December 30 2014 10:30 pm cst  64 degrees

This $7.8 million dollar facility is an aquatic center for the Harlingen School District due to open in January. It will feature 10  25-yard competition lanes with 400 seats for spectators,.separate  fitness pool, diving well, a gym, weight room, and a classroom.  Yes, this is for the junior high and high school kids.

Just showing their stadium to demonstrate what amazing sports facilities Harlingen has.
 When I contrast this to what is happening in the schools in my native state of Maine, I cannot understand how this aquatic building is possible when Maine schools are cutting back on programs, teachers, and extra curricular activities.  

These gulls spend the day in a field across from the cotton gin.  There must be a gazillion of them...I don't know what the attraction is but I am guessing that the  cotton seed that was dumped out there has lots of mice, rodents bugs etc.  to keep these hungry birds happy.

We have been to this bait store many times before and never noticed this giant snake (not real) wound around a tree.

This bug attached itself to our windshield.....handsome dude, huh?

Somehow I never noticed so much color on pelicans before.

I recently found this pic of my grand daughter that  I took a few years ago..like maybe 10 years ago...I still like it tho.

And this one of Neil and his nephew's son, Rommie.  Just putting them in my end of the year pics so I won't lose them again.

And finally, one of the last pics of Howie before he got very sick.  I still miss him.

Happy New Year

December 23 2014 730 pm cst  60 degrees

There were such interesting Christmas trees at the Arts Center's tree decorating display.   I have cropped some of the pictures because the detail should be seen and everyone knows how a Christmas tree is shaped so you don't need to see the whole thing.
So lets start with my personal  favorite.

It's called Deck the Paws and if you'll notice, there is a dalmation tail on the lower right hand side.  Love that touch,

Kinda liked this Wizard of Oz themed tree too.  See the Ruby Slippers ?

This tree had all glass ornaments..gawjus....

and this one had comic strips from the newspaper for a garland among its handmade ornaments.

Not sure how I feel about the family heritage tree displaying a book entitled Collecting Dead Relatives. Not very jolly for the holiday.

Here's an idea for all those Christmas themed ties that have been accumulating in the closet over the years.....make a tree skirt. By the way, all along the garland on this tree are those pretty folded paper butterflies.

A whole tree of shells for a beach themed tree, featuring these shell angels.  Those faces look like the
Fisher Price people my son had when he was young.  Is this a recycle?

Ok, now for the  What-Were-They-Thinking  photo.

I think a beautiful bride  with an evergreen skirt overlaid with organza was envisioned ,  but this just didn't work out.
She scares me.........I think I saw her in a Stephen King movie.

And the best laugh...this picture in an empty room.......evidently the Grinch stole Christmas.

December 16, 2014    9:30p m   cdt   70 degrees

Hidalgo, Texas does Christmas lights like no place else.  

Some year I am going to show up near this house a couple of weeks before December  just to see how many people it takes to get this display up. 

  I especially like the candy cane  entrance.

Oh my goodness! I believe....I believe this  is more than the eye can take in.

We kept seeing this kid with the light sabers everywhere.

There he is in back of the Chick Fil A cow.  For those who are not familiar with the fast food chain restaurant called Chick Fil-A.... their ongoing ads feature cows who  say "Eat mor  chickn.".

Here he is dueling.

Neither Theresa nor I  can walk for any distance so we took the tram to see the rest of the displays.  By the way, that kid was on the same tram and I believe he went to sleep halfway through.  Sword fighting takes a lot out of you.

Mostly the tram took us around a park that  did the 12 days of Christmas..this one obviously was 12 drummers, drumming.

On the way out George noticed that the one thing that was not covered with lights at the festival of lights, in fact had no lights at all.....................was a lighthouse .  That's just perverse.

Wednesday, December  10, 2014  10 pm cst 64 degrees

Had a few technical difficulties since we got back from Thanksgiving vacation. The cable to our internet was inadvertently cut in half by the grass trimmer while we were gone.  All better now though.


We went to Fossil Rim over the holiday...It is a zoo where you stay in the car as you drive through and the animals are free to roam.

  They are accustomed to getting treats from the motorists and they are not shy about approaching.

How would you like to have this Emu peeking into your car looking for food?  He stands about 6'6" and has to bend down a little to look into your car.

He has this nictitating membrane..a sort of secondary eyelid that moves sideways over his eyes to protect from the dust.  How handy...if a bit spooky.

There were lots of great animals but as usual the giraffe stole the show.  We had the sun roof open and this giraffe who obviously knows the drill well, stuck his head down through the sun roof and directly into the bag of treats .

There is a nice park near Matt and Lori's house so Neil and Janice feed the ducks and walk the dog.  Nice easy pleasant time in Fort Worth

We left Fort Worth early Monday morning  and got to see a really beautiful sunrise once we were out of the heavy traffic.

First light of the day.

That is if you can see anything traveling at 85 mph.

Two years ago we saw lots of white pelicans on this little pond in San Benito and last year we didn't see any.  Well, here they are again.

The brown pelicans dive for their fish but the white pelicans often hunt in small groups and sort of herd the fish together and then.....bottoms up!

Oh, yes, did I mention that this little animal shows up here in Texas about this time of years and stays until the 25th?

December 3, 2014. Fort Worth Texas

Still on Thanksgiving Holiday  so no blog this week.  See ya next Wednesday.

November 25 2014 9 pm cst  50 degrees

This young broad wing hawk is being released into the wild to hopefully find his way to his winter home in South America. The man releasing him is Dr. deMaar, veterinarian for the Gladys Porter Zoo.

  Two broad wing hawks were rehabilitated  in St.Louis where they were found with broken wing bones last August.  Now they are healed and able to feed themselves and hopefully ready to continue their migration   

They were sent to the Gladys Porter Zoo here in Harlingen to be released because they have already missed the migration and it is thought that starting from here would give them a better chance of success.

Here is the second one..a bit smaller and looking kinda startled.

-And speaking of birds.......

This is the Eagle Dance being performed by 2 members of the Sahawe Dancers, a group of Boy and Girl Scouts  who perform some pretty impressive dances that they have learned by studying

their Indian Heritage.

This young man did a ring dance and it was amazing what he could do with those hoops.  They are not hooked together and he would lay them on the floor, dance a little,  and then pick them up in a different formation. 

Those hoops are not hooked together.

These kids and their leaders make their costumes also. No, really, there are kids in front of all those feathers.  Look carefully.  By the way, that back piece is called a bustle.

In 1976 the then members of this group were asked to perform for a Bicentenial Celebration so they used what they knew as a ribbon dance and replaced the ribbons with flags.  

I hate it when people go up front to take a picture and then just stand there spoiling everyone else's opportunity for a good shot.  

 Sit down, Lady!

Cowboy and Indian

Did I mention that this was the second annual San Benito Pow Wow.

I loved this bell dress.

Closeup of the dress. ..there must be 200 bells and when she walked it made the nicest soft sound.... sort of like a breeze on a lot of small wind chimes

If you got Indians and Cowboys, you gotta have the Calvary too, I guess.  That dress is deer hide and beautifully made. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.