Critters

Max and I were outside, he in his pen to do his business, and I sitting in our gazebo. A wren flew into our bird house, perhaps chased there by some hummingbirds that were trying to decide whether to enjoy our feeder or worry about Max who was watching the whole thing. Then, one of the feral cats ran by, which got Max's attention and so it went. I think the hummingbirds have a nest in a nearby tree and they were defending their territory from the wren.

This morning Max and I enjoyed our walk, and he got to visit with two other dogs. Max thinks everyone is his friend and probably will play with him, given the chance. A boy on a bike followed us long enough to be able to pet Max and to discover that indeed he was a male dog. About the only time you can enjoy a walk here is early in the morning when it has not returned into the high 90's or higher. Today we are scheduled for 102. I can only hope that it is not too humid as well. We are in a continuing drought here that has been going on for over two years. I hate to see the grass brown, and some of the trees lose their leaves. We have lost several trees here to the dry times, and they have to be cut down and used for firewood. We get ready for church and see what else the day brings. Happy travels.

Parade of homes

This morning we went on a parade of homes. The cost of the parade was donated to charity and we decided to see how the other half lives. My goodness you can spend a great deal of money on a home in Kerrville. We saw a condominium that overlooked the Guadalupe River that went for about $400,000. It was nice. The most expensive house went for 2.2 million I think. It had so many rooms and bathrooms that you would need a full time staff to keep it clean. The kitchens were lovely and Marlene you would have liked the views, marble top counters and other accouterments. I guess we enjoyed the tour but I came away preferring our life style and simpler lives. I did not want to either purchase one of these homes or envy anyone who might end up in them. Happy travels.

It is HOT here

We have been having hot weather for several weeks now. By 2pm it hits 99 or hotter, and we hide. Most days that we are not working, I take an afternoon nap. But 5pm is generally the hottest. We have been in the low hundreds at this time of the day. The only thing to do is to get your errands and jaunts finished before noon and then hibernate in the afternoon. As long as the air conditioning works, we can stand it.

On work days, HW2 gets to work in her air conditioned office. I work outside so drink lots of water and look for shade or indoor jobs or shady jobs. So far we have managed to survive. You could get heat stroke or too much sunshine very easily. Think cool please, and send some cool weather our way. Happy travels.

In water up to my neck

We have new pool regulations that required us to replace the covers of the drains with a cover that little kids cannot get their fingers in or get caught. We tried to replace the old covers by diving down and removing the old covers and then putting the new ones in their place. Except for the diving part this sounded do-able. In fact it turned out not to be easy to do even the first part. We succeeded, we thought, but when some kid was playing Frisbee with a pool cover, we realized that we had not gotten them on tightly enough. It turned out that we had to drain the pool, and then we could do a good job on replacing the covers. Of course, it cost us over $1000 to refill the pool with new city water.

The first pool was completed by Ken, Clayton and Bob. It fell to Roy and me to do the next pool. Roy and I thought we might be able to do this by hooking a screw driver to a long pole and not have to empty the pool. So this morning Roy and I went to work. We created the long screw driver and started to work. It is hard to hit a screw down under 5 1/2 feet of water. We tried for several hours and finally gave up and began the process of draining the second pool. By 3pm the pool was empty enough, and we were able to fix the covers in about ten minutes. So we spent a second $1000 to refill the pool and had quite a day trying to save this expense. On a hot day it was a cool job. Happy travels.

Life is precious

When I was four years old, we were traveling down a four-lane highway in our 1936 Ford. This car had doors for the front and back that both opened from the middle. I was playing with the door handle when the door opened, and I was thrown out of the car onto my head. Cars following swerved in all directions to miss me as I hit on my head in the road. The next thing I knew was that I was back in the car, blood everywhere, and wondering why mom was crying. "I am the one hurt. Why are you crying?" I asked. A trip to the emergency room was next and lots of my screaming as they cleaned the blacktop out of my scalp. I am sure I had a concussion as I was under watch for several days and not allowed to play with the other kids.

In my late twenties I helped sponsor a trip of high school kids to Monzanillo, Mexico. This took several days, and we stayed at a great resort in Monzanillo. The best part was swimming in the Pacific Ocean until I was caught in a rip tide and unable to get back to shore. One of the kids swam out to see if I was in trouble, and I admitted that I was and that I could not make it back to shore. He quickly swam back to shore and got a plastic air mattress and swam back to get me and told me to hang on as he towed me into shore. When I got there I fell on the beach and took some time before I could move. My arms and legs felt like there had lead weights on them.

In 1996 I felt the onset of a heart attack and got several assistant principals to walk with me on campus. The next day I stayed home, and the feeling came back. Not wanting to go to the hospital dirty, I took a shower and then called 911. The biggest problem I had was getting to and unlocking the front gate so the emergency personnel could get into our house. Through the whole heart attack I was calm.

Why do I relate these incidents? I think that the recent death of Herb has again put into focus how fragile life is, and how quickly it can be over for any of us. The amazing thing to me is how calm I have been in these situations. I guess you can excuse the screaming when I was four. In times of stress, we all react differently. Life is precious and to be enjoyed.

Luckenbach, Texas

Luckenbach brings to my mind a song that is sung by Waylen Jennings or Merle Haggard or maybe even the late and great Johnny Cash. The reality is a town? Of population of three. There is a bar and a place for a band and lots of dancing. Tomorrow in Luckenbach, they will celebrate Waylen's Birthday with a concert of country music singers and bands.

We visited this famous place today to visit a car show of antique, roadster, and hot rod cars. What a kick!, I constantly thought of Maurice and his love for old cars and his Ford that he treasures and takes to car shows. We saw several like his but not in as good condition, of course. We saw Thirties' coups that had been updated into powerful roadsters. Some of the paint jobs were spectacular. One Corvette in particular was just beautiful with its gold fleck maroon paint job. I enjoyed all the vintage Mustangs and missed my 1968 gold colored Mustang convertible again.

So now we can say that we have visited Luckenbach, Texas, even though we will not get to hear Johnny or Waylen or Willy. Should you go there, you can buy the shirt. I did! Happy travels.

Herb

Herb died today. He was in him mid-eighties, and still it was a shock to learn of his death. He has been in declining health since we have known him. When we first met Herb, he was encased in a halo since he had some type of fall and broke his neck. He wore the halo for some months while his body repaired the break in the vertebrae. He seemed to take his misfortune in stride and never complained of his predicament to us.

Recently, Herb fell onto the floor and his wife, Connie, could not get him back up, so she called the office for help. Several of us responded, and one who had medical training examined him, and finally we got Herb back into a chair. His next accident was to break his foot, suffered in another fall. He wanted his walking cast off and demanded that Connie bring him scissors so that he could cut the cast off. Wisely, she ignored him even though in his best military manner he demanded that she follow his orders. Yesterday they went to see the doctor and on the way home stopped at the James Avery jewelry factory, and Connie left Herb in the car while she dashed inside to get some jewelry for a grandchild. When she returned, Herb was gone out of the car. He had gotten out and had fallen, hitting his head, and was lifted by air ambulance to a hospital in San Antonio. The pressure of the fall was too much for his head, and he was declared brain dead. Taken off life support, Herb, later this morning, died.

So no more old curmudgeon to talk with, but I suspect Herb is in a better place, and Connie will no longer have to try to care for an increasingly unwell husband. Herb, I will miss you.