what in the cornbread hell ?

like the song says...like some forgotten dream

2009-08-25T20:53:00.003-05:00

we still go visit mom every day. for me, it's getting more like these lyrics: "we don't talk much more" "she sits and stares" "what's new?" "like some forgotten dream" "nothing, what's with you?" "nothing much to do."

i guess that's why i take awol with me. that mutt has it down. in his own way he goes to every single person and says, "helloooo in there...hello."

i keep trying not to blog because i don't like to whine. at least not publicly. but the truth is it's been a trying few weeks, i guess. now that i have a relatively positive mom anecdote...i still feel the need to get it right, to put it in context, to be honest in the telling.

so maybe i'll just copy and paste a few "mom reports".

no. the family has already read those emails and responded. and this blog is essentially for them, anyway. no. i need to come up with a reason. some sort of universal truth, some epiphany to make it worthy, a literary device (a gouge... hahahhahahahha.)
i'm thinking of a deciduous tree. could that work? both the cause (mom's well-being) and the effect (my reluctance to write about her) are cyclical. deciduous.

yes. i'll work on that.

until we meet again...

2009-08-18T23:01:00.002-05:00

the good, the bad and the ugly

2009-08-11T17:15:00.013-05:00

from today's news:

the good -
whether you like barack obama or not, i hope you will appreciate this story about his mother's character as revealed through her life's work. she's the good guy in this world of ours.

the bad -
this is actually mostly good news. i only call it "the bad" because it seems unconscionable to me that it took so damn long. it seems bad to me that industry; for reasons of either greed, ignorance, misplaced loyalty or all of the above, allowed themselves to go bankrupt, become 60% government owned and worst of all, create Massive unemployment and chaos while the technology now "suddenly in place" has really been damn near in place for decades.

the ugly -
in case you don't click and read the news stories here (highlighted in red), i'll tell you a bit more about this one. last week the courts awarded the recording industry a $675,000 judgement against a man for downloading and sharing 30 (thirty!) songs online.

now that's UGLY. in my opinion, i think the rule should read as follows: if a record label or artist has already made a million bucks, all their stuff is fair game for anyone savvy enough to share it for free. end of soapbox.

for more rant...

i'm pretty sure the following is all three, the good, bad and ugly , and includes TWOD (the word of the day). the word irredentist is new to me and can be found in the last sentence of the above article.

OH! & one more good!...
i gave away the last of awol's pups today.
the brown one with the paul newman eyes, the one most like awol now has a new home with one of the aides who works on mom's alzheimer unit. she will bring him to work with her. and THAT is a very very good good thing.

(i have pics, but i can't upload them on my connection, but i will as soon as i am able.)

roadtrip to armadillo - IV, random pictures

2009-07-16T23:45:00.003-05:00

i know...this post is way too fucking long, too convoluted and too full of my screwed up sense of humor. suck it, trebek. it's my blog.

on our roadtrip to and from amarillo, we took several sidetrips down obscure farm roads to see what we could see*. on one of the more profitable of those meandering excursions we saw the coolest thing. this low flying barn cresting a hill just the barest bit above the ground as it skimmed, star wars style, over a hay field.

who knew barns could fly?**

i took over 300 pictures on the trip to and from amarillo. i won't bore you with all of them, or all of my silly ramblings about them, but here are a few.

these next 3 were taken at a roadside strip mall just outside of henrietta, texas. it was a sunday and the place was closed, so i have no idea how much they wanted for the steel and tin sculptures, but they were kinda cool. they'd make good yard art or beer garden decorations. the store name in the background is "cadillac cowgirl." i can't help but wonder if it's owned by the same person who lives about 50 miles back, here.

this headless cowboy is next to a coral with a couple of horses that awol didn't exactly make friends with. when one of them came out to take a leak awol's jaw went slack at the size of it. (oh wait, maybe that was terri's jaw...) anyway, much barking ensued. (i'm pretty sure it awol doing the barking.)

this is my favorite piece they had. being near the town of henrietta it reminded me of a chicken i once had named henrietta. when my ex and i first moved to dallas back in 1975 we brought our one remaining chicken with us. one day soon after the move she got out of her pen. the next thing we knew she was chasing our cat down the middle of velasco street in broad daylight! it was a sight to see. ahahahahaha. henrietta. she was a real hoot, but i don't think she ever totally made the transition from free range country chicken to being an illegal city-chicken.

these here are 19th century saloon doors in Saint Jo, texas.

(did ya notice how i hit the shift key there? that's because Saint Jo is an extremely awesome name for a town. it's a shout out to all you Jos out there!)

there's also a bit of irony in those swingin' doors still being there. it seems the name of the town is due to a town founder guy named joe, nicknamed SAINT JO, being such a zealous prohibitionist.

later on in the trip, while stopped to check out a historical marker, (it's about charles goodnight and will be featured in a later post about all the historical markers we saw and might just bore most of you to sleep)...

awol found these 2 dung beetles moving their goods across the plains of the panhandle of texas. actually only one of them was doing the moving. the other one just hung on for the free ride.

hmmm...come to think of it, that sounds kinda like me on our roadtrip. just along for a free ride, no real responsibility, other than acting as navigator/tour guide.

would you believe we spent at least 30 minutes watching them do their thing?(pun intended) well, we did.

now this is a pretty famous roadside attraction. it's called cadillac ranch. i will have to admit i consider it the most boring/least interesting thing i saw on our trip aside from an ill-advised stop at a sonic drive-in in some podunk town. and even there we saw a guy hauling a freaking airplane*** behind his truck with the plane's wings tucked back like a downhill racer.

this is what it looked liked when stanley marsh 3 installed it back in the day...

and this is what it looks like now. well, almost. that was 2-3 weeks ago and in the single hour we were there, about 5 cans of spray paint were unloaded on the cars by the visitors. sure, it was still kinda cool and the artist doesn't seem to mind the graffiti, but i give it about a 2 on a scale of 10 compared to other stuff we saw.

for instance, palo duro canyon at sunset is very, very cool. it's a 9, at least. (ok, so i got camera happy and took too many dopey pictures here, but if you looked at that web album...did you see all the hoards of wild indians on the ridgetops? i sure did.) we only stayed an hour, but i would very much like to camp out there for a few days. you should check it out some time if you ever have the chance.

i know i'm rambling on too long to be showing this next one. it's just a car we saw on the highway. it's a "versa." i'd never heard of that model car and was just wondering if they shouldn't have a bumper sticker made that says, "my other car is a vice."

but then, they'd probably never be able able to decide which car to take, would they? "vice?, versa? - vice? versa? - vice?..."

*to see what we could see... ****

**if you believe that, i've got a flying pig i'd like to sell you.

*** ****also one of the funniest novels you'll ever read.

free haircuts

2009-07-14T23:30:00.001-05:00

i heard it was 108 here today. hah! take this, you dickhead weather man, you...

haircut

did you click on the pics to view the videos? did they make you want one of my free haircuts? if so, be forewarned - i only know how to give one kind, but it's very, very cool.

free food

2009-07-10T18:06:00.007-05:00

speaking of free food, check out the fun we had today...

the news was on at mom's when i was there yesterday or i would never have known about this, but it seems today is cow appreciation day. (that's according to fast food restaurant, chick-fil-a, the guys with the funny *eat more chiken* ads.)
this was the deal: dress up like a cow, head to toe, and receive a free, full meal; just wear a cow hat or whatever and receive a free sandwich.

informed that i could get a free sandwich just for acting up a little, and... well, what do YOU think???

note: the following link to a web album will be replaced with on-site pics when i get to a connection that will allow me to upload to blogger. (my home connection is sooo lame.) in the meantime, check these pictures out.

terri had the most creative idea. she had me cut some holes in an old, white, rally, t-shirt and wore it over a black t-shirt for the "cow look." then she painted a black circle around one eye, painted big red lips on herself, put her hair in pig tails for "cow ears" and voila!

i'm pretty sure chick-fil-a should hire her for their next ad campaign.
(she had another really funny idea, but i'm not allowed to talk about it... and i deleted those pics, anyway.)

me, i strung an old cow skull i happened to have lying around and wore it as a necklace.

and awol?...he just went as himself, of course. (black spots on white dog = fake cow in my book.)

now you may be asking yourself, "did they buy that shit?"

they sure did = 3 free sandwiches and a whole lotta fun.
hahahahahahahaha, i bet you thought we'd get 2 sandwiches at best.

(so did we.)

roadtrip - III

2009-07-07T12:35:00.002-05:00

signs, signs, signs & more signs...a story about signs of life, signs of entropy, hand carved signs, hand scribbled signs posted on barricaded doors and windows, signs of past glory and signs of 4-napkin-hamburgers*... the following is a quick tale of signs of all kinds.

at 50 mph it literally took about 30 seconds to pass through estelline. if we noticed anything at all, it was a few boarded up buildings and a liquor store.

scrrreeeeeeeeecch!!!!!!!!!!!
(hard braking action, mouths in full agape position) say WHAT?!

get ready folks. it's U-turn time again...

btw, does anyone know to keep a web album where i put it, behind the cut at the end of the story, rather than on the front page?

with a billboard like that on the outskirts of town there's just GOT to be something of interest in this near ghost town. the question was not IF we should turn around, but what hidden gem(s) were waiting for us when we did. as it turned out there were a few cool old buildings, but they were all vacant.

there is a very cool 1950-ish diner that had us both salivating just thinking about all the greasy burgers burgers burgers served there at some time in the past. ok, i was drooling. i can't speak for terri.

the original, extant at least, city hall/fire department, housed in a very fine 1910/1920-ish red brick building with hand carved limestone signage are both boarded up now,
but a "new" city hall was added on to the structure some time later in estelline's past.

alas. even this cedar clad hall is now little more than an abandoned building. (click on any picture to enlarge)

a funny sign on the door directs you to the current new city hall - it is now housed in a trailer parked just behind. (next to the police-station-trailer, of course.) hahahahahaha.

practically the only signs of life to be found in town were in this grubby trailer park. and even those signs were circumstantial, faint and yellowing, in the form of a bicycle or two, a few old pickup trucks and one clothes line with a half dozen pair of yellowed, stained, whitey tighties hanging from it (insert leonard cohen's "bird on a wire" for dramatic effect. just imagine an indvidual's quest to be free, to be free.) signs of life, indeed.

but wait! maybe there IS life in rural estelline, after all. it appears in the form of one(1) liquor store and one(1) beer & wine store. by god!, there are even cars with current license plates parked out front of them! together these two package stores seem to be the only signs of viable mercantile concern in town.

which brings me back to my original assumption that there MUST be something of interest in a town that boasts a gigantic "SATAN SUCKS" sign as its most visible landmark while the only signs of life in town are where they buy their booze.

and that point of interest, that gem of Estelline, is???

the IRONY. and i freaking love it.
lots more signs and even a true ghost town in upcoming "roadtrip" entries. y'all stay tuned now, hear?

* - according to the rikipedia: "...without any doubt, a 4-napkin-hamburger is a sign of true hamburger greatness. ie: how many paper napkins were used while shoveling said burger into the old pie hole? for the record, i have had a few 5-napkin burgers in my time. and maybe one 6-napkin, but a 4-napkin hamburger is about all anyone should hope for in this life. cross your fingers. maybe in heaven things will get even better..."

click below for more pictures in and around estelline...

estelline

roadtrip to armadillo - II

2009-07-06T12:27:00.004-05:00

clear out in the middle of nowhere, texas (actually just 2 miles southwest of saint jo, texas), out in a cow pasture among the cow patties and jack rabbits, off a country road, are a bunch of crazy wood and metal sculptures. check 'em out by clicking on the web album cover below...

ladybugs and sunflowers...

the highway for about 300 of the 350 mile trip went right through all the little towns. the other 50 miles skirted the towns rendering a sterile, interstate-like ride.

but wait a sec...what in the cornbread hell is this?

in an otherwise stark landscape sits a house right by the side of the highway. a cadillac convertible is parked in the front drive. two bikini clad women are sitting parade style in the back.

quick! find a place to turn around! we have got to check this out...

hahahahahahahahaha

roadtrip to armadillo - I

2009-07-04T20:17:00.002-05:00

a friend had a job interview in amarillo last week. she asked if i'd go along for the ride and for moral support. i said i would on one condition. that we could stop at every historical marker and any roadside attraction i could find.

we proceeded to turn a fairly boring 6 hour drive through west texas into a 9+ hour trek full of all kinds of crazy/interesting shit.

an hour or so and 2 historical markers later we noticed a homemade-looking billboard that said, "GLENN GOODE'S BIG PEOPLE. TURN RIGHT. 2 MILES."

i'm here to tell you, that was a side trip well worth the taking... 2-25 foot tall "big johns", 1-22 foot tall reconstructed "muffler man", 1-17 foot tall "uniroyal gal" who bears a striking resemblance to jackie o., and a life-sized calf are right there for the gawkin'. and the collector/artist, mr. glenn goode himself, came out of his air conditioned house to tell us all about them in the sweltering heat. (truth be told, he loves to talk and more than just kinda likes visitors.)

said he paid 300 bucks each for the big johns. cut off their arms to get 'em there and reattached them himself. they're apparently from some defunct grocery chain. the bags they used to hold are in his back yard.
he paid 5 bucks for the muffler man. it was head, hat and armless at the time. goode, pronounced like "dude" but with a "g", did the fiberglass reconstruction himself.

my favorite story was about the uniroyal gal.
when he got her, she wore a pink bikini, a low cut blouse, and a mini skirt. he told me, "i just had to fix her up a little. had to give her some respectable clothes to wear. so i lengthened the skirt over 2 feet and put a decent shirt on her."
(phew!! thank god for that!)

i think i still have a myspace page somewhere out there in digital land. anyway, a photo i found on the interwebs of the 2 middle figures was my profile picture for quite a while. i called them mr. and mrs. muffler man. i never knew anything about them until now. cool!

oh, and the calf? someone just gave it to him.
one day sometime later, he got a call from a neighbor. said his cow got loose and would he come get him? mr. goode said he didn't own any cows. turns out some kids had stolen the fiberglass calf in the night and it must've fallen out of their truck making a turn not too far away from the scene of said rustling.

here's a link to a web album of some photos of the big people outside of gainesville, texas. click and enjoy the madness...

big people

stay tuned for more roadtrip pics and stories.
...just don't hold your breath.

happy father's day, AWOL

2009-06-21T15:50:00.000-05:00

gigi and awol had puppies a week ago today. that would make this awol's 1st father's day. videos of the pups after the cut...

i have no idea what rupert is really talkin' about in this 12 second video, but it sounds like he's talkin' about the puppies. ahahahahahahaha

here's another short flick of larry, curly and moe. they kinda look like mole rats, don't they?

for sure...

2009-06-12T01:54:00.001-05:00

it's a subjective point of view, but i believe it's true. thanks, annie. you expressed it perfectly.

at least for now. for my mom.

2009-04-29T23:44:00.012-05:00

yeah, yeah. i know. i said, "cornbread out."

and i meant it, but this is just too fucking stupid not to comment on.

ft. worth, texas.
nickname = cowtown.

any honest dallasite recognizes cowtown's superior cultural presence. from the world class museums, concert halls* and saloons to their (soon sadly to be defunct) newspaper, ft. worth seriously & easily out classes dallas.

so what's up with the ft worth independent school district closing down all 147 schools for a week?

oh, that's right. the swiiiine fluuuuuuuuu.
so...what's a fella to do???

hey, i know. let's send 80,000 kids home. home to single parent families and 2 parent working households. 3.18 children per family are suddenly WHERE? doing WHAT? for a WEEK?!! brilliant.

while you're at it, why not suggest they not be sent to day care. (parents, please try to forget you have a job. and NO SLEEPOVERS while the kiddos are on vacation!!)

while you, fwisd, do WHAT? sterilize the schools????? did you suddenly go fucking braindead? did a bit of kryptonite get stuck in your panties? did someone sneeze on you? did you forget to wash your grubby hands? sheesh. it's the freaking flu, dude! do the math. (it's not the plague.)

Kingsford goes to the beach - Watch more Funny Videos

can you believe the cat didn't slap the shit out of that pig?

while you're at it, please advise those 10s of 1,000s of families not to eat pork. give them all kfc coupons so they can contract their salmonella honestly.

and in the meantime, i'll be enjoying the ridiculously cheap pork chops and pork ribs from my grocer.

*[click on one of the pics in that link to see a monumentual stone carving. it's awesome. it's angelic. it's ft. worth at her best.]

4-22-09, brand new alzheimer's research reported

2009-04-22T16:46:00.001-05:00

"Taking a new approach to the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease, a research team led by investigators at the Mayo Clinic campus in Florida has shown that druglike compounds can speed up destruction of the amyloid beta (A-beta) proteins that form plaque in the brains of patients with the disorder."

i think there really is hope for many of the rest of us...

-----------------

we took the alz residents back to richland college for a picnic lunch and concert yesterday. it was mostly awesome.

the only unawesome thing about the deal was mom being an asshole.

while waiting for the bus mom says:
"what the hell are we doing?"
"i'd rather go back to bed."
"what the hell are we doing sitting here?"
"this is stupid."

so i did the ignoring thing. when we got on the bus i mentioned what a beautiful day it was.
"harumph," says she.

ok. be that way...(she can be so exasperating)

we ate our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches by the lake. [picture would not upload]*
it was 75-80 degrees with a nice breeze. i asked if she was enjoying the day. i asked if she was enjoying being out in the real world in such nice weather. she agreed it was very nice. she might have even smiled.

we went in to the concert hall where the music department of this small junior college was going to do their monthly performance. *

there was a jazz band.*

and a jazz choir.*

& another lab band...*

it was all really surprisingly good. better than good.

the choir was backed up by a drummer and an electric bass player.* they also did an a capella number providing their own percussion, etc.* (i have a video of that, but my internet connection is apparently too slow to let me upload it to a web album.)

both bands were good. the second one did a thelonius monk song* and a charlie parker tune.* pretty damn good stuff. especially for a bunch of kids. i'd give 'em all an A.
well, except for that one kid in blue jeans.* (dang nab it! those videos didn't upload, either.)

-----------------

leaving the performance hall, i asked mom if she enjoyed the concert.

"not one damn minute of it!"

i looked at her in astonishment. i was flabbergasted.
i gathered myself, and said, "then next time maybe you and i will just stay outside by the lake and skip the music."
and she agreed to that. almost cordially.

we walked back to the bus.* on that walk, i held my hand on her shoulder thinking about how lucky she is to have full time caregivers who are not so emotionally involved...

-----------------

"exasperating" is an understatement. sometimes she just flat-out pisses me off. the whole ride back, everyone else went on and on about how much and what they liked about the music. the old-timey-ness of it, the big band sound, the youngsters, it made them wanta dance!, etc.. the alz god had given them a momentary break from their ungodly stupor. it was an exhilarating experience for all of us and for different reasons.

...almost all of us. mom was all piss and vinegar again. "not one damn minute of it."...

-----------------

when we got back up to her room she astonished me again by having the wherewith all to apologize for being such an old grump. and we hugged.

meh.
i guess that's hope enough for me.

==================

* but i have little hope for this blog if i can't upload a video. much less a freakin' picture. i'll see y'all on the flip side. cornbread out.

in remembrance of sam.

2009-04-18T00:22:00.004-05:00

i never knew you all that well, but i sure as hell know some people who did. we miss you very much.

i will always remember you as the free spirit on the soccer field playin' in the dirt with that devil-may-care attitude.

peace to you and yours, sam.

call me easy if you must, but...

2009-04-15T15:51:00.003-05:00

i think this is about the coolest thing since parmesan focaccia bread.

thanks, josephine.

2 related news stories for your inspection

2009-04-09T17:20:00.005-05:00

FDA switch OKs hospice pain killer

Recession Stalls State-Financed Pre-Kindergarten, but...

if you read them, you may be wondering why in the cbh i consider them related?
because they both give me a renewed sense of hope in our gummit*.

*Molly Ivins-speak for government, just in case you don't know.

family is a strange beast, indeed

2009-04-08T13:59:00.014-05:00

it's 6:59 a.m. tomorrow kiwi time.
do you know where your children are?
do you cherish them?

...the mom move went well yesterday.

well, except for the mom being such a bitch towards my sister. i don't know why she does that. and it disgusts me. the sister i'm referring to is the backbone of our family. the one who deserves the best, deserves and does the most.

don't get me wrong...the mad as a hornet thing i understand. i think it's a normal reaction to a change like this. especially for someone in her mental state.
but to take it out on that one person is bewildering to me. and it pisses me off.

anyway...we moved mom to a different room on a different floor in the same building. several of the aides went with her for the transition period. we did it for financial reasons. the new room is in a suite. (there are 3 rooms and a common sitting room in one apartment. omg! SUCH DEPRIVATION...)

- "why the hell did i have to move here?!"

- "because the pavement outside is kinda hard, mom. and there's no artificial air conditioning or heat other than whatever the weather man doles out. besides, they don't cook for you out there or bathe you. or treat you like the pampered queen you've become used to."

- "harrumph!" ((i can take care of myself!))

- "yes, ma'am." ((riiiight...))

too many funny/snarky stories to tell for now, but soon as i get the blogness back more fully into my system, i may relate a few in later posts.

bottom line:
mom is happy as a lark today.
ok...maybe not quite a lark, but she's at least as happy as a grackle can be.
and tomorrow will be even better.

mockingbird happy would be good.

dia mucho grande, mañana.

2009-04-06T21:47:00.005-05:00

(please excuse the poor grammar...i'm just a white boy sayin' hello.)

moving mom in the a.m.
hope you've all been well. we're doing just fine. i'll check back in, in a few days time.

really.

my funny valentine (neighbors)

2009-02-14T15:25:00.004-06:00

so this morning my neighbor rupert and i go krogerin'. we get to the flowers and he starts mumbling. then he walks over to the flower lady and asks, "where's the cheapest flowers you got?" "well, sir, these are all $(whatever she said.)" and rupert says, "i am not spending that much money on that bitch. can't i just buy one?"

and the flower lady says, "did you just call me a bitch?"

and rupert says, "no ma'am my wife's the bitch."
"well, that's not very nice."
"you are right. and if she'd quit ACTING like a bitch she'd be a whole lot nicer!

(ok, i made the last part of that dialogue up, because i was already laughing too hard to hear what was actually being said.)

so rupert buys some daisies and i ask him if he used to watch the addams family.
"sure, why?"
"do you remember what morticia always did with the flowers gomez would bring her?"
rupert laughed and said, "she cut the flowers off!"
"yes, and gomez would always say how much nicer they looked then."

at that point i could see the wheels in rupert's mind spinning as he fingered his pocket knife.

but he didn't do it.

....................................

fast forward a couple of hours...

...i go over to rupert's to see how things are going. pablo, the son, comes to the door. "he's not here. he and my mom went to luby's for lunch."

me: "say what!??
pablo, laughing: "i know! that's exactly what i thought."
me: "it's this crazy holiday, pablo. maybe it's not so bad after all."
pablo: "I'LL say it's crazy. I'M here alone and THEY're out?"

ahahahahahaha. it's so true. pablo's always off with some hot girl or another. he must have forgotten to take someone flowers. hmm...i forgot to ask if the flowers were still connected to the stems. and it's probably a good thing, too. knowing pablo, if the thought had occurred to him, he'd have had those daisies decapitated in a new york minute.

what i don't know is whether he'd have taken the stems or the flowers...

today we celebrate a national holiday

2009-02-13T17:00:00.005-06:00

"it's better to have lusted than never to have lusted at all"

[update: doh! but why didn't anyone tell me it wasn't feb 14? ah well, at least i missed friday the 13th.]

"The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas. The association estimates that, in the US, men spend in average twice as much money as women." -wikipedia

he was a fucking martyr, for christ's sake...ahahahahahahahah

...and this is his skull. (or so *they* say.)

happy valentine's day, y'all.

oh. & for your holiday pleasure here's a pretty bad (good) and possibly ironic painting ..."a change of heart" -oil on canvas, by scott brooks:

is there a doctor in the house?

2009-02-12T15:31:00.003-06:00

awol got banned from the dining room during meals at vickery towers. i've been expecting it. stupid health regs...

going to visit at the end of their lunch time had been my habit for the past few months. i'd take awol with me a couple of times a week and all the old folks really like him.

so i changed up the routine today and took the dog with me to their morning activity. it was awesome. much better chance for everyone to get to pet him and all. several of the people really came out their shells interacting with him and the aides dug it because we were there keeping people occupied while they did the tedious task of getting everyone from their rooms.
i might have to change his name again. how does Dr. Awol sound? ahahahahaha.

(((calling doctor awol...doctor awol to the 4th floor, please.)))

no camera with me today, but maybe tomorrow i'll post some pictures.

mom goes to college (♪ ♫ a 5 hour cruise...)

2009-02-11T17:00:00.020-06:00

(yesterday) we started loading the bus at 10 a.m. and left on our outing at 11. yep, it took a full hour to get twelve alzheimer's residents, 5 wheel chairs, 4 walkers, three adult children of said residents, 2 staff members and one driver on board.

i'm here to tell you, it was worth every second and then some.

i suppose i need to practice my over-the-head-and-behind blind camera shots. this is the best one of the lot, but i think you get the idea...it's hardly a spring break college crowd. but there's more personality packed into those old ladies than there is on an entire spring break beach.

our motley crew arrived at richland college, home of the mighty thunderducks!, with plenty of time to spare for our picnic lunch before the concert we came to see. (it only took about an hour to unload, wheel and wobble our way to this choice campus spot.)

pat and marjorie.

these two ladies are as different as night and day. pat, on the left, is wry and brash. marjorie is inquisitive and gentle. both are remarkably intelligent human beans.

pat: "what's your name?"
mom: "mary anne."
(they eat 3 meals a day at the same table. we say their names and converse together daily.)
pat: "your 1st name is mary? that's my 1st name, too."

me: "so your name is mary patricia?"
pat: "no, my name is mary winnifred."
me: "how'd you get pat out of mary winnifred?"

pat: "when i was a child people called me winnie and whiney and weanie. i didn't like that, so i fixed them. i changed my name to pat."

mom: "hahahahaha."
pat (to mom, again): "what's your name?"

lest i give the wrong impression, pat is very smart. she knows my name, a remarkable feat at her stage of dementia. she remembers my dog's name even when he is not there and asks about him often, which is not something my own mom is capable of. pat can paint in oils and was once an art restoration specialist. she may have lost more cognitive abilities than i've ever been graced with. i'd love to know 1/2 of what pat still knows somewhere in the recesses of her being.

and marjorie? marjorie is grace and wit personified.

the box lunches were ham and cheese sandwiches with a separate baggie of lettuce and tomato. when i put it all together for her, i was concerned it was too big and unwieldy to get in her dainty mouth. she misunderstood and insisted i take it. after convincing her i had my own, she carefully took the sandwich apart piece by piece and ate each part separately. when she saw me watching her do this, she gave a knowing wink and offerred me a cookie from her box, which i took gratefully. then she said, "i can break that cookie up for you if you'd like." and we laughed and laughed.

marjorie is at about the stage mom was a year ago.

and then there's helen...

when we loaded the picnic lunches on the bus helen asked what was in the boxes. told what they were, she said she sure hoped beer was included. at one point on the ride over she told mom there was wine in them thar boxes, which delighted mom no end. i said, "no, i'm real sorry, but there's no wine. it's just sandwiches and stuff."

and helen said, in her gravelly voice, "what kind of stuff? i hope it's scotch." (oh lordy. spring break, look out...here we come!)

-----------------------------------------------

not a very flattering picture of mom on the right, (but just look at how well her face is healing, lynn anne!) helen in the center, and on the far left, marjorie.

this is my favorite picture of the day. unless i fucked something up (likely), you should be able to click on it, or any other picture, for a closeup.
l-r: henry, diane (henry's daughter) and bill. i love how the gender segregation happens so naturally. kinda like in grade school. ("go over there and ask one of those girls to square dance, you little twit!")

come on guys! it's spring break. party time! the girls are waitin'!!!!

ok, this post is going on too long for most of you, but i'm not just ramblin' on for no reason((max butler)). there are a few people who might want to know that we did finally make it to the concert. (like my kids and sister. ie: the reason for this blog.)

the concert is about to begin. mom is seated 4th from the right side.

(bus driver john, on the left, is one of my minor heroes...)

and the concert was very, very cool.

every tuesday, the richland college orchestra class puts on a little concert. the last time we went, they were performing. this time, though, it was 4 members of the dallas symphony orchestra playing as a string quartet so the students could see, hear and interact with how it's really supposed to be done.

i'm very unsophisticated when it comes to classical music. the 1st number was a mozart piece and all i could think of while listening was of old-timey cartoons of spoons and plates and such dancing on black and white tv.
the beethoven opus-something-or-other conjured up vivid images of old silent movies.
the bartok piece blew me away with its sublime dissonance and whisked me off to some old, scary, mystery movie. hitchcock maybe...but what do i know?

afterwards, bill said, "i never appreciated the fiddle before. i never knew it could make so much music. i sure am glad we went."

and i am, too. and for more than one reason. (12 reasons to be exact.)

2009-02-09T19:37:00.007-06:00

i have seen 6 and one half drug deals go down from my apartment windows today.

but the day is not over yet, is it?...

i didn't actually see the "1/2". i was told about that one by a neighbor after i mentioned the traffic. (and i only mentioned it in passing...)

hodgepodge is a cool word...

2009-02-09T14:17:00.009-06:00

my friend terri sent me a forwarded email with photos of 15 really cool & strange buildings. (i especially like this one) -->

i looked it up on the interwebs and found what may be the original posting and...it has fifty (50!) of the wackiest constructions you can imagine.

believe it or not, there is only one barcelona building in the whole lot. (but several gaudi-esque ones.)

check them all out when you have the time.

one of the buildings shown in the above link is/was in houston, texas. it seems the city was going to demolish a house and a couple of artists seized the opportunity to create this awesome piece. as i have a little bit of personal experience with the black hole effect of condemned property, this one struck my fancy, too. (story link)

speaking of striking my fancy...i've been meaning to post this link for some time now. this is just one image of a most amazing personal library. this guy's displays include everything from a raptor skeleton to a nazi enigma code machine to a sputnik. and much much more. it is a veritable modern day cabinet of curiosities.

above:

Gadget Lab A brand-new One Laptop per Child XO, far left, sits next to a relatively ancient RadioShack TRS-80 Model 100. In back, a 1911 typewriting machine and a 1909 Kent radio. The large contraption at center is the Nazis' supposedly unbreakable Enigma code machine. The book to its left is a copy of Johannes Trithemius' 1518 Polygraphiae, a cryptographic landmark. On the right is an Apple II motherboard signed by Woz. An Edison kinetoscope sits beside an 1890 Edison phonograph (along with three of the wax cylinders it uses for recording). Nearby is a faithful copy of Edison's lightbulb. The gadget with the tubes is an IBM processor circa 1960. In front of it stands a truly ancient storage device, a Sumerian clay cone used to record surplus grain.

next is a juried art exhibit currently showing in dallas. artists from all over the u.s. and canada submitted work interpreting the theme of the show, Farewell Shoes for Mr. Bush.

some were funny, some sad.

("One that brought tears was a simple pair of work boots below a printed tribute to a man who had been a good father and hard worker but who died without health insurance. The artist was his widow." - juror, jim schutze)

it was a fitting outlet for the disappointment and resentment and even outrage that many of us in dallas feel about mr. bush moving to our fair city.

my favorite piece (pictured above), by rebecca sanchez of dallas, is made of plastic army-men and won an honorable mention. it's called, "Soles of our Soldiers."

(for the complete story and a much better picture of that piece, go here. or if you happen to be reading this after president's day, 2009, here.)

ok, i've taken up enough of your time for one day, but i must leave you a Dog picture O.T.D.

this is awol's crazy-ass, french whore of a girlfriend, gigi. he's in Luuuuuv.

"woof woof!"

V(ideo) O. T. D.

2009-02-06T18:51:00.013-06:00

i haven't checked out the rest of it yet, but i have a feeling it's all pretty goddam cool and worth a look-see. click on "her morning elegance" after going to this website.

(thanks, chrissy).

...in other news, i found what i suspect are the rest of the cars needed for my *cartable* today. i'm pretty excited about that.

so far i've made 5 different *veggie-tables*, and once helped sean make a *fishtable.* (there may be pics somewhere in here. and then again, maybe not.)

-------------------------------------------

the cartable (pronounced with a short a in the table part) is going to add to the goodness of the coffee table world & the betterment of the world in general by leaps and bounds. i might even try to sell this one. i could use the bucks.

these are all mechanized and will go on the carved limestone legs of the table and will be easily accessed to play with on said glass top.

vroom, vroom, vrooooom!!!

and yes, that's a penguin. pretty cool, huh? i am so easily amused.

(please feel free to click to enlarge any of these pictures.)

these will be on the sandstone tabletop under a sheet of 3/8" or 1/2" glass, depending on the funds available.

oh, wait. the 2 airplanes on the left are also mechanical and will be on the legs...&...i found all of those today to add to my already formidable collection of potentially cartable cars!

.........................................................................

the following little numbers have all been collected over the past few months & are mostly roadkill:

these "mini machines" were my son's and salvaged from the house fire:

(these broken ones are all road kill & will probably not be incorporated into the cartable.)
i call it my "junkyard." complete w/ junkyard dog:

& finally...
the Dog picture Of The Day...

"keepin' watch at the window"

guitar hero madness

2009-02-05T22:51:00.002-06:00

how is this even possible?

same crazy story. total whack. proof that god exists.

road kill deluxe

2009-02-03T19:44:00.001-06:00

found on my walk yesterday:

1 leather belt, 1 heavy tin angel candle holder, 2 rusty eight inch heart-shaped cake pans.

let's talk about the belt.
1st, i didn't have one & now i do. 2nd, i wanted one because i have to go to a wedding this month and, well, if you also don't have a suit or a sport coat or a tie, a belt is a kinda sorta necessary ingredient for pretending to get dressed up in order to be respectful, not to mention appearing to be respectable. 3rd, it not only fits me, but the most worn hole on the belt is an exact waistometer reading for me and my waist. what are the odds? 4thly, it's a cool belt with horses on it.

(i used to have several belts. and a suit. and a sport coat. and several ties, too, but they all burned up a while back. you may scoff in disbelief, but i can prove it.)

see? i told you.
that's me and the lovely josephine back in about 2004(?).

you may find this next part even more difficult to believe, but i swear it's true.

that photo was taken at a friend's wedding. for reasons still unknown, they asked me to officiate.

(i KNOW !...)

i wrote an awesome ceremony. that's what people told me, anyway. i even believed them afterwards when this asshole wedding photographer told me he'd been to 1000s of weddings and that was the most moving one he'd ever been to. it made me feel good. i was real nervous through the whole thing, shaking even, but i had faith in the words i'd written, so i just read it mostly. there were funny parts and poignant parts and parts where you had to think, and out of respect, even some bible parts for the parents. and people chuckled and laughed out loud when they were supposed to and they wept even louder when they were supposed to.

i didn't have to read the ending...i looked the couple in the eyes, one by one...then looked at the bride and paused dramatically and finally said, "sue. you may kiss your husband."

and the tears of the crowd turned to uproarious laughter.

ok...back to the deluxe road kill...

i don't bake and the pans are rusty, but i will use them for molds to make stepping stones. 8" stepping stones, you say? isn't that kind of small? no, not for the *secret garden* my sister made for her granddaughters. they are perfectly sized for the girls' tiny feet. PLUS! they're heart-shaped, and they'll like that.

plus, it's almost valentine's day and even though i don't really like that holiday very much, i have lots of red tile and various red found objects to imbed in the cement. (for instance, the red thing in the 1st photo is a broken-off part of a lawn mower i think. i found it a few weeks ago and intend to include it in the stepping stones.)

and the angel? well, my sister also likes angels. and even though i think the barbie leg i found (with ball joint intact) would look smashing in it...i think i'll keep that leg for some other project in the future.

(it almost looks like a surreal light saber, don't you think?)

a mom update and some cool miscellaneous stuff...

2009-02-02T18:42:00.014-06:00

mom's doing great. she never got sore or achy from the fall. isn't that weird? and her face bruises are healing nicely. she never once even remembered the fall or the hospital visit. that's normal. she claims to remember the ambulance ride, but i have my doubts. i think she remembers us talking about it. you know, like when you "remember" early childhood memories, but really you're remembering photos of them?

i took the camera over to get a shot of her and the dog together, but the battery was dead. doh! maybe tomorrow. in the meantime...

...here's a picture of awol and his girlfriend, gigi, on my bed.

more miscellaneous crap:

this video may not interest you all that much, but it appeals to me because i have actually used all but the 1st technique to manipulate large limestone blocks. (i've never moved a barn, though.)

and i think this is very, very cool. “You’ve done a great job with the dirt. But what about the water?”, dr. sylvia earle. (check out the video in the article. dr. earle rocks!)

after the camera battery charges i'll take some pics of some of the greatest road kill in months, but for now it's just more doggy-love.

both of 'em ready for the POUNCE!

"sheeit...who you think yer callin' a dick licker? dawg, have you even seen my girlfriend??? she is sooo Hot." (((pant, pant, pant.)))

update:
add this to the misc schitt (thanks, terri.)

i think i must live upstairs to some of their cousins... The Fuckin' Schitts.

oh yeah...?

2009-01-29T23:32:00.004-06:00

WELL, YOU SHOULD SEE THE OTHER GUY!

1st off, i need to tell you that she's a-ok. ok?

outline of the morning -

5:38 a.m.
(ring, ring, ring...)
"hell-o"
"blah blah blah your mom had a fall this morning. she's on her way to baylor hospital."

5:58 a.m.
(i walk over to mom all tubed and wired up in a hospital bed and take her hand...)
"hey good lookin'. how you feelin'?
"i'm ok." (smile)
"what happened?"
"i don't know."

6:00-7:00
"how'd you get here?"
"where?"
"the hospital."
(she cocks her head...) "i don't know..."
"did you get to ride in an ambulance?"
"...an ambulance...i did...clear across town in an ambulance. it took a long time."
she never did remember she'd fallen, but i heard about "goin' clear across town" a dozen times. (it's a 5 minute ride.)

........................................

"i was lying here in this bed looking out at that hallway yesterday. i remember being here yesterday."
"no, mom, this just happened this morning."
"i'm sorry you have to spend your day babysitting your mom again today..."
(again??)"no, ma'am. this just happened an hour or two ago."

(repeat the above a dozen times...)

"...going clear across town in an ambulance...someone in the ambulance mentioned alzheimer's..."(pause.)
then she asked me,"if you were told you had alzheimer's would it make you feel any different about things?"

(my mom has never been an analytical person. or a thinker, yet this is a profound question. particularly the word *feel* in that sentence.)

i thought for a while and said, "i don't know."
i thought for a while longer and finally asked the obvious, "how does it make you feel?"
"i don't know," she said.

................................................

8:00-9:00
at some point the subject of leaving the hospital came up and she asked, "where would we go?"
"back to Vickery Towers."
"hmmmm...i'm trying to think what that means to me...back to vickery towers...?...i don't really know what i'm thinking, if that makes any sense.

.................................................

9:00 a.m.
getting restless. pulling on and messing with all those hoses and wires and sticky things attached to her chest and arms and finger...kept sitting up and tugging on things. trying to get free. wanted her nightgown sleeves back on her arms. tugging on tubes and wires and sticky things...pulling on her sleeves...

all the while, i'm asking her/telling her to please lay down, please be patient just a few more minutes, the tests are all run, we'll be leaving soon, lay back down, the nurse will remove those pesky things real soon...eventually she decided if she couldn't get her arms in the sleeves the best thing she could do was to just take it off.

i pretty much got the full monty.

some day i guess i'll be the one to wash her ass and lift her saggy boobs to wash under them, but...but......

"come on, mom let's get this nightgown back on you. the doctor will be back soon to remove those hoses and stuff. we'll be leaving real soon. i promise."

..........................................................

bottom line:

1 full monty.
1 ekg, 1 head/neck ct scan, 1 hip x-ray. all results normal.
1 laceration over the eye. *stitched* with super glue or something.
1 bad-ass shiner.
1 bad-ass lady.

...........................................................

as cousin nance, who gave us a ride home, said,
"all that adventure and home by 10:00 a.m."

and mary anne smiled.

mr. chi-city &... the Blog O' The Day (edited)

2009-01-27T14:45:00.006-06:00

i found that video over at the 122 blog. stop by and have a look. (it's not all mr. chi-city)

[EDIT: i changed the above link to 122 to a specific post because aaron keeps posting chi-city stuff and the last one was lame. the 122 blog is a group of 16 or so, 20-something year old college buddies, some of whom have now graduated/are in grad school elsewhere. they started the blog after experiencing a very serious personal and communal tragedy. one we all should hope never to experience ourselves.

as a consequence of their loss, this group of hyper-intelligent, caring, crazy mofos has an even stronger bond than before.

because of their love for each other and their hilarious fucking senses of humor...may 122 live forever. amen.]

while i'm at it, check out this cool adventure...random news story otd.

found & find

2009-01-26T23:04:00.009-06:00

what is it?

give up, yet?

well, actually, it's just a couple of random plastic objects found on my walk and placed on the stove. the green thing is a felt-tip marker cap. the orange thing is...an orange thing.

on the stove top they look like an irish flag to me.

and i like it.

so that's the found.

and the find?

i-must-find-new-digs within walking distance of mom's.

soon.

i'm not bluffing this time. for the first time in years i find myself surrounded by people more fucked up than i am. (this can't be a good thing.) i'm so sick and tired of these crazy landlord people. (if that sounds like whining to you, think again. because that's another thing i'm sick to death of. whiners.)

gratuitous picture of "the dog with 1/2 white nails and 1/2 black nails" in a rare restful moment....

a *random* news story.

lost and found

2009-01-24T10:45:00.003-06:00

and lost again. and found again...

a friend found him in the middle of a busy street a few blocks away back in november. i adopted him the day or 2 before christmas. he's had several names since then: tabu, killah, wishbone, benjamin franklin, metro...

after i'd had him (as metro) for a couple of weeks he disappeared for 3 days. and he's obviously still awol from at least 1 somebody else, so that's his name. AWOL.

awol's a master paper shredder (witness him laying in his handiwork above). he's housebroken (usually) and he's a sniffer extraordinaire. i'd say he's mostly beagle with the eyes and ears of a chihuahua. it's the beagle in him that makes him go awol.

he swears he's not doing it on purpose. says he's just 'following his nose.' doing his job as best he can.

which reminds me. he's also a a dick licker. (eew, shame on you. his, not mine.) a friend says he does it "because he can."

i think she's right.

here he is xmas day with the lovely josephine and her entourage.

his hand prints in the freshly laid cement scratchcoat of my in-progress shower floor. yes, i said *hand* prints. he likes to walk on his hind legs, so i figure my dog, unlike yours, has 2 legs and 2 arms.

it may be hard to see, but that's his beagle nose print in the same cement.

he's never without that dorky harness since he came back and always on leash when we go out. but i've spiffed it up with black marks-a-lot tiger stripes, and his name and phone # with a note saying, "for a good time, call me at..."

M.O.T.D.

2009-01-22T21:49:00.007-06:00

Metaphor Of The Day:

[edit - see picture above and link below for a metaphor (this post), via the following Brilliant simile.]

"Building a fire is like playing jenga backwards." (jtb)

ok, so i haven't felt like posting much lately.

i have a feeling that may change in the near future. i may even post pictures of my new dog. he's a pretty cool dude...mom kinda likes him.

she's always been a pretty hard sell for change. of any kind.

(puns intended. and she's never been too fond of pets before now.)

the dog song

2009-01-21T20:56:00.001-06:00

thanks, terri. it's awesome. and pretty much right on...

who is your hero? [edited 1-20-09]

2009-01-19T18:25:00.004-06:00

the first question that the Levite asked was, "If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?" But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: "If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?"

read the whole thing here.

what? you didn't read it. get back.

[edit: for a much more interesting and salient tribute, check this shit out from mr. bullet holes...]

2009-01-13T19:09:00.000-06:00

i just learned that a blogger friend's mother died last night. i didn't know either one of them other than through this internet thing. but i can't stop crying.

the daughter is a true caregiver. she kept her mom in her home and cared for her until almost the very end; she washed her, fed her, was her companion and loving support.

the mom had alzheimer's.
i have mixed emotions. i feel for the daughter's indescribable loss and pain...i'm glad the mom is rid of hers.

when we 1st "met" i thought our moms sounded to be at pretty much the same stage of progression, but that wasn't so. my mom is still healthy - unbelievably so. she has lost more cognitive ability in the past month than in the past year, but she's still hanging in there and tries hard to catch a glimpse...she sleeps a whole lot more recently. i can see that weekly.

but she's still here. and for that i am grateful. i'm not ready for that. i guess i never will be?

peace to you and yours, Robyn.

my sister took us to walmart a few weeks ago and mom drove a go-cart for the first time ever. damn! she did good job maneuvering through the herds and strays of christmas shoppers.
and she didn't hit a single one.

...or remember that she'd had such fun the next day. but she still likes hearing about it later.

avocado salad and bachelor antipasta plate

2009-01-06T00:12:00.012-06:00

are you tired of the same old peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner night after night? would you like to have a nice bowl of cereal, but the milk is curdled? ...which brings me to the most difficult part of these recipes: gathering up the nerve to open the refrigerator.

(btw, where in the cornbread hell is the "d" in "refrigerator" and if that's the deal, lord, why does it unceremoniously show up in "fridge"? ??

that D should be more Tenacious.)

did you listen to that?

if not, do not even bother to read any further...

because this is just a tribute to the greatest refrigerator in the world!

AVOCADO SALAD for one:

the key here is to live where you can get a good avocado. (if you live in the hinterlands, substitute with toshiba apples or beef jerky.)

-slice your avocado in 2 and eat 1/2 of it with salt, pepper (and lime if you have it).
-place other 1/2 of avocado aside.
-open refrigerator and remove that mushy head of lettuce.
-remove mushy parts of lettuce.
-place unmushy parts on a plate.
-open fridge (again) and locate some old salad dressing. (the older the better. possibly the 'creamy cilantro' that wasn't as good as it sounded when you bought it, but it's better now, i promise.)
-pour a little* dressing on your lettuce** and mix with a fork.
open fridge again.
-find leftover parmesan cheese from your last pizza delivery and dump a little bit or a lot on.
-spoon out other 1/2 of avocado on top.
-add salt & lots of pepper.

and that's it. it's real good. if you happen to have carrots or onions in the refrigerator, don't add them to this particular salad. it's a total waste of time, but you can eat them while you cook.

and for you meat eaters, here's a great dish to go along with that one in case you didn't have enough unmushy lettuce for the salad to fill you up.

BACHELOR ANTIPASTA PLATE:

-open fridge (i know...i'm sorry!) and locate and remove any pizza less than 3 1/2 weeks old.
-while you're at it, locate and remove the container of sliced jalapenos that came with the pizza. and any old bologna that may be under the egg carton.
-(if there are eggs in the egg carton, extract them, too. because you can always add a fried or boiled egg to almost anything, especially salads and antipasta plates.)

-fry a slice or 2 of bologna. (or any available lunch meat or spare venison backstrap or sausage if you're real lucky.)
-scrape off the pizza toppings onto the fried bologna. (toss the crust. in the trash. it's too chewy when microwaved and it's most likely tasteless, anyway.)
-add jalapenos and nuke it all for a while.

(tip: "a while" is sorta like "a dash" or "a pinch." i find 123 is a pretty universal microwave cooking time except for reheating cold coffee as it makes the cup too hot to hold.)

oh! & i almost forgot.

you're gonna have to open the fridge one more time to look for some more salad dressing. if you have any old italian dressing you're in luck big time. slosh some on top of your bachelor antipasta plate and you can call it, "deluxe.".

i have more great recipes to share. (but being the slacker that i am, i probably won't.)

or as the paraphrased french say... "enjoy, say la bone a pete."

* this is a tricky one. i can't really help you much, but suffice to say, too much dressing drenching is irreversible even if you have more stuff to add to the salad. if you get your lettuce too soggy, revert to the usual pb&j dinner.

** if you have some saltine crackers in little plastic packets that you got from a restaurant...crumble them up (before you open the packet) and pour them on the lettuce at this point of the preparation. (this "can" also work to "sort of" alleviate the above mentioned culinary snafu.)

lost and found

2008-12-19T03:34:00.002-06:00

found in the gutter on my midnight stroll.

left to right:

british coins*,
1- 1 pence
2- 2 pence
4- 5 pence
1- 10 pence
1- 20 pence

spanish euro coins,
1- 5 cent
1- 10 cent**

u.s. coins,
2- 1 cent

all are roughed up and scarred from being run over in the street. i wonder why and how long they might have been where i found them. i imagine some crazed spanish vagabond tossing them out the window of a fast moving vehicle and laughing maniacally.

*- those english sure are proud of elizabethII. her profile is on all of them.

**- my favorite. it has a picture of the enigmatic cervantes on the obverse, national side.

guess what i'm giving everyone for christmas...

2008-12-18T16:13:00.004-06:00

The Day of Judgement

from the center panel of the

Memling Triptych in Gdańsk.

come judgement day, i'm pretty sure i'll be headed straight to hell for that one. and for trying so dang hard to get out of christmas this year. only to be over ruled, i might add.

[phone call]

"are you serious? do you have a reason?"

"i've got half a dozen reasons."

"good."

before i even got to the 3rd one i was interrupted and the rest was never spoken.

as rodney daingerfield used to say, "i don't get no respect."

sometimes i hate being loved.

nothing personal, but...

bah fucking humbug.

------------------------------

this is unrelated, but it brought a much needed smile to my face. it's highly addictive, loads of fun...and very civilized, if you ask me.

and if you watch the 2nd video here you'll see my xmas offering at exactly the 2:57-2:58 mark.

(and if you watch the 1st video, tell me if you were as surprised as i was that there was no adolescent-boy-breast-poking involved.)

merry christmas, y'all

p.s.

Juste judex ultionis,
donum fac remissionis
ante diem rationis.

cleaning out the closets

2008-12-13T19:20:00.001-06:00

Here is the beginning of my post. And here is the rest of it.

cleaning out the camera

2008-12-11T13:12:00.008-06:00

this is a view out my bedroom window. later that same evening i went out for a stroll (without the camera) and saw jupiter and venus very near that same crescent moon. it was a very cool thing to witness.

for a view of some of the other things i found on my walks last week...

i live a couple of blocks from a hopping night-life district. the bills and jewelry were found in the early morning hours. the bracelet (anklet?) was broken into many pieces and lying in the street near the single ear ring. i wonder what happened? a drunken lover's quarrel, perhaps?

the bills i imagine falling out of pockets while inebriated fools fish for car keys.

i found this interesting little goodie on my way to mom's the other day. it's plastic and slightly padded. there are 4 metallic contact points on the front.

this is the back of the cowboy hat. that's like a tiny speaker in the center and 4 tiny electrical contacts(?) at bottom left.

any idea what it used to say? or sing?

yes, i know... it's an odd thing that i do, but i almost never come home empty handed. it's usually less interesting stuff than last week's bumper crop of a haul (at least to most people), and rarely as lucrative. ($6.07 woot!)

2008-12-10T17:21:00.004-06:00

i posted on lily's virtual book club about the book we've been reading. the book is called "a short history of tractors in ukrainian." it's quite enjoyable and a surprisingly poignant, yet unsentimental, family drama.

so far there only 4 of us in the clubhouse. won't you join us? there's plenty of room.

...it was really cold here last night and this morning. cold for here, anyway. and windy. i went out walking at midnight. ice crunched underfoot and i came home with frost on my nose. this morning i walked over to see mom. it's funny how she has no idea if it's cold or hot or windy or still outside. she noticed my hands were cold and seemed to enjoy holding them to her face.

it's starting to get cold again now. (it warmed up to almost 40 this afternoon.) i don't know how you eskimos do it. 20 degrees and 20 mph wind is butt freeze cold to me. and here it only lasts a day or 2 at a time. i hope.

(((y'all stay warm.)))

and come visit our book club. it won't be nearly so lame (no offense lily, josephine and clippy) with you there. (maybe)

of lemons and monkeys and a random Q.O.T.D.

2008-12-07T20:05:00.002-06:00

when life gives you lemons...laugh your ass off at it.

Question Of The Day: wtf is pink lemonade, anyway?

according to carnival historian Joe Nickell, in his 2005 book Secrets of the Sideshows, a man named Pete Conklin who ran a circus lemonade and peanut concession actually was the one who invented the drink. One day in 1857, while Conklin was making regular lemonade, he ran out of water. In desperation, he used the pink water from a tub that one of the bareback riders had used to wash her red tights. Unfazed, Conklin added some lemon slices and sold the concoction as “strawberry lemonade,” promptly doubling his sales. And, as they say, when life gives you lemons …

isn't that fascinating?

although pink lemons do exist, today's pink lemonade isn't made from their juice. (hopefully, it's made of some artificial dye not derived from an athlete's tights. right?)

remind me to never drink pink lemonade again...

but trust me on this one... bicycle riding monkeys are REAL.

2 things

2008-12-06T11:30:00.006-06:00

when the kids were little we had this routine at supper time. each of us would tell a good thing and a bad thing that had happened that day. one evening, in her sweet, squeaky, little 4-year-old voice, josephine just said, "grammawgrampaw." the rest of us laughed and laughed. did she not understand the concept? or had nothing bad occurred? whatever the case, from then on our little ritual was no longer "good thing/bad thing," but simply, "2 things."

having read this blog post from josephine yesterday morning, let me just say, "josephinesean."

as a parent it is very gratifying to know they have such a close relationship. have each others back, so to speak. may you all be so lucky. may you always be such good friends with your siblings...

ok. enough sap for today. check out this article about a recent breakthrough in alzheimer's research involving β-breakers. that's "beta-breakers" - not to be confused with the annual "bay-to-breakers" 12-k run in san francisco.

Few things to keep in mind when doing this historical and very San Francisco race:

-You can drink and party on the route during the race. Be prepared to see bars and kegs on wheels.
-There will be many runners and walkers in costumes. Elvis will be seen numerous times through out the day.
-Bring tortillas for the start of the race. You don’t want to be unprepared for the traditional “Tortilla Fight” starting line.
-This is the only day you can be nude in public and not get arrested...(nude costume)

you can read more about the silly race here.

(pictured above: vegan cornbread and avocado salsa.)

go star wars!

2008-11-30T11:45:00.002-06:00

mom and i spent 2 relaxing days and nights at my sister's in stephenville. the food was great, the company even better. mom was disoriented most of the time. especially toward the end.

she enjoyed being with her grandson even though she didn't know his name. that's him flashing the *hook 'em horns* sign. we were playing go fish with his star wars cards. yes, we're a real intellectual group. (doesn't that look like a norman rockwell painting?)

more pics after the jump...

she interacted well while sitting at the table playing cards.

this is a 52 second slide show of the affair...

give me all your neimoidian acclamator-class hokey pokey okey dokey solar sailers...

2008-11-23T22:56:00.002-06:00

Louise and I had been hitchhiking for several months. I think we were returning from New Hampshire and points between when we arrived in Denton, Texas in the spring of '70. Denton is a college town just north of Dallas. We had several friends going to school there. We spent a few days sitting in on classes and sleeping on couches. Suddenly it was spring break and time to move on.

One of our new friends invited us to go with himself and a couple of others to Port Aransas for splash day. How could we refuse? This was a 19 year old kid's dream. A Texas beach full of crazy, partying, Boones Farm Apple Wine drinking college boys. And girls!

As if that weren't incentive enough, our host was a rich kid. No, a very rich kid. I kid you not...we flew to Port Aransas in his private airplane. Our opening act was to buzz the beach from about 60 feet overhead.

If you've ever been to spring break you have some idea of what goes on. There are literally 10,000 college kids, very little sleep happens, much less sobriety and 3 days later, everyone disappears. Everyone goes back to school. Back to their responsibilities.

Only, Louise and I had no classes to return to and our responsibility at the time was to explore. So we waved goodbye and we stayed.

With only a few dollars in my pocket, I decided to find a job. Told there was usually work on shrimp boats over at Aransas Pass, just a few miles up shore, off we went. We went from boat to boat to boat with no luck. With only one boat in the harbor we hadn't yet asked, things were looking pretty grim. The captain was a not so friendly 30-something Yugoslavian. He was setting out at 3am the next morning and could use a "header", but I couldn't bring my dog.

did I mention Louise was my dog?

Louise was a stubby, little, curly-haired mutt named after my favorite sculptor at the time, Louise Nevelson. Louise Nevelson was famous for her black, found-object constructions. My Louise was solid black. My Louise stayed with the captain's wife and kids in town while we went out 500 miles into the Gulf of Mexico.

I can't say what Louise did for those 30 days, but I had an adventure on a 50 foot shrimp boat with 2 crazy men, one of whom enjoyed threatening to throw me overboard daily. I started out seasick and ended up climbing on outriggers to disentangle nets in violent storms. I ate fresh snapper and moray eel and worked 20 hours a day and saw the sun rise and set on the ocean's horizon. I once saw the full moon rise as the sun set with nothing but ocean and sky and our small craft to interupt the magnificence. When I returned, Louise and I had bucks in our pockets and we hitched to Colorado where we ended up living on a mountainside for 3 months and working in a zinc mine.

well, *i* worked in the mine. Louise stayed at home protecting the tent.

(the photo is of Louise Nevelson, not Louise the dog.)

11-22-63

2008-11-22T20:21:00.008-06:00

many people my age and older remember this day as the anniversary of the day jfk was shot. on november 22, 1963 i was a 12 year old kid living in dallas.

but what i remember the day for, just as much, is as the day before the 1st anniversary of the day i watched my dog get run over on november 23, 1962.

that's not her, but it's as close as i could come up with from lookalike internet pictures of my cocker spaniel mutt. (i can't tell you her name because it's my secret code. i always use it as the answer to: *your 1st pet's name.*)

what i will tell you is that as an 11 year old i rode my bicycle a lot and all over the place and that she went with me most of the time.

one day we were headed up to the shopping center a few miles from home. it was the day the dallas public library bookmobile would be there. we were less than a block away and, as it turned out, so was the bookmobile.

******* saw it and got excited.

she ran after it happy, barking. me, pedaling as fast as i could behind when...all of a sudden ******* was sucked up under the vehicle and left lifeless, almost at my feet. she had a clean slit in her side. her heart was...in the middle of lanshire street just a few feet away from me. i really don't remember how we got home.

no disrespect meant to the kennedy family, but that's what i remember this time of year.

i was also going to tell you about louise, my 2nd dog, who hitchhiked all over the country with me in the early '70s, but i think i'll save that story for later.

]] scratchy throat [[

2008-11-21T17:29:00.004-06:00

nothing much to say. i think i'm coming down with a cold.

so, here. read this blog today...

and yes, that good looking guy is my son.

what's your favorite groucho quote?

2008-11-19T23:01:00.008-06:00

a blogger friend is starting a virtual book club.

"I'd love to be a member of a book club, it would kick start my old love of reading (which has to be good thing, right?) and it would be fun and fascinating to share opinions with others.
The trouble is, I just don't have space in my life to fit in book club get-togethers. So I had this idea...I will create a blog where my very own book club bloggers can meet and choose books to read and discuss. What do you think? Good idea, daft idea?
Would anyone like to join me? Any thoughts on the first book?"

hey, it sounds like a goofy enough of an idea to me. i like to read. i'm pretty opinionated. i don't have real friends...so why the heck not?

i looked at a bunch of books from this website and suggested 3:

the life of pi - because it's about the only one i've heard about before.
a short history of tractors in ukrainian - because the title made me laugh.
and rites of passage - because the author, william golding, is one of my favorites.

lily's got synopses of all 3 on her site. check it out.

oh, and my favorite groucho quote?
"outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."

♫ happy birthday to you ♪♫♪

2008-11-18T09:20:00.002-06:00

(updated post script after the jump)

and mom says so, too...

(sorry we didn't get around to making you a card, lynn anne.)

p.s.
at mom's today we called l.a. to wish her a happy birthday, but got the answering machine. mom talked for a while and either forgot she was talking to a machine or l.a. had picked up during the call. anyway, mom said, "i'll let you talk to rick" and handed me the phone.

i took it and said, "hello. hello?...hellooo?..."

hahahahahaha. doh! i sure hope the machine was still running to catch our buffoonery.

S.O.T.D.

2008-11-17T20:26:00.000-06:00

i should have taken a picture of my dinner. you would be sooo jealous. provided you're not vegetarian or vegan.

fried bologna and tomato(yes, also fried) with lettuce and avocado on sourdough bread.

for some reason avocados are 3 for a dollar right now and i have been in sandwich heaven. avocado and eggs, chicken salad and avocado, tomato and avocado, avocado and avocado, peanut butter and avocado...

ok. so i didn't really have a PB&A. but i just might.

what's your favorite sandwich?

No Mo NaBloPoMo

2008-11-16T16:08:00.003-06:00

and, oh, what a relief it is.

i'm pretty stubborn. i would've slogged through the month one way or the other. shoot, i even had/have an entry about *the top 10 reasons i'm a bigger dork than you are* pretty much typed out when my internet connection went awol last night. but this isn't it...

NaBloPoMo can kiss my pasty white ass.

...speaking of mistletoe, i saw this huge sprig on a walk early this morning and just had to shimmy up and snap it off. when i was a kid i probably would have broken it up into smaller pieces and made somewhere between 15 and 20 cents. (mistletoe was a major source of income for me back then. do kids still do that? well...they should.)

instead, i brought it home and hung it up in my doorway. that's probably not the wisest thing i've ever done, considering the only people who ever come up here are harold and rupert. and they're downright UGly.

anyway, one of these days i'l finish up the top 10 dorkiest post. and there are still a dozen or so map mosaic posts in the queue. here's a teaser for one of those.

i'll be back now and again. i wouldn't want to let my 1/2 dozen faithful readers down.

adventure at the arboretum

2008-11-14T04:56:00.000-06:00

yesterday i was one of 16 lucky individuals to go on a field trip to the dallas arboretum. we were 11 memory care residents and 5 chaperons.

our 5 hour adventure included 1 1/2 hours of walking, riding and sitting as we enjoyed the splendor of a 66 acre park filled with perennial and annual blooms, old growth and newly cultivated trees, sculpture, construction, and most importantly, human interaction.

i can't remember the lady's name on the left, but that's henry in the middle and mom on the right.
(click on the pic, lynn anne, to see yo momma's natural smile.)

although henry's daughter and i went to be with our parents, we ended spending more time chasing the more active old geezers around.

- the weather was a perfect 72 degrees.
- we only had one scare; when ms. billie fell on the pavement.
- the 2 hour adventure actually took 6 hours from start to finish.
- mom said she was surprised at how beautiful it was.
- i saw a sign advertising chicken salad sandwiches!! (and some stonework i'd forgotten doing 15 years ago.)
- joyce thought everyone there was with our group.
- everyone there wished they were part of our group.
- i am more in awe than ever of full time caregivers.

and i hope this slide show works...

[edit: i see it works, but the 1st half of it is the same as the 2nd half without the captions... doh!]

peace, y'all.

CAOTD

2008-11-13T07:26:00.003-06:00

1st of all, lily , it's just funny because it's funny. (see comments for last post)

Crazy Article Of The Day from the science world...

do i have to point out the humor in the use of "AI" for artificial insemination in that article? AI is more commonly used as an acronym for artificial INTELLIGENCE. now, am i just sick or is that ironic? (and funny, lily.)

and what about this: "Semen samples can be collected and preserved from both wild and captive (rhinoceros) populations..."

yikes! (((shudder))) that's not a job i would want.
and what would your title be? master rhinobator?

what is wrong with this picture?

2008-11-12T18:11:00.001-06:00

"The only countries that seem to have enough sperm are those that pay - like the U.S. and Spain - or the countries that retain anonymity..."

hahahahah. taken out of context that's downright hilarious. taken in context...it's still pretty damn funny if you ask me.

call me crass, but i think this is a Much bigger pollination problem.

veterans day, 2008

2008-11-11T19:58:00.002-06:00

the new g.i bill passed last may by a vote of 75-22-3, and you more than deserve it.

1.) i am ashamed that john cornyn continues to represents me in congress.

2.) i am proud of all you vets.

peace.

2008-11-10T17:16:00.006-06:00

you wanta know what i think the single biggest roadblock to blogging is?

depression.

*maybe* i'll update later.

update, 9:38 pm :
so, "just shake it."
right? isn't that what you were thinking?

(i owe my friend terri big time for this one. as you may or may not know, there's no audio on my pc, but this video is hilarious even without sound...)

suck it trebek

2008-11-09T21:17:00.000-06:00

i suppose this counts as a post, but i don't really like this NaBloPoMo crap. the title of the last post, "physical features," was intended for the next installment of the mosaic map series i'm working on. but it wasn't finished. it still isn't and i refuse to rush it. besides, i have a life. of sorts...

today i was a carpenter.

and today i was a son, and a puzzle doer, and a maid and a cook for myself, and a peace keeper for stupid fucking neighbors.

tomorrow, if i'm lucky, i'll be a "writer" again. and if not...

suck it nablopomo

physical features

2008-11-08T23:43:00.003-06:00

i went to the junkyard today. took a bunch of pictures. there were little shoes and pictures of people and baby bottles in some of the cars. it was weird. i didn't take pictures of those things. that's all for now.

do, a deer ♫ ♫♫

2008-11-07T18:02:00.002-06:00

it's been months since i went with mom to her friday happy hour. i used to take her every week, but now the staff takes just about all of the memory unit residents. i'm glad i went today. they had chicken salad sandwich quarters for snacks!

besides, i thought the entertainer was interesting.

as we were leaving, mom typically started to turn the wrong way and i tried to steer her back on course. she said, "but i want to thank him for coming." that's very unlike her. i guess she thought he was "interesting", too.

turns out he was called at the last minute when the scheduled performer called in sick, and i mean that literally. he got the call 30 minutes before show time. he told us he also teaches painting at VT on saturdays and preaches on sundays at various places and is the best husband in the world because he always says "yes dear." did i mention he's kinda sorta funny?

as we walked out mom turned to me and said, "not a very good singer was he?"

ahahahahahhahahaha

true. but he was enthusiastic. and mom smiled and clapped and thoroughly enjoyed herself. he mostly sang what i call show tunes to canned music. cabaret, new york new york, exodus, south pacific, several from the sound of music that mom obviously recognized, it's a grand old flag, ain't she sweet...mom did her spontaneous hand-tapping-boogie to that one.

he sang stuff that ripped right through the dementia and said, "well, hello there. i know you."

my favorites were a couple of al jolson tunes he sang a capella. i think they were mom's favorites, too. i could see her grin from behind.

"EXPLANATION"

2008-11-06T19:09:00.004-06:00

I like maps. I especially like old maps. The Peters Colony map I was charged with rendering in tile didn't have a "legend", but the mosaic begged me to include one anyway.

So, part of the research for the project involved studying the legends of 19th century maps for style and content. (The nerd in me got off on that.)
What type of lettering and decoration did they use? What did the compass rose look like? Who and what was mentioned? And what's this??? They didn't even call it a legend. No, more often it was an "Explanation."

What follows are a bunch of not so great pictures of the "explanation" engraved into the tile of the mosaic map.

I think I solved the problem I was having in Blogger of not always enabling browsers to click on pictures to enlarge them. (It has to do with losing html code if you drag them around during editing.) So, if you want to see more detail, click on a pic and hopefully it will enlarge.

Hey, i already admitted the photos suck. Basically, what they show are a bunch of hand drawn, hand engraved blah, blah, blahs to help the viewer understand the mosaic.

There is some fancy scroll work those old map makers were so fond of...

The scale.
(Meh, if you've been reading, you've already seen it.)

There's a compass rose not found in the research, but inspired by components of several of the old ones...

And of course, necessary information is included in the "explanation."

And...

Hey, wait a sec! How'd that election results map get in here?

tears of joy.

2008-11-05T07:56:00.002-06:00

tired of people posting about the election? tough. but i'll keep it short...

the daughter called last night. in tears.
called the son. in tears.
he was sobbing, too.
got an email from a friend:
"Yee fucking haw! that is all."

it was an emotional night. and for good reason. history was made. hope was reborn. i believe america grew up in a way last night.

another email from a friend:

Although we're miles apart, I'm celebrating tonight's victory with you. We all remember the civil rights march. Growing up in south Florida, I also remember separate bathrooms and water fountains, graduating from an all-white high school, and the teacher who proudly declared that he was black...that no one had colored his skin.

I have never been more proud to be an American.

and maybe my favorite email:
"I feel like i died and went to America."

today i am more proud of america that i have ever been in my life. and by the way, i thought mccain's gracious concession speech showed real class. i also wish mlk and barbara jordan and ann richards were here to see what is happening.

wha? 2 posts in one day? again???

2008-11-04T16:12:00.007-06:00

yep. i'm so excited i just had to tell Someone...

i'm excited because "The Campaign" is finally (almost) freaking over!

if it had gone on one more day i think was goinG to have to shoot myself. sheesh. what a bunch of ninnies. and i don't even live in a freakinG battleground state where folks are constantly inundated with all those slanderous, negative tv ads. god bless america.

enough of the rant. let me tell you how "the vote" goes in my little world.

i took this lady to vote. (pic taken today)

now, for the past 6?-8?-12? months we've gone from her saying...
"obama sounds ok, maybe i'll vote for him." and me saying, "but you're a republican, mom. dad would turn over in his grave."
"oh, i just don't know if i want a woman to be president," she'd respond.

...to her saying, "who do you like?"
and i always tell her, obama.
"oh, i'm not sure i want to vote for a black man for president," she'll say. and i always tell her she doesn't need to worry about that because she's a republican and will vote for mccain.
"who?"
"mccain, the republican. you'll like him, mom."

...to her pointing at the time magazine cover today and asking, "are you going to vote for this one or this one?"
i said, "i'm going to vote for obama," pointing to his picture.

"i think i'm going to vote for the other one," she said.

"that's good mom. we wouldn't want to mess up our 39 year old record of cancelling each others votes out, would we?"

(her laughing) "well why vote then?" she asked.
"because that would be unamerican. and besides, daddy would turn over in his grave," i told her. and she said, "ok. let's go."

i've had friends question why i help her remember that she is a die-hard republican, etc. even had people laugh AT me for it and shake their heads in disgust. but i don't think they understand what it really means to respect another person for who they are. in this case, maybe, who they "were."

GOBAMA! even if my vote doesn't count.

[and yes, i do hate, hate, hate what W has done to our country and to the world and to my kids' future and for so much more. and yes, i do believe mccain is Much less likely to rectify any of those egregious mistakes than obama is. yes, i am afraid of even the most remote possibility of a palin presidency. (((yikes)))

but i also remember sitting in the den as a 17 year old kid, watching the election returns in 1968, still under the political influence of a mindset that literally trembled at the thought of hubert humphry as president...i remember waking up the next morning with such relief that nixon had won...i wondered how nearly 1/2 the country had wanted otherwise...

and i am still amazed at the "other half." which ever side you are on, there is another side made up of real people. (true in war, too. read:iraq) they're not all good. not all bad. dumb as rocks in your or my opinion, but still human beans. and worthy of my respect. peace.]

survey, survey, survey...who cares?

2008-11-04T14:15:00.010-06:00

It is likely that the original settlers of what is now Dallas were a Caddoan group with seasonal camps along the Trinity River.* They would have first encountered Spanish explorers in the mid 1500s and French explorers and traders by mid 1600. By the time the Anglo settlers came there were at least 10 Native American tribes who frequented the area,** but none kept permanent camps that are known of.

Caddo village scene about 900 years ago (A.D. 1100) as envisioned by artist George S. Nelson. This scene is based on archeological details from the George C. Davis site in east Texas and on early historic accounts. Courtesy of the artist and the Institute of Texan Cultures, the University of Texas at San Antonio.***

The first record of permanent settlement in the vicinity is with the arrival of John Neely Bryan in 1841. Bryan surveyed an area, the heart of present-day downtown Dallas, just east of the Trinity River. (The triple underpass of JFK assassination infamy now stands in the center of the westernmost portion of Bryan's survey.)

Using Spanish surveying convention, he laid out a plat in relation to a natural formation, in this case, the outer bend of the river (blue line). With this as the western boundary, he laid out his streets at right angles to this land form. At about this same time, two other surveys were made nearby: one, by Warren A. Ferris from Nacogdoches County for John Grigsby (red), used a grid oriented 45' west of north, and the other by Robertson County surveyors (yellow) using a grid 35' west of north with the river as its eastern boundary.

The Peters Colony survey was laid out according to English convention using cardinal directions (black grid), but also incorporated these barely earlier surveys.

This brings us to what I consider one of the most fascinating consequences of these early survey maps. Let's say you were one of the settlers given a section of land. That would be 1 square mile, or 640 acres as defined by the Peters Colony. This would be your farm. As wagon roads developed, you wouldn't want people traipsing through your fields, so those roads would naturally be confined to the section lines.

Today, 170+ years later, the major roads and throughfares of Dallas still follow this grid except where the Bryan, Ferris and Robertson County surveys dictated the odd overlay of angles in certain sections, which are also reflected in our modern-day road system.

In other words, being familiar with a few natural landmarks of the area and being given say, your grandmother's current Dallas area street address, it is a simple proposition to locate Grandma on either the original survey map of what was then virtually wilderness - or, on the mosaic map at the South Irving Transit Center.

This 1872 bird's eye view map demonstrates the various orientations of the street system in downtown and near east Dallas, and what was still farmland to the north which would eventually become a grid of streets oriented north and south. Also notable is the proximity of the Trinity River, which Bryan used as his reference point. The river is no longer where it is shown here, but has since been moved to the west. In some cases it has been moved as much as 2 miles west! More about that later...

* Albert Woldert, "Expedition of Luis de Moscoso in Texas in 1542", Volume 46, Number 2, Southwestern Historical Quarterly Online, http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/publications/journals/shq/online/v046/n2/contrib_DIVL2180.html

** the Delaware, Chickasaw, Waco, Tawakoni, Keechi, Caddo, Anadarko, Ioni, Biloxi and Cherokee.

***http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/tejas/fundamentals/images/nelson-1.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/tejas/fundamentals/life.html&h=375&w=780&sz=83&hl=en&start=1&sig2=k4H7iN1jOaIqvX3tsykAow&um=1&usg=__rBQd-DXM37tNJ9hbro8JJqx1Mq8=&tbnid=Xwkzm6cTMi74rM:&tbnh=68&tbnw=142&ei=naIQSbXaOIL0MMXKgKAI&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcaddo%2Bvillage%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

zzzzzzzz

2008-11-03T23:07:00.006-06:00

i'll deal with this later...

that's a pic taken at mom's place today. lunch just wears them out.

back to the map story tomorrow. i'm too tired right now. in the meantime, enjoy this video i found over at 122 blog.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

The Peters Colony Survey Map of 1849

2008-11-02T14:16:00.034-06:00

Below is the portion of the survey map used in the mosaic project. Click on the image to enlarge it. I will explain what you are looking at later in this and future posts. If history bores you, please read no further. If you are associated with this organization, hows about a job?

In 1841, the Republic of Texas contracted with an empresario group from Kentucky, The Texas Land and Emigration Company, to encourage settlement in North Central Texas. Modeled after the Spanish/Mexican colonial system, the empresario group consisted of a set of investors whose responsibility it was to have the land surveyed and to advertise for prospective land owners; in return for which, the investors were also to receive land.

William Peters led the group of twenty investors from England and the United States. The resulting map, The Peters Colony Survey Map of 1849, is the primary source for the mosaic project described in this series of posts.

The Texas Land and Emigration Company's first contract (1841) stipulated that the investors would retain 1/2 of the lands settled on the condition that 200 families were to be settled in 3 years. Under the colonization laws of the Republic of Texas, a married man was entitled to 640 acres and single men to 320 acres* in return for which they would live on and work the land.

(When this deadline was not met the company was granted several extensions to achieve their contractual obligations, thus keeping the survey work alive. The Peters Colony's 4th contract (1850) required attracting 250 families per year. To achieve this, the company offerred 320 acres to married men and 160 to single men, plus a "free cabin, seed, and musket balls."**)

Seen to the right is a detail from the lower

righthand portion of the above map. Do you see the gridwork throughout? Those horizontal and vertical lines are the surveyors' section lines. Each square defines 1 square mile, or 640 acres. Therefore, each of those squares represent a potential homestead or headright. Remember that fact. It will be on the test...hahahaha...

The fact that the company retained the rights to 1/2 of all populated lands led to an ongoing conflict that finally resulted in what is known as the Hedgcoxe War. Henry O. Hedgcoxe, the civil engineer in charge of surveying and principal agent of the land company, was extremely unpopular with the settlers. On July 16***, 1852, a group of 100 armed men marched from Dallas to the land office in Collin County. Without firing a shot, Hedgcoxe was chased out of the colony.

The settlers destroyed all of Hedgcoxe's field notes and even the deeds held by him of the land they occupied. Luckily the map had been lithographed in 1849 and published the following year.

While many maps had been made of portions of the area in question by both early Spanish and French explorers, as well as by contemporary 19th century American surveyers, the Peters Colony map was the first comprehensive survey taken. It encompassed approximately 10,000 square miles including all or parts of as many as 13 present-day counties.**** It showed where there was prairie and timber and even the most minor of creeks and brooks. It showed both major and minor contemporary trails. The decade-long project was produced from survey notes and is far more accurate in detail than maps not so constructed.

This slide of the mosaic shows the same area as the detail map above. The lines delineating the prairies (brown tile) from the timbers (green tile), though often difficult to discern, are shown on the survey. As you can see, no attempt was made by the mosaicist to replicate every little creek or even every surveyed footpath. The blue trail, shown here heading west from Dallas, is not on the survey map and will be explained later.

Now, remember the grid lines? The section lines? They are accurately reproduced in the mosaic as the 8" grid of grout lines you see here. (Again, you must remember this. It will show up on future tests...)

Teaser: Engraved tiles in the legend of the mosaic map...

* "Braman's Information About Texas", 1857, by D.E.E. BramanLands: How They Are Aquired in Texas, see chapter XIII, (pps 147-157) and "Of Head-Rights - 4th Class", (see p 147).
http://books.google.com/books?

id=hn4FAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA152&lpg=PA152&dq=1st+class+certificates+full++league+and+labor+of+land&source=web&ots=dPq94BkwuO&sig=X7yeYWPfPa6us5hCkeWTzrScj74&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=6&ct=result#PPA157,M1

** Seymour V. Connor, "The Peters Colony of Texas: A History and Biographical Sketches of the Early Settlers" (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1959)

*** This date is somewhat in dispute. Some sources record July 16 and others July 17, but my son's birthday is on July 16... so, i'm going with the 16th.

**** Denton, Dallas, Collin, Cooke, Grayson, Tarrant, Palo Pinto, Wise, Clay, Jack, Somervell, Stephens and Young counties.

halloween at VT

2008-11-01T11:04:00.001-05:00

oh yes. my halloween was very exciting...i went to mom's.

they tried to get her to dress up. wear a hat. anything. "that's never been my thing," she said. "what is your thing?" "i don't know..." (sigh)

she did seem to have a good time, though. here she is seeing a lady she sat next to 3 meals a day for 2 years up until about a month ago. she couldn't remember where she knew her from and swears she hasn't seen her for years. but she did recognize her.

there were lots of children. some were grand and great grandchildren of residents. more were employees' children and i think quite a few were random neighborhood drop-ins.
i don't know who this one is, but mom couldn't get over how cute he was.

but he didn't look so sure about her. hahahahaha.

there were games. mom even played one.

the local fire station showed up. there was a very good four piece band and singer. hot dogs were cooked. we saw lots of people from the "other side" we hadn't seen in a while. and several of the folks from the alzheimers floor dressed up. one, Billie, even won the costume contest! all in all it was a pretty good time. the important thing is, mom got out for a change and enjoyed the experience.

here are all the pictures i took.

NaBloPoMO #1

2008-11-01T00:13:00.005-05:00

This is the first (or 4th if you've been reading my NaBloPoMo warmup posts) in a series of daily posts in which I hope to explain the research, history, development and installation of a mosaic created over a nine month period in 1990. It was, indeed, as close as I will likely ever come to experiencing the pain and ultimate joy of birthing a baby...

OVERVIEW:

- The Purpose of the D.A.R.T. Art Project -

The South Irving Transit Center, located in the heart of old downtown Irving, Texas, was the first park-and-ride bus facility in the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) system and opened in 1988.

170 years ago, the urban land on which the building stands was heavily wooded. At least nine different Indian tribes traveled through the area. They hunted buffalo on the Grape Vine Prairie; black bear, turkey and deer in the Trinity River bottoms; and in some cases each other, when they weren't trading goods.

DART's plan all along had been to incorporate a public art project into the structure: a project that reflected their goal of mass transit and also celebrated the rich heritage of historic Irving. Dart officials and a committee of 7 Irving citizens came up with the concept of depicting the early foot trails used by Native Americans and early Anglo settlers throughout the area. An existing 300 square foot tile floor inside the facility was the proposed site.

In 1989, I contracted with DART as the artist to execute this momumental work. This was DART's first public art project and my first experience working for either a government agency or a committee. The final result was well worth any difficulties thus encountered in its creation and is now, I believe, a significant cultural asset to the community.

This photo shows my then 4 year old* daughter, Josephine, "following the trails" at the opening ceremony on July 4, 1990.

- Early Irving -

The transit facility lies in the extreme northwest corner of the original 80 acre plot of Irving, Texas. A major foot path used by early settlers throughout the region skirts just to the north of it and roughly defines the route of what would eventually become DART's first rail line. (That public commuter rail line now connects Dallas and Ft. Worth and was DART's first rail venture. It opened in 1996 with a stop at the South Irving Transit Center.)

Detail depicting the original 80 acres of Irving in black with the mid-19th century foot trace above in red. The blue tile shows the meander of Indian Run (creek), the green represents prairie and the brown depicts timber:

The above photo shows less than 1/10 of 1% of the total project, but that small detail is notable in at least two ways: first, it shows exactly where the on-site viewer is standing (the upper left, or northwest, portion of the black rectangle), and second, although there are 97 different colored tiles in the entire project, the only materials used which are not made of porcelain are represented in this photograph.

The red is Mexican glass tile, used here and elsewhere for emphasis. The small mottled looking piece in the upper lefthand segment of the black rectangle is made of concrete. When originally installed this "tile" was covered in silver spray paint, which has since worn off due to heavy foot traffic.

That concrete "tile" is a slice of the Berlin Wall.**

Detail in the legend of the map project showing another slice of The Wall: (approximately 3/16" x 3/16")

For closeups of those remnants of the Berlin Wall click on the photos. Very cool...

* Not that you care, but Josephine was actually 7 days shy of 4 at the time. Ain't she cute?

** "When the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin, crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove almost all of the rest of it."

from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall

process

2008-10-31T13:47:00.005-05:00

this is Bird's Fort, which in 1840 was situated near the trinity river between present-day dallas and ft. worth. as there are no pictures of any kind of fort bird, this is actually a generic fort using a composite of typical architectural details of various forts from that era.

what is that white, bird-poop-looking splotch on the side of the guard house? (click to enlarge) heck if i know. you have to remember...this is just a freaking BUS STOP. so it could be almost anything. ahahahahaha.

the process of creation included many months of research, drawing, head scratching, tool development and of course the tedious task of fabrication. of these steps, the research was definitely my favorite part and the next dozen or more posts, complete with (gasp) correct usage of the shift key, will deal less with process and more with the historical purpose and sociological impact of the original survey map used as the primary source for the mosaic project.

this frame shows bird's fort at the termini of two foot trails. it stood in a grove of trees (brown tile) one mile north of the west fork of the trinity river.

this is a slide show of polaroids taken during the process of "building" the fort.

translating the original survey map to a gridwork of 8" tiles:

experimenting with different materials for use as trails and communities.

and one last tease...

more NaBloPoMo teasers...

2008-10-30T08:14:00.012-05:00

see? i haven't always had gray hair.

this is a picture of me with the Beemans, descendants of the first anglo family to settle in what is now dallas. they still lived on their ancestral land at the time this photo was taken in 1990.

we are standing on the mosaic-in-progress in my studio. the oxen you saw in yesterday's post are part of a tile picture representing the arrival of those early settlers in 1841. the white object at the beemans' feet is my original pencil drawing of that mosaic with a team of mules rather than oxen.

this is the finished product. this slide shows approximately 8 square feet of the entire 300 sq. ft. project. check out the groovy shadows.

here is the wagon in progress and the tools used to make it: pencil, tweezers, carbide hammer and carbide knippers. the caption on the polaroid means it was the 3rd (and final) attempt to render the canvas in tile.

this is sam houston. you saw his eyes yesterday... the 1st mosaic i ever attempted. so gimme a break, already.

and this is the xerox of a 19th century oil painting of sam which i used as the model.edit:
actually, my very 1st mosaic was this attempt at doing sam's portrait. purty ugly, huh?and the 2nd was this experiment at making his whiskers...here is the final product in process. (polaroid, with minimal fire damage.)

i'll leave you with this detail of another of the mosaics within the larger mosaic while i try to figure out how in the cornbreadhell to tell the rest of the story. hey, i've got a whole month, no?

3 days and counting...

2008-10-29T13:57:00.004-05:00

i signed up for NaBloPoMo.
yeah, yeah, i know. i hardly ever blog anymore, but that's just the point. *maybe* i will now.

and don't LOOK at me that way, dangnabbit! i swear i'm goinG to try.

so, beginning saturday, november 1, i intend to blog every day for a month. most if not all of the blog posts will be about the project these photos come from.
stay tuned...

i thought i asked you nicely NOT to look at me that way...

me and my dad?

2008-10-25T15:32:00.015-05:00

my dad and i... my dad and me...

"my dad and me" *feels* better.

would you say, "this is me," or "this is i?" and which side of the quotation mark does the puncuation go in that sentence?

come on grammar police. hep me out.

i bet he didn't know i was hiding a stick behind my back...hahahahaha

-------------------------------------

[that reminds me...hey, chris of "inside my heart" blog - for at least a month now i've been unable to view your blog for more than a few seconds before that tab of my browser crashes. this is admittedly a pretty crappy computer, but it doesn't seem to happen with other blogs, web pages, etc. what's up with that?]

-------------------------------------

last week sometime, mom and i were looking at a picture of my daughter and her 2 grand dads taken at her 3rd or 4th birthday party on velasco street. i left it out on mom's chairside table because we both enjoyed looking at and talking about it.

today she said she couldn't remember why it was there. i reminded her. and i told her again the next 4 or 5 times when she asked why "she" had put it there. i decided to change the subject slightly.

i asked her if she remembered the first time josephine's "other" granndpa in the picture had come to her house. (suffice to say, she couldn't even remember his name without prompting, but when told, she even said the late grandma's name!)

anyway...the story goes that The Colonel and Mrs. Musgrave, my new parents-in-law, were coming to mom and dad's house for the 1st time. the colonel is a rather distinguished fellow. everyone was anxious to pretend to be equally distinguished and respectable, of course.

the musgraves were invited in and after the proper howdy-dos had been exchanged, they were offerred seats for what was, up to that point, a little bit of a nervous occasion... oh, no worries... my brother, who was about 8 years old at the time, had put a whoopie cushion in the colonel's seat.

PPPPPTTHTTTTHHHHH!!

it was awesome. (the colonel is now 96 years old and still sharp as a tack. i wonder if he remembers that story and how how hard he laughed at the situation and at himself?)

mom heard this story today as if for the first time and i swear she laughed so hard i thought she was going to choke. at the time, as i remember it, she was freaking mortified.

a little later this morning i made the whoopie cushion sound again and she cracked up again.

here's mom in her "new" favorite outfit. yes, lynn anne, she wears it several times a week. she'll even tell you it's her favorite if you comment on it.

p.s. i give up trying to hide most of this beyond the read more text. arghhh

classy. Very classy.

2008-10-23T22:17:00.012-05:00

this is my new toaster oven. i paid 2 bucks for it at a yard sale and used at least 2 bucks of soap and water to clean it up.

it works like a charm.

let's just say rick's been in toast heaven all week...

and this is my front door.

i'll paint the front door green tomorrow. and maybe change the decoration...or not...(click pic to enlarge for your viewing Pleasure.)

this is my kitchen. check out the toaster.

did i mention i have a freakinG TOASTER?!!!!

you're jealous, aren't you?

who you calling a pussy?

2008-10-22T19:23:00.014-05:00

listen to me you #%&*#@* northerners, when it gets down to 50 degrees with 90% humidity and 15 mph winds, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon...i call that c-c-cccold. and it's supposed to get down to 40 tonight??!!

shit.

i think i'd better rearrange my room to accommodate a space heater. sheesh! my feet don't even work in this kind of weather. i've already got all 4 of my shirts on...and i'll bitch if i want to.

---------------------------------

uh oh. i feel a rebus coming on...
(i still haven't figured out how to space the images the way i want. so, get over it.)

...

or no. wait a minute. maybe i just want to BE a kitty...

seeking advice

2008-10-06T15:10:00.004-05:00

mom lives in a facility that consists of about 1/2 independent-living and 1/2 assisted-living residents. of those in assisted-living, a very small percentage (maybe 5%) are in what they call the memory unit where mom lives.

this morning a resident from the independent unit came up to mom's floor and a made a very generous offer. he proposed to spend an hour each monday morning reading to them and has even recruited other residents to get involved in the program.

next monday he will be reading a mark twain short story...

it is my opinion that they won't have a clue as to the meaning of what he has chosen to read. it is also my opinion..."so what." the real value of the hour will be human interaction.

i have offered to join this reading group, but i would like to find something more "dementia appropriate" to read to them. i know several of the readers here have first-hand experience with what alzheimer's patients might enjoy and i would like your input.* **

so far, my only idea is mother goose rhymes.

not to be condescending or insulting, but i'm thinking they may be familiar and besides, those rhymes never were meant to be enjoyed for their intellectual nuances as much as for their whimsy, cadence and rhyme. right?

ok...i'll stay away from "as i was going to st. ives..." hahahahhaha, that might a little complicated,

but which do you think might be their favorites?

and what other than mother goose would you suggest?

* if you're involved in an alzheimer's forum, would you be willing to solicit suggestions from the participants?

** input from anyone would be much appreciated.

answer the fucking question, bitch.

2008-10-02T21:53:00.007-05:00

i was gonna write a post about takin' mom to buy new underwear, but then i listened to the VP debate and i'm here to tell ya...

That is the last time i will ever say or write, "gonna," say or write, "ya," or say or write a gerund with a dropped *g.*

In addition, I will do my best to answer the question asked.

(there is nothinG beyond the jump. so don't yOU even bother lookinG. i'm GOING to bed. my stomach aches.)

2 poems for fall. by Josephine T. Bibby

2008-09-24T19:56:00.015-05:00

well, that last post about josephine's amazing literary skills was fairly popular. but it seems to have failed to sufficiently embarrass the daughter. so let's see if i can rectify that after the jump.

(you uppity little so-and-so. don't you roll your eyes at ME, missy!)

(((muahahahaaaa...)))

---------------------

as a 7 year old, she was unquestionably and undeniably the brutally, unbelievable, underage, *poet lariat* of velasco street. or at least of our household.

she was the master of rap before rap was popular. and she can still talk your ears to a painful pulp.

before mtv existed, MC J-O Co0L ruled the universe from her yellow writing pad. singlehandedly.

oh? you think i'm exaggerating? hah! take what follows as irrefutable evidence. read it and weep, suckas...

two seasonal poems from the master:

"FALL" and "HALLOWEEN"

move over lil' kim. MC J-O Co0L is darting.

it's story time...

2008-09-23T21:42:00.013-05:00

once upon a time there was a man. a very lucky man. this man had a daughter. the daughter brought him great joy. joy beyond his wildest dreams. the daughter amazed him daily. amazement greater than the sun and the moon.

every evening at bedtime the man and the daughter read books together. sometimes the man made up stories. one night during this ritual the man had to excuse himself for a bit. when he returned, the man picked up the book they had been reading and, mostly to himself, asked, "now where were we, daughter?"

the daughter, who was barely 4 years old at the time, pointed to the word 'the' and said... "'the' was the last word you read to me, daddy." and to the utter amazement of the man, the daughter read the words that followed.

and the man cocked his head in wonder.

"did you just read that?," the man asked.

----------------------------
the fact is, she had read it. she had somehow learned to read without being taught. by... observation? by...some mysterious gift of the mind?

the man still cannot fathom it completely, much less explain it. what is...simply is.
----------------------------

...and the daughter grew up to be the most extraordinary woman the man had ever known.

just in case the preceding hasn't embarrassed the daughter enough, i present to you now one of the first stories i know of that she wrote (and *copywrited*) herself.

6-7 years old:

ok...maybe she is just a little bit crazy. but what can you expect considering her early influence?

"who is the smartest and most beautiful woman in the world?", the man asked...

the daughter hesitated and the man answered his own question: "well it's Josephine T. Bibby of course. and don't you ever, ever doubt it."

a very brief family history on my dad's side

2008-09-20T15:11:00.018-05:00

i recently found a booklet of 7 snapshots taken when i was about 3.

oooh. ricky does not look so happy in this one does he?

no, that's just my serious look...

nice hat, lynn anne!

what follows are the only photos i've ever seen of myself with my great grandfather. and i don't remember him at all.

-----------------------------

this next one is my favorite: great grand dad (Joseph Richard), dad (Joseph Richard, who died thinking he was a Joe Richard) and me (Joe Richard).

i grew up being told i was JOE RICHARD IV. turns out i am really the 1st...but i suppose i *am* JoRichardB, IV! and JB, V.

...making my daughter Jo B, V. and JB, VI ! confused yet? hahahaahhaha

[i never met my grand dad* (Jesse Richard) or my g-g grand dad** (Josephus Byron).]

my grandmother (Granny) with my mom.

granny with my dad. granny was a real colorful character. she deserves a book to be written about her. i miss her the most. other than my dad, i guess. (i really like this pic, too.)

this is my great grandmother (Big Mama) in the next 3 photos. i wonder what reen and i are lookin' at in this 1st one? whatever it is, lynn anne doesn't seem at all amused...hahahaha

this was the last picture in the little booklet. uncropped. i love the partial image of my mom at the stove in the background. (click on it, or any picture, to see details.)

-----------------------

*i also found this photo of my dad and uncle with their dad, Jesse Richard. it's about 1" square so i taped it to the back of another photo to scan it. (yes, lynn anne, i finally got your scanner working. today!)

and this is the ONLY picture i've EVER seen of my dad with his dad.

**i can't find the tintype of my g-g grandfather, Josephus Byron, but this is the cemetery he was buried in. that's New York, TEXAS. and he was buried one year before that sign was put up...

mom's exciting birthday party extravaganza.

2008-09-18T15:40:00.019-05:00

i don't normally buy greeting cards. sometimes i'll look through all 200 available and find nothing *i* want. it's easier to get what i'm looking for in my imagination. so i usually just make them myself, but i was in the drug store the day before mom's 86th birthday and decided to see what i might find card-wise.

the Very 1st card i picked up seemed like such a perfect metaphor for alzheimer's i had to buy it:

score!

now, i ask you. how often do you see that type of symmetry in life?

i also bought a bag of chocolate chip cookies (she loves them), and that was going to be the extent of my gift giving. until i woke up in the morning, that is...

do we dream these things? do our minds reboot and clear the clutter of old data, allowing fresh ideas to germinate while we sleep? whatever.

i woke with a near** brilliant plan. i would go to the grocery store and buy enough cupcakes for all the residents and aides. we're gonna have a cupcake party! (click on pic to drool. and i don't even hardly eat sweets.)

hey wait a sec. i just now noticed there's a chocolate one missing!

on the way over, i stopped and pilferred some crepe myrtle blooms.

and some turk's caps.

mom asked several times, "where did all these flowers come from?" and of course, each time i told her i had brought them. one time i even admitted i'd picked them out of peoples' yards on the way over. later when she -inevitably- asked again, joyce, one of the residents, said, "your son stole them. but i think he makes up stories."

hahahahahahaha. true on both counts, joyce.

at one point i asked mom, "how old are you today?" she tersely said, "i don't have to tell you that," and everyone laughed. but i persisted, just joking around. she thought for a few seconds, trying hard to come up with an honest answer, i think, and finally said with the slightest bit of hesitation, "65?"
i laughed and asked her how old she thought i was. she said she had no idea. i told her, "57, so i guess you had me when you were what? about 8 years old?" this made her laugh.

later on when i wanted to get a picture of her smiling i asked her again, "now how old are you today?" without skipping a beat she responded, "25."

complete and utter laughter ensued.

the aide passing out the cupcakes! asked each resident, "what color do you want?" i thought, "that's odd." i'd have probably asked, "which flavor," or mentioned the choices as being strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, lemon, etc.

mom wanted "pink." joyce wanted "white."
while joe, a very distinguished black man who rarely speaks, was offerred a vanilla one withouthaving been asked. (there were more of those left and the aide probably figured he wouldn't respond to her question, anyway.)

well, i'm here to tell you- joe spoke up. he replied with a sly grin, "no thank you, i'll take black."

one more cool thing about the party:
there are usually just 2 aides and a supervisor at any given time on the floor, but that afternoon there were also several new aides there doin' recon work or something. we got to talking and it turns out that...

2 are from ethiopia, 1 from eritrea (she was delighted i knew where that was), 1 is from nigeria (though she first claimed to be from louisianna), 1 is from dallas, and a nurse, whom i'd invited up from the 1st floor for the party, is from ukraine.
what an awesome melting pot we live in. mom is so lucky to be surrounded by such a caring group of people no matter where in our world they're *from*.

and maybe that explains the chosen semantics of, "what color do you want?"

-------------------------------------

** i said "near brilliant idea" because the better idea would have been to take cupcake mix up there and to have made our own. meh.
live and learn, right?

one cupcake at a time...

-------------------------------------

dear family, i hope this slide show of all the pictures i took yesterday works. (please come back later if it doesn't.)

ok. looks to me like it *worked* even if it is kinda blurry. lemme know if you wanna see any clear photos.

and a happy cupcake to all.

yeah, yeah, yeah. i know...

2008-09-09T20:15:00.001-05:00

it's old news.

passé.

not current.

not your cup of tea.

no longer relevant to you.

you may be saying, "get a life, man. give it a rest."

but i can't. so i'm going knocking on doors on saturday, the 20th. because i "have" to.

i hope you'll join me.

"Mission Accomplished." The lies about WMDs. Yellowcake. The Saddam-9/11 connection.
From start to finish, the Iraq war has been a disaster. But unless we work together, the politicians who supported it may be let off the hook.
And for the sake of history, if nothing else, we can't let that happen. So on Saturday, September 20th, we're partnering with our friends across the anti-war movement in one of the biggest days of action on the war yet. We're aiming for a truly ambitious goal: knock on ONE MILLION doors to talk to key voters about Iraq.
Can you join us?

Something like this hasn't really been done before—definitely not at this scale. Usually when people think of a canvass during an election year, they think it's for a candidate. But if this election is about real issues, like the ongoing occupation in Iraq, we can't lose.
Here's how it will work:
Just click the link and sign up.
Our partners at the campaign will send you a list of 40 people in your neighborhood. These are folks who either just registered to vote or are registered but don't always vote.
On September 20th, we'll talk to these folks person-to-person and ask them to sign a petition calling on the next president and Congress to bring our troops home from Iraq within a year.
We'll talk to folks from every political party.
On Election Day we'll get them to vote for people who will finally bring an end to this war.
This isn't preaching to the choir—this is making our movement bigger and stronger for next year. Can you join us?

Thanks for all you do.

and thanks to rick e. for this:

god help america.

2008-09-03T21:42:00.000-05:00

a fish called palin.

2008-09-01T20:40:00.015-05:00

who would you rather be a heartbeat away from the presidency of the u.s. of a.?

sarah, i may be sorta hot and don't believe in evolution or contraceptives, palin...

or...michael palin?

hey. i fully understand.
neither are qualified, but the point is: I STILL WISH IT WAS MICHAEL!
(thanks, caroline/sean. for the wit.)

this is pretty clever.
and Very right-on, in my opinion. (thanks chris. i hope they read it.)

the following is an email from a close friend of my daughter's. it's long, but informative.
plus, there're pictures! so read it you turkeys...

(the electorate needs pictures):

Hello Everybody:

From a friend. A voice from Alaska

As an Alaskan, I am writing to give all of you some information on
Sarah Palin, Senator McCain's choice for VP. As an Alaska voter, I
know more than most of you about her and, frankly, I am horrified that
he picked her.

Her husband works inthe oil fields of Prudhoe Bay and races snow mobiles. She is a life
time member of the NRA and has worked tirelessly to allow
indiscriminate hunting of wildlife in Alaska, particularly wolves and
bears. She has spent millions of Alaska state dollars on aerial
hunting of these predators -from helicopters and airplanes, dollars
that should have been spent, for example, on Alaska's failing school
system. We have the lowest rate of high school graduation in the
country. Not all of you may think aerial predator hunting is so bad,
but how anyone (other than Alaska wolf-haters, of which there are
many, most without teeth), could think this use of funds is
appropriate, is beyond me. If you want to know more about the aerial
hunting travesty, let me know and I will send some links to
informative web sites.

She has been a strong supporter of increased use of fossil fuels, yet
the McCain campaign has the nerve to say she has "green" policies. The
only thing green about Sarah Palin is her lack of experience. She has
consistently supported drilling in ANWR, use of coal-burning power
plants (as I write this, a new coal plant is being built in her home
town of Wasilla), strip mining, and almost anything else that will
unnecessarily exploit the diminishing resources of Alaska and destroy
its environment.

Prior to her one year as governor of Alaska, she was mayor of Wasilla,
a small red neck town outside Anchorage.The average maximum education
level of parents of junior high school kids in Wasilla is 10th grade.
Unfortunately, I have to go to Wasilla every week to get groceries and
other supplies, so I have continual contact with the people who put
Palin in office in the first place. I know what I'm talking about.
These people don't have a concept of the world around them or of the
serious issues facing the US. Furthermore, they don't care. So long as
they can go out and hunt their moose every fall, kill wolves and bears
and drive their snow mobiles and ATVs through every corner of the
wilderness, they're happy. I wish I were exaggerating.

Sarah Palin is currently involved in a political corruption scandal.
She fired an individual in law enforcement here because she didn't
like how he treated one of her relatives during a divorce. The man's
performance and ability weren't considered; it was a totally personal
firing and is currently under investigation. While the issue isn't
close to the scandal of Ted Steven's corruption, it shows that Palin
isn't "squeaky clean" and causes me to think there may be more issues
that could come to light. Clearly McCain doesn't care.

When you line Palin up with Biden, the comparison would be laughable
if it weren't so serious. Sarah Palin knows nothing of economics
(admittedly a weak area for McCain), or of international affairs,
knows nothing of national government, Social Security, unemployment,
health care systems - you name it. The idea of her meeting with heads
of foreign governments around the world truly frightens me.

In an increasingly dangerous world, with the economy in shambles in
the US, Sarah Palin is uniquely UNqualified to be vice president. John
McCain is not a young man. Should something happen to him such that
the vice president had to step in, it would destroy our country and
possibly the world to have someone as inexperienced and inappropriate
as Sarah Palin. The choice of Palin is a cheap shot by McCain to try
to get Hillary supporters to vote for him. when McCain introduced her
today, Palin had the nerve to compare herself with Hillary and
Geraldine Ferraro. Sarah Palin, you are no Hillary Clinton.

To those of you who, like me, supported Hilary and were upset that she
did not get the nomination, please don't think that Sarah Palin is a
worthy substitute. If you supported Hillary, regardless of what you
think the media and the democratic party may have done to undermine
her campaign, the person to support now is Obama, not Sarah Palin. To
those of you who are independent or undecided, don't let the choice of
Palin sway you in favor of McCain. Choosing her shows how unqualified
McCain is to be president. To those of you who are conservative, I
guess you have no choice for president. But please try to see how the
poor choice of Palin tells us a great deal about McCain's judgement.
While the political posturing inherent in the choice of Palin is
obvious, the more serious issue is the fact that the VP is, literally,
a heartbeat away from the presidency. Sarah Palin is totally and
unequivocally unqualified to be vice president, let alone president.

I know this is a lengthy and emotional email, but the stakes are high.
I thought it might help for all of you, regardless of political
affiliation, to know something about Palin from someone who has to
live with her administration in Alaska on a daily basis.

------------------------

oh. i promised you pictures, didn't i?

judging from the collective intelligence of the american electorate as exhibited in the last 2 presidential campaigns...i'm afraid.

and you?

2008-08-29T15:01:00.003-05:00

this was my very 1st computer. a KayPro. it was a hand-me-down. it was basically a word processor. plus, it could access the intornets. (what little there was in 1983.)

but...
it had PONG!

my new computer works great as a word processor. and it does allow me to access the meganets. (for 3-4 minutes a day.)

but...
it doesn't have PONG. :(

hahahahaha. i hope you remember pong. and i hope you enjoy the irony of this new version:

p.s.
lots of fun mom-news, but for now, i'm goin' with the gratuitous post with my 3 minutes.

p.p.s.
- did mccain totally trump obama's speech with his vp announcement today?
- will even hillary vote for her?
- sheesh.
- crap.

fuuuuck!

2008-08-27T08:37:00.006-05:00

never buy a used computer.
buy a used car. shop at goodwill all you want. heck, buy used rubbers for all i care.

but never buy a used computer.

random stuff. with lists! & a WOTD.

2008-08-23T14:20:00.007-05:00

why are these my two favorite answers in today's syndicated nyt x-word puzzle?

17A - hero/giant created by rabelais = gargantua.
39A - menacing = sinister.

a. because they're lots cooler than synchronized swimming?
b. because i'm a total dork?
c. some other reasons i'll try to explain after the jump?
d. all of the above?

d., of course, is the correct answer. but you already knew that, didn't you?

ok, lets deal with *gargantua* 1st.

a. because it's so much fun to say. try it.
gar-GAN-tua. hahahahaha.

b. because this is a cool picture of him:

c. and because this is even awesomer. (yep, i read the whooole thing. i told you i was a dork...)

but why in the cornbread hell would i like *sinister* so much??

a. because i got it with just the n. (from the parmesaN crossing.)

b. just because.

c. and really because...(this is where i think it gets a little bit whacky)
the actual word of the day from wordsmith.org is *ambisinister.* coincidence? (duh. of course it is you gullible, ambisinister oafs.)

maybe that's too small to read, but here's the salient text:

ambisinister

MEANING:
adjective: Clumsy with both hands. (Literally, with two left hands.)

ETYMOLOGY:
From Latin ambi- (both) + sinister (on the left side).

wha? "sinister" comes from "the left side" ????
oh those crazy latins...

all you left handed people out there oughta start aclamorin' asap. that sounds like prejudicism (sic) to me.

---------------------

bonus random stuff in case you can't read the screenshot above):

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:
It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

---------------------

hey. if you didn't learn anything new today, don't blame me.

mom and rick's excellent adventure

2008-08-20T13:06:00.008-05:00

this is mostly for my sister since i'm so bad about calling with updates.

is that really a kangaroo she's touching? oh yeah. but first lemme tell you about the eye exam trip...

we rode in this big ole bus, just the 2 of us. dwayne, the driver, is this remarkably gentle and kind man. mom entered and exited on this lift at the rear of the bus and we sat in the back.

i asked him if he ever worked at the fair and mom giggled like a schoolgirl when i explained i felt like he was helping her on and off of an amusement park ride. he laughed, too.

each time we exited she got up and headed toward the front. very alzheimer's-ish. since she couldn't see her walker she forgot she had one. and she couldn't see the lift so she assumed she should go to the doors she could see. such extreme memory loss like that still amazes me.

she had a great time people watching and street watching while we waited in the dr.'s office. she laughed out loud, and talked a little too loudly, about this father and son who she said looked exactly alike.

she asked a lot of questions about where we were and had she ever been there before. yes to the shopping center. (it was one of her old haunts.) yes to the streets she had traveled dozens of times a week for years and years and years. no to the dr.'s office.

when the dr. asked if she'd ever been there, she said yes. after looking for her records for at least 10 minutes they finally came out and asked me when she'd been there...

the results of the exam were so close to what they read off of her glasses we decided not to get new ones. that's pretty surprising considering it's been 4-5? years since she got this prescription. i learned she'd had cataract surgery (mom's got implants! hahahahaha.) and that she can't see very well out of her left eye because of cataract growth. the dr. agreed that surgery at this time wasn't such a good idea. we talked about how content she seems and quality of life, etc. pretty interesting doctor if you ask me.

then we went next door and they fixed the loose lens and cleaned her glasses. no charge. mom said she could see better and laughed when the technician told her they were covered in hair spray.

while waiting for the bus we went into stein mart. the last time she was there my daughter took her. mom came out of the dressing room without her shirt on and my daughter was mortified. i didn't remind mom of that incident.

waiting outside was so nice. the weather was perfect. in the 70s with a breeze. mom was delighted to be out. it was a good trip.

her triumphant return...(please click and enlarge)

when we got back someone told me they were bringing a kangaroo in about an hour. i wasn't quite sure whether to believe this or not, but i stayed anyway. i'm glad i did.

it's an 8 month old female red kangaroo. about 10 lbs. cute as can be and soft as a llama. and that tail! solid muscle. it will eventually grow to be about 5'2" and 100 lbs. (the kangaroo, not the tail.)

the lady asked if mom wanted to hold it. noooooo. no way.

lots of the old folks did, though. they loved it.

if you put a blanket over her she somersaults into it like she's in her mother's pouch.

if she's not ready for a nap, she pokes her head out. she sat like this, very contentedly for 10-15 minutes. very sweet little critter.

eye exam: $45.45
glasses repair and kangaroo visit: free
total experience: priceless

party on, dudes...

ah cain't sleep, dang it.

2008-08-19T03:41:00.002-05:00

cyclops

2008-08-18T13:45:00.005-05:00

i didn't go visit mom saturday because a friend came to visit. so sunday we went to visit her together...

when we entered the room, she said, "well, hello stranger."
i was surprised, and not just a little bit flattered, that she'd noticed/remembered my brief absence.

after we'd been there several minutes my friend asked mom if she'd lost one of the lenses in her glasses. (real observant, rick.) we eventually found it under the bed and popped it back in, but it turned out mom had been wearing one lens for almost 2 days.

"so mom, can you see ok with one eye?"
"oh, i guess so."

no complaints. all smiles.
i have the sweetest mom. (other than *yours*, of course.)

today i set up an appointment at eyemasters for an eye exam and a new prescription. it was originally set for 3:00, but then i found out the facility couldn't pick us up for the return trip after 4:00.
wouldn't that have been a mess? walking 3-4 miles with mom would have been a real adventure.
a laughable one.

believe me - this little outing in the rain will be adventure enough for us both.

and in totally unrelated news...

wow.

2008-08-16T21:08:00.004-05:00

2 posts ago i made some disparaging remarks about the olympics. i'm not taking them back, but...

i just watched the entire 2 hour:26 minute:44 second (winning time) of the womens' marathon. i love that they showed the entire race live. i love that a romanian won. it was very dramatic. and beautiful.

aside:
ceausescu, you may have been one of the all-time assholes, but your people are awesome. (the ones who made it through all the nightmares.)

people = good. gummits...not so much.

the 3000 meter steeplechase is awesome, too.
like i said, i loves me some track and field.

ding dong

2008-08-16T14:58:00.003-05:00

for the first time in my adult life, 39 years, i have a doorbell.
it's no big deal really, just kinda weird.

but i guess any chance i ever had of winning a nobel prize is over. ((groan))

that reminds of a funny joke:

viagra?! why in the world would i need that stuff? it'd be like giving a homeless person a doorbell.
(well *i* think it's funny.)

damn weirdos...

2008-08-15T13:08:00.005-05:00

this is a a screen shot of a hit on this blog.

with the olympics going on i thought it was interesting that it came from beijing so i clicked on the referring url. as you will see after the cut, maybe this particular visitor just can't get enough of those 13-14 year old gymnasts...

by the way, am i the only person in the world who hasn't seen any of the '08 olympics?

it's not any kinda premeditated protest. i just don't care. well, that and being a little disgusted with all the $$, politics and rah rah nationalism that seem to be the real point. when the track and field events start i'll probably tune in. cuz i loves me some track and field.

so this is what someone in beijing "googled" last night...

pretty funny that this cornyblog came up as the 3rd choice for having querried "girlhood sex pictures," huh?

the entry it referred the surfer to is a very tame story about my 85 year old mother. how disappointing!

most of the hits here come from googled images of belly dancers or recockulous tattoos or this one dumb picture i once posted of buffy the vampire slayer in a see-through blouse.

while those 3 posts reel in several dozen unsuspecting surfers a day, i occasionally get hits from really bizarre googled text. here's my favorite from switzerland. it's so weird i wrote it down:

"he's 76, she's only 19! and she really enjoyed it too...the old geezer still has it, i gotta say."

even more bizarre? i got that exact same referral 2 more times. wtf?

i kept a list of the funnier/nuttier ones, but that list seems to have disappeared. a few i remember or found scribbled on margins of notebooks follow:

"men living as women" gave someone the belly dancer post.
"plunger porn" was googled by several people worldwide. and that's just sick.
"porndog" seems to be a popular querry.
"cornbread the dude" cracked me up.
"porndog happy meal" has popped up more than once.
"sweet rooster helmet price $ site" (i think this one came from annie's blog?)
and the dumb, but innocuous, "flip my cornbread" came from TAMU.

TAMU is texas a&m university. for those of you not from here, most of your polish or hillbilly jokes work just as well in texas if you substitute "aggie."

bye bye for now and happy girlhood sex pictures to you all.

so many questions, so little time

2008-08-12T17:49:00.003-05:00

i just logged on to my yahoo email account for the first time in well over 6 months. i can't hardly believe how popular i am. there were something like 9069 unread messages. WOW!!

oh wait.

the only ones i cared to look at were the daily feeds i get there from my favorite comic strip, get fuzzy (see above); and AWAD, a favorite word-of-the-day feed. the other 99% of them were all spam.

neverrr miind...

speaking of unwanted spam, did you know that since 1937, when the processed "luncheon" meat was first introduced, over 6 billion tins of the mystery meat has been produced?

would somebody please tell me... who in god's name eats the stuff?

can there be any doubt why spam (the unsolicited email variety) is so named?

in texas, and likely in most places these days, the crummy food of choice at fairs is the ubiquitous cornydog. but in minnesota? yep. you guessed it...it's fried spam on a stick or something. jeeze.

do minnesotans have no shame?

so if austin texas is the music capital of the world (i said, IF), then is austin minnesota the potted mystery meat capital?

[annie, robyn...you know i'm just joshin' with you. right?]

a couple of older pictures and 1 new one...

2008-08-08T15:45:00.002-05:00

this one i just took. i hung one of the neck braces i wore for 4 months. i think it looks like a large-mouth bass trophy. ahahahahaha. i'll have to make a plaque for it.

(a couple of pics 2-4 months old after the jump...)

from sometime in april. that's brother luke, mom, son sean, and me in mom's apartment. haven't seen luke since, unfortunately. sean and i now have short hair. mom still wears the same outfit, her "uniform", every - single - day...and of course, the horse collar is history.

but it's still us. (click on the pic to see just how handsome we all are. hahahaha.)

this is from the father's day party at VT. this belly dancer wasn't nearly as hot as the one from a couple of years ago, but henry didn't seem to mind...i've written about henry before. he's incredibly feeble and slow normally, but turn on the music and...the man can flat out dance.

the view from my window(s) - III

2008-08-07T22:11:00.002-05:00

it's kinda like living in a tree house. but with windows. it's pretty small, but doesn't seem so because there are 24 double-sash windows. and virtually no blank wall space. very little furniture, too. i like it.

i did notice one drawback last weekend when my kids brought gifts.

my daughter brought one of her paintings. it wasn't easy to find a place to hang it. (josephine, i moved it to the "hall" closet door. so now i see it every time i exit the bedroom. so much better to see it. thanks.)

my son gave me a zapotec weaving he brought back from his latest adventure. the natural dyes and fixatives are all made from native plants and insects from the weaver's garden. the reds, of which there are many, are made of ground cochineal beetles. (he has pictures of the entire process at tides.sfasu.edu, or will soon.*)

it is currently hanging in the kitchen, but i'm afraid it's gonna start to smell like bacon, so am thinking of moving it to...the bedroom ceiling?

but wait. this post wasn't meant to be about my awesome and talented kids, was it? no.
it's s'posed to be about more of the views from my windows...

if the wind is even slightly blowing i can see it in the treetops. at eye level. and if it's below 96 degrees, i can feel it. (otherwise the air conditioner is on and the windows are closed, ok?.) at ground level it may be miserably still and hot. there is a not so sublime difference. tree house-living fucking rocks.

if i were a better photographer, or quicker maybe, i'd show you pictures of the young red tail hawk who recently visited. or the brown squirrel with the albino-white tail. or maybe i wouldn't have resorted to using the internet image of the ladder-backed woodpecker at the beginning of this post.

as it is, i'll just share these pics - these views from these bedroom windows:

i watched this guy hop around and 'round the trunk and peck, peck, peck for a long while before attempting a photo.

can't see it? oh it's there. left branch, 1/2 way down. (click on this or any of the window view I-III pics to see a huge version.)

i think it's a ladder-backed woodpecker. listed as "fairly uncommon" to "rare" in these parts. and i see it pretty often now that the red heads are gone. (the red headed woodpecker is "listed" as uncommon to rare, but i see them here and in austin. who are the peckerwoods who classify these beautiful critters? (hey, look it up. peckerwood is in the dictionary...)

can you see it now?

and then there are the trees. mostly pecan. but here on this property are quite a few china berries. (or at least a cousin of. they're not lavender, but otherwise they are just like a china berry...invasive, fast growing and damn good lookin'.)

in late spring they make these yellow blooms:

in mid summer the blooms turn to puffy balls. (are they male or female??)

same vantage point. same branch...

later on in the fall i think they turn into hard balls. i'll try to remember to report back on that...

-------------------------------

other birds - and even a bat:

the mourning doves and cow birds are plentiful. not to mention delightful. here's a dove warily looking at me from her perch not 3 feet away.

the feeder is a very cool goodwill plate with holes around the perimeter that i hung with twine. any bird that can get the food is an accomplished acrobat. or a stunt double. when they hit the plate most birds freak out from the twisting and spinning. (bad design flaw on my part.) but the ones that can handle the thrill are my buddies.

like mr and mrs dove:

and mr cowbird. he's so cool:

wait. i promised you bat, didn't i?

as seen from my window...........check out the hood of this tow truck.

i call it the bat-tow-bile.

the view from my window - II

2008-08-07T14:52:00.001-05:00

from a bedroom window one early morning...

yep. 2 cops. 2 thugs. pretty exciting, but a little bit 2 close for my liking.

one of them kept smarting off to the cops. brilliant...

the people whose house had been burgled came and the guy on the ground kept trying to get a look at them. the cop put a foot on his neck right after this picture was taken...

this wasn't the first time this sort of thing has happened in the short while i've been here. there was another guy hiding in the side yard one afternoon and there were dozens of cops swarming all over. and a hellicopter circling overhead. i went out and told the cops where he was. i sure hope he wasn't just a kid without papers. that's what i thought afterwards.

-------------------------------------------------

this is the 2nd day in a row it's been under 100 degrees! suh-weet.

the view from my window - I

2008-08-07T12:15:00.004-05:00

from a kitchen window...

what is that?

but you'd better make 'em quickies. you've only got 2 blocks.