An Evening Of Art And Music: Salon des Refuses

It is that time again! This is the reception for the opening of Salon des Refuses at the Brownwood Art Association Art Center in Brownwood, Texas. The Salon des Refuses displays art that didn't make the annual juried Stars of Texas Art Show. Both are running through the 20th. Do come and see these beautiful works of art. Entry is free, and the quality is top-notch. :-)



At the piano in this video is my friend Debra Mathis.  Debra has CDs of her music available for purchase. She also composes, and is available to create original music for themes and other projects.  Here is the link to her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/music.by.DebraYvonne

Marriage in Sickness and in Health: By the Grace of God, My Husband is Alive, and Will Be Well

In mid-October, my husband's back went out on him. This is not unusual, he has bad disks and thus has occassional trouble with it. But this time was different: nothing improved it, and he could not lie down. After trying all his usual methods of healing it, he finally asked me to take him to the ER in the middle of the night. A routine blood test showed he was anemic. Anemic? A great ER doctor in our small hospital knew how odd this was, and ran a CT scan.

Paul had three iliac aneurysms, two of which were 10 cm and one of which had already ruptured*. Our hospital sent him by ambulance to Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene, where he had emergency surgery. God blessed us in every way, with top notch care all the way through, and a talented, experienced surgeon who was able to overcome some extreme challenges in the surgery - not least of which was that all were within the pelvic area, so simply accessing them was an ordeal. When his surgeon came out to speak with me after the surgery, the phrase he kept repeating was "it was so difficult".

After 13 days in the hospital and 19 days in nursing care, his Dr prescribed at-home physical therapy and home health nursing visits, so I was able to bring him home.

The trauma of the surgery injured the nerves in Paul's legs, and he has not been able to use them since. They WILL heal, and we see tiny improvements each day, but for now he is generally confined to bed. He cannot transfer, so I have a Hoyer Lift that I use to move him from bed to wheelchair. He can sit for about 45 minutes before he is hurting and needs to go back to bed. For doctor visits, we use the state-funded rural bus that has a lift so that he can be transported in his wheelchair. We have a great therapist who comes 3 times a week and there are several exercises we do throughout the day on our own.

Both of us are Christians, and we know that God has saved his life. Understanding that the only alternative would have been death (most people with this condition simply die - there are usually no symptoms - and even with surgery after rupture, 50% do not survive the operation), our spirits have been buoyed all along with gratefullness for Paul's now-extended life.  We are also blessed with a loving family that have been unflagging in staying in touch and helping in what ways they can. Finally, our church members and friends have shown their care for us in so many ways. During the 32 days before Paul came home, not a single day went by without visits from our brothers and sisters in Christ. Two weeks of that was in a hospital 75 miles from here, but people drove it to visit for 10 minutes, just to encourage  us.

It is at times like this that one learns what one is really made of, and how strong a marriage can be. Because we are good friends, we are able to enjoy the 24/7 togetherness that we have right now. Paul can accept very personal care from me, and I can give it, because our relationship goes beyond our individual selves. Our time revolves around a vast number of new daily tasks and schedules. I've had to learn to do a lot of new things. Paul is having to cope with a kind of helplessness that we never imagined.  We both approach the day one hour at a time, and we don't think too far beyond that. And God has blessed both of us to be able to travel this road in good humor and hope.

I can say that when I try to count my blessings, I run out of numbers. Paul's life far outweighs any possible inconvenience or detour in our plans. The knowledge of that alone makes me wake up happy each day.

There will be much to write about our journey through this part of our lives, but that will come later. For now, I am happy to have a bit more creative energy available to resume blogging, and to start peeping over our own four walls again once in a while.



*There is a simple Ultrasound screening that your doctor can order for you to check for Iliac or Aortic aneurysms. There is a greater risk as people age, and if you have had heart trouble. Paul did not have any heart problems, and he is only 61.  I am guessing the ultrasound is painless, and it can relieve your mind if the results are negative!



[The art is Winslow Homer's "Moonlight", painted in 1874. Winslow Homer was the Norman Rockwell of the 19th Century. He chronicled American life and the Civil War with great realism and beauty. His images of the sea are magnificent. He also produced a fine body of work around the Caribbean islands.]

The Sunny Skies are Aqua Blue...

 5/3/12 *Bumped*  (originally posted 4/30/12) Still time to appreciate Christopher's art with your vote! :-)


I love this image. It's a photo taken in Mozambique. Like all that is wonderful in traditional tropical art, it presents happy, healthy children in their own element: peeking through a doorway and laughing as their picture is taken, uncaring that their bright eyes and glowing faces are going to be shared with people far, far away.

The light, sea and sky are reflected in the worn layers of white and turquoise paint on the adobe house, with the sandy stucco showing through, in the whitewashed, hand-worn-smooth wooden door.

It is not a perfect paradise, but the photo reminds us that in the beautiful innocence of childhood, paradise awaits when we open our eyes each morning: it's the breakfast our mama gives us, the tree growing in our yard for us to climb, the warm comfort of brothers and sisters to play with: even in one of the most desperately poor countries of the world. 

Our wonder-full friend, digital artist Christopher Gaston took this amazing photo while visiting Mozambique, and titled it "Mozambique: Land of Hope". He has entered it in a contest, and he needs to get 250 votes for his photo to advance to the next round. Please visit the contest, and if you appreciate this image of giggling children peeking through a doorway, please vote for it by clicking here.

* Title comes from the Bob Dylan song that goes: "I'd like to spend some time in Mozambique... The sunny skies are aqua blue..."

31 Things to Do With The Grandkids (Even Teenagers) This Summer

 Summer is nearly here. Time for the Grands - even if they are "old" teens - to come and visit! Don't wait for them to invite themselves - call and ask their parents when they can come spend a few days with you.

You don't need to spend much money to entertain them. Most of the things you will do with them are so new to the kids it will be an adventure even if it is something you do daily. Even busy schedules will have a few free days or a long weekend sometime in the summer. You will be tired when they leave but you will never regret it - and they will remember the time their whole lives.

Here are some of the things we've done on school breaks or in the Summer:

Take them to church. Doesn't matter if they don't bring dress clothes - kids don't dress up for church now anyway!

Hang a porch swing for them to swing in.

 Go bowling with them!
 

 Take them to Dairy Queen for Banana Splits and Blizzards.

Give them colored pencils and paper and let them make Get Well cards or Birthday Cards.

Learn to bake together.

Eat German food!

They never get too old for Legos. Don't get rid of those plastic bricks - watch how quickly they pull them out and start building with them again.

Let them give the dogs a bath!

Let them sub at your Bunco night!

Take them volunteering with you.

Go to the Zoo!

Show them the old family pictures.

Take them with you to get an accupuncture treatment!

Let them have some free time to find their own things to do around the house.

Take them fishing!

Take them to an antique shop. Or a gift shop. But don't buy anything - just look at stuff and talk about it with them.

Try on hats!

 Introduce them to a baby donkey!

Let them drill holes in stuff.

See if Vacation Bible School needs volunteers - Two of ours come every year for a week just to go to the community Vacation Bible School. Cade and other older boys help with outdoor games for the little kids, and Bre helps by keeping the babies in the nursery.

Teach them to dance! (ok we didn't do this one but if I knew how to dance I would!)

Take them to see local talent perform at the Coffee House. 

 Show them your favorite old movies!

Take them to the flea market, or an auction.

Buy them cheap light-up sunglasses.

Take them to see their ancestor's graves.

Get them to move the wood pile for you and bite your tongue when they start chasing lizards - let them do it!

Teach them about Doodle Bugs.

 Go for a walk!

Give them lots of hugs!

They might even leave you a little love note. :-)

The Girl Next Door, & Her Parents: Helping Our Neighbors Choose Life

When I was 16, a friend came over one night, hysterical. She was pregnant, her "boyfriend" had rejected her, and her parents were demanding she have an abortion. Her whole world was coming down around her, her heart was breaking and she didn't know what to do but run away.

This was something I had never dealt with before, but God helped me to say the right things - and she agreed to go back home if I would go with her to talk with her folks.

Her parents were not bad or unloving people. My friend had been a late-life baby, born after their other children were grown and gone. Her parents were still in love with each other, and they had been making plans for their life once this daughter went out on her own. In middle age, they felt they had already postponed their plans once, to raise her, and they had a knee-jerk reaction of "Oh no, not again."

This was in the early 1970s, shortly after Roe v Wade. The sweet photos of infants curled in their mama's womb and pro-life posters with Mother Theresa's honest words were all in future. The locusts humming "choice, choice, choice" were dominating the talk, lulling decent people into thinking that maybe sometimes abortion might be "ok" for some people. Maybe they just didn't know any better.

So we went to her house, and her parents gave us all the reasons why she should not have this baby, why they were not willing to have this baby. As they talked, I looked out the window into the back yard, where her father had mowed a message to her mother into the grass: "I love you", it read.

God brought the Edna Gladney Home to my mind, and I asked her parents if they had heard of it. They had not. I told them it's a place she can go, if she wants to let her baby be adopted by a family who cannot have children of their own. I told them there'd be no cost to them, she can continue her school there in a sheltered place with other girls, and she can meet the couple who will love and raise her baby. Their grandchild.

The more I talked, the more they relaxed. They didn't really want to force their daughter into an abortion. They liked the idea that she would not have to be pregnant in her home town, that she'd be safe from prying eyes and nosy busybodies, that their daughter would be supervised and have counseling to help her with the emotions of her predicament. They liked the idea that there would be little disruption to their own lives and plans.

They saw a way out.

And that is what happened. My friend went to the Edna Gladney Home, had her baby, met the baby's adoptive parents, and returned home to her grateful parents. Changed lives for two families, and a loving, Godly outcome.

The poster above is a Ron Paul quote. When I saw it,  it reminded me of this event in my youth. My friend's baby is in their late 30s now, perhaps with children and maybe even grandchildren of their own. Many generations of love were made possible by my friend's courage and love for her baby.

Young women and young men, you are never too young to teach your elders how to respect life. Put Pro-Life Posters in your room, give them as gifts to your friends, talk with the adults around you, remind them that science says every conception is a baby, and God says every baby is a blessing. "Teach your parents well."

A baby raised in the home of adoptive parents has double the love: the love of his birth mother who gave him life and offered him to God by placing him in the arms of a grateful mother-in-waiting, and the love of his adoptive mother who every month for years prayed and hoped and longed for THIS child to love with all her heart.

What other things can one of us do to help a person in our neighborhood find the love they need to choose life?  Please share your thoughts in the comments! (PS: I accept anonymous comments here when they are loving, and loving privacy in these matters is very important).

Dinner In A Jar-O

Our Bunko group meets once a month, each of us taking turns hosting. We have a meal that has evolved from pot luck into whatever the hostess wishes to feed us. Our hostess for March served up Dinner-in-a-jar AND dessert-in-a-jar. Cute, cute, cute, cute, cute!!!!

She called this one a "Barbeque Sundae": layered beans, cole slaw, and pulled pork topped with barbeque sauce and a pickle spear, and served with corn chips and garlic toast. Oh and don't forget the red onion! Assembly-line construction and the pint sized Mason jars were all ready to pick up and carry to our table. It was sooooo good!!!!

When we stopped for dessert, she pulled Peach Cobbler In A Jar out of the oven. This was built and baked in half-pint jars and believe it or not, there were no leftovers! Not a soul plead their diet and passed it up. Imagine that? ;-)

Just use your favorite recipe, divide equally into your jars, and bake at 400 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes. Allow to cool down for 10 to 15 minutes before serving - with whipped cream or a melon-ball sized scoop of ice cream.

This is a great way to serve a large number of people without using disposables or having to acquire a bunch of dishes or store specialty buffet ware. Most of us have empty canning jars whilst we are between seasons and waiting for the pears or peppers to get ripe enough to put up. The possibilities are endless: Taco Salad in a jar, Frito Pie in a jar, Chicken Pot Pie in a jar.... yummmmmm!

Devil's Food Torte with Raspberries

Paul had a birthday recently, and it was a big one milestone, so we had some of our friends over for cake. When I asked Paul what kind of cake he wanted, he started talking about mocha and raspberries and oh my.  I found a recipe and adapted it to fit. It turned out gorgeous! Looks great and tastes perfect. Several people have asked for the recipe,so here it is.

Devil's Food Torte with Raspberries

Make cake and chill for 8 hours before serving. It should keep well, refrigerated, for at least 24 hours. 

1 Devil's Food Cake Mix (I used Duncan Hines)
Leftover brewed coffee to substitute for water called for in cake mix
Eggs and oil as called for in cake mix
2 layer cake pans

Use shortening to grease the cake pans and dust with flour. Set pans on baking sheets "just in case" to prevent overflows. Preheat oven.
Prepare the cake mix according to package directions, using whole eggs and oil, and substituting coffee for the water called for. Pour into pans and bake as directed for layer cake pans. Test for doneness with a toothpick at earliest time. Remove from oven and cool in pans on wire racks for 15 minutes, then turn out of pans and finish cooling on wire racks with top side UP.  Cool for at least one hour.

2 cups heavy whipping cream (I used Kroger brand)
1 8 ounce package cream cheese (not low fat)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon real vanilla extract

Use electric mixer and beat cream until very stiff.  Set aside.

Put cream cheese into large bowl with sugar and vanilla and beat on high until fluffy. At low speed, gradually fold in whipped cream.

Divide this frosting into 4 relatively equal portions (one can be larger than the others for the top and for "leftover")

Assembling and icing the cake:

1 can raspberry filling (can't remember the brand, but it wasn't a very big can) to glaze the layers with
1 package fresh raspberries

While layer remains on wire rack, use a bread knife (or your electric knife if you don't have a bread knife), and carefully trim the convex part off the top so that it is flat. Don't worry about how it looks, only that most of the top be mostly flat. (Set the trimmings aside to make yourself  & your sweetie a little "preview parfait" out of the leftover ingredients)

Then, hold your bread knife flat and cut the layer in half horizontally. Carefully lift the top and set it onto your cake plate.

Open the raspberry filling and use your spatula to spread a VERY THIN layer on the top of the layer. It should be thin, just enough to glaze the top.

Take a few fresh berries (the ugly ones) and crumble them and scatter on top.

Clean spatula, then spread the cream frosting thickly on top of the glaze, letting it kind of stray over the edges a bit.

Set the other layer right on top of all this and do exactly the same thing all over again.

Split the next layer and repeat.

When the top is iced, smooth it a little, and arrange the prettiest raspberries on it.

Refrigerate until ready to serve. By chilling it for several hours, it will hold together well and you won't need skewers to hold it together.

~~~~~~~


We had coffee ice cream with it, and it was perfect! Paul says it is one of the best cakes he has ever eaten. I was so pleased!  I have never been much of a baker but it starts to look like I have taken it up as a new hobby by accident. :-)

No Taxes Required: Ramp Building and Fundraising the Old Fashioned, Genuine Grassroots Way

I wrote most of this post a couple of months ago, and fiddled around and never posted it. But Dr. Mabuse has a post up on Kraalspace that needs to be seen, about helping our neighbors ourselves, instead of relying on the government. It's a chilling reminder of how learned helplessness can become the order of the day, one tiny relinquishment at a time. Of how well-meaning committees inevitably engineer inescapable tyranny in reality. Of the good intentions that pave the road to hell.

In Dr Mabuse's post "Government Goliath, Local Davids", a man who went to hospital, had a leg amputated, and couldn't come home because his house didn't have a ramp, and the government agency tasked with paying for building ramps kept turning him down. So like Charlie on the MTA, he had to live at the hospital while waiting for Uncle Sugar to build his ramp. Until some good citizens got word of his plight, and in one weekend, built a ramp for his house.

A similar, but different thing happened two years ago in my little town.
A family man (with a child still in high school) lost his leg to complications of diabetes. Here's where his story differs from the one Doc shares: as soon as the surgery was scheduled, the Baptist Church sent out a flyer that the men of our town would meet at his house the next Saturday morning to build him a ramp.

And you know who built that ramp? The OLD MEN. Our young men are busy - they serve as our Volunteer firemen, coach little league, sit on the school board, and a host of other things. But our 70 and 80 year olds don't let any grass grow under their feet either. By the end of the day, the ramp was completed, and a good time was had by all. Just because it needed to be done.

It's just sad that the man Dr Mabuse writes about didn't have neighbors or a church to jump in and help him sooner, but ultimately it was people in his local community who took care of meeting his need. And that is how it should be.

From the post I started earlier, here are some more examples of how people take care of each other, and meet local needs, without government involvement or permission.

We went to a lot of fun local events this fall. Some were fairs where we were able to support local crafters, some were organizations doing fundraising, and  a couple were pure benefits for local individuals.

The town birthday celebration in October was a hoot. It started with a pancake breakfast to pay for new pew cushions in the Methodist church (they raised enough to "cover" the cost and then some).

The tractor show hinted at a distinct preference for "poppin' johnnies" all in their original John Deere green. I guess Farmall must not have been big around here.

We bought several pounds of stone-ground corn meal from this vendor with his old timey mill. The power source was simple and ingenous: a series of car batteries along the front side of the wagon.

We bought things from vendors who had booths set up: crafts, food, pretties.
We visited with neighbors, stuck money in the Volunteer Fire Department's "boot" (again), introduced our bunch and met new people.

The next weekend, we went to our church's Fall Festival & Car Show.   We ate barbeque, bought an amazing wall cross from a local man who makes things out of discarded tools, and picked out our favorite vintage jitneys.

Here, a home-made Carnival benefits a Christian K-12 school (and a winning 6-man football team).

This "Rattlesnake Roundup" game is perfect for Texas.

First the girl would toss the rubber snakes into the bag, then use the special snake-catching tool to grab them & take them out of the sack! It would be a more difficult game (and more realistic) if you had to use the "snake tongs" to throw them in, too.

Speaking of snakes, we saw this non-poisonous one playing dead and looking all dehydrated on Main Street outside the Lions Club BBQ Dinner & Auction. He stayed very still until he thought we weren't looking any more, then he took a deep breath and slithered away.

The dinner was great - it raised money toward the scholarships this group gives to local students each year, toward eye exams & new glasses and for Christmas food boxes for people whose hard work doesn't stretch far enough.
The auction raised a similar amount to directly help a local family that's in need right now.

We wrapped up a week or two later with a fish fry to benefit a hardworking young family in our midst. The father has cancer, and he's unable to work right now. This will help tide them over. They are good people and their neighbors love them - even the ones who don't know them.

Who benefited from all these things? Everyone. Everyone's kids or grandkids are eligible for those scholarships. Our VFD is here and prepared when we need them. Everyone will gather in the church on Christmas Eve. Everyone knows we could count on this community if we needed them: nobody who's done their part when they were able would be forgotten.

All in all, lives will be better for this community's generous heart.

And it was all done in fun and love. With no mandates, and no taxes, and no demands, and no protests. And no fraud, and no graft, and no entitlements.

Because that's how life works in a stable, healthy, Christian, traditional, American community.

What Did People Do Before Blogs? The American Amateur Press Association (AAPA) is 75 Years Old This Month!

This is
A Printing Office

Crossroads of Civilization
Refuge of All the Arts
Against the Ravages of Time
Armoury of Fearless Truth
Against Whispering Rumour
Incessant Trumpet of Trade
From this Place words May Fly Abroad
Not to Perish on Waves of Sound
Not to Vary with the Writer's Hand
But Fixed in Time, Having been Verified in Proof

Friend You Stand on Sacred Ground

This is a Printing Office

Beatrice Wade -1932
Printed in the Heritage Center Print Shop
Lancaster Pennsylvania

"Printed by AAPA members Mike Donnelly, Ken Kulakowsky, and
Rich Rtladge on an O.S. 8x12 C&P treadle driven platen press."

                                                     
                                                                     ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Interested? Check out the American Amateur Press Association,* now celebrating its 75th year of hobby journalism & printing arts. Don't let the word "Amateur" fool you - some of the finest professionals in their industries have published in these bundles  (and in eJournals)for simple pleasure since the AAPA was started by a bunch of teenagers in 1936. The AAPA welcomes writers, printers, publishers, editors, artists, illustrators, cartoonists & poets of all ages, from home schooled students to newspapermen to professional printers to true amateurs.

The great forerunners of blogs, amateur press associations have played a part in the lives and career choices and hobby pasttimes of thousands of ordinary Americans during the 20th century. In the AAPA, monthly bundles mailed to each member, annual Laureate Awards, and an annual convention bring everybody together.  Clean, friendly, and just for simple fun.

(*Please note, effective this month, dues have risen to $25 per year, to accomodate a move from bulk rate to 1st Class mailing. To receive a trial bundle, contact the secretary.)

UPDATE:  Linked by And So It Goes In Shreveport. Thanks! :-)

Mr Bush and The Children: The President Who Did The Right Thing Even When No One Was Looking

Reuters ran this headline yesterday: "Bush explains slow reaction to September 11 attacks: Former President George W. Bush says his apparent lack of reaction to the first news of the September 11 2001 attacks was a conscious decision to project an aura of calm in a crisis."

If I recall correctly, at the time no one criticized, but instead the media rightly praised Mr Bush's quick thinking in continuing to read the storybook to a group of little children, wrapping up calmly so as not to frighten them unduly, and waiting until he had left the classroom before switching into the take-charge crisis mode as Commander in Chief.

Regardless, I never questioned the wisdom or validity of his very-appropriate response, because I already knew, from experience, how patient and caring Mr Bush is toward children. He respects them, listens to them, and treats them kindly.

I blogged last year about my young son's encounter with then-Governor Bush in this post:

The Kids and the Future President of the United States
"Some years ago, when George W Bush was Governor of Texas, we lived in a neighborhood in Midland near Laura's family. It is an ordinary middle-class neighborhood, a few blocks from where the elder Bush's lived when George was a child. When George and Laura came to visit their family, he sometimes took walks, alone, around the quiet streets. Back then, he didn't need the Secret Service to shadow him."

Go to the original post to read it all, and find out why I will always think of Mr Bush as "the President who did the right thing even when nobody was looking."
________

7/31 UPDATE: Thanks to Pat @ SIGIS for the link in her always-marvelous (even when I'm not in it) "Full Metal Jacket Reach Around: Jennifer's Birthday Trip to Second Hand Rose Edition".

Old Style Disaster Prep: Thinking Ahead as a Way of Life

 So many terrible situations around the South right now: fires, floods, storms and destruction. We pray for those in harm's way, or who are affected. And we wonder what we would do, ourselves, in those situations. It is wisdom to think it through, and learn now what we might need to know later.

I'm not so much a "prepper" (good site BTW), as maybe a good Boy Scout: part of my way of living since I was a little kid is to try to "Be Prepared". I've always kept a full pantry and freezer, a $20 bill in my wallet, a spare tire, always packed twice as much as we need for trips. When I smoked, I not only bought by the carton but kept an emergency carton in the freezer and when traveling stowed cigarettes AND nicotine lozenges AND matches in every piece of luggage and on my person. Whether you need an aspirin or a packet of sugar, a needle and thread or a tape measure, an apple peeler or double AA battery, I probably have one in my purse.


One of the tales Ethan tells of his first tour in Iraq is about his unit being given two hours to prepare for a 3 day mission that ended up lasting a couple of weeks. Some took 3 pairs of socks. He packed 18 pairs. On day seven-ish, after all the tobacco was gone, and with only 3 MREs among them, Ethan opened his pack, and pulled out.... homemade venison jerky from Texas.

After the hubbub from that died down, he opened his pack again, and pulled out...a handful of cigars sent weeks earlier by a radio station in San Antonio. He said his CO kissed him on top of his head!

He made his momma proud! :-)

After sheltering in place while Hurricane Claudette went right over our house (and during the aftermath), we spent the next two summers obeying mandatory evacuation orders in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. we were living near Port Lavaca/Port OConnor at the time, near the center of the Texas coast.

Here are some things we learned to apply to our own preparedness as a result.

(1) Plan to both shelter in place AND to evacuate. Good neighbors & the company of our local community make a world of difference when we can stay put, but it is not always going to be possible. Good, educated, decisions on the fly are the best tools regardless of the situation.

(2) Keep the gas tank full. Local supplies will begin to be depleted as more people fill up and deliveries aren't arriving. As more stations have to put up "out of gas" signs, the lines at other stations will get longer. Especially if you live in a city, it will be harder to get fuel when the news of the emergency has gone out. In our case, we were in a small town and the congestion was still surprisingly high. Having been through it, I now top off my tank once it gets down to half-empty out of habit.

(3) Plan your route to avoid the places everyone else is going (while still following safe practices and all official recommendations). Remember when  Houston tried to evacuate? The crush of population movement affects not only cities, but rural areas as well. The bottlenecks are in the routes we sheep tend to take when we go places. So stay on paved, safe, well-travelled State or County roads, but aim for locations that are a little less likely to be major destination points.

The first time we evacuated, for Hurricane Rita, we tried to go up to Austin, where our sons lived. Surprise! That's where everyone was going. We finally got as far as Gonzales  - three hours to make a one hour drive - and Paul said this is crazy, so we cut off down a Farm to Market Road and went west instead.

A week later, we went over to East Texas for the drive home, and saw the devistation wreaked when the hurricane - and the coastal population - had come inland, and all aimed northeast toward Texarkana. There were almost no hotel rooms to be had from Paris to Brenham, vast areas were without electricity, and schools were still closed while the gyms housed evacuees. Restaurants and cafes told us they had closed for lack of food to cook after the 2nd or third day - thousands of people stopping to eat, grocery store shelves emptying, and no delivery trucks running.

So the next time we "bugged out", we went South and West first, cutting across the traffic patterns to get beyond the coastline evacuation roads before turning north towards the sparsely populated areas of the Permian Basin. It worked like a charm. We made good time, and had no traffic. We did find that supplies of gasoline were still spotty, since deliveries were sporatic even out here, but by filling the tank at every opportunity, we did fine.

(4) Avoid reliance on gadgetry. Keep a good road atlas in the car trunk - one of the large Rand McNally ones that shows all the little roads is very good and will still be accurate years from now. Put a magnifying glass in with it in case your eyes age a little bit before you need to actually read it.

Keep an old fashioned non-electric plug-in telephone with attached-by-a-cord handset in a drawer somewhere. Our land lines still worked after the hurricane even though electric power was out. And cell phones did not work after Hurricane Katrina, so there is the possibility they might not again. Put a written list of family/friendly phone numbers in your wallet. If your cell phone can't access a tower, it may not pull up your address book.

A final note: now that cell phones and smart phones do our remembering for us, parents of very young children should still teach a main phone number for safety's sake. Among the first pieces of data we were required to memorize as soon as we could talk were my grandparents' phone numbers: "Capital 3, 8504" and
"CR 6, 3241". We learned these by heart long before we could even understand how to dial a phone or knew what numbers were. In today's world where we expect our cell phones to keep up with these numbers, it's still a good idea to teach children the actual numbers.

(5) Keep some cash and a supply of paper checks on hand. When the power was out and deliveries disrupted, most businesses were unable to process credit or debit card purchases. ATM machines that ran out of cash were not replenished. So keep a small supply - enough to purchase a few tanks of gasoline - somewhere handy, just in case. And keep it in $10s or $20s. No one is going to give you change for a $100.

A case of bottled water is another good thing to keep in the trunk. This is another commodity affected by deliveries. By carrying your own, you won't squander your small supply of cash in a tight. You can then refill the small bottles as needed from any potable source.

(6) Trust yourself & your own companions, and think for yourself. Don't expect any government body or outside agency other than God to be able to take care of you. We found that no matter how well prepared everyone is, it will still take at least 48 to 72 hours before any outside help can get to a location.

The Salvation Army does better than most at mobilizing its food carts (they were in tiny Magnolia Beach by Wednesday morning after the Monday hurricane, serving hot cooked meals 3 times a day to all comers and would not take a single dime even of donations from any of us), but we must plan to take care of ourselves, our families, and our neighbors.

That is what adults do.

At the end of it all, no one can make the best decisions or choices for us. It is our own accumulated knowledge and experience that we must rely on, whether in everyday life or in some unexpected emergency situation. Those skills we use every day are the ones that we will continue to use when our survival depends on it.



PS: The Salvation Army is the only national organization I trust with my money. We've moved all our other giving to direct-spending local congregations, agencies or individual benefits, but we still give actively to the Salvation Army. If you wish to donate to help "The Sally" serve people affected by any disaster, there's a red kettle here on my blog (over on the left side) that will take you to the Salvation Army's own site for a donation (you can designate which geographic area you want the money to go to ), or go directly to their site yourself to learn more:

Flood Watch: Louisiana

Pat Austin at SIGIS is in Shreveport, away from the flood zones, but is keeping the watch and posting roundups of information on the cresting waters of the Mississippi River, including the work the Army Corps of Engineers is doing, the preparations the people are making, and the human determination in the face of disaster.  Pat has a series of posts up already that can keep you up to date with reliable sources.

Bobby Jindal shows his mettle as a fine leader who is having to make terrible decisions. It's remarkable what a difference a good governor makes in preparing for the inescapable.

To all of you in Louisiana, we hold you in our prayers. May God keep the people and the land in His hand throughout this ordeal, and give you stamina, and good hope.



 Photo: one we took coming across the Mississippi Bridge between Mississippi and Louisiana last year.

Best of the Week in the Blogroll

So, while we wait to see if anyone does old-fashioned forensics on the Birth Certificate (like whether the same typewriter was used for all the "changeable" info, or asks whether there's ever been an 18 year old newlywed who signed off like that (smart question))....
here are a bunch of superior posts from this past week by some of the sanest bloggers in the country:

Pat at SIGIS (aka And So It Goes In Shreveport) has been blogging up a storm this week. She started a lively discussion with her post "Homeowners Association Demands Removal of Sign of Support for Marine (UPDATED)". What do you think of HOAs? Head on over and join the conversation - I did!
Another post from Pat that deserves a slow, thoughtful read - and that is still going to be very relevant for quite a long time - is "Would You Be Friends With This Man?"

The Reverend David Wilkerson was killed in a car accident this week. I've had his blog linked from my sidebar for quite a while, and his messages are always a trumpet blast of REAL hope: the kind of hope that saves lives, and even more: saves souls. Pastor Wilkerson's final post "When All Means Fail" is as beautiful - and timeless - as his other messages. A fitting final word from this good man whose work reached out to the hopeless, the spurned, the rejected and made a profound difference that will live on after him. His son
Gary Wilkerson has made a beautiful tribute post about Rev. Wilkerson's life and work. My sincerest condolences to his family and all of his loved ones, including his spiritual children.

 JP at Texas for Sarah Palin has the video from Governor Palin's appearance on Special Report today. Interviewed by Brett Baier, "our Sarah" came right out and told the truth: "President Obama - and I'm going to say this with all due respect to the Presidency - doesn't know what he's doing when it comes to energy" Check it out!

I've been reading "Red Stick Rant" for so long that... well, the Episcopal Church was still Christian back then. Clifford's way with words is summed up this week: "Sitting In My Blind Waiting For The Perfect Shot, And...There It Was - An 8-Point Princess." See, and believe! More seriously, he also points to "Today's Required Reading: The Case against President Obama's Health Care Reform: A Primer for Non Lawyers, Cato White Paper No. 32". Access to this kind of info is what the web is all about. Yes,
it is a long paper but if you want to really understand the issues for yourself, so you can make up your own mind with reasonable confidence, this is a good place to start.

John Hawks Weblog is a simply marvelous and trustworthy source for the latest on Neanderthal research, "paleoanthropology, genetics, and evolution". One recent post highlights the degree to which the lack of genuine transparency via access to raw data is interfering with even paleo science: "Opening up paleontology". He notes, correctly, that there's a lot of talk, but precious little progress. And, if you are a history buff, he reminds us that congressional-mandated "Open Government" didn't start with the Obama
administration, but with President Clinton....

Political Junkie Mom is a recent addition to my blogroll and she does a great job picking up on the stories of the day. One of her posts this week excerpts a particularly outrageous opinion statement made in, of all places, Parade Magazine - not usually noted for controversy or cutting edge expose. PjMom makes the essential point that NO YOU CANNOT in her post "Michelle and Jill: We heart the troops and families even though we hate what they do!"

Alice Linsley is an amazing person, and Just Genesis covers her intense, ground-breaking anthropological analysis of the Book of Genesis. Her work is opening up new areas of research into the history of mankind as it really happened, without following the same old agenda-rutted tracks. An intriguing post coming out of Holy Week asks "Why Prejudice Against a Scientific Approach to the Bible?"  Why indeed? Much to think about, and a conversation opener that invites your own opinions.

And that's a wrap for this week. Have a great weekend - and keep praying that Texas will get more rain! We had sporatic rain in various places last weekend, but not enough and not everywhere that desperately needs it. So here's to more rain! :-)

"Lazarus, Come Forth!"

This Sunday the readings recall when Jesus raised from the dead the brother of his friends Mary and Martha. Here is a condensed excerpt from the Gospel of John, Chapter 11:

"Now a man named Lazarus was sick. He was from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (This Mary, whose brother Lazarus now lay sick, was the same one who poured perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”

"... Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ....On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days.

"... When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

"When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

" Jesus wept.

"Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

"Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.

“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”

" Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me..."

"When he had said this, Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

"Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

"Therefore many of the Jews who had come to visit Mary, and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

"But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.

“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”

" Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”

"...So from that day on they plotted to take his life. "

Go here to read the entire account, with all details.

John 11, Verse 35: "Jesus wept", is the shortest verse in the Bible. It is a profound statement of Jesus' grief for his friend, his empathy for Mary and Martha, his feeling for the pain of others. I wrestled with this one for a long time - I wondered why he felt the pain and loss of grief, since Jesus knew in advance that he would raise Lazarus to life again.

But Jesus was a human man, and grief is a human emotion that responds to the immediate condition. "Any man's death diminishes me" the poet and preacher John Donne wrote.

Christians believe that Jesus was the only "perfect" human who has ever lived - the only one of us who never sinned. Part and parcel with that is pure emotional health: Jesus was not insulated from his emotions, and felt and expressed himself honestly, innocently, and righteously.

Jesus wept because his friend had died.

Like real men everywhere, he was not afraid to love, and not ashamed to cry.






Image: "The Raising of Lazarus", Painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1896

Meet The 2 Snoops

Here's the scenario:

Two sisters spend their careers fighting crime in a big-city Texas sheriff's department. They each retire to the country with their husbands, and nestle into ranch life in a tiny rural community. Life is peaceful, and full of homespun activity.

On a lark, they decide to open an heir-locator business to help people claim inheritances they may not have known they had. But they need their PI License first. The business just expanded before it even got started.

Meet Sheila and Grace: 2 Snoops Private Investigations.

They find people.

Sounds like a great setting for a cozy mystery novel doesn't it? But 2 Snoops is real, and they are my friends, and they are very good at locating old friends, out of touch classmates, long lost cousins.

They also bring a hefty experience to background checks and other kinds of information research. Their license gives them access to information sources, and their experience gives them a knack for knowing where to look.

Of course, there's also the grittier side of P.I. work, for bail bond companies, insurance companies, and other businesses who have need to trace individuals.

All chatting aside, Sheila and Grace are seasoned, efficient professionals who understand their business and the needs of their clients.

As Private Detectives, they have found a way to put their training and experience back to work in a new way, and I wish them much success in the venture!

If ever you need the services of an investigator, please give them a call.


P.S. Sheila gave me this cool pen and I promised to show it off. That's the extent of my "compensation" for blogging about them! ;-)

Thank you!

Thanks to Pat for the link at And So It Goes in Shreveport. Her weekly "Full Metal Jacket Reach Around" is always a good wrap up of interesting posts, and I appreciate being included. :-)

Thanks also to Clifford at Red Stick Rant for the link on his sidebar. Much appreciated.

Both of these fine blogs, and many others well worth reading for diverse subjects, have permanent links in Pecan Corner's sidebar under "My Blog List", which is where I keep those I read daily. Enjoy!

Boys of Summer, Men of Valor

On this day, August 20, 2006, an IED attack hit the 3rd LAR, 2nd Platoon, company D, while they were on patrol. Three brave men died and three brave men were seriously injured, all for the cause of liberty for the Iraqi people and preservation of liberty for the United States of America.


The great men who gave their lives for us that day are:

Navy seaman Chadwick T. Kenyon, 20, of Tucson, Arizona

Marine Cpl. Adam Galvez, 21, Salt Lake City, Utah

Marine Lance Cpl. Randy L. Newman, 21, of Bend, Oregon

Links to their individual stories and pages can be found here. The men who were wounded in this action are remembered for their sacrifice and courage, and we pray God blesses them continuously. Their names and stories are their own to share as they wish, but I hope these men know how grateful we are to them.

Appearing in the photo, left to right, are: Adam Galvez, Albert Garcia, Chris Williams (holding sign "Haditha Iraq Summer '06"), unidentified, Chad Kenyon (in shades at back), Fredric Dean, and Tony Butterfield. Gary Cassen in front.

Of these, Galvez, Kenyon, Williams and Butterfield were KIA before the summer was over, as were Lance Cpl Randy Lee Newman, Cpl Phillip Baucus and PFC Jason Hanson.

We remember them all with grateful hearts. This is our newest Greatest Generation, and we may never know how much we owe them.

...Yet there's no sickness, toil nor danger
In that bright land, to which I go.

I'm going there to see my Father
I'm going there no more to roam;
I'm only go-ing over Jordan
I'm only go-ing over home.

I know dark clouds will gather round me
I know my way is rough and steep;
But golden fields lie out before me
Where God's redeemed, their vigils keep

I'm going there to see my Father
I'm going there no more to roam;
I'm only going over Jordan
I'm only going over home.


Song lyrics: "Wayfaring Stranger" traditional folk hymn


08/20/10 Update: The blog Posse Incitatus has an excellent post that is fitting for today: "The flame is still lit" as a tribute our heroes, and the completion of their work in Iraq.

Try to remember when life was so tender....

And now for something completely different: the Wedding of the Year gets closer by the minute. Erin Elizabeth has blogged about Lani's Bachelorette Party! They had cupcakes, natch, found a clever way to display her gifts as she unwrapped them, and all the girls look like princesses.

Lani says everything is done, just waiting on delivery of some things that were ordered. It will be a lovely wedding, and a happy marriage. She and Nick are well-suited for each other. They will have a good life.

Erin Elizabeth's blog "my heart belongs to me" is great - if you read here for the fun stuff, decorating, hometown travel, food and such, if you (heart) cupcakes, and if you love beautiful photos of home with sweet and sentimental notes to wrap up a day with a peaceful evening, you need to click over to her blog. Such a happy corner of the net - and superb photos of the family's lovely cats nearly always make their way into a post.

One recent post especially I've been meaning to point to is Erin's stroll along South Congress Avenue in Austin, or "SoCo" as she puts it. These pictures really do capture the feeling - it's such a witty and whimsical district to shop! I love the antique shops there - but there's also a store fully dedicated to monkeys! Not real monkeys - pretend monkeys :-)

Go visit, and have fun!


~


Title is a line from the old song " Try to Remember (the Kind of September)", written by - I was surprised to learn - Tom Jones!

Pirates Talk, Pirates Walk, Pirates Have A Party

If whereever you turn, you hear people blurting out Spanish Main kinds of things like "Avast!" and "Aaaaarrggggghh", can International Talk Like A Pirate Day be far away? Time to start drawing the map - it's already August & September 19th will be blowing in on a fair wind before we know it.

Mom in High Heels has some very cute ideas for a pirate themed party, with games for little ones and a whole menu that would be a hoot even if the pirates are getting a little long in the tooth! There's a fabulous cake, and my favorite was this watermelon shark (photo above, with Mrs HH's kind permission). See the whole thing on her blog (and don't miss their trip to LegoLand while you are there).

Only 48 days to go. Better start trying to find some of those nifty Skull goblets!

~

What else happened on September 19th? Oh yeah - the Continental Congress passed the first Budget of the United States. As they've done every year since. Oh. Wait.

Catching Up With Some Great Blogs I Love To Read

~

If there's a theme in the blogs I follow most, it's that their owners tend to use stream of consciousness when choosing topics. They are never bored and never boring. Here's a small sample :-)

"Through The Eyes Of A Gold Star Mom" is the amazing, hope-and-love-filled story of Amy Galvez, whose son died for Freedom in Iraq. Marine Cpl Adam Galvez served in Iraq with Ethan, and I've written of him before.

Amy's latest post says "It's My Turn to Make Adam Proud". She and 3 other Gold Star mothers have been invited by the organization FUTURE to go to Baghdad and Northern Iraq this autumn on a joint humanitarian mission with Iraqi women, preparing a structure to assure the defenseless are not abandoned and can still look forward to a joyful future when our troops are
no longer there to protect them.

~

Mom in High Heels is playing "Random Thoughts Tuesday" (ok fine, she WAS playing it two days ago when I wrote this sentence) and she cracked me up by singing "There's a hole in the bottom of the sea" (and yes we do feel guilty and sincerely apologize to all our friends along the Gulf who know it isn't funny yet, we are very sorry but we could not help ourselfs).... ~ there's a flea on the hair on the wart on the frog on the knot on the log ~

~

I was wondering the other day whether schools still use SRA, when a favorite blogger, Leslie aka Alice the Camel (she's quoted on my sidebar), who's been on hiatus for forEVER announced a new blog she's doing: "Public Education 1010". The blog is frank and wry and challenging. Prepare to think when you read there.

Anyway, the first post I read was on "Uncreative reading", showing how Reading Mastery (of which SRA is a component) is still proving wildly effective.

I LOVED SRA when I was in grade school. I would work so hard to finish early enough to get to go to the SRA station. Even for a good reader like me it was useful. The best part of it was that all the different levels were in there so everyone in class could use the same full set, we just
used different pieces of the array.

~

I've been a fan of "Dr Mabuse's" The Kraalspace blog for years now. She's a hoot, and bakes a prize-winning apple pie. Her latest post "Reciprocity", announces that for the second time in 2 years, the President and Prime Minister exchanged gifts.

Our President's naive staff finally got taken in hand by someone somewhere with sense and gave new British PM David Cameron a proper state gift of a painting by the historically important and highly respected American artist Ed Ruscha, a father of Pop Art, who pioneered iconic typographical art and produced this sixty years ago. His work sells for Million$.

The British, on the other hand, ever mindful of nuance, with a finely tuned sense of history and attention to detail, achieved true antithesis when Mr Cameron presented the Obamas with a painting by "Ben Eine, a relatively unknown south London graffiti artist who has three convictions for criminal damage..."

And she subtitles it ... well, you gotta go see. I'm still laughing.

~

And last but not least, Pat over at And so It Goes In Shreveport is bravely blogging along, keeping her chin up, despite her mom being in the hospital demanding cigarettes and Better Crossword Puzzles. Well, she did break down and drown her sorrows in butter and grits and bacon and diet Coke, but she's back with news of The Awesome Bobby Jindal, and of another, non-metaphorical, storm a'comin'.

Oh, and go to your store and plead for Gulf Shrimp - she says the shrimp haven't been affected so we can feast AND do Good For The Gulf at the same time! Remember: Friends Don't Let Friends Eat Imported Shrimp!

PS I'll post the recipe for the Mexicanish Shrimp Cocktail tomorrow. :-)