Tis the Season of Orange

There's a lot of Orange in my life right now, and at our house that's a really cool thing.

The Texas Longhorns beat Oklahoma at the Cotton Bowl in the annual Red River Shootout propelling them to #1 in the National Rankings. So look out rivals, The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You.

There air is filled with sincerity in the hopes that the Great Pumpkin will visit the Pumpkin Patch on Halloween night. (MJM's favorite holiday).

In another advancement in his Hapkido training, MJM tested for and was awarded his Orange belt. He has worked very hard for this achievement after taking a couple of months off his training due to a broken foot over the summer. But he's back at it now and is looking forward to his next competition in a couple of weeks.

And while not orange (red actually), MJM won 2nd place at the PTA Reflections Art Competition in the Photography category at his school.

So as we contemplate the season of "Orange", perhaps the Binary Sunset is a fitting fade out. A scene at which to ponder the galaxy, both near and far, far away; and think about heeding that "call to adventure".

An Attitude of Gratitude after Hurricane Ike

A week ago, Hurricane Ike was bearing down on the Texas Coast. Satellite images showed a tempest larger than the State of Texas...in fact, Ike was as large as the entire Gulf of Mexico (approx. 615,000 square miles). It was the size (about 70% larger than "average") of Ike rather than it's strength that created a situation ripe for dangerous waves and flooding in low lying areas.

Friends living in the area were evacuating and protecting their property to weather the storm. And I'm grateful to report that all of them survived with repairable damage, although most are still without electricity. Sadly, a relative of one friend lost her home due to a large tree falling into it, but she survived because she was riding out the storm with a neighbor.

I'm grateful for the "cool" front that blew into Texas alleviating the humidity and heat for those surviving without electricity.

I'm grateful for all of the first responders who have worked tirelessly to rescue and assist others, cleaning debris, repairing power lines and infrastructure while their own homes and families struggled to overcome without them.

I'm grateful that lives were saved because so many people evacuated.

I'm grateful for the Houston area media that kept live feeds going 24 hours a day so folks in the area and around the world could see what was happening, as it happened. And they continue to chronicle the aftermath, reporting on what is being done and where help is still needed.

I'm also grateful for all the memories I have of visits to Galveston Island over the years. The first time my son dipped his toes into the Sea was in the waters off Galveston Beach.

And just last October we went shelling underneath the pilings of Murdoch's Bath House and the Balinese Room....so much history now washed away by the maelstrom.

Deep in the South of Texas

not so long ago,
there on a crowded island
in the Gulf of Mexico.
It didn't take too much money,
man, but it sure was nice.
You could dance all night if you felt all right,

drinking whiskey and throwing dice.
And everybody knows
it was hard to leave.
And everybody knows
it was down at the Balinese.

~ZZ Top, "Balinese" from Fandango

And lest we not forget, the Memorial to those lost in the Great Storm of 1900 withstood the crashing waves of Hurricane Ike; again representing strength in survival.

Big Storm Coming Soon...

One hundred & eight years ago this week (Saturday, September 8, 1900), A Great Storm destroyed much of Galveston, Texas killing between 6,000 and 12,000 people and is the largest natural disaster ever to hit the United States. (By comparison, Hurrican Katrina claimed approximately 1,800 souls.)


So it is that this week another Big Storm is headed for the Texas Gulf Coast, following a remarkably similar path to that of the Great 1900 Storm.

Unlike the residents of Galveston in 1900; Gulf Coast residents today have the benefit of modern weather forecasting, satellite images and fast, reliable transportation out of the Hurricane zone.

Much like the Thursday before the Great Saturday storm 108 years ago, I'm hearing from several of my friends in the area that it is a beautiful day on the Gulf Coast. The calm before the storm as the saying goes.

But as we pray in rememberance of the approximately 3,000 victims of the terrorist attacks on the United States 7 years ago today, let us also pray for those lost long ago to a terror from the Sea they didn't see coming, and those in the path of Hurricane Ike that aims for the Texas coast this Saturday.

Texas Heat

It's that time of year again...hot and dry in Texas, so I thought I'd post these words of wisdom. Both for those of you who endure Texas summers year after year, and the rest of you who have never had the pleasure of walking into a blast furnace.

Aside: Today was the 21st day this summer of over 100° temps, and August starts tomorow! Yee Haw!




May 30th - Now this is a state that knows how to live!! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. Mountains and deserts blended together. What a place! Watched the sunset from a park lying on a blanket. It was beautiful. I've finally found my home I love it here.

June 14th - Really heating up. Got to 100° today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car. What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this. I'm turning into a real sun worshiper.

June 30th - Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th - The temperature hasn't been below 100° all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least it's a dry heat. Getting used to it is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th - Fell asleep by the pool. (Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body.) Missed two days of work, what a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though: got to respect the old' sun in a climate like this.

July 20th - I missed Tabby (our cat) sneaking into the car when I left this morning. By the time I got out to the hot car for lunch, Tabby had swollen up to the size of a shopping bag and exploded all over $2,000 worth of leather upholstery. I told the kids she ran away. The car now smells like Kibbles and shit. No more pets in this heat!

July 25th - Dry heat, my ass. Hot is hot!! The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and AC repairman charged $200 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th - Been sleeping outside by the pool for three nights now. $1,100 in damn house payments and we can't even go inside. Why did I ever come here?

Aug 4th - 115 degrees! Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $500 and gets the temperature down to about 90°. Stupid repairman pissed in my pool. I hate this state.

Aug 8th - If another wise ass asks, "Hot enough for you today?” I'm going to tear his throat out. Damn heat. By the time I get to work the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and I smell like roasted Garfield!!

Aug 10th - The weather report might as well be a damn recording: Hot and Sunny. It's been too hot for two damn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Doesn't it ever rain in this barren damn desert?? Water rationing has been in effect all summer, so $1,700 worth of cactus just dried up and blew into the pool. Even a cactus can't live in this heat.

Aug 14th - Welcome to Hell!!! Temperature got to 123° today. Forgot to crack the window and blew the windshield out of the car. The installer came to fix it and said, "Hot enough for you today?", wife had to spend the $1,100 house payment to bail me out of jail.

Aug 30th - Worst day of the damn summer. I'm not leaving the house. The monsoon rains finally came and all they did is to make it muggier than hell. The car is now floating somewhere in Mexico with its new $500 windshield. That does it, we're moving to a cooler climate for some peace and quiet.

UPDATE: North Texas hit its 22nd day of triple-digit temperatures on August 1. Now, it’s going to get hot.

Tips Dealing With 100 Degree Temperatures

Heights Rocketship Blasts Off

Richardson’s Heights Park playground flies into history (article)

It's been two weeks since the Rocketship came down. I've been meaning to post about it, but it's been too painful.

Intellectually, I understand the dangers the equipment presented; but for both my Son and me the Rocketship, the Planet, the Submarine, the Giraffe, the Radar and even the old Jungle Gym capture the memories of childhood. Now the Rocketship Park is part of a childhood that is no longer Earthbound, but can only be touched in our minds.

I suppose the analogy is appropriate, and probably why the Rocketship Park was so special to me. Rocketships, and the hope they inspire for all of mankind have been an important symbol to me since Neil Armstrong landed on the Moon 39 years ago this month.

There's a fine line between staying grounded in the here and now and looking into the stars for a better tomorrow. But keeping the hopes and dreams of young people alive is one way that I believe that we will reach the stars one day, and by climbing on Rocketships when we are children is just one way to nurture an imagination that doesn't know the boundaries of time and space....yet.

O The Stories We Can Tell...

So the Jimmy Buffett traveling circus pulled in to Pizza Hut Park in Frisco, Texas last Saturday and over 600 of my closest friends showed up for a hellova tailgate party.
The pictures don’t do it justice…

A Parrothead “Phlocking” is something that must be experienced in person…the sounds, smells and weather; yes, Jimmy brought the weather with him.

You gotta understand, that some people dabble into Buffett music for the “fun” songs then find that it goes a lot deeper…there’s some good stuff in the man’s treasure chest. I’ve found pearls of wisdom in those lyrics that have inspired me through good times and bad; and on the road have found some amazing friends and genuinely good people.

Jimmy, you’ve while you may not sit with us in person, you’ve brought a lot of kindred spirits together and forged what some of us old hippie types would call a “movement”.

It’s a good thing.

This weekend I watched Parrotheads unite to raise $2,300 for breast cancer research…that’s what’s called partying with a purpose folks.

Jimmy's setlist was fabulous for long-time Jimmy fans ... he covered Texas songwriters/friends Willie Nelson, Guy Clark, Lyle Lovett and Willis Allen Ramsey. He ended the show with North East Texas Women giving a shout out to the NETWomen he met a long time ago ...

I can't say enough about how Jimmy's final encore of Tonight I Just Need My Guitar with him sitting alone in the spotlight is a perfect tribute for long time fans who can remember him before the big shows.

As Jimmy said before the lights went out, thank you for tonight and every night for the past 40 years, it's been an amazing run.

Is there something (else) we'd be doin' if we could?

Not a chance.

And if you ever wonder why we ride this carrousel,

We do it for the stories we can tell.

(Love those Texas Women)

On The Road Again...

Ok..I’ve been negligent. But I’ve been whooping off with friends in Houston where we celebrated the inaugural concert of Jimmy Buffett’s 2007 Bama Breeze summer tour last Saturday night.

Before the actual concert, my husband son & I met about 150 friends for a weekend of eating, drinking, dancing, a live band, and cooler racing? Yes, cooler racing. There was a rooftop pool party, and jello shots in the parking lot (warning…jello shots go down waaay too easy and pack a big punch).

By the time the Head Parrot hit the stage in Minute Maid Park the Parrothead faithful were in a tumultuous uproar. Jimmy didn’t disappoint. He revved the crowd up early with favorites like Fins, Son of A Son of A Sailor, and One Particular Harbor, I was thrilled that he dug into the old treasure chest and played two songs by Texas singer songwriter Willis Alan Ramsey, The Ballad of Spider John and Northeast Texas Women. There were also new favorites, Cinco de Mayo in Memphis, Bama Breeze and Regabilly Hill. The show ended with a lovely harmony of the Beach Boys cover In My Room and finally a Jimmy acoustic solo to a near silent stadium while he sang Tonight I Just Need My Guitar. The man knows how to work a room…no matter the size.

So, like a band of gypsies we'll go down that highway makin' music with our parrothead friends.
We'll be doing it all again Saturday when this travelin' carnival stops in Frisco, TX. Until then...I'll be hanging out at the Bama Breeze.

Blue Sun

And you thought you found me because of Firefly...

"Excuse me, while I kiss the sky."

That's ok. I'm a huge Firefly/Serenity fan.

I can do you one better.

Last weekend (2/24) over North Texas there was a REAL
Blue Sun.

No kidding.

Truly, dust can turn the sun blue. But it takes a special kind of dust. All the grains in the cloud must be about the same size and, for maximum blue, should measure about 1 millionth of a meter across. This makes the air behave like a blue filter.

And guess what, there was this weird dust storm that blew threw North Texas last Saturday that wreaked havoc, downing power lines with 60 mph winds, leaving homes without electricity and causing the cancellation of about 300 flights at DFW airport...and turned the sun blue.


The winds caused praire fires and even forced the evacuation of the Fort Hood Army base!

This was an eerie storm, but I am truly one of the priviledged few to experience a Blue Sun.

Take my love. Take my land.
Take me where I cannot stand.
I don't care, I'm still free.
You can't take the sky from me.

Harken: Seems odd you'd name your ship after a battle you were on the wrong side of.
Mal: May have been the losing side. Still not convinced it was the wrong one.*

*Remember the Alamo, March 6

Independent Texans

Today is Texas Independence Day.

171 years ago today, Texas declared it's independence from Mexico as the Alamo was under it's final siege.
You remember the Alamo, right?

The Alamo fell 4 days later (March 6, 1836), and the decisive battle of the Revolution occurred on April 21 at San Jacinto.

Both Texicans and Tejanos should be proud of the Republic of Texas that existed for for nearly 10 years before joining America as the 28th State. And what a State it has become! There's nothing like Tex-Mex food or music that Tejano's have created here anywhere in Mexico...even the Spanglish is different in Texas. Texans are distinctive in our food music and culture, a blending of the American west and South of the Border. Texans aren't better than other folks...just different.

A few famous Texans I thought of while trying to think of an interesting quote for this page...

George Bush, George W. Bush, Lyndon B. Johnson, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Adm. Chester Nimitz, Sissy Spacek, Lance Armstrong, Molly Ivans, Anna Nichole Smith, Beyoncé, Townes Van Zandt, Janis Joplin, Tommy Lee Jones, Barbara Jordan, Kris Kristofferson, Farrah Fawcett, Jayne Mansfied, Joan Crawford, Don Henley, Pat Green, Henry Cisneros, Nellie Connally, Rick Perry, Kay Bailey Hutchinson, Matthew McConaughey, Gene Roddenberry, Bonnie & Clyde, Lee Harvey Oswald, Roy Orbison, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, George Strait, The Dixie Chicks, Bob Wills, Buddy Holly, J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, Waylon Jennings, "Blind" Lemon Jefferson, T-Bone Walker, Howard Hughes, Roger Staubauch, Nolan Ryan, Selena, Los Loney Boys, Jimmie Vaughn, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Steve Miller, ZZ Top...

...in the infamous words of (another) famous Texan

That's right your not from Texas
But Texas wants you anyway.

So on this day of rememberance, hoist your Shiner (or Dr Pepper)and face toward Washington-on-the-Brazos, then give a toast. (something like "To Texas Independence" or "Long Live the Republic of Texas")

Be sure to remember next Tuesday, March 6th, commemorates the Battle of Alamo, and say a special prayer for all the brave souls that fought and died in the heroic stand of that great Mission in San Antonio.

Honor the Texas Flag.
I pledge allegiance to thee: Texas, one and indivisible.
~Pledge to the Texas Flag

Ice Storm

Why is it when we get “winter weather” in North Texas it can’t be snow? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not asking for more cold weather, in fact I absolutely abhor cold weather. But my attitude about it is that if it’s going to be cold, cloudy gray and spitting nasty stuff from the sky, it may as well be fluffy and white.

One of the reasons I live in Texas is so I don’t have to experience “winter” as many folks do. We usually get one or two hard freezes a year, and maybe one “winter weather” event. As far as I’m concerned, it only needs to get cold enough to kill the mosquito’s.

Watching the weather people standing along the highways scraping ice off of their eyelashes is just abusive…and funny as hell. Those folks should get hazardous duty pay. No self respecting Police Officer would stand on the side of a highway with people who have been living in drought conditions trying to drive on frozen precipitation!

It’s a good thing I don’t have to be anywhere, my son is plugged into his computer games, we’ve got plenty of DVD’s and sports to keep us entertained, so I’m just going to stay inside and turn up the Caribbean rhythms to create some virtual sunshine.

Feel free come back and visit me in August when I’m complaining about how many days we’ve had over 110°.