WEST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION MEETING IN FORT WORTH

Nancy got to meet some of my friends in WTHA. She came with me to the reception Thursday night and met the editors of the Cyclone, Becky and Jim Mathews who welcomed her. Several others came by and we ate at a table with Fredonia Paschall and one of her workers from the Southwest Collection at TT Univ. Also the curator of the Petroleum Museum in Midland, who really liked living in downtown Houston and is having fun adjusting to Midland. Vicky came by from her job in Hurst and took Nancy home.

She brought her back Friday morning after they met with the gas company who offered to pay for the damage to their places caused by the pipeline installed along their fence line. Nancy got there in time for the session I chaired at 11. We ate some lunch at the high dollar hotel restaurant then we sat in on J'Nell Pate's session. When we came back for the banquet we were met by Margaret Waring who was with her daughter-in-law and welcomed Nancy with open arms to the meeting. Nancy left the banquet before we had the community sing session with the East Texas Association again to go home with Vicky.

Margaret Waring and her daughter-in-law at the meeting.

Friday morning the early info we got showed a breakfast meeting at 6 so I got up early. When I went down I read the final book I found that the breakfast was at 7 so I went back to the room and wrote my column for The Livestock Weekly and had time to get back for the breakfast. Thursday night after the reception and Nancy left I had time to write the minutes of the church Administrative Council. I put it in an email as I did with the column but waited until noon Friday to pay the $10 Internet cost that runs from noon to noon. Why they don't give you 24 hours from the time you log on I can't fathom. After I paid my price I sent the emails Friday afternoon.

Saturday morning I turned on the TV and heard about the new earthquake. I have been predicting them but never know where the next one will hit. There was a fairly large one in the Phillipines that didn't make the news and Alaska and Central California have small quakes every day. You can check them everyday at: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.php

I will post other comments on the WTHA meeting on Lou's blog.

I went by Border's on the way home and used my Christmas gift from Jon-Marc to buy some books. I have decided to buy several of Ann Coulter's book GODLESS to give to my friends who want to read an excellent thorough exposition of the myth of evolution and how it has been foisted off on us by the courts, not by scientific proof, because it violates the law of physics and chemistry but has been declared scientific by those who can't accept that God created us. I got home before dark and drove the pickup out of the ditch now that the snow has melted.

SNOW TIME

It started snowing last night and daughter, Kathy, told me to take some photos. This morning I was fascinated by the birds eating at the feeders and took the photos in the backyard. The first photo has a cardinal in the tree in front of the well house.

I took the pickup to get the mail about 10 this morning and didn't get back to the garage. I had to leave it slid off the road almost as far as the tractor shed but couldn't get traction in the snow without any load in the bed. It happens every time I try to drive in the snow. At least I got past the usual spot down at the Halsell House. I almost got back up the hill. We had 3-4 inches of snow. I have been burning a lot of firewood and had to clean snow off of it to bring it in.

CATCHUP

Wednesday we came back to Cross Plains because my DayTimer said I had an Administrative Council meeting. We stopped to eat at our favorite table at New York Hill restaurant where we met Dec. 6. Nancy keeps getting the shrimp basket. I tried the grilled chicken salad. We got home in time for a short nap. I went to the church. They were just letting out from Ash Wednesday service. I found a bulletin from Sunday that I missed and it said AC had been moved to next Wednesday.

Thursday I made the Methodist Men's breakfast. I asked if Russ had read Dale Rollins column in The Livestock Weekly. Instead of writing about quail he discussed the feral hog problem in Paducah. That led to a discussion of all of the varmint problems. Larry Killgo retired from animal control with New Mexico and is an expert on the subject. He said that coyotes are proliferating in Texas. They crossbred with the red wolf and are larger and becoming more of a problem with killing calves as well as sheep and goats. Feral hogs are out of control. He thinks the only solution is a poison bait that they eat in special pens that attract them and die several hours later away from the pen. Right now it is illegal to use poison. Roy Hunter said that the latest method he heard was the use of night scopes for hunters to shoot them because they come out at night to forage and damage. Maybe we can make that a big sport for big city hunters to come out and spend the night shooting hogs.

I got back to the house and just started to look at my email when I realized I was due for a doctor's appointment in Abilene in half an hour. We left and got there a few minutes late but I had to wait an hour which I always have to do. The eye doctor told me that my right eye is a little better but the (good) left eye was a little worse. The left eye has a barely visible wrinkle on the retina. He said there was one third chance it would go away, stay the same or get worse. There are retina specialists in Abilene but we will check it again in 6 months. The cataract is also growing but not bad enough to qualify for Medicare surgery.

Then we spent the afternoon with the plumber who came to check the leak in the Halsell house. We turned the water back on and no leak. He ran the clothes washer and no leak. We turned off the faucets to the washer. Came back after he did some work at my house and it was still dry. I checked it again this morning and everything is OK. I don't know where the original leak came from.

This morning I walked two miles in the nice weather while getting the mail and cleaned the leaves off of the pond. By then it was after 11 when we headed for Abilene ostensibly to pick up some sample blood pressure pills from the doctor's office. I remembered that they closed at noon on Friday. I called but it was too late. Back again Monday. We went on to Abilene where I took Nancy to eat at Abeluo's. She loves Mexican food and hadn't eaten there. I then got the pickup serviced and inspected for another year. While I was getting a haircut there is a Goodwill store in the shopping center and Nancy spent over an hour finding a lot of "new" clothes to wear. I got stuff I needed at Walgren's. I got the pickup washed which I try to do once a year. I sidetracked through Baird so Nancy could see the antique stores and we almost bought a bench that she wanted to give to her oldest son who had a birthday yesterday. It was more that she thought and we didn't load it in the pickup.

We started home when Nancy said we had time to go to CP to buy deer corn. We made that side track and looked at furniture at Hardwicks but it is a little rough and they were closed. I told her to look at Rick Potter's Callahan Furniture on the web.

Tomorrow we will find time to get a nap in, fill the deer feeders and maybe catch up on reading all the magazines, newspapers, write a column and study SS lesson. May even look at working on taxes.

WEEKEND REPORT

Saturday morning Nancy's daughter, Vicky, and her son had Nancy's electric chain saw and were cutting the broken cedar trees around my car and in the road. I helped move cut limbs and cleared the snow off of my car. When it warmed up we headed for Granbury. Borrowed books from the Library, got mail at the PO, then shopped Walmart for a couple of hours with everyone else in town who had run out of food during the snow storm. We brought the frozen stuff back, put it in the freezer then went back to town to eat some catfish for supper.

Sunday I attended Sunday School with Nancy. I was the only man in the class although they say sometimes men do attend. Of course in a Baptist church I thought they would separate us but they didn't. Her SS teacher was well prepared and the women knew their Bible and had a good discussion. They were studying the first chapter of Acts and a little of the second. We then attended church with a full country band doing the music. Much of the service was praise music. They served communion and passed the elements down the rows with a basket for the cups like we do at home.

Nancy made a great meal because she said we couldn't get into a restaurant on Valentine's Day. She made rib-eye steaks, baked potatoes, spinach salad, cauliflower with cottage cheese and fruit.

This morning we ate breakfast with Nancy's SS class. This time I got to sit with the men and the women sat together. I got to meet an Angus rancher (who doesn't read The Livestock Weekly). He had worked as a planner for many years at Lockheed. A couple of others had worked for the Texas Highway Department and told about trucks running into overpasses and causing big problems. We came home and Nancy prepared food for the next couple of days. She is fixing a big meal for tomorrow when Vicky and her sons will join us. Today we fixed the left-over steak into shish-k-bobs. I try not to eat too much at night to compensate.

I finished posting all the checkbooks to Quicken and am getting close to working on the 2009 taxes.

Thursday evening

Friday morning

Cars in the driveway.

WEATHER OUTSIDE IS FRIGHTFUL

The snow falling was beautiful all day yesterday, but hearing the trees cracking and hoping it wasn't the roof on the house cracking here at Nancy's in Granbury. Today I saw some of the damage. A big cedar just behind my car fell blocking about half of the driveway. Another cedar at the front gate fell and is a little in the road. Tomorrow I will get Nancy's electric chain saw out and see what I can do. There are also some branches on the top of my car.

Today I got some work done on my bookkeeping but still am not ready to finish my taxes. Got a lot more work yet.

BUSY MONDAY

I started the day changing sheets, loading the washer, heating two old waffles I had frozen and adding blueberries to be a little healthier, checking email and getting to the Library board on time. It was raining all morning but slacked up at 9. Had .44 in my rain gauge read-out that means I probably got .5. Any and all rain is appreciated in West Texas.

We have a hard-working board and had an efficient mailing crew of the directors sticking name labels on the newsletter and taping them, separating into zip codes for the PO. This newsletter lists all of the donations and shows how many people giving to the Library to permit us to operate. I read in the newspaper that ACU and HSU received less in giving this last year but McMurry did well. Our Library did well and hopefully will continue to be supported by our local friends. The Gates Foundation has promised $4000 to pay for three directors and our Librarian to go to Portland, Oregon to recieve accolades for being a finalist in the best small Library in the nation. But local donations will keep the doors open to our patrons. We looked at the Wii equipment that we now have to let patrons play games. We firmed up our plans for the Meet the Author event tomorrow where Murray Edwards will speak.

I bought car license renewals, talked to the bank, bought bird feed and groceries for me, got a nap, finished the laundry and recycled Kathy's spaghetti and the steak from FW for lunch. Then tonight I did a final edit on my resolution on creation/evolution for the Methodist church. I have posted it on my creation blog if you are interested. Yesterday I worked on the resolution and finally got a column written for The Livestock Weekly.

I plan to spend Wednesday to the next Wednesday in Granbury and bring Nancy back here for the next week. Her sling is now off and she is doing well with her healing. Thanks for all of the prayers for her recovery. God is good.

HOME AGAIN

This morning I took Nancy to her 11:15 appointment. We got there and found that the appointment wasn't in the computer. They asked her to come back at 1. Her son, John, had driven in from Oklahoma so we went to eat at the Old South Pancake and Family Restaurant. I had always wanted to eat there. Nancy had lived in FW for years and had considered it a favorite eating spot. We all enjoyed what we at. I had the Senior menu steak and it was good. I brought half of it home. I wondered about the size of the regular menu steak.

I dropped them back at the doctor's office and came on home. Nancy gave me the report that she can keep the sling off unless she feels like she needs it. The stitches are healed and almost all gone. She has some small exercises but has to wait for more healing before she uses the arm for any heavy lifting. Has to stay under one pound. She got home and took a shower and felt great not to have the sling on. Her son's main job is to burn a brush pile tomorrow while the humidity is up.

I appreciated seeing all the water in the ditches coming home. I had a little over an inch in my gauge. My glass gauge froze and broke last week. I didn't have any mail in my box so tomorrow it will be full. I did get a UPS delivery tonight after dark and now have a new steam iron. It says to use tap water, but I will still use distilled water in it.

On the way home I stopped to visit with Pete and Mary from my SS class. Today is his 90th birthday. He looks great and has no pains until he gets up to walk and has a little pain in his hips. I hope I am that good when I hit 90. I took one of those internet tests to predict how long I will live and am shooting for 120 although it said 106 was my best bet. This is a different perspective for me because I never thought I would get past 67, the age my father died. All of his and my mother's brothers died at that age or younger. But I finally realized that they were all heavy smokers. Makes a difference.

Kathy and Vaness are on the way and will be here any minute.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 3

Everyone asks how Nancy is doing. She is getting better every day. Yesterday when the sun broke out we walked outside for a little ways and then sat in the swing on the patio and watched the flock of robins under the trees in her back yard. There were some pretty songbirds singing to us also. I was close to 5 and Nancy said she was hungry. We got in the car and drove to Sonic for some food. We picked the one near the Post Office and I got Nancy's mail.

I finished the book STATE OF FEAR by Michael Crichton but will review it in the literary blog.

When I left home Sunday morning the temperature was 26 with a heavy fog and a heavy ice bark on the trees. As I drove to Cross Plains to go to church and when I came back there was extensive areas of completly white ice covered trees, weeds, fences and grass. I failed to photograph the scene to include. As I left at 2 the temperature was up to 33 but no sunshine.

I drove to Granbury and found Nancy telling me that she now hurts less than before the surgery. She will have to wear the sling for 3 weeks, but does a lot with her left hand including writing a to-do list for me while I am here. Like fixing three meals, cleaning the floor, drying and folding the laundry (she will fill the washer). I consider my Christian duty to be as much like a servant as possible.

Saturday I was able to finish the church newletter, the Flame and send it out. I wrote another Livestock Weekly column. Sunday morning while preparing my SS lesson I printed copies of the Flame to take to church for those not on the net. Tomorrow is the last day to submit resolutions to the Annual Conference, so I prepared one to encourage the church to support creation in place of evolution, emailed it to the Bishop and posted it on my creation blog.

Bobbe and Yvonne came to visit Nancy and brought cake and ice cream. I made a pot of coffee and we had a lively conversation as we always do with Bobbe.