I started keeping notes somewhere else but there are a few notations about my trips to North American Aviation in LA and Grumman in NY to discuss the meteroid protection for the LEM that was my assignment.

What also showed up in the diary was my teaching SS every Sunday and giving copies of The Bible and Modern Science to everyone I came in contact with. And I had used it as a study in the College SS class I was teaching. We changed the name of the class from Aggie to College and Career.

When I got home last week there was over an inch of rain in my rain gauge. My neighbors Mary and Pete Shulle said it was Thursday night when a hard rain brought lightning that splintered a large mesquite tree in their yard. When I left Sunday at 3 it was thundering and I watched rain in my rear view mirror as I drove to Granbury. I checked the storm total on the radar and we didn't get much but around Brownwood got a bunch. Today all day we watched clouds all around Granbury but no rain here. Rained heavy north of DFW and some in FW. Mark's plane back from Pakistan was delayed by weather and he was in Chicago waiting to come in tonight. We did see a rainbow in the northern sky as we drove back to Nancy's home.

FATHER'S DAY CELEBRATIONS

Yesterday was Father's Day and for the first time that I can remember I was not on the highway going to or from a professional meeting on Father's Day for the last 40 years. When I left Nancy's house Saturday morning her daughter, Victoria, handed me a Father's Day card and when I got my mail, I had a very fancy card from my oldest granddaughter,Valerie. My daughter, Kathy, called me from Canada. I was feted at Sunday church services with a gift of a bookmark given to each of the father's from the children during the Children's Sermon. I ate with our congregation at our monthly pot-luck dinner at church, got my nap and drove to Mark's house where I received gifts from Mark and Kathy and from Ashley and Ross. Two new short sleeve shirts from M&K. A Christian book to read and Lady Godiva dark chocolate candy bar from Ash & Ross. Then when I got to Nancy's house she had some weights and a pad for me to exercise on to build up my upper arms.

I have been helping Nancy and she is doing really well. This morning we drove to Firehouse Cafe to have breakfast with her old SS class in Granbury. Then bought some more water hose at Walmart.

In Sunday School we had Ruth last week and appreciated no blood and killings after Judges. Then yesterday we started I Samuel and learned about Samuel's birth and his mother, Hannah's prayer plus the sins of Eli's sons.

I am reading Sarah Palin's GOING ROGUE and Bob Favor's life story of all the weird characters that he had to arrest during his service as a Texas Ranger.

REMOVING STAPLES

I have been helping Nancy this week and she gets better every day. Today she went to have the staples removed and replaced with little bandaids on the long incision scar. Twenty eight metal staples were removed. The incision is looking good. She was able to walk in using her walker after her Physical Therapist came in a couple of days ago and found her walking without the walker and scolded her. She is now trying to walk 5 minuted each hour to strenghten her leg and it seems to be working.

After they took out the staples and took two X-rays we drove back to Acton to get her mail, and then she used her walker to eat at the Cotton Patch cafe in Granbury. We then spent a half hour getting a prescription from her eye doctor filled and got home just before the home care nurse came to check her blood. She had been out of range on blood thinness and finally today came back into normal so they won't have to come every day to check on her.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon in Fort Worth at the Annual Conference of the Methodist Church where my resolution on supporting creation science was debated and voted down. More information on that is in my creation blog. While I was gone, Nancy's granddaughter, the math teacher, who is out of school stayed with her and washed her hair.

I will return to Cross Plains to assist the Library during Robert E. Howard Days Friday and Saturday, teach Sunday School Sunday and make the Library board meeting Monday.

MEETING MYSELF COMING BACK

It has been a busy week. I helped Nancy through the week until Friday. Her son John came in from Oklahoma late Thursday night and Friday morning he took her to her eye doctor appointment in Weatherford. I took the opportunity to go home. I picked up the week's mail and had too much to read. I got dinged by the State because I apparently failed to file my business tax form. I owed nothing but got fined $110 for not filing. I thought I filed but couldn't find my receipt when I looked. Also my Internet satellite dish is weathered and didn't work. I spent most of the afternoon with a tech rep in Bangladesh testing the system and he finally agreed to send a technician. Friday night it worked fine. Saturday morning Mark and I looked at my dish and the lens cap that is plastic had a crack in it and looks really old. The technician called and said I needed to buy an upgrade that would replace all of the hardware on the dish and the modem that was last worked on in 2007. I got that scheduled for next Friday afternoon.

Saturday was clean out the Halsell House day for the new "tenants" if they show up Monday. I haven't heard from them. While Mark and Kathy moved their stuff to their storage building, I mowed the yard inside the fence with the Deere and mowed the outside with the Ford tractor. That took till after 11 and we went to CP to meet Ike and Sue at Subway for lunch. Mark and Kathy did a little more work at the HH and left about 2:30 so I got a nap until 4.

I was able to use my phone connection for a slow Internet to check email and do a little business. Friday night I attended the first lecture on creation/evolution sponsored by the Church of Christ in Rising Star. Dr. Brad Harrub had heard about the Stanford Research Institute paper that hypothesized that the speed of light is slowing down and was a lot faster in the past. I found my copies of the paper plus the second paper that they published that used their theory to argue that the times of the Bible could be correlated with their theory. I took copies of both papers to him Saturday night when he gave back-to-back lectures on evolution and fossils. He visited Mount St. Helens on the 30th anniversary of the eruption. Dr. Steve Austin is using it as a laboratory to show how catastrophic geology can produce grand canyons, coal and other artifacts that have been attributed to millions of years in the past. Using St. Helens he postulated that the Grand Canyon was not cut out by the Colorado river but by an equally catastrophic event like St. Helens in the matter of days. He showed photo slides of several artifacts made by humans that have been found in existing coal seams that according to evolutionary geology were attributed to the Carboniferous age millions of years before man evolved. He pounded all of the evolutionary "science" with many examples that posit a young earth age. He gave me a copy of his book. He is one of the publishers of a magazine dedicated to supporting a Biblical approach to education. When I got home I read my SS lesson and remembered that I hadn't written my newspaper column. I had to take it upstairs to use the phone Internet connection and finished at 11:11 p.m.

This morning my SS class completed Judges and are looking forward to Ruth because they didn't like the horrible stories of the last chapters of Judges. In addition to the battles with thousands of men killed we read of another homosexual attack on a traveler where women were offered to the men of the city in place of the man they wanted. This time one of the women died from the all night abuse and the man cut her body up to send a portion to each of the tribes of Israel to encourage them to take revenge on the city that attacked him. It was a bad story and the theme throughout was that there was no king over Israel and every man did as he pleased.

Church had a sermon on Christ resurrecting a young man of a widow when no one asked him to do so. He just took pity on the woman who lost her only son. We had a baby baptism, communion and then this afternoon the funeral for one of my SS members, Becky Odom. I drove to Granbury where Vicky has been taking care of Nancy. She made supper for us and I am getting fat.

I am trying to get a statement ready to support my resolution that will be voted on by the Annual Conference sometime this week. I have been asked to be there to speak in defense because the Church and Society committee recommended against it. I plan to show up Wednesday but knowing the AC they may have voted on it Tuesday. Because I am not a lay member this year I won't be in continual attendance. Nancy's granddaughter will stay with her Wednesday to let me try to make part of the meeting. We will see.

NANCY IS RECOVERING

She wouldn't let me post her photo in the hospital unless I posted a before photo to go with it.

She walked twice today, the second time further and felt better than the first. She still has a lot of pain due to the severe cutting for the operation. The wound is draining well and had very little today. She used both of the units of blood that she had donated for the operation and her blood is in good shape. She exercises with the trapeze on her bed.

ONE HIP DOWN ONE TO GO

Today Nancy had a successful hip replacement on her left hip. Had to get up at 4 to take a 20 minute shower, left at 5 for her 6 a.m. appointment with surgery started at 9:30. After post-op recovery she was placed in a really nice room at 3 p.m. She had a lot of pain med coming into the room but was lucid and told all the nurses in recovery about her family so they came in the room recognizing her son, John and daughter, Victoria and knew my name. We stayed with her until after she ate at 5 leaving her about 6:30 so she could get caught up on her sleep.

Her doctor was very positive about the surgery and she was not in a lot of pain when we left but had hit her morphine button a couple of times. She was sleepy.

We had a good time with my daughter, Kathy and her good friend Carol, this weekend at home. Kathy got to meet Vicky and her son Clifferd when they came out to pick up Nancy's car Saturday. They only had time to tour the house and visit a minute or two with Kathy before going back to Granbury. So I now have my car to use.

Nancy went to SS with me where we learned more that we wanted to know about early Judges including Gideon and his son who killed 70 of his brothers to take charge. One younger brother lived to challenge him. We attended church with two baptisms and four young people coming into the membership. Our graduating senior, Emma Bennett was honored with gifts. One was a prayer quilt that I got to tie a prayer knot for. Nancy made a hominy casserole for the pot luck dinner that went over well.

TWO DOLLAR SCAM

This morning in the mail I got a flyer from the Ford dealer in Eastland. I scratched off the place and was a winner. I called and they said I was a winner but had to pick up my prize today. Because we didn't want to cook lunch and I like to eat at the China Cafe, Nancy and I decided to drive to Eastland to eat and pick up my prize. Prizes included a new F-150 pickup, four-wheel cart, iPhone, and up to $1500 in cash. I guessed that I would get $2 in cash and that was what I won! Two of the new $1 coins that do not have In God We Trust on them. I should have thrown it back and asked them if Obama had taken over Ford as well as GM, but I did announce loudly that the coins didn't have the phrase on them. The flyer had pictures of green back cash that does say In God We Trust. I should have made them exchange the coins for greenbacks.

We saw a rattlesnake in the road at the creek going out but I think I missed him with my wheels.

WET KANSAS WEEKEND

We spent Thursday and Friday driving to Olathe, KS to celebrate Nancy's youngest son, Ernie's 50th birthday. We spent Thursday night in Perry, OK and Friday morning drove to Stillwater to show Nancy where I spent a lot of early years. We drove from Main street up Elm street. When I was 6 and started to school in Stillwater, we owned a home at that corner with a new home next to the corner. Both have been replaced with businesses. My Aunt Ruby's mother, Mrs. Lauterdale, owned a home a block or so up Elm. My grandmother Percival, my mother's mother owned a home a little farther up the street and I think that it is still there. We drove to OSU and drove south on Hester street. The rooming house I lived in is still there. The fraternity I pledged but didn't get to join due to money problems, Sigma Chi, has a huge building on the edge of the campus across from Theta pond that was there when I was a little guy.

We got to Olathe about 4 and left at 6:30. Ernie drove us to Kansas City to the Jazz, A Louisianna Kitchen to hear his son Jeramy, who was playing bass guitar in a four man Jazz group. Nancy and I had Cajun Stirfry. Ernie's son-in-law Clint had a plate of crayfish. Jeramy got to eat with us during a break. The music was great and the food good. We got home at 10:30.
John and Carol were visiting also. They celebrated Ernie's birthday Saturday, a day early and left to help move a granddaughter from Arkansas to OK.

Ernie's daughter, Amy is married to Clint. She is a high school math teacher and can relate to Valerie. Nancy has another granddaughter, Jacqui, who teaches math in FW. Amy and Clint came to celebrate Ernie's birthday Sunday and brought their dog, Pudge, who is huge. He is black lab but must have some Great Dane. He is a pup 9 months old and played with the two little dogs of Ernie. His nose was even with the table and when his tail wagged it cleared everything off the table. The birthday cake was a cheesecake, but Suzy, Ernie's wife had a great Chocolate cake we ate Saturday and I ate again Sunday. We had great food. Suzy made blueberry and pecan pancakes Saturday morning and Eggs ala Goldenrod Sunday morning. Ernie grilled some great steaks for his birthday dinner.

We left this morning and drove to Oklahoma City to spend the night. On the news they had a really bad hail storm in NW OkCity last night. There are storms in NM headed towards Halsell Hill tonight. With all the weather we have not driven in any heavy rain. Ran the wipers on slow a little this morning but the clouds broke up and we had some sun but the high temp in OK City was 76. We are looking forward to getting to HH tomorrow.

CATCH UP

I took Nancy to her eye doctor in Weatherford Friday and we ate brunch at Ihop after. Saturday I went home to prepare for Sunday School. Sunday a small class looked at the first three chapters of Judges. I pointed out that Judges covers the period between 2200 and 2050BC, about 150 years. The stories tell about the Israelites fighting wars and having periods of peace during which they forgot what God had done for them and followed the sexually oriented local gods where sex was considered part of their worship services.

We looked at the US for the past 150 years that got us back to the year 1860. We had the Civil War and periods of peace, then the major wars WWI and WWII and the periods of peace where we pursued pleasure. At the present time the largest business in the US is pornography on the TV and Internet. And we have again forgotten God. What happens? In the past God punished the Israelites by being conquered by their enemies. The stories may have some interest for us now. In Judges deliverers came to help the people. The class wondered if Glenn Beck's telling us that we need God back in our country is what we need to hear to change from our present path.

In the natural world, my yard is now blooming with blue bonnets in the back yard and gallardia in the front yard with rock daisyies scattered all over every where plus a lot of yellow flowers. I will wait until they seed to mow. I got .65" rain Sunday night. The storm was centered at Admiral so my planting there got watered. Lydia said she didn't get any at Cottonwood. I looked tonight at the storm total today and it was all around me but nothing near.

Nancy and I will head up into Tornado Alley tomorrow and stop in Perry, Ok then Friday go to her son, Ernie's home in Olathe, Ks. The weather forecast looks good for the time we will be there with the bad weather over tomorrow.

KIWANIS JOKES, RANGER FAVOR AND WIRELESS PRINTER

Tuesday was Kiwanis business meeting but we got Dale Bishop to tell a couple of jokes. One was an Aggie joke he had heard as a blond joke that I won't repeat, but I liked the one about the tomcat that died and went to Heaven. St. Peter said that we haven't had any tomcats but what could we do for him. He said that on earth his master would never let him sleep on the furniture and he had to sleep on the hard floor. He would like to have a nice soft pillow to sleep on. St. Peter said he guessed that they could do that. The next day five mice showed up. Peter said that they didn't have any mice but what did they want. They replied that on earth they were always being chased and would like to have some roller skates so that they could run faster. He agreed. The next day he goes by the tomcat who really looked completely happy. He asked him how it was going and he said never did he expect such a great place with a great bed and meals on wheels.

Tuesday night retired Texas Ranger Bob Favor and his wife came to the Meet the Author event at the Library. He told some great stories that aren't in his book. He told me that the write-up on him in the Livestock Weekly sold books all over the United States.

Wednesday morning I drove to Granbury to take Nancy to the high rated orthopedic surgeon, Ajai Cadambi, in Fort Worth. He took some more X-rays of her hips and her right knee and said both hips were in bad shape at the joints but she had strong bones. The left hip had lost all flexibility and the right was rapidly deteriorating. He recommended hip joint replacement on both starting with the left one. Surgery is scheduled for May 25. They recommend you giving blood to use during the operation. Nancy went to the Carter Blood Center on Hulen, after finding the one on Forest Park had moved and Hulen was on the way home. She gave one unit and will give another when she goes back in May 21 for pre-op.

Today I helped her install a Lexmark wireless printer that we can both access from the wireless router in her home. It worked with no problems. I had anticipated all kinds of problem after trying to use a wireless hookup on my laser printer at home and couldn't get it to work after Mark and I spent one whole day calling tech support and finally taking it back for a refund.

With all the time in the doctor's office I have almost finished IN SIX DAYS. Fifty essays by PhD scientists from all fields who believe evolution is impossible and accept the six day story of Genesis as literal and accurate. I can't understand how any knowledgeable scientist can believe in evolution when scientific facts completely discredit the whole idea. If they can't believe the Bible they should try the space alien as a better answer.

BUSY WEEKEND

Nancy and I had orange cinnamon rolls and coffee with Bobbe and Yvonne Friday morning. We then ate at Pam's Too while a very small shower came through and messed up the windshield of the car. I then drove to Halsell Hill, took a short nap and got on the Ford tractor. Of course it wouldn't start. I thought it was a battery problem, ran battery cables from the pickup. Still wouldn't start. I then checked the gears and it was in gear. I put it in neutral and it kicked right off. Of course this was after I had filled the air tank and aired the tires. I drove it to the garage and aired all the tires from the compressor there and mowed the outside of the lawn where there are a lot of dead limbs on the ground. I then mowed one trip out the front gate and back through the other one.

Saturday morning I took a letter to the mailbox. The weather was perfect after a shower left 0.02" in the gauge, so I walked two miles. I had read the Cross Plains Review and had two places that I needed to go to. Admiral Cemetery was having a work day starting at 8:30 but I had just planted the graves so decided to go to the Cottonwood Historical meeting that started at 10. I enjoyed hearing the stories of the old-timers that lived there as kids, left and have come back. I have lived here 26 years in July and longer than most in attendance. But not growing up here I am not considered an old-timer. After enjoying the pot-luck lunch I went to town to mail a letter and pay Lawrence. I came back, got my nap and at 3 tried to start the Deere riding mower. Of course the battery was dead. I jumped it but it wouldn't start again, so back to Lawrence to buy a new one. I finally got started mowing at 4:30 and mowed for an hour. The lawn looks like a bad haircut because I mowed around the gallardia Indian blankets that I could see just starting to bloom. I left other wild flowers so it is odd looking.

I spent Saturday night finishing composing the April Flame for the church. Because it had no photos this time I printed only page one on the ink-jet to get the red Flame banner and printed all the other pages on the laser printer. It is a lot faster. It is tricky but I remembered how to load the printed copies to print the odd pages on the back and it worked a lot faster than having to use the ink jet. I made the pdf copy and emailed it.

This morning I took 8 copies to the church and will take another 10 tonight when I go back for Bible study. We had a good SS class with two visitors and finished Joshua. I told the class that our worship of science has replaced the gods that Joshua warned the Israelites not to worship or God would abandon them.

Last night Nancy's three grandkids took her to Montana's to celebrate Mother's Day early because they wouldn't be there next weekend. Everyone at church asked about her and I told them that her legs are hurting too much to come this weekend but she will visit the orthopedic surgeon next Wednesday to see what can be done to get her back in shape.

OKLAHOMA SCENIC TOUR

John and Nancy at church

We drove Sunday from John's home near Hartshorne to attend his church near Red Oak. It is a lot of miles from his home. Nancy and I attended the Adult Bible SS class taught by a descendant of one of the original founders of the church. Daniel Adams teaches class and then plays the piano for church service. John Johnston teaches the youth SS class. During the church service we sang three hymns from the Choctaw Hymn book. Carol and her mother Sarah joined those who sang in Choctaw. By the third song I was able to follow the words in the hymn book. It took a while to catch on.

This is Nancy with Daniel and his wife.

We drove from the church through the scenic hills of Oklahoma down through Clayton to Antlers. I showed Nancy the bridge over the Kiamichi river where the high school students would drive to and dance to music on the car radios back in 1944. We then spent an hour visiting with my brother Robert at their home. We drove down through Paris and followed the GPS that took us through McKinley and Grapevine. We stopped to eat at Steak and Shake in the Grapevine Mall area. I had a Hershey's dark chocolate shake. We got to Nancy's house at 10 and ready for bed. Slept late this morning and came back to Halsell Hill this afternoon.

Tommie Lu, Robert and Charles with his mouth working as usual.

OKIE IN OKLAHOMA

Carol and John Johnston Sarah and Carol

Friday Nancy and I took Bobbe and Yvonne Hightower to visit her son, John, who lives ten miles from Hartshorne, OK in the mountains. We drove the back road from Kiowa to Hartshorne on a winding road with 10 and 20 mph curves and shoulder drop-offs. We drove in the sunshine but saw clouds East of us. John said that it rained that morning. It was sunny all day but about 3 this morning lightning and rain came in and it rained off and on until about 10 this morning then turned sunny this afternoon. We saw deer come by this morning, but no other wildlife.

Bobbe and Yvonne Hightower

This is old home country for me. I graduated from Antlers High School just down the road from here. We plan to stop and visit my brother Robert after church tomorrow. John and his wife Carol are very active in the Thessalonian Baptist Church established in the 1800s by the Choctaw Indians.

John's home

Last night Carol's mother, Sarah, came for dinner. She has read everything that she can about the Oklahoma Indians with special consideration of the Choctaw. I told her about Don Birchfield. She had read all of Don Coldsmith's books and visited the Rune at Heavener, OK that was the subject of Don's book THE RUNESTONE. She has also read all of Hillerman's books. Nancy and I introduced her to James Doss. I told her about Robert Conley for Cherokee history. I also suggested the book by Paul Carlson on the Plains Indians.

BLESSINGS OF RAIN

I came home Saturday to find over 2" of rain in my gauge for the last two days with more drizzle lasting until Sunday. Friday after taking Nancy for a checkup on her shoulder and getting a recommendation on an orthopedic doctor to look at her arthritic hip that is hurting we returned to her house for a special reading event. Her daughter, Vicky, joined us to hear a long time friend, Bob Colehour, alias Bob Lovejoy or Windy Bob read from the cowboy poetry that he has written. I had read one of his booklets that Nancy showed me the first time I visited her house. He had mixed cowboy and civil war poetry in that book. He came from Burleson with a large bag of his stories and poems. He read from novels in progress and some of his great poems. Most are typical cowboy poems with a lot of humor like the two cowboys who fell in love with a madam who pitted them against one another until they were drawing on each other. They then realized what she was doing and shot her.

Nancy read from the historical novel she is writing and Bob gave her some pointers on improving the writing. I used the opportunity to practice reading the Declaration of Independence that I have offered to read for the Cottonwood July 4th celebration. It has a few words that I trip over like sanguinity. I need to practice more, but the content sounds a lot like the current tea party rhetoric.

Driving back Saturday we stopped at New York Hill restaurant at noon and noticed that hummingbirds were feeding. So today I put three feeders out and saw a hummingbird a short time later. I haven't seen any deer for several weeks. I presume the does have their fawns hidden. I have seen some goldfish in the pond but they don't come up to feed.

Today our SS class read more of Joshua and wondered why all of the many names haven't been used to name children. Caleb and Joshua were the only two names of the hundreds that we could relate to. At church I gave the stewardship talk and explained how our church is different from the many that have a drive with pledges and develop their budgets from the pledge cards. Our position is that you come to church to worship God. One way you worship is with your tithes and what you give of all that God has given you is between you and God. We then have the responsibility to spend those gifts responsibly. So we often fall behind on the budget but the Lord seems to provide for our needs in other months. Some appreciated knowing a little of our history.

Tonight Nancy taught me how to play Phase10. After Ashley mentioned it in her blog about her trip to Romania and I had never heard of the game, Nancy brought her deck and tonight she let me win the first game. It was close all the way. I was embarrassed that I couldn't shuffle the cards. I used to do it well and even had some card tricks but too much time playing solitaire on the computer has ruined my card dealing skills.

COYOTES AND CALVES

Tuesday at Kiwanis my guest speaker was Larry Killgo who is a predator control specialist. He graduated from Texas Tech with a degree in Agriculture and went to work for Texas in rodent control. He moved up to predator control and was offered a job in New Mexico, where he had relatives, and became the director of predator control for over 20 years. He had experience with coyotes, bobcats, mountain lions, and feral hogs. He has supervised killing them with airplanes and helicopters as well as poison from traps and around lambs necks. However his most effective control is the snare located where coyotes will dig under a net fence. Although they could easily jump over as creatures of habit they always dig a hole under the fence. This offers a perfect spot to snare them. He gave stories of how the coyotes breed and live as families in their territory. They don't join in packs like wolves and feral dogs.

He was hired by a deer rancher south of Cross Plains who three years ago had no fawns that lived. After Killgo harvested dozens of coyotes this year he had over 100% fawns. Larry told how the coyotes will follow cows and calves who are springing and devour the calf as it is born. After the program I asked him if he knew Wyman Meinzer. He said he was in class with him at TT. Meinzer in his book photographing coyotes argued that coyotes were falsely accused of killing calves when they eat the calf droppings that are like candy to them. Larry says that Wyman is dead wrong in that belief and has countless stories to back up his observations of calf predation by coyotes.

Asked about feral hogs, he said if he were permitted he could control them with poison but it is illegal and other methods like shooting from the air helps but will not provide complete control. They and coyotes will just get worse if more isn't done to control them. He wants all farmers and ranchers to do more to control the predators.

I hope that he gets to tell his story to more farmers and ranchers. I appreciated his talk to a small audience in CP.

LEARNING AND LITERATURE

This was a learning day. I went to the Chataqua lecture at Buffalo Gap Village, run by McMurry University professors, where the president of McMurry University, Dr. John Russell, gave a lecture advertised as THE HISTORY OF AVIATION, but he changed the title to be notable events in aviation. All of his degrees are in Aerospace engineering. His Bachelor's focused on propulsion, his Master's on structures and materials and his Doctorate on aerodynamics. He started with a slide showing the helicopter designed by Da Vinci in the 14th Century but didn't fly. He was focusing on the six aircraft that were keys in the development of aircraft. He reviewed the manned gliders and pioneers in designing aircraft. Otto Lillenthal was killed flying his glider but contributed to the knowledge of how to steer gliders. Samuel Langley had the first powered airplane but it didn't fly even though it was funded by the government. While he was highly educated the Wright brothers were bicycle mechanics who figured out how to warp wings to gain better control so the first major aircraft was their Flyer. He discussed the early wood and fabric "organic airplanes" built for WWI that had problems with the materials deteriorating and that led to his next notable airplane, Junkers J1, that was made of iron but had a power plant large enough to fly it faster than others. It had a maneuverability problem but led to thinking about metals and aluminum was chosen. His third airplane was the Boeing 247 (I think the number is right) that was built for UAL for passengers. It was eclipsed by the DC-3 built for TWA by Douglas. That airplane is still flying today. He then went into an explanation of the design of wings showing the development of airfoils by NACA and explained how theoreticians and experimenters got together to understand the aerodynamics and how to build better wings. He showed the equations for drag and how as airplanes approached sonic speeds the drag went to infinity by the equations. His next airplane was the P-51 with a wing that allowed higher speeds. But to go supersonic he showed that a German engineer in 1935 gave a paper showing that swept wings would permit supersonic speeds. Many years later he was brought to NASA after WWII and helped develop the swept wing aircraft that now are the shape of all modern airliners.
He asked for other suggestions and I supported my B-58 that was the first airplane to cruise at Mach2. But it didn't last long because General LeMay wanted a long range bomber that could fly to Japan and back. Russell is an exciting lecturer that is animated and loves his subject. I hope that he continues to offer such lectures.

I literature I am reading three books at the same time. I have been reading Edward Murray's book of short stories and just finished his story of First Calf about an old rancher near me who saved a cow and calf from a wildfire. It was too close to home. I am also reading Bob Favor's MY RANCHING DAYS before he gives his talk May 4 at our Meet the Author program. I heard him speak in Abilene and bought his book but hadn't opened it. He reviews his growing up days farming and ranching and tells about his stint in the Navy and as a Highway Patrolman before being accepted as a Ranger. His Ranger stories are varied and interacted with historical events, particularly the political scene along the border. He will tell us stories that aren't in his book. The other book I started is one I bought at the Texas Folklore Society. Paul Patterson wrote a romance called THE SHEEPHERDER that I have just started. It is humorous and an interesting read.

Of course preparing for Sunday School I am reading Joshua and tomorrow we will discuss why the Lord listened to Joshua and stopped the world from rotating for a day. Many cultures have the story of the long day, but modern people can't believe it. Should make for a good discussion.

SWALLOWS ARE BACK

Today I walked two miles picking up trash to get the mail and at the big bridge there were dozens of swallows in the air. I haven't seen any around the house yet and was worried that they were all gone. I haven't seen any deer for a week during the day. I know by my wildlife camera that they come in at night. We have had a pair of turkeys come through the yard and turkey season started last week.

I wasted a couple of hours trying to retrieve photos from my camera chip when I accidently erased them after I thought I had transferred them to my computer. I did find some wildlife photos to print for my annual report to the Appraisal District to support my wildlife tax situation. Quicken had problems giving my a spending report but I finally got something that worked. I am not too happy with Quicken.

CHRIST HAS RISEN!

It was great to celebrate Easter in Valerie's home church, University United Methodist in San Antonio. Bishop Lowry was their preacher before he became the bishop of our Central Texas Conference. They have a full orchestra with tympanies, brass, strings and a magnificant pipe organ with their choir.

Nancy and I drove to San Antonio after a full day at the Texas Folklore Society Friday. Thursday we missed the Hootenanny because we went to Maundy Thursday service at Cross Plains FUMC and it was too late to drive to Abilene. Friday morning bright and early we got to TFS in time to hear the start of the program by Lucy West, who lost her husband, John West, just a week ago. She and I exchanged feelings about the grieving process. We heard papers all day but the big surprise for me was to see Dr. Suzy Burnham at the meeting. I had been wondering about her. She is either the State Veterinarian or close to it. The last time I had heard about her she was working in Mexico coordinating vet problems across the border. She grew up in Mexico and we met her at TAMU when she was in Vet school. She and her husband have a Vet practice near Graham that we drive by every once in a while but have never stopped. I called Sylvia Grider to tell her about seeing Suzy. I had to call her again when Jack Duncan gave a paper on his remembrances of TFS. At his first meeting in 1971 in Wimberley he met Sylvia and had her photo with Sid Cox and James Ward Lee on his slide presentation. He recalled that she won a quilt being auctioned off and Sid asked her if it was the first time she had taken a chance on a quilt.

We heard papers by Lori B. Garrison who told about taking a 20 mile drive in the Hill country and going through 8 "demon" bump gates and scarring up her daughter's car because the gates swing back into the car going through them. W. C. Jameson gave a great paper on legendary rattlesnakes, claiming that he had measured one at more than 8 feet on a trip to Mexico. We enjoyed all of the papers and went to the dinner where Ken Davis was named the 14th Fellow of the society. A well-deserved honor.

Saturday on the way to SA I stopped at Hinckley's Country Store in Mason to buy birthday gifts for Christopher and Brent. I had stopped before but lucked out this time and found both Brent and Monica at the store. They were friends from the Wesley Foundation days at A&M and have been in Mason since. They operate the store on the square, a bed and breakfast, plus other enterprises. Brent said he has been mayor of Mason for 5 years and running again this year. We exchanged blog addresses. Their son, who served in missionary work in Honduras has a blog named familiahinckly.blogspot.com and it is very well done. Much better than this one.
When we got to Kathy's in San Antonio we got to visit with Jim and his family because Brent was still celebrating his Thursday birthday with a party that morning in SA. They had their new daughter, Faith, who is growing up and smiles at everyone. She was born December 10. Then the crowd arrived. Keith's cousin Crickett with her son, Jay and his daughter. Valerie's four girl friends came with the parents of one of them. When we got there Valerie and Ness were helping Christopher and Brent dye Easter eggs. So the big event of the afternoon was when Easter eggs were hidden in the back yard. Christopher and Brent had half the yard and all of the big girls had a basket and searched the other part of the yard like a bunch of school kids. Kathy had prizes for the prize egg and the most, etc.

Dinner was the great BBQ that Keith makes. He had pork ribs, chicken breasts and drumsticks. We had all kinds of salads by Kathy and Carol. The pediatrician Christy brought two great pies that she made, one chocolate and the other apple. Nancy got to meet all of Kathy's kids except Jon-Marc who is working in New York this week.

Sunday after church we went back for brisket Kathy had cooked overnight with potatoes and salad. We got to take a nap and drove following the GPS up 281 through Hico and Glen Rose to Granbury. Today I drove back in to Halsell Hill to try to catch up here.