ROBERT'S 80TH BD PARTY

We drove to Antlers Saturday for a surprise birthday party for my brother, Robert, 80th birthday. We left early and stopped at Waffle House in Gainesville for breakfast. Interesting place run by a tight fisted owner who limited the number of jelly packages on the table and only had one waffle maker running so I had to wait for a while on the waffle. Restrooms had no towels but a stack of napkins to dry your hands.

On the way into Antlers we stopped at the cemetery to find my dad and mother's tombstone and were fortunate when Nancy spotted it. We offered a prayer for them and their descendants. We then found the Church of Christ after showing Nancy where we were living when WWII broke out.

Tommie brought Robert to a truly surprise party. He refused to get out of the car and his kids had to go out and bring him in. Had most of his family there  including his daughter Elizabeth and her daughters Nicole (who reads this blog) and Bryce who is living with Robert and Tommie, granddaughter Ricci, grandson Cody with his four sons, as well as his son Bobby and his new wife, plus a number of Antlers residents. I got to visit with one of the graduates of my class of '44 who brought me up to date on who are left. Not many. Several have died in the last year.

Robert's birthday cake had 80 candles. It was a two tiered cake with candles on the top and around the lower tier, but he was able to huff and puff and blow them all out. We then had the professional photographer take a lot of family group photos. One of all the Rodenberger boys had Robert, me, my son Mark, Robert's son, Bobby, his son Cody and four of Cody's sons. Quite a good-looking crew. More photos were taken across the street at the Brantley grade school building where Robert had gone one year when we lived in Antlers in '40-'41 and where Robert's children had gone to school.

It was a great party and we drove back getting home at 8. A long but satisfying day.

TEXAS BOOK FESTIVAL

We drove to Austin Saturday. Stopped for a break in Crawford and the store had no George W. Bush memorabilia for sale. We were surprised because just a few years ago it was filled with items.
Parking at the TBF was impossible. We got there about 12:30 and spent 30 minutes looking. We finally parked at Colorado and 17th street. But it was a beautiful day to walk. We started at the Capitol building where we ate at the Capitol Grill.
We then went to the tents starting with Tent #1 that held the Western Writers of America with Candy Moulton and her husband holding the fort. He told me that they left 8" of snow on the ground and he had justed talked to his daughter on the phone and it was -7 degrees. We continued to walk through the exhibition tents. Most of the usual exhibitors were there except Shearer Publishing. They did have a place on the program with the Italian author of the Tuscany Cookbook flying in for the program. Kathy was there but I missed the program.

Rollo Newsome, Charles and Kay Arnold at the TFS booth.

The exhibit tents this year went all the way down Congress Avenue to 8th street. We walked back up past the Capitol looking at the new statues and memorials. We had our photo taken by a friendly onlooker at the TBF post and Nancy took my photo at the WWII memorial.

2012 LORD'S ACRE

We celebrated the Cross Plains FUMC Lord's Acre along with Sue's birthday on November 10. We got to visit with many friends. We contributed a Mink jacket that we had purchased in Granbury with the supposed history of being a gift from the estate of a Methodist minister whose children donated it for a fund raiser and after going thru three churches came to Granbury. I was able to make the high bid on it at CP and gave it to Sue as a BD present.

On Sunday we attended our old SS class to read the first 4 chapters of Amos. The class has new members and a few who have stayed for the two year journey through the Bible. A few more lessons and they will be through the Old Testament and into Matthew. Nancy and I have been reading the lessons along with the class and even got a lesson ahead we found. We enjoyed attending the church service and I stood with the other veterans recognized on veteran's day.

God was with us driving back Sunday. On the narrow road between Sipe Springs and DeLeon a truck indicating a wide load came toward us. I didn't slow like I should and topped a hill to find a pickup that was stopped in our lane with a car pulled off to the right in front. I couldn't stop and went around both cars to pull off on the right side of the road in time to miss the wide Double-wide coming toward us taking up most of our lane as well as the other side. God was with us. It could have been a real disaster if the wide load had been closer. At 70 mph it is impossible to stop short. We are blessed and I need to be more aware of warning signals in the future.

STATE FAIR WITH SUE

Last year when Sue was taking chemo and radiation for her cancer, we promised her we would take her to the State Fair to celebrate her recovery. She came in Wednesday night so that we could go to the Fair on Thursday when seniors get in free. Of course parking was $15.
We drove thru misty rain all the way there with forecasts of 20% for rain. It stopped as we got there and started sprinkling as we left at 5:30. We enjoyed walking through the Creative Arts building and by 1 were getting hungry. I had promised myself to have a Fletcher's corny dog but the lines were 100 people long so we went into the Food court and I had mini corn dogs. Nancy had to have her funnel cake. 
We went to the Bird Show that was new to me. It is amazing how they can train wild birds to fly from the Ferris wheel down to the stage close to the audience heads.
Like last year we went to the Marine Drum and Bugle Corps concert.

Marine Gunnery Sgt Major is the drum major and told about the year's activities by the Corps. He asked the audience to like the Corps on Facebook and to post his photo.
This year after the concert we rode the arial Tram back to the parking lot. We had a great day getting our walking exercise in.

THE PROMISE AND BOOK FESTIVAL

We had an active weekend. Friday night was perfect for going to Glen Rose to see The Promise. One of the Waples UMC members is a member of the cast. The play is a local production by hundreds that portrays Christ's life from birth to ascension. The huge outdoor stage has a "river" in the front that starts the play as the Paluxy river in Glen Rose with two children looking for dinosaur tracks with their grandfather who then tells them the story of The Promise starting with Mary riding a donkey going to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, the wise men with outstanding costumes  delivering the gifts from camels. The play takes a couple of hours and has beautiful scenery. Lazarus is revived. The river becomes the Jordan with John baptizing (by immersion), has the fishing boat for recruiting the disciples and the scene where Christ stills the storm. The scene where the Devil tempts Christ in the desert has unexpected scenes where they disappear in a flash at ground level and appear unexpectedly on top of a very tall column then back on ground level after another flash. The play ends with Christ being ascended to heaven in a dramatic fashion. The audience had several large groups that came in buses from churches, mostly Baptist, but one large contingent were United Methodists from Ardmore, OK.

Then Saturday we went to the lunch at the Abilene West Texas Book Festival where Jon Erickson was presented the A. C. Greene award. He is known for his books on Hank, the Cowdog. He has sold 8 million copies of his self published books, self published to maintain his integrity and philosophy. I know him because he published a book on the modern cowboy that was updated in a second edition where he added a chapter on the cowboy's newspaper The Livestock Weekly where he mentioned my column.

Then Monday night we presented papers for critiques at the Writer's Bloc in Granbury and got good comments to help us.

PIONEER STATUE TO TWU

Yesterday Nancy and I took the Juan Dell statue of Pioneer Woman of the West to give to the TWU Library Lou Rodenberger Collection. They put the statue on a display table in the reading room in the back of the collection. We looked at the new display for Lou that they change every so often. They changed it on September 14 in advance of her birthday on September 21.
They took photos but I haven't received any yet to post.

I bought the statue at an art studio in Santa Fe NM in 1982 for $1500 and had it shipped to Lou at our new Abilene address. This was when I retired from A&M and had a lot of money for one month, drawing accumulated leave pay from A&M and also working as a consultant for General Dynamics in Fort Worth. We had looked at it sometime before and admired it because the artist was from Hockley County. She was from Littlefield and we were married in Levelland which is just south of there. She has many fine bronze statues of western themes. This one is of a pioneer woman holding a rifle in her right hand and using her left hand to put two children in hiding in a tree trunk. We liked it a lot.

BLESSINGS OF RAIN

The Lord has blessed us with rain. Yesterday we had over 1" in about two hours starting at 10 a.m. Last night we had another .08". And the temperature is now Fall like and very pleasant. Now all I have to do is figure out how to get jumper cables to the pickup parked in the pole barn. The battery is dead this morning.

CHOCOLATE BIRTHDAY

I really celebrated my 86th birthday with chocolate. Nancy made chocolate muffins for lunch. Mark took us to Mi Cocina in Fort Worth where I had the Asada Pollo con Mole (mole is a Mexican chocolate sauce) and Mark had the enchilada with mole. Then Kathryn served her famous chocolate cake with candles for me to blow out. They brought their 18 month old granddaughter who bumped over into Mark's mole sauce and had it on her nose. We failed to get a photo of that but it added to the evening.
Monday Bobbe and Yvonne bought us breakfast and gave me a bag of dark chocolate goodies, so I have really celebrated a chocolate birthday!

HEALTHY REPORT

I had my six month physical last week and they called with the blood work yesterday. I am amazingly healthy. My testosterone is up due to Androgel and my chloresterol and trigylcerides are down to normal. This is all due to the great diet that Nancy provides. I think that it help for breakfast to eat fiber in cereal, and to add milled flax seeed, prunes, dates, blueberries, raisins, dried cranberries, and fresh bananas with milk. I add honey and cinnamon and have been drinking special silver-tipped tea leaves that a friend gave us. I add mint from the pot in the front yard for flavor.
I am short on exercise. When it cools off I promise that I will walk more. I have put my chinning bar up and do a few pull-ups now. I don't pull my feet off the floor but do pick up a few pounds of my body. The doctor found that my weight and blood pressure were unchanged also. The dentist office checked my blood pressure before giving me anesthesia and measured it way low using a wrist device. The doctor said that those devices were not to be trusted, but I liked the idea of lower BP. So now with my teeth being super cleaned every time I eat with brushes in place of floss and rinsing with Listerine I should be healthy until another birthday!

POLITICAL CONVENTIONS

We watched to Republican convention and are watching the Democratic convention on CSpan. It was interesting how the Republicans invoked God as being in charge of our nation and that our nation was founded on that precept. Almost every speaker affirmed that belief. Today I watched the opening of the Democratic convention after commentators had observed that the Democrats had left God out of their platform for the first time in history. As they started today's program a Methodist minister offered two amendments to the platform. One accepted God and the other accepted Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. To be accepted for vote required a 2/3 majority. They got that. Then when they voted the chair asked for the vote at least three times and in my opinion half voted No but he gaveled the vote as Yeah. I was surprised that so many of the delegates objected to God in their platform.

It is interesting that the Democrats focus only on government programs as the answer to our problems. They don't mention how they will reduce the deficit or spending. They want to continue all spending and want to pay for it with tax increases. Taxes are paid by those who make a profit and we need more profit in our economy.

They are discussing the energy policies and point how how wind energy has generated 75,000 jobs. Of course the oil companies employ millions of people and are expanding where the goverment will let them drill. One speaker said Obama would support all forms of energy but failed to mention coal. We have enough coal for 200 years of electrical production but due to our fear of carbon dioxide, that provides food for plants, would cause global warming we are shutting coal use. Fortunately gas is now abundant and will provide electricity with less CO2.

Of course nuclear power generates no CO2 but the fear of radiation from a nuclear power plant drives the price way up even though we walk outside in the Sun that is a nuclear power plant and radiates the earth continually. My skin doctor insists I wear a hat outside.

Wired magazine had a great article about Amageddon scenarios that we have had since the DDT scare and how none of the warnings of starvation, cooling or heating of the planet, global warning or viral infections have come true. In every case our invention capabilities and new technologies have always saved us from the catastrophic predictions. I have always argued that we cannot predict technological innovations. But there is always someone who is predicting the end of the world including me. But I know that we will not know the day and it will be a day we least expect when Christ returns for a new earth and new life.

I am reading DECISION POINTS by George W. Bush. It is interesting to read all of the tough decisions he had to make and how he relied on his study of the Bible and advice from preachers as he made his decisions. I am up to the really hard decisions he made about sending troops to Afghanistan and Iraq. He suffered when any person was killed in war and wrote personal letters to each family during his time in office. President Obama has continued that tradition.

I finished the book SHIP OF GOLD IN THE DEEP BLUE SEA that told the story of applying modern technology to recover the gold treasure that was on a ship delivering gold from San Francisco to New York a few years after the gold rush in California. The ship had been on the bottom at 8000 feet depth for 136 years and the wood and metal parts had largely disintegrated but the inventor and engineers developed new and unusual machines that would work at that depth and recover the gold coins, dust and bars. They found that if the coins and bars were free from blemishes they are much more valuable, so they developed a method of pouring plastic on the gold and removing it without any scratches from the recovery tools. They are still carefully recovering from the wreck today. The book is largely about invention and engineering work. I appreciated Carol Walt telling me about the book. I have worked with inventors and related to the problems they had.

CLEANING OUT THE OLD, DREAMING THE NEW

This week the only excuse we had to get out and go past Braums was when we went shopping and routine doctor visits.  It was Charles' week to visit the dentist and have his six month check up with his primary doctor.  His smile looks good and he has his normal bounce in his step.

It was MK's birthday and we sent an ecard.  Snail mail seems so inefficent now.  I think of the pony express and the wonder of receiving a letter even in my lifetime.  During the Second World War our elementray class made Easter pictures for the trays of hospital bound soldiers. We put our names and addresses on the back of the pictures.  I received a few letters of thank you.  I remember one where the boy that was injured had his eyes bandaged.  The doctor came in to take the bandage off just as the breakfast tray, with my art work, arrived.  He shared with me that they didn't know if he would be able to see or not.  The first thing he saw when the bandage was removed was my Easter chicken.  I have his letter yet in my cedar box.  Maybe somewhere there is a picture of a baby chicken folded in a 'keeper' place.

We didn't plan much for the Labor Day week-end.  But, we did have two dates this week, and on Labor Day we dressed up and held hands while we walked through the new mall in downtown Granbury.  There was a large, nice looking, Methodist Church on the square a few years ago.  The church sold the building and moved to a new area north of town.  I could not imagine what they would do with that beautiful old church.  They added a facing to the front, adobe with arches and patio where there is a large event space with portable air coolers, even outside.  The inside is new, modern, glass with lots of modern art featuring heavy layered paint and bright colors and shapes.  They are building a new restaurant that will be finished before Christmas and there are art shops, photo shop, trendy clothes shop, gift and gourmet food shop and THE REPUBLICAL HEADQUARTERS.

We explored there and admired the new restaurant across the street with an outside patio.  Many were enjoying the cooler morning with coffee and conversation.   It was biker week end and the square was lined with parked bikes. in the street and booths inside the court house square.  It is looking pretty spiffy down town.  The court house was renovated in the last few years and the old Opera House is undergoing renovation now.  There are several new restaurants.  Some of the older places are gone or going and some new, trendy ones have arrived.  Changes, Changes.

We were home in time for dinner.  We had planned a special dinner when we shopped for groceries and things turned out well.  We had roast Rock Cornish hen, Coues-Couse with brocolli and cheese, yellow neck squash with tomatoes, pickled beets, and corn on the cob.  Watermellon for dessert had to wait until after our nap.

We shopped one day and did lots of research, and made the choice to get a weed eater that was gas run, but had an electric starter.  Neither of us can pull a cord and our electric 'eater' died this month.  The grass is green and juicy and tall.  One more good mowing and we can slide into winter.  We redid the flower beds and put down red mulch.  It looks neat. 

The rest of the week was dedicated to the linin closet.  Sorry, I'm back in the closet.  Our church is having a rummage sale and we are dragging out the old.  I have some old army blankets that are tough.  Those will go to the night shelter with our coats we don't use.  I predict a cold winter. 

Our new office closet is wonderful.  Somehow the wireless printers went on strike.  Is it possible to have too many wireliess things in the house?  We called my son John and he is checking it out.  He is the best tech service.  When he was teaching, his computer could look at all of the computers in class and he chould check their work and 'fix' things they were working on.  I have the same thing and it is probably not as new as I think.

I found a new recipe for tomato wine.  Anyone heard of that before?

Have a good week.

GREAT SUNDAY

It is wonderful to be at a stage of life where Sunday is a day of rest and visiting with God.  Sunday morning starts with Sunday School with Vikki, a very good teacher.  She is leading us through Ecceliastes.  This is the second time this year and there is still new stuff to discover.  She told us up front that this book was from the view point of, "Under the sun" and told of a view of life without God or rather from living just on earth with out a God view.  Solomon wrote the book when he had experienced a life of having everything (on earth) he wanted and found meaningless in that aspect.  Life without God doesn't seem as much fun after all,

We met more friends in church.  Our meet and greet always seems to take longer than we should.  When the music goes on we have to sit down.  Pastor Al gave his usual great sermon.  He talked on focus, the correct focus.  I don't know how he always knows just what we need to hear.

After church we went to lunch with Al and his wife, Dr. Sue and a friend from Korea, Chuck.  We found long lines everywhere except Charles' favorite resturant, The China House.  We always eat too much there.  Dr. Sue enjoyed the Mongolian Grill where she could avoid gluten.  Chuck is visiting for a long visit from Korea and we enjoyed trying to communicate. 

Later, after lunch we visited Joann from our church and sang while we were there.  Chuck was perfect in his English when he sings.  What a nice way to learn a language.  I must pay more attention to the Choctaw when we visit Oklahoma.  The church had made Joann a prayer pillow to help her after her recent surgery.  The members tie a knot in the strings on the pillow while they say a prayer for her.  It is a nice way to focus on the recipent of the gift from the church while they are down..  Yep, I listened Pastor Al. 

We were ready for our nap, but stopped and washed and vacuumed the car and took it to Fort Worth where we delivered it to the daughter of a friend.  It was hard to leave it as there were lots of memories and good times on trips with that car.  Isn't life wonderful, when we loose we remember and that stays with us forever.

Monday, we slept late and piddled with chores and had a quick lunch at Braum's.  What a good place.  We needed the nap to rest up from our day of rest, but Charles found time to work on his paper about the western writing of Robert E. Howard.  We missed the curtique session Monday night at Writer's Bloc since he didn't finish and we were just plain lazy. 

YA'ALL COME

Ya’all come.  And ya’all did this week.  We missed Jacqui but have been hearing from her as she settles in on her very own Marshall Island. Kwajalein wasn’t ready for her and she has not received her shipment from the US with her ‘stuff’ yet.  She has a loaner bike and is getting around, swimming, and getting ready for school to start.

We have seen family this week.  John and Carol brought their great grandkids, Lexi and Yi-yi from Wales.  They are talking well and have an accent (but only when they are in Texas).  Friends from church joined us for brunch Wednesday.  Quiché and fresh peaches.  The peaches are just right this week.  How many of them can we eat in one week?  Bradferd was here for lunch Thursday; chili realanos , Spanish rice, beans, and peach pie.  Yep, more peaches.  Victoria stopped in after work and finished the left-over’s and the pie.  She is planning a trip to the Dominican Republic this fall and found out there is a malaria problem.  They will have their preventive shots.

Charles spoke to his grand daughter, Vanessa, this afternoon just before she boarded the plane for Africa.  She is on a mission trip to Kenya; serving as a nurse on this trip and will be giving shots too.  I wonder if they are fighting malaria too.  She was excited.

The Methodist church has a mission to erase Malaria so we have been hearing about that.  I hadn’t realized how wide spread the disease is.  Safe trip to all our family as they return home and travel to help others.

We made a trip to town Thursday morning  and looked at things in Lowe’s, but we didn’t measure things first so we will sometime this week.  Charles wants a medicine cabinet in his bathroom.  They have so many to choose from that may work instead of the existing mirror.  I’m thinking of a walk in bathtub, but not just now when I’m recovering from closet fatigue.

Monday and Tuesday we had over four inches of rain.  The tank water level is up a little and things are getting green again.  My weed eater is suffering from fatigue too and is taking a little longer to power up again. 

 Just for fun we stopped by the Boys and Girl’s Club resale center to see when we can leave donations from our closet cleaning.  They have a new facility on 377 and I really wanted to look around but we didn’t have the time just then.  I DO NOT need new furniture, I need to get rid of some.  I get a certain twinge when I realize that furniture I got new is now over the age limit of 50 years to be considered antiques.

As it turned out, when Bradferd was here he told us he was looking for a good chair for his room that he could use for TV (and a little sleeping) and to study.  We did get to the Boys and Girl’s Club and they had a nice chair in good shape.  I did end up getting furniture, but it’s not going into the house.  It’s living in the van until Bradferd can pick it up with his truck.  Charles says he doesn’t miss the fall school start up.

Kathy called and said she was getting her classroom ready, but it smelled of fish.  Now how?

I climbed up to change the light in the hall and Charles went up the ladder tonight to clean out a blocked rain drain gutter on the roof and was so into fixing he went on to use the WD-40 on the squeaky screen door.  My Hero.  He was busy this morning spraying the tall grass at the entry with weed killer.  We decided on a diet and also that it isn’t eating it’s not moving around enough.   He did his today. 

The Folklore Society is having a week end program in March that sounds interesting.  I want to go to Kearney, NE to see the bird migration about the same time.  Just so we don’t think we are running away from chores.

Thanks to all the good company.  We love to have you. 

RACCOON BATTLE CONTINUES

I have lost every battle I have had with raccoons, but I was told that if I used a chain to hold my bird feeder that the raccoons wouldn't walk down a chain, and if they did I was to add barbs of wire in the links to stop them. Tonight I hung my bird feeder on a length of chain and will see if they put it on the ground like they did recently. The first time I put the feeder up they unscrewed it and dropped it on the ground. I put it back screwed tight and a couple of nights later they had it on the ground and bent. It is a metal with glass panels and now a little bent. I have been bringing it in at night and that works but is aggravating. We will see.

BLESSINGS OF RAIN

We were blessed with more than 3.5" of rain Saturday afternoon and evening here in Granbury. The pond was refreshed but not filled. We needed the rain on the mulch from the tree trimming last week, so God is good.

VISITORS FROM WALES

Last night we had two young visitors with interesting accents. Lexie, age 5 and her little brother, Ieiun(?) age 2, going on 3. Both have grown up in Wales and have delightful accents. Both are very bright. Lexie hasn't started school but can count to 100 and we showed her how to go on to 200, knows her alphabet and other things. Ieiun can count to 30 and loves to sing. He knows the words to Itty Bitty Spider, a Bumblebee song where he gets stung and others. They loved the cat but couldn't get her to play with them. Little brother helped me feed the birds this morning. He is curious and interested in everything and wants to help.

Yesterday Lexie loved the swing seat on the patio and climbed all over it pretending to be a monkey with appropriate sounds. She will make a gymnast. After taking a bath in the whirlpool tub last night and sleeping on the recliners this morning they left to visit Glen Rose and the dinosaur tracks on their way to meet their parents coming in to DFW from their vacation in Las Vegas. They had slight accents in their speech but were curious about everything. It was reported that they looked at a copper penny and said "this must be your king" because all British coins have monarchs pictured on them. We had to tell them we don't have a king, yet. It was a delight to have them around.

OUT OF THE CLOSET

     I'm pleased to announce that I'm done with the closets, except for filing.  I'm never up to date on filing.   I will put it at the top of my To Do list. 
     During the time I was in the closets, we had the professional tree people come in and clear some of the dead trees.  They did about half, but it was just too hot with over 100 degrees every day.  The head man left one day to finish another job and had a heat exhaustion event.  He spent the next few days in bed recovering while his crew finished up here.
     Charles is pleased he can now drive into the pole barn and park his truck.  We have a huge pile of cedar mulch.  One of the crew used his blade weed eater and cleared the sides of a hill by the road and the back side of the dam; places where I can not mow.  The last day we were up and out very early so I could mow before it got hot.  After some neglect, things are looking a little better.
    I finished a first page review for our Writer's Bloc session.  We will have a much published author there to critique our work and offer suggestions.  Charles has a first page in his head, but getting on paper is much harder.  He is thinking of a Route 66 type story about the adventures of a truck driver.  His nephew, Al,  drives a truck and Charles thinks he has had an interesting life.  Way to go Al, tell it all to Charles.
     During all the other activities we had our regular pest control spray outside.  He found the usual wasp nest in a new place behind an outside light and knocked most of it down and sprayed.  Later in the day I was out on the patio sweeping and a wasp in full battle outfit came out of the little patch of mud and went right for my ankle.  He was stinging me to much I couldn't knock him off, OUCH.  It didn't seem to bother me much except for the pain, but my foot began to swell and is just now going down this week.  It gave me a good excuse to slow down and finish my Johnny Boggs book.  Very good book, Purgatoire;  also, very graphic descriptions of a drunk man in all his stink.  That was the hero.  Good read.

CURIOSITY, LIGHTNING AND KWAJ

We have had two days with rain storms but not much rainfall. Two nights ago we just got to bed during the rain when a lightning bolt lit up the ceiling fan with a brilliant white flash. The power went off but came back on immediately. I got up to set the blinking clock and smelled but could locate no sign of smoke in the house. Nancy said to look out the window to see if there was any sign of fire. There was none. The next day I looked all around the house expecting to see damage but could find nothing on the roof or in the trees around the house. It was scary though.

We woke up to watch the NASA channel report on Curiosity landing and were pleased that it was successful. As an engineer I was apprehensive because of the complicated method of delivery. It had never been tried and looked way too complicated. But it worked flawlessly. A great tribute to the computer aided design and manufacturing that has changed the aerospace business enormously in the past 30 years. I look forward to the scientific tests that will be accomplished, although I completely disagree with the purpose of the tests. We are living out Buck Rogers thinking as we keep looking for the people (bacteria) that lived on Mars. Personally I believe that there are no living organisms in space except from here on earth, but that is part of my other blog on creation science.

Today we got to visit with Nancy's granddaughter who is leaving tomorrow to fly to Kwajalein to start working as a math teacher in their high school. The island is 3.5 miles long and 1/2 mile wide with the major recreation activity scuba diving to look at the WWII ships, airplanes and military equipment in the waters around the island. It was a major battle field in WWII. It is located on the equator with moderate tempertures year-round and rarely sees storms that would flood it. She is looking forward to possibly two years there. At least for one. We are anticipating a lot of great stories from her.

RUDDER THE BOOK

I finished reading RUDDER by Thomas Hatfield and posted my comment on Amazon. I was surprised that they posted it because they restrict comments to books that are purchased from Amazon and I bought this book from Glenn Dromgoole in Abilene. I had him sign it because he is mentioned in the book as one of the editors of The Battalion, the student newspaper that Rudder battled with during his entire tenure.

The book is an interesting and detailed look at Earl Rudder's military career, but I was disappointed in the history of his tenure at A&M because no mention was made of Dean Fred J. Benson or of the Aerospace Engineering department, or of Robert Gilruth, who was running NASA during the Apollo program. We worked closely with NASA and Gilruth was often on the campus. He was also often in Washington working with Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. Dr. Wainerdi is mentioned but he was an assistant dean to Benson who was never mentioned.

It was a great read as I came to the campus the year Rudder was made president and went through all of the history of moving from an all-male military campus to a fully integrated campus with women. My wife, Lou, was one of the first women students and later my daughter was one of the first women to live in a dorm on campus, so I saw the whole thing.

I think the A&M Methodist Church should have been mentioned a little more. He did talk about Rudder growing up in the Methodist church. That is where I met Rudder and where many of his Deans and professors went to church. I taught his children in the first SS class I taught there and then taught the college age SS class for the next 20 years. His successor, Jack Williams was also a member.

CLEANING CLOSETS

Everyone comes to this.  A week of cleaning out closets with the intent of filling them back up with all the stuff that just can not be discarded.  Sigh!  Not a real interesting week, except....  We had lunch with friends in the midst of the sorting table and paper piles.  Yep, paper piles since the office closet has a file closet.  I do not file, except by severe necessity.  Once filed, it is forgotten like it or not it probably will never be seen again.  So I can not file bills to be paid, or anything to do with current taxes.

Next, it is shoes and purses.  Some I have not used for at least three years.  I have a pair of gold heels that I love and have not worn at all.  I love them and can see elegant dinners and even dancing.  Charles and I did boooge some this last month, but I can not do that in heels and stay upright.  Guess my gold heels will go to some lucky girl who actually does elegant dinners with dancing.

Jacqui is ready to fly off to the Marshall Islands to teach  We had a bon voyage party and we had excellent conversations with family we have not seen for awhile.  We will miss her.  A good thing was Clifferd driving us to the party in his new car.  Very nice and still smells new.  I love the GPS in the dash board and the phone that is voice activated (no hands).  It has a sun roof.  Charles read the operating manual and Clifferd said, "now you probably know more about my car than I do."

Church was good this Sunday.  We miss Al and enjoyed Ken.  Good job. Pastor Al is in Korea with his wife visiting family and preaching in their local church with her translating.  I know they are enjoying the visit.  We followed with our quarterly dinner on the grounds.  Can Methodists cook, oh yes.  Charles wanted to take chocolate and we did.      No Sunday School but we would have missed it anyway since son Ernie and wife Suzy were with us and we talked too long over breakfast.  The paper piles were gone.  I think next week will finish the closets.  We found some workers to remove the many dead trees around us.  Last year's dry and hot spell caused cedar mites to kill a good many trees.  The good news is that they are in front of the pole barn and we needed to remove most of them that had grown over the doors there.  Charles will be able park his truck under cover now.

We had a good time at Writer's /Bloc this month and talked about blogs.  I found I need to add key words so the blog shows up in a search engine.  So, here they are:  sex, scandal, elections, politicians, guns, TV stars, murder mystery stories, real and fiction.  That should take care of that.

FUZZY LUNCH

We had doctor appointments in the morning in Weatherford and in the afternoon in FW so we called Ashley to have lunch with her and Emilyn. Her choice was FUZZYS. I would never have chosen to eat Mexican food at a restaurant named Fuzzys but we were glad that we did. The food was great and well priced. Emilyn loves the black beans that Ash got to add to her chicken salad. She also gobbled down the rice. Nancy had a great beef salad and barraco beans (pinto beans with bacon and beer). I had a soft chicken taco that was good.

We saw two FW police officers, and man and a woman who came past and I had to ask them if they knew Kevin Morton. They did and I told them that he was our pastor in Cross Plains. They smiled and told us to have a good day.

The outside temperature according to my Avalon was 114 but came down to 108 while the radio station was reporting 105. I know that my steering wheel was hot enough to burn my hand.

CANCER SURGERY AND MEET THE AUTHOR

We have been busy all week with rain almost every day until today. Today started with Kiwanis at 7 in the morning, quick drive to the dermatologist in Abilene who cut and scraped a cancer in my ear lobe. He also drove a couple of nails in my skull with his nitrogen bottle. Only one time in the last many years he didn't squirt those liquid nails in my skull. I went by the hearing center to exchange some plastic parts I ordered by mail that didn't fit my hearing aids. They gave me some batteries for my trouble.

Tonight we had Bill Neal as the Meet the Author at the Cross Plains Public Library. I had the pleasure of introducing him. His wife had decorated the table with a small pair of spurs that were worn by him as a boy. I showed them and explained that his grandfather had him on a horse before he could walk. He has a ranch now but doesn't ride his horse. He reviewed his fourth and latest book about a sex and murder triangle of rich families living in Amarillo. They had grown up in Georgetown before and during the Civil War. They were Methodists and helped establish Southwestern University. During reconstruction they made their fortunes in driving longhorn cattle to California and Colorado markets, moved to run the XIT ranch in the Panhandle. There the children of the three rich families had married and got into a lover triangle. The wife, who had two children, told her husband she wanted a divorce to marry the other man. The husband has her committed to an insane asylum in FW, the lover helped her escape and they fled to Canada. The husband tracks them down, "rescues" his wife and  recommits her, then kills her lover and his father, is tried for both murders, takes the stand and admits the murders, has a great lawyer and the jury finds him not guilty. To find out why they gave that verdict, we have to read the book, so I bought one.

I am reading RUDDER the story of Earl Rudder who was the president of A&M when I went to work there. He was a Methodist and most of the Deans and department heads as well as many profs were also members, so that I made a lot of friends from attending Sunday School and working with the Wesley Foundation. The biography tells about Earl's growing up in a home without electricity or plumbing with his mother cooking on a wood fire, much like the time I moved to a farm without plumbing. We did have electricity but had to carry water from a shallow well and heat it over an outdoor pot.

I just finished reading about his major military event, the capture of the German guns on Pointe du Hoc on D-Day. He had a bullet go through his thigh but left a clean hole that had a band aid put on and kept going. He had another blast that put shrapnel in his chest and head that kept coming out for years later. In spite of the wounds he continued to lead the troops as they fought through to the French country.

Carol Walt recommended a book SHIP OF GOLD IN THE DEEP BLUE WATER that her engineer relative read about a boat that sunk during the gold rush carrying a cargo of gold from SF to NY. I got it on Kindle and started reading it. Right now the ship is foundering off the Atlantic coast in a hurricane. Hasn't sunk yet, but things are hairy.

I also bought a new Kindle book that is the second one in Mobley series. I wrote about the first one some time ago. It was a great book about Texas during reconstruction and I expect this one to be a great follow-up.

Middle of the week

Somehow I have missed Tuesday.  Probably because I overused Monday.  I love Monday mornings as our church in CP has prayer meeting first thing in the week; peace that passes all understanding.  Charles comes to the prayer meeting most weeks but this Monday he went to the library board meeting.  There are a couple of ladies there that are DANGEROUS.  They have a bad, bad case of enthusiasm and always spread it around and catch volunteers.  This little library in our little town was the second place  winner last year for the Best Little Library.  We have the tire of a space shuttle and it is treated like the crown jewel of the town.  Charles is the resident rocket scientist involved with the artifact.

Back to Monday, we got together after the board meeting and drove to Abilene to pick up a prescription and of course had  good reason to eat out; back home on full and we enjoyed a good nap.

Tuesday, that I lost, was sweaty.  Lydia came to clean my house and I went into town and helped Sue in the final stages of renovating her old house.  She pulled her old rug up and there is a beautiful wood floor underneath.  I just purchased a new buffer and we played with the floor restorer and spray wax.  We were pleased with the floor.  I love being surprised when I find fantastic things.  We finished early and Charles picked us up and took us to Dairy Queen in all our cleaning glory.

He is so good.  He drove in to deliver a salad to the church for a funeral and take us to lunch.  Sue remembered some old stories about her sister Lou, and their parents.  I hope she writes all her stories down to share.  Sue has a way with remembering and sharing the old time stories.

Today, Wednesday, is just a good day.  It rained last night and the grass is turning green and tall.  I cooked and did laundry and he mowed.  We feel tidy now.  Somehow, these are the best days.

BUSY JULY 8 WEEKEND

We had lots of company this weekend with both of my children with their spouses, Nancy's daughter, my granddaughter, Vanessa, the nurse from Lubbock, and my granddaughter, Ashley with her husband and my great-granddaughter, Emilynn. This was the first visit by them since our wedding April, 2011. We were glad to be able to visit, sit on the porch to watch the stars come out. My daughter, Kathy arranged for all of us to eat at Perini's Ranch restaurant at Buffalo Gap Saturday evening joined by Sue Neal and her two daughters along with Doug Hodel. I couldn't believe that I was the only one who had beef, which is what the restaurant is famous for. We were outside next to a Stamford high school 40th reunion. They were located around a concrete dance floor and had a DJ playing music. My great-granddaughter has just started walking and had a ball whirling around to the music while clapping her hands.

This morning everyone came to church except Nancy's daughter who had to get back home. This was the first time my kids had heard our Fort Worth policeman pastor, Kevin Morton. I was unable to sit with them because I found out when I got there that I was Worship Leader this Sunday.

After church we all were able to gather around one table at Mexico City cafe where we enjoyed eating the buffet and watching Emilynn eat with her hands, her small fork but preferring her mother's large fork. She ate a plate full of food with her two lower teeth.

My son tested out a new gun. This is a good place to test fire your weapon. My son-in-law, Keith, wanted to plant a cottonwood tree and I told him that all he had to do was cut some branches and put them in the ground. He cut some branches and put them in water to take home. I told him to get them in the ground tonight and when he comes back from a trip to Cooperstown next week they will be growing. They are cotton-less cottonwoods and will do well in his yard in San Antonio.

The great bonus after they left and I had my nap was about 6 p.m. we had a rain shower that lasted all of three minutes and measured 0.1" of rain. And we appreciate every drop. We ran off a raccoon that was handing on my bird feeder. Normally they don't come out in the daylight.

All in all a great weekend. The only disappointment was only 3 came to SS class. And it was about Ezekial who has these great visions of cherubims with wings, hands, wheels and eyes everywhere.

Some of Nancy's kids

 I'm learning to insert pictures.  This is my two sons, from left to right John and wife Carol and Ernie and wife Suzy.

FRY BREAD

I have heard from a friend that fry bread is unique and not to be confused with soppillias.  Anyone else have an idea where to get fry bread?  There is a special place just outside of El Paso, an old Indian reservation, that served bread baked in an outdoor adobe oven, but not fry bread. The reservation is right on the Rio Grande so I do not know how safe it is right now. 

We enjoyed our visits to Juarez in the 60s.  There was a government project just over the boarder that specialized in selling original, hand made Mexican crafts, dishes, art, etc.  I wish now that I had shopped more. 

I only tangled with the boarder once.  I did not think when I took two metal chairs with me one day to be repaired by the welder in Juarez.  We had a good day and picked up the repaired chairs on the way home.  There I was stopped by the US boarder guards who wanted tariff on the chairs.  "But they are my chairs."  I said.  We had a conversation and I did not have to pay on my J.C. Penney chairs. 

It always tickled me that when I bought avocados in Juarez as I had to cut them in half at the boarder to bring them in. On each avocado was a sticker that said, "grown in California".  Well we know California is not safe, but avocados?  I kept the pits which make nice house plants.

Reunion in Fremont Nebraska

We did have a very good reunion.  It was wonderful spending a little time with some long standing friends.  Ron and Em Scheer led us out into the boon doggles Friday night for a meet and greet cocktail party.  So many good snacks.  My granddaughter, Jacqui, and her friend, Amanda Dawson, traveled with us and helped drive; excellent drivers.  They looked pretty at the party and the next night at the dinner.  Ron and Em were both in my class, which by the way was 60 not 65 years ago.  They were honor students, lived in Fremont since then and have a big, good family. 

This was the first apartment that Nancy lived in when she was married. The windo on the upper right is the location of the apartment.

Marge Johnson and Beth Kindler came north over the Platte River to attend school in Fremont that many years ago.  Both looked fantastic and are still going strong.  We have pictures, but they seem to escape us when we try and load on to the site.  Marge lived in west Nebraska for several years where she married a veterinarian, Doc.  They retired to Arizona and were active there until Doc was lost and Marge returned to Fremont to be close to family and old friends.  Beth and her husband, David, owned a local restaurant, famous for their fried chicken.  Both have busy families and I got to meet Beth's youngest son at the first party.  Beth had her daughter and I had Ernie in the same hospital in the same week way back when.

Nancy on the right with Jo Ann and Marge.

Jo Ann Gaughan and her husband Bill were there, looking good.  Bill is recovering from a broken hip that took up much of their time last year.  Jo Ann was my maid of honor when I married 60 years ago.  1952 was a busy year.  There were many more I had not seen for years.  Name tags were a good thing.  We have had good people in our class and they are still around, all the way from as far as Australia.  Part of the dinner was a memorial for lost classmates, 65 out of about 300 plus of us.  They read the names and there were too many good people on the list. 

Nancy and granddaughter and friend place roses on ancestor graves.

This was the last hurrah for the summer.  June started in May when we went to Port Aransas in South Texas and ended with the reunion in July.  We are all used up and plan on rest and austerity in July.  We have been too well fed at events and gatherings.  Love you all, new friends and old as dirt friends.
Nancy

JULY 4

Today we celebrated the Fourth by going to the matinee and first production of 1776 in the Granbury courthouse. Even with a few local actors the play was superb. Great sound, great acting and a reminder of the problems in establishing a rebellion and founding a new nation. Then I got an email from Henderson telling what happened to the signers of the Declaration and it was a reminder of the sacrifices made by the signers.

We got back Monday driving from Olathe, KS in one day after a great visit with Ernie and Suzy there. We were coming from Fremont, NE for Nancy's 60th high school reunion. She got to visit with lots of her old friends. We looked at the homes in Fremont that she grew up in. Two are still pretty much like they were when she lived here. We visited the graveyards of her ancestors and laid flowers on the graves. We drove by an old Rosedale schoolhouse that Nancy's children attended many years ago. It has become a day care center.

This is Nancy and me at the reception for the high school reunion.

We visited with Marge Johnson's friend Ray Hula, who is a wood carver. His carvings were amazing. I will try to post some photos later.

This bobcat was one of the most lifelike wood carvings. It had whiskers made from his paint brush bristles. He said it only took one week to do this.  Amazing!

A NORMAL DAY, JUNE 27TH

A NORMAL DAY, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27
     A normal day, wonderful! We have had way too much fun in June, most of it away from home. We unpacked yesterday and today is a just a plain old good day. Breakfast was a little late since we could sleep until we wanted to get up. As a special treat, we saw our resident baby deer waiting at the side of the woods. Soon, mama deer came out onto the back lawn and assessed the area. As we were sitting in front of the big window, we were as quiet as we could be. She nibbled and walked on. Baby, still with spots, slowly followed her and stopped to nibble on the same grass mom did. When she reached the woods on the other side, he ran like ahh a deer to catch up, and they both disappeared.

     Charles puts out bird feed every morning so we can watch the birds at breakfast. We have been gone so much they were scarce, but I am sure they will find their way back to breakfast every morning. We have two very fat squirrels who are regulars.  They are fat because they have first call on the birdseed.  The water level is low right now and the squirrels drink out of a hole in one of the trees that holds water.  It is a favorite spot for all the animals including two snakes several years ago.

     One of our peach trees died during the heat last year so we have no peaches.  However, our fig tree by the front door looks good.  Last year some critter beat us to the fruit.  Charles has lots of grapes at his in-law’s house.  I am a little lazy about spending a whole day making jam, but it would be good.  We stocked up on Sur-Jell just incase I have a spurt of ambition.

       Sue had fresh peaches one day last week.  We sat on the front porch and ate them.  So good and juicy.  Weatherford will have their peach festival in a couple of weeks.  Maybe I will have two onsets of ambition.

     Bobbe and Yvonne are back from their trip to South Dakota. Yvonne has a new camera that takes thousands of pictures on a disc.  I have lived next door to Mt Rushmore and never visited.  Maybe next year, this year has used us all up right now.  We had lunch together and caught up on our family news.  We love Chinese food, and Charles fasted yesterday so just another good thing.

     Bless you all.

GRANBURY WRITERS MEETING

Tonight we enjoyed meeting with the Granbury writers for presentation of papers and the critiques. Nancy read her blog that summarized our WWA trip. She then gave a presentation of the remarks she heard at the WWA about what publishers want from writers, especially how writers have the responsibility to market their book. We heard some good papers from all of those present. One young granddaughter, (I am guessing 12-14) has some good stories written in the voice of young women. The president, Robert, had an excellent story about his falling in love with his second wife. Others had segments from their novels that we enjoyed.
While in the meeting I got phone calls from Sue who said she was going home from Dallas where she got a good report from her doctor on her cancer being gone. She was going through Granbury and called. She really didn't have time to stop so being in the meeting kept her going home. My housekeeper called. She had called during the last meeting to say she might not clean house tomorrow but sometime this week.
We started the day in Weatherford for a doctor's visit by Nancy. I enjoyed visiting with a man who was on the Cutting Horse association board. I asked if he knew Helen Groves and he said he sold her her first 4 cutting horses and held classes to teach her and her friends how to work them. He was also a close friend of Barney Welch and told stories of their working with cutting horses. I failed to get his last name but he referred to himself as Lynn.
We got to see Clifferd, Nancy's grandson who had his car destroyed when a pickup truck crashed into him when he was stopped at an intersection. He is still sore but is recovering and having problems with the insurance companies involved with the driver that hit him in a "borrowed" pickup. He will go back to work tomorrow. The accident happened on the first day of a one week vacation that gave him time to recover.

WEEK ENDING JUNE 17TH

     This was an awesome week. Hundreds of authors, historians, publishers, one lone agent, University Presses representatives were in attendance. There were a few unpublished hanger-ons like me, Nancy. We went to our room one afternoon and Charles walked over to his computer and said, "Now I want to sit down and write."

     The panel of publishers and agents was informative. They each spoke on several questions and all asked for manuscripts. The panel was followed by evaluations of writers as they signed up and had a sample of their work.

     We did find time to explore Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Santa Fe is not the little New Mexico village that I remembered from the 60s when I lived in Albuquerque. The new buildings, and the old, must follow a strict building code since all were adobe in the same terracotta color. We saw lush patios and potted plants everywhere; charming, and yet we could almost see how Santa Fe would have looked a hundred years ago. I know, I know it would not have been so clean and there would have been horses. We visited the New Mexico History Museum Campus and attended another panel after a tour of The Press at the Palace of the Governors. The old press tour was a taste of the work involved with printing books and notices years ago.  Our guide was a professor, Thomas Leach who still uses the presses to publish as he printed us bookmarks with the exhibit’s hand press.  His commented that the difficulty of the presses and obtaining type influenced the way writers wrote.  Sometimes, words had to be changed, as the original could not be set since the required type was not available.

    We had lunch at the La Fonda where we shared a huge plate of Mexican food, and visited the old Loretto Chapel just off the square with the miracle circular staircase and some very life like statues at the Stations of the Cross.

     After a short break at the museum with tea and cookies, we had an extra hour on the square where we stocked up on refrigerator magnets. We lost most all of our pictures and magnets awhile back and it is beginning to look nice and cluttered again. Charles bought a huge, wiggly crab magnet in Port Arkansas and it looks a little scary. I call it a diet aid.

     Back in Albuquerque, we had one afternoon free so Charles drove me around my old neighborhood to look for my house. I could not remember much except the big lotus tree in the front yard. Since that was about 50 years ago, the tree would have to be really huge now or dead and gone. I thought I remembered the address, but it was not there. My kids were in kindergarten or so about then. On the way, we found the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History and had to stop and browse. I found a nuclear hat (no it was not radioactive, just a red ball cap) and he got a math cup with the formula for mass, velocity, time, and energy. It was interesting. It is no longer a Sandia Corp venture and has other funding now.

     We did try to find Old Town but it seemed to be lost in a canyon of building towers. Saturday, before the final meeting we armed ourselves with maps and directions and found Old Town right where it always was. I did not find the cooking in the square with mutton stew and fry bread. We ate at the La Fiesta. When our sopapillas were served, I commented that I missed finding the fry bread they used to make outside. Our waitress said, "But that is the sopapillas you have here." Well, and I have been eating them all the time.

     We drove to Albuquerque from Charles' house at the beginning of the week and found it an easy drive, which we shared, and drove back Sunday, Father's Day. As we were driving through Lubbock, we called Vanessa, Charles' granddaughter who works in hospice, to invite her to lunch to help us celebrate the Day. Our GPS found a good China Star. We drove the rest of the way home on full.  We were home before dark even after stopping to pick up a few fresh things and material for two prayer quilts at church.

     We had a good trip and thank you God for keeping us safe. My grandson Clifferd was also blessed as he had a bad accident Saturday when he was stopped for a light.  A truck tail ended him going about 50 miles an hour and knocked him into another lane where another car hit him in the side. He has a concussion and is stiff, sore, and safe. No car left, it was totaled.  He had only two more payments, and was starting a week of vacation at the shore with friends. So, he is stuck at home, hurting and bored, with no car, and following the doctor's orders.  About the only fun thing is looking for a new car on the internet.

      It is good to be home.

EASY WATER UPDATE

I installed my Easy Water system on March 12. Now more than three months later I can report that it is working great. I examined the screen on the lavatory faucet with absolutely no calcium buildup on the screen or the other parts in the nozzle. We find no buildup in the bottom of the plastic glass I use with pills in the bathroom. The glasses and cups show no calcium buildup as in the past.

I hope it continues to keep the lime deposits from forming. I don't plan to pull one of the elements in the new hot water heater, but I hope it is preventing that buildup also.

WESTERN WRITERS 2012 MEETING

Here are some photos of our Western Writers of America meeting in Albuquerque June 12-16, 2012.

Here we are dressed for the Spur Banquet. Nancy wanted me to wear my new black onyx bolo with my black suit, shirt and hat.

We asked Cheryl and Leon Metz to take our photo and I reciprocated with this one.

At our table at the business breakfast we had a new member from Japan. Duke Hiroi on the right is an expert on guns and was with his mentor, Western novelist Charles Whipple, who lives in Japan.

Also at our table at the business meeting were new friends, Ollie Reed who was a newspaper writer until the paper closed in 2008. He writes stories with Johnny Boggs for True West and specializes in non-fiction. At the table they were discussing Billy the Kid. Ollie had interviewed persons who knew him and swear they saw him dead in Fort Sumpter. Next to Ollie is Francine Roark Robison, who writes cowboy poetry and is from Tecumseh, OK. I lived in Prague for three years near there. The person on the right is Thomas Cobb, novelist from Foster, RI.

We were honored to have Eli Paul at our table also. We met him on the bus from Santa Fe. He told us he hasn't written any books for seven years. He wrote about the American Indians in Nebraska. He is a librarian in Kansas City but for WWA he has one of the hardest jobs. He was the Spur Chair. He had to get judges for all of the categories, pick the winners and finalists and chaired the presentation program at the Spur Banquet that is the most important part of the program as well as the Finalist luncheon the day before. He recruited Wes Studi, the actor who played Geronimo, as well as other Indian roles in movies, to present many of the Spur awards. All of the women had to have their photo made with him.

CHURCH DAY

Sunday, June 10, 2012
     We planned nothing today.  God does know we need a day of rest.  Charles was Worship Leader for a most strange service.  Strange because we didn't have anyone to play the piano.  Bobbi Jo Simms was not able to attend and we were lost.,  Somehow, someone had made recordings of the music we were to use and we did have that, but we just sounded very strange and disjointed.  Kevin said to stay flexible.
     We were dismissed early since we we didn't try to have special music in our service without a piano.  Jean's Feed Barn is always busy on Sunday.;  This seemed like the day we would beat everyone to the tables, but the other churches were all out before us.  How do they do that?  We shared a table with the Millers, Dixion, and a new friend from Cottonwood I had not gotten to know yet.
      Gardens are doing well this year.  We had bags of squash at the church that were given away for the members.  Granddaughter, Amy, was on facebook with her husband, Clint, holding a huge armload of different kinds of squash.  She is looking for recipes.
     We have one lonely tomato plant on the front porch and some pots of flowers.  They are alive so I know Charles is taking care of them.  My thumb is brown.  The wild flowers were so nice this year.  It has been a wonderful spring and not to dry.  It is never just wet here I believe.
    
     There is free time here.  The TV is not running an will not until we receive a new "box", probably tomorrow.  Charles is having trouble with his email and my mouse turned belly up.  I'm using the old fashioned touch pad and is it slow!!!  My cell phone has too much static and the clocks all have different times.  Sigh!  We have our books and will just talk to each other.  Unusual evening.

BARBARIAN UPDATE

Today is the annual Barbarian Festival in Cross Plains. Last night we attended the annual Robert E. Howard dinner where the REHUPA folks come in from all over the world. The last several years we have had a group from Scotland and they were here this year. They didn't announce other countries. We did see two Calif license plates in the parking lot. The room was sold out. Sue joined us because someone had cancelled. The table decorations were rocks from Caddo Peak ranch. Could have been from Halsell Hill. We are all built from limestone fossils. Yesterday I took the noon shift at the Library where we display REH papers and magazines he published in. I met some interesting people who were visiting.

Today is the Festival day and I will again work the noon shift at the Library. They have panel discussions on Howard in the Library and at his museum. Tonight they will have a barbarque on Caddo Peak. Many other events like car shows, music, eats, etc. are going on and I will miss. I will also miss going to the CANSAT rocket launching contest that has about 30 college teams from all over the world competing in launching a rocket and recovering a can with data. One Texas team is from Tarleton and has a local boy on the team.

We spent Sunday thru Wednesday noon in Waco at the Central Texas Annual Conference of the Methodist Church. I was lay member from Cross Plains. Nancy was alternate in case I got sick. She attended many of the sessions. We attended the church services where the guest preacher this year was Dr. Joy Moore, from Duke University and an excellent preacher. Nancy got to meet and talk to her. One of the highlights was seeing Mike Love being ordained as an elder. I worked with him at General Dynamics where he was in the same group as my son, Mark, working on CAD/CAM software. About 10 years ago he decided to go into the ministry and just now completed all the education and training requirements to become an Elder.  At that service we sat next to a pastor from Valley View who is a reserve chaplain and spent 3 tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Interesting to talk to him.

We have been blessed with rain both in Granbury and here on Halsell Hill. Had two inches in my rain gauge when we came in Thursday. And I need to mow.

MEMORIAL SERVICE

Last night we attended the United Methodist West District memorial service and conference in the FUMC in Stephenville. I was priviledged to light the candle for the three members of our Cross Plains FUMC that died last year.

I was intrigued by the stained glass windows in the old church. On the left was a large window with Christ blessing people and on the right was a large window with what I took to be John Wesley. First time I remember seeing a stained glass window that didn't have Biblical figures on it. The ones we made at CP are all symbolic of Biblical stories.

We had a good pianist playing for the hymns. A young man who apparently ran the projector that projected the words on front walls. I personally used the hymn book to see what the music looked like.

We got to Stephenville an hour early, so we went to a restaurant and then got back a couple of minutes late and sat on the back row with our pastor and a retired minister from our church. During the business meeting I found out that having the Annual Conference Preliminary Report downloaded to my Kindle didn't let me find the pages fast enough to keep up with the discussion. It might work at the Annual Conference where we have three days to look at it. I noticed that it worked a lot better on the pastor's Ipad or whatever he has.

We got home at 10 ready for some sleep after driving most of the day. Today we looked at the morning glories climbing their trellis and the mint I put in a pot was really large and growing. Nancy's rain gauge had about 1" so that has kept everything growing while we were gone. Nancy mowed some high grass this morning. I nailed a board back on the fence and posted to my Waples waplesmethodists.blogspot.com Methodist blog.

Friday, May 18th Just a day

     Little chore day and we did little of that.  We did decide we have had too much steak and too little exercise so we walked down to the mail box.  The start was beautiful.  There was a huge field of yellow, daisy flowers we walked through.  Blue sky, white fluffy clouds and green trees made it West Texas at it's best.  But like West Texas any old time, BEWARE.  Today we are treating chigger bites. There are always, bugs, stickers, snakes (no we didn't see one this time).  Early this spring Charles and Valerie saw a pretty good sized snake on the path to the fish pond.  A little later I saw one sunning itself in the drive way.  I yelled for Charles who took care of it by stamping his feet until it slithered away; right into the open garage.  I haven't felt the same about getting into the car since.
     We haven't had as much trouble as some this wet spring.  I feel the need to practice with my revolver.  I'll try not to hit the fence.
    

Wednesday and Thursday May 16, 17 Abiliene Days

     Well, not all in Abilene.  Wednesday we started in Eastland for an eye appointment with a new doctor for me (Nancy).  She was very good and gave me a prescription for new glasses.  She also dialated my eyes and the rest of the afternoon passed in a blur.  We went directly to Abilene for Charles' appointment for his regular six month check up.  By four in the PM we had ordered prescripton glasses and were both feeling healthy and very hungry.  Charles knows all the good places and took us to the Red Lobster.  We shared two dinners and canceled work for the rest of the day and just went home.
     Thursday we were up and going to Abilene to finish our To do list.  Charles went to an Engineers' lunch meeting and I shopped and had a Subway lunch on the way home.  Charles picked up his new suit. Spiffy! Today we got a nap.
     Before we left the house this morning, I talked to a friend in Nebraska and we are signed up for my 60th reunion.  I need to get my annual out and review the names and people.  I hope my new glasses work well enough to read name tags at the reunion.  Grand daughter Jacqui and friend Amanada, (my honorary daughter)  both fresh out of school for the summer, are helping us drive north.  I am looking forward to showing Charles where I grew up along with seeing real tall corn growing, at least seven feet, and the world's largest feed lot that covers most of the whole state.  Now you know where your steak comes from.
     The feed lots provide fertilizer for the corn fields to feed the cattle.  Bradferd, my grandson, says the whole state smells. Like Texas oil, it smells like money.

BUSY DAYS

Monday started early. Nancy went to prayer group meeting at church while I attended my first Library board meeting in a year. I am still on a couple of committees. Our Meet The Author committee was asked to get Bill Neal for our next session in July. I told the board that Sue found Ike Neal's reel-to-reel tapes and found one labeled Fos Bond. We will send it to Texas Tech Southwest Collection where they have the technology to copy it to a CD for us, hopefully. It is an old tape and may have lost some of the sound.

This morning I attended Kiwanis breakfast meeting, voted in the primary, and picked up some more bird feed at Lawrence's store.

After the steak and lobster Sunday in the afternoon we had a fox in the back yard. I was wondering if the mouse I caught and threw out attracted him. We have been missing having a fox family in the back yard.

Sunday, May 13, 2012 MOTHERS' DAY

     Good, good day!
     I got to talk to all my kids and they are doing well.  Charles cooked as promised and it was a feast.  Victoria's care package had lobster tails, asparagus, cheese biscuits mix, clam chowder ingrediants, and strawberry cheese cake.  We already had steaks to grill and added wine.  We came home from church and he put on his apron.  I knew having all that chemistry in school would come in handy.  The picture of the grinning cook is below.

The lobster tails are grilled.

Final platter of steak and lobster with heated butter.

     I was allowed to make a salad and keep him company.  The lobster tail curled up and started smoking.  Small panic and it didn't hurt anything.  He even had melted butter to dip the treat.  We ate and ate and couldn't do it all, so we saved the cheese cake for after our nap. 
    And, get this, he even did the dishes.  Wow! love that man.
    I need an elaborate something for Father's Day.  It will be hard to top this Mother's Day.

Home Day

Saturday, May 12, 2012

     Home chore day only we never got around to many chores.  Charles read Bob Green's book "History as it Lingers".  I worked on some things for our Writer's Bloc meeting in May, but didn't find what I wanted so didn't write a word except notes to research To Do.  I'm better at writing To Do lists than doing To Do lists.  Somewhere in the Bible it says that we shouldn't plan for tomorrow for the Lord has his own plans.  Obviously, that is a bad quote since I can't find it in the Bible.  Jim, Charles' grandson, asked me once what Charles had taught me.  Well!  I said, "to be more organized"  I guess I need a few more lessons on actually doing and less on lists are in order  I'll add it to my current To Do list.
     Charles also organized his Mother's Day present for me which was cooking dinner for me Sunday.  He made a pot of Clam Chowder and we sampled it at 'tea time'  Very good, but very salty for our usual fare.  Sue dropped by but we couldn't persuade her to help us eat all that chowder.  We did have our tea.  We have added a break after nap time to help us wake up;  a little tea, a little conversation and a little visit with Sue this Saturday.
     Sue is doing well and has been working way too hard to make up for the time she was not feeling well.  She is amazing.
    Victoria called Friday and told us a package was coming for Mom's Day and to put it in the freezer right away.  She and Charles conspired.  The clam chowder was part of the package.  We are going to have a feast!

CELEBRATING THE RAIN

My big rain gauge had exactly one inch of rain this morning from the rain last night. We walked to get the mail and the road was clear of any water so the rain came steadily and soaked in. We watched hundreds of butterflies work on the flowers. There are a lot of yellow butterflies on the yellow flowers plus lots of other black, brown and yellow ones everywhere. I made some more hummingbird water and put my new feeder from Fredericksburg on the front porch. Someone sent me a video on email showing a hummingbird doing back flips chasing a bug while eating. They are amazing aviators. They are also mean to others who want to feed.

Bob Green's book is a great historical book about the Albany area. He has a first chapter on the history of the Comanches and their relation with the Texans during and after the Civil War. It is graphic in the description of the torture of captives by the Comanches. I had read the story about the meeting of the six chiefs with Texans in San Antonio but not the aftermath back in the camps later. As Green points out the Comanches never had a main chief. Each tribe had peace and war chiefs but they only served as long as the people accepted them. This caused problems with the US who wanted to make treaties with leaders. There were four different Comanche organizations, or nations, each with several tribes. Another point Green makes is that the Colt revolver was a turning point in the "war". Before the revolver the Texans had to defend themselves by firing rifles and while they were reloading the Indians would be able to launch multiple arrow attacks. After the revolver the Texans were able to attack the Indians with effective fire that caused the Indians to call for a peace meeting. That meeting went bad due to what Green calls arrogance on the part of the Comanches.

He then tells about the early Indian commissioners who built trading posts near what is now Albany and worked with the Indians, but with tragic results later when one was murdered by Indians who wanted his team of horses. The post was located in a fertile farming area where the commissioner raised corn to sell to the Army troops. That area later became Watt Matthews ranch and there are still arrow heads and other items to be found in the area.

Pecan Cookies

We had a great day!  Charles is good company, full of stories and local history.  Just for us girls, I found a framed recipe in the historial junk area.  Like a magnet I read it and had to laugh.  It looked early 20th century, but the first ingredient was Bisquick.

PECAN COOKIES
2 cups Bisquick
1 pound brown sugar
1 1/2 cups pecans

Stir together the Bisquick, pecans and brown sugar
Add: 
5 eggs slightly beaten

spread in a greased and floured pan and bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 15 minutes.
Cut into bar cookies

OLD JAIL ART CENTER

Today Nancy and I took a trip to Albany, TX to look at the art museum. Nancy first commented on all of the sculptures in the entry way. Did you know that elbows are supposed to end at waists? Not many or any were correct, but the sculptures were not very correct in other aspects either. I am not a lover of modern art. I like Remington's sculptures better. The art center has very interesting permanent art from China and Pre-Columbian art that I always enjoy. We went upstairs to the "junk" art room that has an eclectic assortment of stuff they sell. We didn't find anything to buy there. I did buy the latest Bob Green book, History As It Lingers, that was published by his widow, Nancy Green. I also paid my membership. I have been a member for years but Nancy hadn't seen it so I hadn't renewed. We enjoyed the temporary exhibit of art from other Texas museums. One painting of a child waking up in bed was intriguing. One explanation was it was the child Samuel saying I am here, Lord. Nancy liked the wall size oil of a man feeding one of two horses.

We ate lunch at the famous Beehive restaurant in Albany run by Lebanese emigrants who have opened another in Abilene. I had the special that was meatloaf with green bean casserole and mashed potatoes with the skin on them. Nancy had a half-pound hamburger with fries. We both took a take-home box. I found it delicious. Nancy liked hers also. We drove up thru Baird but came back thru Moran. Coming back we turned a corner and saw cows resting in a pasture. Nancy saw a black cow under a tree and insisted that it was caught in the tree. She wanted to let someone know. We drove a mile of so, turned around, went back and found that the cow was just smarter than the others and was standing in the shade of a mesquite tree. She looked as us as if saying "what is the problem?". We also observed several pastures where white and red cows were all gathered together close to each other. In another large pasture black cows were scattered all over the place.

We also took a side trip from 880 to go look at the old Scranton Academy ruins and read the historical marker. It was started in 1907 grew to 325 students and closed in WWI. Nancy looked at the walls standing and decided it could be rebuilt into a great home or bed and breakfast.

We had rain yesterday and looking for more tomorrow night. The Lord is good.