The hair fairy comes for a visit

I did not know who or what the hair fairy was and had never heard this expression until one of our neighbors, Lois, mentioned that the blond hair fairy was coming for a visit. Now Lois is usually blond and apparently stays this way as long as she obtains a regular visit from the blond hair fairy. Once we heard this expression, it became a general comment from several of the ladies, who seemed to believe a visit was essential.

Yesterday HW2 decided it was her turn and in the following order had visits from the brown fairy, a lighter brown fairy, and the blond fairy. After the first visit she decided the brown fairy was TOO DARK. Consequently, the light brown fairy visit and the blond fairy visit. This process took several hours and I, as the man of the house made myself scarce. I even went to Walley World for groceries. Max and I took several long walks. Finally HW2 came to see us, and did a pirouette so that we got the whole effect. While we were on our walks, other work campers wanted to know what HW2 was doing, and I had explained to everyone that she was being visited by the hair fairies. The major problem as far as I could see was that the blond fairy put it on a little too thick. The general comments from several friends were of this type: "It looks fine", "After three washings it won't look so blond", and "I don't see what the problem is."

Today after breakfast out, we again visited Walley World to get a box of Ash Blond color and this was quickly followed by the ash blond fairy visit. This seemed to tone down the blond highlights, and all is well. Maybe next Sunday we can again show ourselves in church. Not today!

So the moral of this story is be careful who you wish would visit and in particular watch out for the hair fairy, as apparently she can be quite annoying. Happy travels.

Orion - back overhead

Max and I get up rather early on most days. Today it was between 5:30 and 6:00 am. We go outside so he can attend to his business. In the summer it was light outside, but now as fall draws near, it is dark outside at this early hour. So while Max sniffs the entire area, I get to look at the stars and planets. I am happy to announce that Orion is overhead at this hour, as is Venus. I like looking at these old friends and wonder who else is looking at them as well.

Max finishes, and we return home for me to get coffee, read the paper, check banking, e-mails, and any strange news that pops up on the Internet. HW2 gets up somewhere during this quiet time.

I do wonder why the media gives so much attention to Senator Kennedy and pop star Michael Jackson. Neither deserves such attention. Sure, they made lots of headlines, but not all were good. Neither serves as a wonderful role model for others. However, since both have gone from this life, I can only hope that the media gives them their fifteen minutes of fame and moves on to the next media annointed icon of our days. I do think this country is in trouble if these persons are our heroes. We need more John Adams types for our heroes. Happy travels.

Max falls in love

Last night it rained a nice gentle penetrating rain, and we enjoyed it so much that we sat out in our gazebo to listen to the rain. Max was outside in his pen, and then our neighbor Clayton came by and played with Max while visiting with us. Max loves Clayton and tried his best to cover him with doggy kisses. Clayton set Max free and got him to sit by him and to wander in our area without running away. When Clayton would call Max, he would come right back and mind him completely. At the end of our evening I think Max wanted to go home with Clayton.

Of course, there might be another attraction since Clayton and Susan have a dog, Angel, whom Max adores and tries to visit every time he is outside. The best part was seeing Clayton and Max together and how much they enjoyed each other. Happy travels.

Criminal was caught

We recently were part of a multiple break in of our cars here at the Guadalupe River RV Resort. We didn't discover the loss for several days and finally realized that they had taken our owner's guides to our car. Now that was an odd thing to have taken. They also took a small bottle of glasses cleaner but did not take our portable and expensive GPS system. Who can figure.

The crooks decided to use a neighbor's credit card to purchase car parts from an auto store and got rejected in their first attempt, but the car they were using was noted, and the police were called. Very soon a police car saw the perpetrator going in the opposite direction, gave chase, and caught this criminal. The benefits of living in a small town. Several days later we learned of the capture of the criminal and that the police has our owner's car manual. Now we are trying to set up an appointment with the Inspector in charge to get the manual returned. A happy ending to this tale for sure. Happy travels.

New Greek restaurant in town

On Saturday we decided to try a new Greek restaurant for lunch. We love good Greek food, and so we really looked forward to this treat. We decided on Greek salads with Gyro meat on top and an appetizer of Bruschetta. Both were excellent! The restaurant was named Pampell's but may be renamed soon. The old name was still on the door. They plan to get their liquor license and then be able to serve wine and beer, as well. Neither was needed to make this lunch better. I hope we get to go back soon. Our waitress thought our idea of serving pita bread with the salad was a good one and took the suggestion to the management. She also suggested that we try the hot rolls, and we did. Wonderful! Try out this restaurant when or if you are in Kerrville. Happy travels.

Brad Pitt and his movies

Yesterday we went to see, Inglorious Basterds, starring Brad Pitt. We have seen this actor in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which we liked, and Troy, which I did not really care for. We have also seen him in the Oceans 11, 12 etc. The most recent movie was extremely violent, and I guess a spoof of the Nazi genera film. From my point of view, Brad played himself although he was supposed to be part Apache Indian with a Tennessee accent. At one point he tried to do an Italian accent, which was funny in a Tennessee kind of way.

Brad, like Robert Redford is no longer just another pretty face, which is a good thing. I do get tired of him playing Brad. I really like an actor who can so get you into the mood that you forget who they really are. Maybe this will happen to him someday.

I would not recommend this movie to anyone. Children certainly do not need to see gratuitous violence, which seems to happen throughout the film. Happy travels.

John Deere tune-up

This season the park manager/owner bought a New John Deere tractor mower. It was a delight to ride and mow the grass. It was so popular that over a month elapsed before I got a chance to try it out. Since I had a 'ride-em' mower in Omaha, I was familiar with the operation and quickly picked up any nuances of this mower. Now I get to ride it almost every week as the mowing business seems to go on for ever as we mow our 60-70 acres of property.

It became timely to do a tune-up on the mower. In Omaha, I had a contract with Sears to do this annually, so I had not done this. Roy and I crawled under the mower to remove the cutting blades, which were quite dull by now. Roy got out a hand grinder and put new cutting edges on the old blades, and we installed a new set of blades. Then it became my job to remove the oil, gas line, and air filters and replace them with new ones. After draining the old oil, we added nearly two quarts of 10-30 weight, and the tractor was ready to go. Why am I telling you about all of these activities? I had never done any of this type of work and thoroughly enjoyed helping with the tune up. I think I can better understand why sons Jerry and Chris and sons-in-law Chuck and Tim enjoy working on their cars. I will remain a novice at tuning engines but it is fun and a new skill for me. Happy travels.

Working continues along

We are in our four work day schedule, M - Th, and have survived two of the days so far. The office has been slow since the Labor Day holiday is not here yet, and most folks who are coming are already signed up. We generally have 2-4 arrivals daily and the same amount of departures each day. So, it is not too busy.

However, outside the work continues. We have pools to clean, counts of guests to do, garbage pick up, and then weed wacking, mowing, tree trimming, and any other projects that come up. Generally, I am quite tired most days and glad to see the end of it, with a good shower ahead. Today I took care of the pools and did some weed work and then mowed all afternoon. About 4pm Roy needed help mashing his tree trimmings in the garbage bins, so I went to get the tractor and used the shovel part to do just that. This was a new activity that I had seen others do but a first for me. Frequently, I get to learn something new, and I like that a lot. I mowed about a third of the camping sites today and have a few to finish tomorrow. The drought has stopped most of the grass from growing, so we may not need to do much more in this department.

Max stays in our AC cooled motor home and gets out when we have lunch or after work. He seems to take it all in stride and is really getting to be a good member of the family. He still plays with his toys and wants me to play with him. Right now he is tossing a ball and chasing it around. He only complains when it gets caught under our easy chairs.

Dear readers, send us some rain. Happy travels.

We get a second car

We have been talking about getting a second car for a while. Today we found a 1999 Buick Century that has had two previous owners but only driven 70,000 miles in its ten years. It was too good a deal to pass up, so we are now the third owners. Hopefully, it will provide us with good transportation for several years.

We did this because the Crossfire is hard on HW2's back, particularly for long distance travel. If we should take a longish trip in the fall, now we have a more comfortable car in which to travel.

Now we are dealing with some stereotypes here because you may also realize that old people drive Buicks. If the car is tan or beige, you can bet the driver of the car has white hair. I think that we need a sign for the back window, "Old people with white dog in car. Drive friendly." HW2 wants you to know that our car is neither tan or beige, but it is metallic light bronze. She refuses to say beige. It will only be driven by a little old lady to church, all of this is in Pasadena, of course. The outfit she will have on will be quite colorful, of course, and get all the church ladies excited to see what she is wearing. I get comments at church, too, like, "Hey cowboy, how are ya?" I do not understand why as I had on my dress Levis and boots. Oh well, it takes all kinds. Happy travels.

Movies

We recently saw a movie, The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock. It was great fun and made me think of Shakespeare's, Taming of the Shrew. Good fun, and Sandra does a great job. Today we went to see Julie and Julia, a perfectly wonderful movie about Julia Child and a young Julie who blogs about her cooking her way through Julia's cookbook in a year. Both lives are featured, and although the acting is terrific, it is also frequently very funny. Julia can be easily parodied, but Meryl Streep does not fall into that trap and seems to really get into her role, so much so, you forget she is acting the part. This movie is well worth seeing and maybe even owning. Happy travels.

Pay it forward

Pay it forward is a wonderful concept, I think. Most of you know that it means that when or if someone does something nice and usually unexpected for you, that you do not return the favor but do something nice for someone else. It also brings to my mind the bumper sticker, "Commit a random act of kindness today." I think of the kind travelers who have let me into traffic or let me turn onto another road and waited patiently for this to happen. This simple kindness makes my day.

HW2 finds that if she smiles, it can turn an unhappy customer from complaining into a reasonable one who is accepting of the information. These things are simple in concept and can create much good will in others. So, if you get the chance, pay it forward, commit a random act of kindness and/or smile. You may never know what happiness you have created, but I can guarantee the this world is better for your contribution. Happy travels.

Did you complain today?

Complaining seems like a given in today's society. We complain about being too fat or too thin, not having enough money, our spouses, our children, and on and on. We complain about rules at work or not having rules at work. I have heard too much complaining lately. I still think that the person doing the complaining should have to listen to him or her self. Frequently, it seems to me that they have a fault that they are complaining about in others. As one example, I overhear one lady loudly complaining about another who was too loud.

What is the solution? I firmly believe if we thought first and complained after thinking about it, we might complain less. I also think if we praised something/someone for every complaint we had, we would be more fun to be around. If for every bad thing, we had to fine a good thing first, there would be less complaining.

There is a place for a complaint that is thoughtful and has the desired intention to improve a situation. That does not mean that the complainer has the corner on good and truth. Rather, finding a constructive suggestion is a way to channel the complaint from being negative to positive. Let us all try to complain less and find ways to love each other more. Happy travels.

HW2 reads from Ephesians today

Various members of our church give the first reading from the Bible, and it is usually a text from the Old Testament. Today it is HW2's turn, and she is reading from Ephesians, which is in the New Testament. What she really wants to do is to say to the congregation, "We were there a year ago in Ephesus. It is one cool place! The library (second largest in the world at the time) facade is still standing."

We visited an 'L' shaped bathroom in Ephesus and our tour group sat on the area and listened to our guide describe how slaves cleaned up their masters after using the bathroom. One of our group accidentally dropped her purse down one of the toilet holes and there was a general group gasp. It was a 5-6 foot drop, and none of us had anything with which to snag the purse. Our clever and slender guide went to the end of the L and dropped in, got the purse, and brought it back to the much relieved woman. It was a bit dusty but the dust was probably 2000 years old. We kidded her a great deal and thought our guide was very resourceful, although he said he was not going to do that again for anyone. We have fond memories of Ephesus. It made the hairs on the backs of our necks stick up when we thought about the Apostle Paul walking, working, and preaching there. Will HW2 mention any of this today? Probably not. But, she wants to, and it would be a treat for the congregation, I think. Happy travels, and hang on to your purse.

Troubles in Paradise

We have been issued some new rules on how and when we might use the golf carts which are used constantly to get around our RV park. Mainly the rules are for covering the corporation which owns the park for insurance purposes. In the past we frequently get in our cart if we want to go to the saloon in the evening for a drink and then return home. The new rules state that we may not drive the cart if we have had an alcoholic drink. In insurance terms this may make sense. In people terms it does not, as we have not ever abused our cart privileges by driving drunk. This rule has not gone over well with the workers here.

Yesterday one of our couples quit and today perhaps another couple may do so too. The prospect of being short-handed coming up to Labor Day is troubling. We had to change our work schedules from three to four working days when another couple was asked to leave about a month ago. Does this mean the schedule will go from 4 to 5 working days? This is too many working days for this old work camper. Time will tell, but things are certainly in an uproar over the new rules. There are more rules and more issues, and all the fall out is yet to be seen. Tired, but still happy travels.

Raise My Ebenezer

Sunday we sang as one of our hymns, a favorite of Kristy's. It has a line in the second verse which is, "Raise my Ebenezer." I have wondered for a long time exactly what this could possibly mean. I have floated several suggestions but they, while goofy, did not enlighten me any further on this question. Do you the reader have any idea?

The other night I called my brother Gary and his wife Donna to wish them happy birthday. Their birthdays are close together so I usually call sometime in between to wish them a happy day of celebration. Gary is, among many other talents, an ordained minister. So I asked him what this expression might mean. He said you can replace the word with alter. He went on to comment that many churches have Ebenezer in their official name, such as the Ebenezer Baptist Church where Martin Luther King preached for many years. I think Gary has it right. After these many years my question has been answered.

After researching this topic a bit more on Google, I discovered that Ebenezer also means a stone of hope and was placed in a particular location in Israel after they got their Ark back from the Philistines. You can see why a Church might want to have this word in their name if their church is to be built upon a rock of hope. Happy travels.

John W's Sermon

Our minister here in Kerrville gives tremendous sermons. Not only does he write them, but he memorizes them and delivers them in a very effective way. Recently, John asked me if I would help him with a sermon. I was very pleased and set to work with the Bible texts in hand. The first page happened quickly, but then I hit a stone wall, and inspiration just would not come to me. I talked it over with John, and he encouraged me to persevere and to get it done by Sunday morning. Well, Sunday morning came, and I was still on page one. What to do? I went to church and confessed to John that he had only one page of a sermon to give that morning. He asked me, "What do you expect me to do? Make it up?" I suggested that he just give forth on any thought that came into his head when there was a terrible rumble, and the ceiling of the church gave way. Fortunately, no one was in that area. Then I woke up. I do not think I am up to giving him help with his sermons, as it apparently causes tremendous damage to his ego and to our church. Aren't dreams fun? Happy travels.

Water Restrictions

The drought has hit central and south Texas very hard and has been occurring for the past two years. Today we are under water restrictions. We can no longer water our yards or add water to the pools. Last night during the night it rained for over two hours, a lovely soaking rain. We need many more nights of soaking rains for this restriction to be lifted. So kind readers, send us your rain. Send us your rain. Thanks and happy travels.