November 18.2013  9pm cst   71 degrees

Grackle

We finally got to go to the World Birding Center on Padre Island this week.  It was too much walking for me in years past but with my fancy new bones we decided to give it a go.

The  welcome lady pointed out the butterfly garden proudly showing a new hatch of monach butterflies.  Hmm not very unusual in my book, but OK.  Nice photo anyway.

The building has an elevagtor that goes up to the 5th floor for an observatory but we didn't have time to go up. 

We just went along this very nice walkway   which goes on about a mile.

Do you think Jim Henson got the idea for Sesame Street"s  Big Bird here?

In some places, there was a porthole in the walkway where you could look down at the fish.  No fair, this is a birding center not an aquarium.

I watched these roseate spoonbills for a long time while Neil was talking to a lady whose husband  teaches firemen new techniques.  All that time those lousy birds did not look up once so you could see their bills.  Pretty  color tho, aren't they?

More info having nothing to do with birds, but I learned something.  I somehow always thought bulrushes and cattails were the same or at least similar.  Pictures here show not alike at all.

Back on the island, this sand castle in front of a big hotel.  

Why would a lawyer spend the money to put up this billboard?  How many new customers does he think he will get who were hit by a truck? (Casually called a semi by those who  are cool.......I guess)

Today I have been trying to untangle the mess behind the TV.

My dream is to live long enough to see an end to the electric cord in favor of wireless appliances.  Do I really need all that stuff?  It's a router, a modem, a roku for streaming video, a dvd player and strip for plugging all that stuff in.  Yep, I guess I do.

November 12, 2013  10 pm cst 60 degrees

I woulld like to say we made it here without incident, but that is not entirely true.  When we stopped at the New Hampshire border for a potty break at the liquor store, I tripped and fell and kinda scratched up my face, broke my glasses and gave myself a black eye. Of course I did this right in front of the liquor store.  Two women had to help me up and I know they probably thought me drunk.  Of course for the rest of the trip i had to get out and go into restaurants etc. looking like a battered wife and both Neil and I were embarassed..  All better now, tho.

At the Virginia rest stop, this sign explains how they use natural energy to heat and cool the rest stops, not like Maine which just decided to close them.  Maine isn't very inovative, I guess.

San Benito has its Christmas Decs up or at least some of them.  Heck, it isn't even close to Thanksgiving yet.

We notice how many birds here are not very skiddish around people.  This  lazy blue heron was waiting for the fishermen to leave some fish on the beach for him.

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We went to Veteran's Day ceremonies at the Iwo Jima monument.

This is Alonzo Delgado who was 17 when he was at the battle of iwo Jima.  His job was to guard Mount Siriachi after they planted the  flag.    After all these years, he is just now getting his bronze star .  It seems  when it was time to leave the island, they young men were anxious to go and never recieved their medals.  The lady to his  left is his wife and in back is his daughter who is so proud of her Dad.   He is a sweet and gentle man.

For  some reason, there is a  lady standing practically on the parade grounds during the ceremonies. See her on the left by the flags?  I guess she wanted to get a good vantage point.

Long horn......really long horns.

Trick to get the parents to bring children into the "Wonderland" and then all the merchandise is for the parents.  Children of America, Rebel!

Love this ad for 9 toes mowing service.

Having a few tech problems so pay no attention to the spelling...just think of it as typos, not bad speller person.

March 29 2013  11:30 pm cdt    62 degrees

Tuesday slipped right by me this week as e am once again getting prepared  to have a  bone replacement operation on April 2.  Right knee this time.

So this will probably be my last blog of the season but it will be a bit different.  

I talk to so many people who tell me such interesting stories that I would like to write some of them down so that I won't forget them and maybe you will find them interesting too.

From my Aquatic Therapy instructor

My pool therapy instructor grew up a migrant worker from the age of 12 and can remember his first paycheck when he thought he was rich..$10.00  His dad was an alcoholic and used to take him to the bar room while he got his beer.  He would just play  while father drank but as the years went by and he grew to be a big kid, his father would take offence at someone in the bar and tell his son to go fight him.  The son was very mild in nature but had to do as his father told him to. 

He told me the story of his Mexican grandmother who at the age of 14  caught the eye of  an older man in the neighborhood who wanted to marry her.  She wanted a boy closer to her age. In this village, a man could just go to the girls house, kidnap her and take her for his wife and the family could do nothing about it.  She found out that he was getting a couple of his friends together and he was going to come after her so she ran away, illegally crossed the border without knowing anyone in  the US.  She managed to support herself and to learn English  and 16 years later, she passed the citizenship test and became an American citizen.

From my Mexican hairdresser

I will call her Esme because I can't  spell her real name.

Esme's mother couldn't take care of her and her brother  so she left them  in the care of her very poor grandmother in Mexico.  Esme says that many days there was no hope of a meal  but the grandmother would not seem to worry, she would just say lets see what God will provide.  When there was food, she taught Esme to cook from the time she was 12.

When they started school, grandmother had some newsprint and one pencil for the kids as she took them to school.  She broke the pencil in half and sharpened the broken half so they could each have a pencil but Esme cried because she got the half with no eraser.  Grandmother reached down and hugged her and said, I gave the eraser part to your brother because you will not need  it.

Esme tried all her life to not make mistakes because she took this to heart and wanted to please her grandmother.

For her  15th birthday Grandmother made her a small bottle of Jasmine perfume..  She ground up the blossom and added oils and put it in a small, pretty bottle.

This  part I am not too sure of but I think she said that she was having a hard time at some point on her life and when she was at her wits end, she smelled Jasmine and knew that her grandmother was looking out for her.  Not sure I  understand that last part  but Esme believes it and feels like her grandmother is still near her.

And lastly, a love story.

I have mentioned Walter before in my blog.  He is a survivor of the landing at Iwo Jima and is in his mid 80's

  He lied about his age, entered the military at age 16.  He operated a landing craft whose missiion was to take wounded off the beach at Iwo Jima and get them to triage.  He did this for 8 days.

After the War, he took advantage of the GI Bill and went to William and Mary University.  What is so remarkable about this is that he had quit high school after 8th grade and never did get a high school diploma.  He has a college degree but no high school diploma.

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  Walt felt he had  a real calling for the ministry and  over time, he founded three churches.  Eventually he found great satisfaction  in missionary  work and founded  The World indigenous Mission.  

Meanwhile, he met and married May.  They were marrried 56 years and  in May's last days, she told Walt that when she was gone , she wanted him to marry their very good friend Kathy. 

Kathy had lost her husband to illness also and had no idea of ever marrying again.  She was thinking that she had never been able to do exactly what she wanted to  and would never marry again.

Long story short. Walt and Kathy were good friends  as before the losses of their respective spouses but Walt began to find he  really did want to marry Kathy but was a little afraid to ask her..  These people are in their seventies now.  Well, he asked and after a while she said yes, but three weeks before the wedding, Walt had a heart attack.  He told the doctor that he had better get well because he was getting married in three weeks.

Thier respective families wer all very enthused with  the idea and took over all the plans.  There were no invitations to the wedding, it was word of mouth in the church and among friends and family and there  were 450 people at their wedding.  When the minister asked who gives the bride, 28 people from  Kathy's family stood up and said, "We do".

They have been married for 6 years now and Walt says  they are the happiest years of his life.  

I love thi story. .

March 19, 2013  10 pm  dst    76 degrees

Texas bluebonnets

Texas bluebonnets look like small lupines, and they grow wild along the side of roads and in field...abundantly in some places further north but a bit more scarce here..  Very pretty in masses.

We have been doing a little geocaching on the weekends..it is fun to use the GPS to locate something that someone has hidden and given you directions to go find.  This one we found in a small capsule behind this soccer complex sign.

This week, however, we were too lazy to do any walking  so we skipped the geocaching and just drove around a bit looking at spring in the Rio Grand Valley.

This is Texas natural land so when you see natural flowering trees or planted flowering trees, they seem more remarkable for their color and endurance.

These are tall trees that blossom for weeks

Mexican Olive 

White orchid tree has been blooming since Christmas

I don't know what this is but it is just a wild tree that  has been in flower for at least 2 months

mesquite

This is bourganvilla which is a bush and not a tree but it blooms all winter.  

banana trees

Up close on the blossom.  Huge and more purple than shows up in the photo.

  This is cultivated at a persons home but there has been a study concerning raising bananas for marketing in the valley.

And this one is a papaya tree, also cultivated  at home and not commercially.

I don't usually like the lawn ornaments that are quite popular here, but this one is kinda ok

This one is more typical but look to the left of the door there, she's raising a 

Easter egg Christmas tree .

Gotta love those Texas trucks

March 12, 2013  10:30 pm cdst   64 degrees

Went to a kind of modest celebration of Texas Independence in San Benito.

An earnest attempt was being made to re enact a battle that led up to the famous Alamo battle, but this man and his dog who were practicing a number of excellent dog tricks in the back field was stealing the show.

About all I learned from the whole thing is that a Texan is a person who is a resident of Texas, but a Tejano is a person of Mexican or Spanish ancestry but  who  was born in Texas.  Not from Mexico. 

We have been talking about going to the Rodeo at the  Rio Grand Valley Livestock Show since last year.  Opening day over the weekend was crazy so we chose a weekday,..less traffic.  We read that Tuesday was Extreme  Bull riding and also  Mutton Bustin which is where little kids try to ride sheep the way the grown men ride bulls.  

So, we get to the fair and find we have the wrong night..  Seems we can't even read a schedule right.

Well, anyway, we did see all kinds of entertainment that wasn't at the fairs when last we old folks went.....for instance this bungee jumping one.  She bounces off the trampoline and she goes way up  on those bungee cords.

 Note the age of this kid.....around 5.

And this climbing wall....

Once again, notice that some of these kids..like the one on the right  are somewhere around 5 to 7 years old.

And we saw a few animals but once again, Texans do it differently..There is a girl in this pen lying down with her pet hog  who is up for sale...the pig is for sale, not the girl......I don't think.

And finally, a small consolation prize for our  ill spent money, ($5 to park and  $10 each to get in) we went to the pig scramble. 

As I understand it, if you  catch a pig, you get $125

contestants

the piggies

 and this.. 

A disappointing evening.

Not disappointing though was  the new flooring.  That sad rug is finally gone and the new flooring only has one slight problem.

 Howie slides all over the place trying to jump up into his chair.  

I have ordered a nice rubber backed rug that won't slip to put in front of his chair.  I hear you out out there groaning about the spoiled dog.  

It amazes me that in every town we have ever been in that has a Liberty Tax business, they have found people to stand out on the sidewalk in that awful costume,  hold this sign and wave to people all day long.  I always feel so sorry for them...they must need a job very badly to do that.  

Remember the picture I posted with all the grackles that fill  the telephone lines all over downtown Harlingen?  Many of the signs along the area look like this...covered with  poop.

Happy St. Patrick's day.

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