Monday Meanderings - April 26

We stopped by the hospital the other day to visit a friend, and as we were leaving there was a public address announcement "Code Purple - all Emergency Room personnel." This was repeated several times and I wondered what that code might be. The exit took us past the Emergency area and no one looked alarmed, so I decided it must mean something like "Please gather up all the wheel chairs and take them back where they belong" or something like that. Until we stepped outside and saw a plethora of police cars arriving at a high rate of speed - some with lights and sirens, and we decided it must mean something more serious but we didn't stay to see what it might have been.

Lunched at Mama Roux the other day (wonderful gumbo) and afterward  Barb "happened" to notice that there is a new yogurt shop along the lines of the Yodigity place we enjoyed in California; serve yourself the type of frozen yogurt you desire, top to your heart's content and pay by the ounce pound. There was a lot of fresh fruit available and that made a great combination. Glad it's not real close or some place we drive by daily.

And thanks to my children, who got me hooked on Words with Friends, and my sister for brokering a wonderful deal, and my wife who gave it to me for an early Birthday present, I can now play on my very own iTouch. If you are a WwF player, and you aren't much good, start a game with deda1215.

And our Anacacho Orchid tree is blooming:

Unfortunately, this isn't it, but wouldn't it be nice?

A diversion

Okay, you got me. This blog has nothing to do with Austin, retirement, getting older or embarrassing my family. I just thought it was interesting. I was going to take the lazy way out and just post a link (not one of those below), but right in the middle of a wonderful string of photos was one that I simply didn't care to have show up on my blog. So here are a few samples that I stole. Interesting ethical conundrum; steal photos or link to naughty pictures. Hmmm.

The subject is Sleeveface Photography. Here's the description:

"Sleeveface is an intriguing phenomenon making its rounds on the web. It has become particularly popular on social networking sites.

The technique is pretty straightforward and consists of photographs of one more people obscuring or augmenting any part of their bodies with album sleeves, causing an illusion."

You can find thousands of examples on Flickr or Sleeveface.com

The magic cup of coffee

It's been a busy day. After breakfast and a stop at the Post Office, Barb and I headed in different directions - she to run errands and walk; me to the RFB&D studio. We met up again mid-afternoon - she prepped  for class and I trimmed some limbs to a size suitable to put out for the trash man. Separate cars to Chuy's and she's off to class while I go by the library and check in/out books.

I'm home alone now, and it's time to brew a magic cup of coffee and go sit out on the patio to watch the evening gather. It's chilly and overcast tonight and darkness will come quickly. This afternoon while on the treadmill, I counted a dozen Finches swarming the feeder, eating furiously as if they couldn't keep the fires stoked in their tiny high-octane engines; now they are done feeding, the metabolism has been dialed back, and they are making nesting noises. They are a rowdy bunch and create quite a cacophony; one in particular is really ticked off about something. She sounds like an angry pressure cooker, clattering away. Gradually they settle down and here and there pairs of Finches will volley a single short note back and forth, as if they are reassuring each other that the kids are home and all is well. If I am very still, the occasional bird will come to the water dish at my feet for a bed-time sip of water.

I recognize the liquid call of the Redbirds. They are flying back and forth between this yard and the next, as if they are trying to decide which tree to settle in. There's only one Blue-jay in sight; it calls anxiously, noisily, for it's mate - late getting home from the office. A couple of Mourning Doves coo quietly as they gather up the last of the manna that has fallen from the feeders on high.

Finally, the only sounds are the muffled wheels of cars, hurrying past over on Cameron. The magic cup of coffee is empty.  I gather my cup and my blessing and go inside for the night.

Monday Meandering - April 19

Barb came home from a doctor's visit the other day with a bionic tick taped to her side. It was a small medical device (smaller than a silver dollar) that sampled her blood at some insane frequency, like every 5 seconds, determined her blood sugar level, then recorded an average for some longer period of time - like an hour, then stored it for downloading later. She handled it pretty well. I thought it was kinda creepy.

Chuy's - famous for their t-shirts - has a new one. On the front is a large green chili with a bite taken out of it (ala the Apple logo) and the legend iHungry. On the back it says "We've got an app for that" and the face of an iphone with app logos for Chicken Quesadillas, Chuy Changas, Classic Tex-Mex, Chili Rellenos, etc. Clever.

I got a friend request on Facebook the other evening from someone I didn't recognize by name. That's not all that unusual so I clicked on the person's profile; sometimes I just don't recognize the name, sometimes it is a total stranger who I promptly ignore. On the profile page, the larger picture showed this person to be a babe;  provocatively posed in a Bikini top (or something of that nature). Even though she was a stranger, she looked like someone who might need a friend, but Barb said no. Oh, well.

We got a little behind in viewing the TV programs that we record to watch later. First there was the Olympics, then Men's and Women's Final Four, and some other stuff mixed in there as well. Finally resolved to start catching up - and discovered we have shows dating back to February! Now it's time for NBA playoffs. I just hope we make some headway before World Cup begins. Or when the shows start again next season.

And if you thought you were tough, check out this little guy -

Words with friends

While in Lubbock, Rob introduced us to an iPhone game called Words with Friends. It's an interactive version of Scrabble. I loaded a copy on Barb's iTouch ($2) and we've been playing ever since,

You take turns playing against one other person, but you can have multiple games going with multiple people at the same time. It's asynchronous - you can make your move and check back later to see what the other person played. Since I'm borrowing Barb's iTouch to play, I don't get that many chances to play during the day. Hmmm. This may be the tipping point, iTouch wise.

Fun game, I recommend it, but that's not really why I am writing about it. Rob and I have played 4 games. At the moment, it's divided evenly with 2 wins each. However, I think I can assure you that I am unhappier with my two losses than Rob is with his. In, fact, earlier when he was laying down 4-letter words worth 50 points each Barb texted him to let him know he was upsetting his father!

I pride myself on my vocabulary. I have always scored high in word usage; I breeze through verbose and arcane tomes while reading for the blind. I know a slew of words! A veritable plethora of words! So how is it that that little twerp my son beats me like a drum! can aggregate a few fortuitous words from a paltry accretion of random letters and outscore me by better than 100 points! by a scant margin?

That's my boy!

Monday Meanderings - April 12

Had this wonderful idea - since it was so nice out on the patio (this was last week during our two weeks of Spring), I'll just take the laptop out there and blog and surf and enjoy the Internet midst Mother Nature. Except, when the laptop is on battery power the screen brightness is reduced about 20% to save on battery. I couldn't see the screen content. OK, I'll string the umbilical cable out there and achieve full brightness and then I'll be able to see the screen. Well, I could, but just barely. So much for mobile blogging.

I lifted this quote from Phil Ware: "Duct Tape is the 'Force'… it has a Light side and a Dark side, and it binds the universe together."

On our trip to Lubbock last week we were struck at how many Red Bud trees there were growing in the wild - out in pastures and alomgside the road (usually in the fence-line, which makes sense). Dozens of them - until we got to about Brownwood, and then we only saw them near houses or other areas where they had been planted. Maybe Brownwood marks a climate zone boundary, as there are very few wild Red Buds north of that line.

That Luke is an avid reader is very well established. We were in Mecca  Barnes and Nobles and Barb bought Luke a copy of "his very most favorite book of all time." He was talking about it, and a woman introduced herself to us as a 3rd grade teacher and asked Luke what other books he had read and liked. So Luke the reader, his mother the Children's Literature teacher and the inquiring 3rd grade teacher had quite a discussion about books while standing in Barnes and Nobles. I'm sure she was impressed. I was.

Another story for my grandchildren -- up to a point

Between my Junior and Senior years in High School, I was selected to attend American Legion Boy's State, held here in Austin on the University of Texas campus. The Principal at BHS, Jim Wilkerson, selected five of my classmates and me to join about 700 other boys from around the state and  participate in an exercise of leadership and citizenship by forming and "running" an imaginary state; our dorm assignments were "Cities" (Hood City, fall out!) and we elected local and state officials - up to and including the Governor and Lt. Governor.

I campaigned for and was elected the Chaplin of the Senate. I don't remember what the chaplain's duties were, but I do know that those senators and other citizen's of that Boy's State needed some powerful praying over.  At the conclusion of the week, we all marched from the UT campus to the State Capitol building, sat in the chairs and invoked a joint session of our elected legislature, and as I recall passed a few bills (which were immediately squashed by those in charge).

I'll have you know, I'm in good company as a participant in Boy's State - other notables that have attended are Bill Clinton, Mike Huckabee, Tom Brokaw, Jane Pauley (yes, there was a concurrent Girl's State held on a different campus) Nick Saban, Michael Jordan, Mark Wahlberg and Neil Armstrong, to mention a few.  And we all wore the famous Tee Shirt. We were given one and had to buy any additional. Did I mention that there was no laundry service at Boy's State? We just kept buying shirts. That's why, when I got to college, I still had several left over. Barb said she always knew when I was at the bottom of the clean clothes - you could see the American Legion logo through my outer shirt.

And it was the shirt that got me in trouble. Okay, this is the point where the grand kids need to go play WII or something. Nothing to read here, kids; move along.

We also had a newspaper at Boy's State, and since this group got special late-night privileges (and no PE the next morning) I was quick to join. We wrote up the day's events, interviewed important people (like then-Governor Price Daniels), typed it all up and took it over to the Daily Texan offices each evening. On our last evening, the newspaper sponsor (a college-age councilor) promised us we could go downtown and see a movie after we were done. And be sure and bring a non-Boy's State shirt. The official shirt was required at all activities; this was how they kept up with the kids. Being caught off-campus was a no-no. Being caught off campus in your official Boy's State shirt was a cardinal offense, so of course we all changed shirts before climbing into our sponsor's convertible and heading downtown. When we got back - way after hours - our building was locked with our official shirts inside! Not to worry; see that rock ledge? If I can edge my way over to that window on that ledge, I think I can crawl inside the building.

And that is how I first came to the attention of the University of Texas Police Department. And, no, it was not the last time, but that's another story for another time. I will say that we got in a whole lot less trouble than we could have. I don't think the councilor got invited back the next year, however.

I just wish I still had one of those shirts.

Museum day

Saturday we all set out to explore a couple of museums in Lubbock - and got more than we bargained for. Our fist stop was the Silent Wings Museum - a sparkling facility that preserves and promotes history of the World War II military glider program. If you are like me, when someone mentions gliders you think of the single occupant sport glider - not a plane big enough to carry a jeep or 15 soldiers.

More than 16,000 of these planes were built for the war effort - out of aluminum tubing, wood and canvas. Only a handful survive (they were, after all, considered somewhat disposable). Most of the 5,000 glider pilots went through training there in Lubbock, on the site where the museum sits.

The glider missions were to insert men and materials behind enemy lines, so as many as 3 per tow plane were towed to the launch zone and then they were more or less crash-landed. At that point the pilots became infantry men and fought their way back to Allied  lines.

Then we stopped at the Lubbock Lake Landmark, an interpretive center that told the rich history of animal and human interaction - from Clovis Man to present day - with one of the largest bodies of water on the high plains. Here are the kids grinding corn for the noon meal.

Then, since we were near the road to Crosbyton, Mom suggested we go pay a visit to the town she lived in from the 4th through 6th grades; it was a short drive, and we saw the church building where her dad preached, and the parsonage they lived in, and the curb she drove her bicycle off, and she described all the other landmarks that are no longer there, and for some reason we stopped at the Crosby County Pioneer Museum on the main square. Most of the little museums you find in small towns are nothing but antique furniture and clothing storage. Not the Crosby County Pioneer Museum! This was a jewel of a museum, with more than 45,000 holdings in a 17,000 square foot facility.

It is endowed - there is no admission charge - and it covered land and geology, local explorers and settlers, and life on the high plains. This too-small picture is a mural of the history of the people of the Llano Estacado. The real thing is 40 feet wide and 10 feet tall.

We made some kindly gentleman's day that Saturday. We may have been the only guests of his day, and he gave us his undivided attention, offering information and explanation of every thing we looked at, and some we didn't. As we were standing outside the museum getting ready to leave, a pick-up truck stopped and the driver asked us where we were from. Turns out he's on the board of the museum, and wanted to know if  we had enjoyed our visit. Not sure, but it may be that the little man inside was busy calling up all the members in town to tell them that we had stopped in!

Impressive

I was never more impressed with a coach than I was Saturday night when Bob Huggins of West Virginia got down on the floor to calm and comfort Da'Sean Butler after he tore his ACL.

I have seen something like this only one other time. At a Regional here in Austin, a player from Louisiana Tech blew out her knee and Leon Barmore got on the floor to comfort her. As I recall, he ended up carrying her off the court.

Some how, I can't see Mike Krzyzewski doing this.

Monday Meanderings

Guess where we spent our Easter?

We had an event-filled weekend with our Lubbock kids. Saturday was Museum day - Silent Wings Museum (WWII gliders/pilots), Lubbock Landmark Museum (archaeological digs), and the Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum. More about those in later blogs. Rob grilled burgers Saturday night and we rooted in vain for West Virginia. Great visit.

It was not without its moments though. We generally stay at a nearby Extend-a-Stay Hotel in Lubbock so I can be up and down with my back without interrupting the whole household. When we tried to check in this time there was no one at the desk - just a message to use the phone and call the attendant. Except calling just took you to voice mail. After a rather lengthy wait, one of the other guests - who had been staying there since October (!) called the manager (at home, no less) to find out where the Attendant was. She finally showed up, but she probably doesn't know that I will get an e-mail asking about our recent visit to the hotel. I will have somewhat to say.

The other night we watched the US Women's Soccer team playing Mexico - in the snow! I have never seen a soccer game in the snow and it was really strange. It was snowing hard and accumulating and the grounds crew had  to shovel off the lines and corners repeatedly. They would kick the ball and it would roll a few feet and die. Really strange sight.

I don't know if the dude we saw on Thursday was just uninformed or an early campaign worker; the one walking down the street waving the "Ron Paul for President" sign.

And Rob and I had a discussion about why you don't park in fire zones.

Saturday Special

If you are not in the mood  to spend 5 minutes to amuse yourself, come back when you are. You really ought to watch the whole thing.




There are  a number of these videos on YouTube; try Orange Blossom Special, for instance, or Shaft.