Grandad Says

RSF Revisited

2011-11-16T22:14:00.005-06:00

I came out again today to Rancho Santa Fe

It is a really beautiful place and the first thing we did after picking up the kids from school was go to visit the horses. Graham is still not feeling in top form so he did not ride but Evelyn and PK did.

Steph and I will do a trail ride tomorrow.

Someone asked what we would do for dinner and I suggested the club because I like the Wednesday presentation they have . They go nuts with hamburgers and that's what we did. With the time change it is dark in California by 5.30 pm. We were all tired and ready for bed. I did get a pic of Evie and a video too.

These pics don't show how big her eyes are..too bad. She's already telling time, counting in hundreds and doing simple add and subtract maths.

Osha Trail Once More....

2011-08-28T11:49:00.002-05:00

We tried to bring Anna and Colin back to do the Osha Trail while they were here but every time we started out to hike the afternoon rains would nix the project.

Beverly and I did it yesterday and we took little Patch. It was a fine day and we decided we would do the course counter-clockwise to change the routine up a bit. It took 1.5 hrs and Patch walked most of it unaided.

Here are some pics and vids.

Bev finalizing some business deal....

This is a shot of the old tressle from 1900 that was part of the train track from Alamogordo to Cloudcroft

Patch and me on top of the mountain....

Pretty Bev grinning all the way...

Tired old fart taking a break......and his old dog

My sister said she was looking fwd to see more trail hike vids...

And Beverly took a couple for Norma too...

This is a revealing video because I got stung at the end of it. Second time in two months that I've been stung. It ain't easy being attractive.

This is the result of that sting......ouch!

Duck Work?

2011-08-25T12:57:00.000-05:00

In El Paso yesterday I saw this truck that had the owners company name painted on it as well as what tasks he handled. Included was refrigeration, installation and DUCK work. It tickled me so that I recorded it. Not a great vid but at the end when all the jiggling stops you will see the word in question.

More from New Mexico

2011-08-18T21:31:00.002-05:00

I got such a great response from the 8.5 hours of work for my last post ( Thanks to Emily, Norma and Bev ) that I will post more of the Martin kids visit to Cloudcroft. We really enjoyed White Sands and here are some vids of that activity:

A swallow's nest..( No, this is not a porno pic )

Driving in.... and several sled rides...

Hope you enjoy these posts of the Martins in New Mexico. We enjoyed having them and look forward to next year.

Kids and Posting

2011-08-17T12:00:00.005-05:00

Colin and Anna went home yesterday as did Emily. I have so much material because we were pretty busy while all the company was here. Tennis, movies, hiking, White Sands (terrific day!) shopping in the village, Peter Piper, drawing, cracking stones and, on the last full day here, horse riding in Ruidoso.

Unfortunately I am not on line in Cloudcroft at the cabin. I must come down to the Chamber of Commerce building where there is free WiFi. I do that almost every day and try to upload vids while here. It takes 38 minutes for a 1.5 minute vid to download and I have 29 vids ready to upload so you can see the difficulty.

However I do have some stills to share.....

This one needs no explaining.

Colin playing in gypsum..

Anna in Ruidoso...

This is the bear Anna was sitting on and Colin climbed on it instead of sitting for a snap..

These bears are $100 each...

Lots of trinkets and collectible junk...

The more junk the better ...

Emily and Anna through the window..

So pretty..

Colin looking for trouble, again..

Here is a video from the first day they were here...

Colin at the net...

Here the kids are pulling weeds...

YouTube is not cooperating....I have spent too much time trying to embed some more vids that are already uploaded. Can't seem to figure out how to get the embed code when I play the vids from my YouTube account. Oh well. maybe Emily will clue me in.....Next Day.....She did!
So here are some more:

And finally, the end of weed/grass pulling.

Jay and Chipmunk and Thunder

2011-08-04T10:58:00.002-05:00

We've seen two or three Jays in the trees by the dog run so I made a feeder from an ashtray and bought some seed. The first eater we lured however was a chipmunk who is easily scared off but is patient and persistent.
Next was a jay. We ID'd it as a Steller's Jay. And it is very wary and flies at any noise or sighting of people.
The chipmunk is quite nervy around the bird and sneaks up only to be pecked or threatened away.

Here's a couple of vids.....

After I went back to the cabin and had lunch of smoked chicken and broccoli salad it clouded over and a thunderstorm hit the area.
Since a few people remarked about the earlier post on the storms....here, have at this one.

Mountain Greenery and Thunderstorms

2011-07-28T12:09:00.001-05:00

We could see the results of the drought in the area and noticed a difference in the amount of green from last year. There are fewer green fields and hillsides. There are lots of trees that have died and many have fallen. The camp grounds were closed until recently and while they have now opened up, campfires are not permitted.

Thus it was good to see a substantial thunderstorm last night with ample rain. I was pleased to see comments on my post from yesterday so I took the time to download these two vids that I took last night. They took 23 and 29 mins each while I am sitting on the hard bench on the front porch at the Cloudcroft C of C.

The Chamber doesn't open till 10 am and I got here at 0930. About 5 mins later two ladies came across the parking area and I told them the office was closed and wouldn't be open till 10.

Oh, said one. Are we headed in the right direction for The Lodge? We've been for a long walk and we don't really know the way back. Is this it?
Yes I said but it's almost 2 miles and half of it uphill. They both looked buggered and so I gallantly asked if they would like a ride.......on my bike.

Yes please they both said.....so, one by one I transported two ladies to The Lodge and they thanked me lots. They took pictures and I'm sure it will be a tale told to many people.

Here's the vids of the storm....

Summer Residence 2011

2011-07-27T11:32:00.000-05:00

After being spoiled by Steph and Al with daily treats and enjoying the kids and the Southern California weather we went back to Houston for 5 days. It was enough!

We decided to make the 11 hr trip up to Cloudcroft in one shot. Although we were shattered by the time we arrived, it was worth it ....765 miles in 11 hours.
Here's Patchie's reaction to the long journey. She wanted he bed and bottle....

The cabin is quite nice and the weather is unbelievable. We get up around 6.30 and it's 50F (10C) and at the heat of the day it gets only to 75F (22)

We have internet connectivity through Bev's I-Pad .....but for me to get online I go down the street to the Chamber of Commerce building - where I am now - and they have 24 hr WiFi free and a little bench with an electric outlet. How bad is that?

The owner of this cabin that we rented must have a thing for barbecue.....he has 2 grills and 2 smokers.

I cleaned up the gas grill and we've already used that. I also cleaned the top part of the electric smoker and I've read up on what woods to use for smoking various meats and fish. So we'll be trying that in the near future.

Colin and Anna will be visiting in early August and we are really looking forward to that. They bring new spirit to Cloudcroft and we adults are ready for bed every night they are here. Between tennis, hikes, horseback riding and visiting the local attractions they wear you out.

Here are two videos of the place.....

The front porch view at 0700

and the rest of the house with the side porch and all the grills......

Neiman Marcus

2011-07-10T00:28:00.001-05:00

What a day.

We went for breakfast to Claire's on Cedros.....downtown Solana Beach. Fantastic.

Then we boarded the Amtrak to Irvine Calif. and got a cab to Neiman Marcos in Newport Beach. The train ride was wonderful. We shopped until I dropped and then had lunch at Mariposa in Neiman's .

Oh my! Crab cakes and halibut, salmon. turkey melts...and those big turnovers........

Steph and the children are staying overnight with friends and the two of us took a cab back to the station in Irvine and rode the train back to Solana Beach.

For dinner we just had sliced salmon and a nice chardonnay.......The dogs are happy and we are too!

Evie wins Blue Ribbon

2011-06-17T00:09:00.001-05:00

Evie was in a horse show today at Del Mar. She was one of 4 four year olds. She got a Blue Ribbon.

Here's a pic of the pre show activity and then a video of the walk around.

And finally .......here is the winner!

Pool Day

2011-06-13T09:13:00.000-05:00

Bev was gone all afternoon for a meeting so I took the kids to the pool. We got there at 1400 and I thought we'd be there about an hour.
Finally at 1630 they'd had enough. They were in the water for 2+ hours without a break!

For Jenn and Anth

2011-06-11T21:34:00.000-05:00

We are having so much fun. The kids are very good and listen well.

Here we are at dinner and Nana and kids on vid.

Honestly! The people you meet on the canal.......

2011-05-16T14:22:00.001-05:00

First things first, we were in First Class both ways to and from Heathrow on United/Continental. Man they have some good wines up there. Grand Cru Bordeaux was my choice.
We arrived on the day of the Royal Wedding and got to our hotel in time to see 'the kiss' on the balcony.

A very enjoyable aspect of our trip was meeting Keith and Josie Tudor, Geoff and Helen Bailey, Dave and Cheryl Barnard and Ray and Joan Barnard and having some time with them on the boat.

We had arranged to meet the Tuds in Atherstone at 1220. The trains run on time and you know to the minute when you will arrive. However when the train was pulling into the station we grabbed our heavy bags and waited for the doors to open. They didn't. Seems like you have to press a button for the door to open and despite my panicked screaming for help, by the time someone said 'press the button' ( which was behind my back) it was too late!

Off we went to the next station 10 miles further down the track. Luckily a nice young man allowed me to use his mobile phone to call Tud and alert him. Tud came to Tamworth and rescued us.

Beverly and Josie...

Me and my schoolchum Tud...

After we sailed for three days with Keith and Josie we had a great lunch provided by Cousin Geoff and wife Helen and switched out guests. The Tuds went home and the Baileys came on board.

With Geoff and Helen we met up with Nephew Dave and Cheryl at Hinckley in a pub with great food called The Lime Kilns. ???

We had a good meal and lots of lovely wine. In fact, we drank all the cabernet that was on hand and had to settle for merlot for our final bottle. I was wishing I had some Cam Hughes wine stashed in my luggage by this time. Cheryl was the designated driver so she behaved herself and had only one glass.

With Geoff and Helen we decided to go all the way to the end of the Ashby Canal to Snarestone where the canal ends after going through a long tunnel. Here's a couple of videos of a nice break from driving for me when Geoff was in command of the boat....

The tunnel really was a thrill and quite psychedelic for me as I lost my sense of equilibrium and really felt like we were moving sideways or even backward while in the middle of the tunnel. I imagine that's what dropping LSD feels like, but I don't know. It unnerved me for about 20 seconds however once I could see the entire circle of the opening at the end I was OK again.
And I was the one driving the boat at the time.

We sailed all the way back to Atherstone to have lunch with Nephew Ray Barnard and his wife Joan. Ray was generous and thoughtful enough to bring pastries and meat pies from the famous Devonshire Cafe in Beautiful downtown Runcorn.

After we got sailing Ray and I enjoyed a Spitfire beer....unbelievably good stuff.

We needed some groceries so we hiked a mile into Hinckley Warwickshire and visited the Aldi store....

After the Barnards left Beverly and I had some good quieter times together. She drives the boat well....

One thing we never tired of was looking at the swan families along the canal....

Swans

2011-05-15T15:39:00.003-05:00

The wildlife here on the canal is interesting to us, as is the domesticated farm animals and horses etc that we see all the time.

I have limited ability to download vids to YouTube but I did get this one done while we were outside a pub this morning. The wifi was free but slow. Took like 20 mins to download this.

Coventry and Ashby Canal Trip

2011-05-07T08:45:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick post. We got here a week ago yesterday and while we have internet connection via a Dongle, we are conserving MBs because I only have 1 GB.

We like our boat although the length at 60' is bigger than what we've had on prior trips and it is a bit harder to manage. The canals are low level because of lack of rain and we are usually bottomed out 4 or 5 times a day. Not fun.

Overall we've had a great time with the Tuds from Saturday last till Monday. Geoff and Helen Bailley from Monday to Thursday ( Dave and Cheryl Barnard joined us for dinner on Wednesday in Hinckley ) and then The Barnards, Ray and Joan from Thursday till today, Saturday.
We have been on the canal for 8 days and the only day of rain was today. But it was only for the morning.

We are in Atherstone at the moment enjoying a lunch at The Old Red Lion and we will be looking for a laundromat this afternoon.

Here are a few pics.

Riding and Reading

2011-03-30T11:39:00.007-05:00

I'm back at the resort (still under construction) in Rancho Santa Fe. Last time I came out on a private jet, this time I had to settle for FC on Continental Airlines.
Life is tough when you're retired.

When I arrived Steph picked me up and we went to the stables where Al had taken the kids for their weekly lessons ......
Videos are downloading to YouTube and when they are completed I will post them. In the meantime Evelyn would like to say something to you.....Here is Evie:

i want to watch Cinderella......(she typed it)
Me now......Oh, OK , Cinderella it is then.

More later....You Tube is taking ages to upload...

Air Filter Change. Easy, right?

2011-03-24T18:12:00.002-05:00

Two weeks ago I went to get the oil changed in my Honda. We are religious about oil changes; a good friend who owned VDS Racing in Midland told us how important it is.
I took it to a shop I have trusted for 4 years in Houston. Mechanics are tuff to trust and it's nice to feel you have a good trustworthy shop.

About an hour after I dropped it off, I got a call from them saying I needed this and that along with the oil change. Trusting them I was OK with it until the guy said, " and your tires are showing some wear and need to be rotated"

I blew! I have brand new tires not two weeks old........they obviously don't need rotating yet.

I told him to forget the air filter, forget the passenger cabin filter and forget the tires and just put new oil and oil filter in.

I told the manager how disappointed I was and he apologized but had no rationale as to why that happened.

So after I dropped off the cruisers today I stopped at O'Reilly's Car Parts and bought an air filter.
Well, what used to be a simple wing nut project is far different today. There were four screws that I needed to back out holding the air filter cover in place. That done I tried to remove the cover.......
No way. Despite mucho force´ bruta I couldn't move it enough to slide out the old filter. I had to release
two spring clips and a large screw clip before I could pull up the cover off.
Anyway it took a while and I saved 10 whole dollars.

On another subject I took the cruisers to Galveston and while I wanted a still picture, my camera was in movie mode so this is what you get.

As I said, I thought I was doing stills but this 'prolonged' snapshot is good too.

A Two Day Concert

2011-03-20T10:10:00.001-05:00

I had taken a few vids of Col and Anna outside on the patio. Later I thought I'd inadvertently erased them in error. I lost 'em somehow and was ticked off about my ineptness and Colin said, " Never mind G'Dad we can do them again tomorrow"

Well we did take them again the next day and when I eventually got round to downloading them this morning I 'found' the 'lost' ones! So here are both versions of the songs.

Lego Madness....and swimming

2011-03-14T20:29:00.000-05:00

Anna and Colin Oliver are visiting us. We enjoy our time with them and they are so appreciative of our meals.

They were brave enough to go swimming in March!

And Col got a Lego today

90 Years but who's Counting?

2011-03-02T18:18:00.001-06:00

We went to a Waco Italian restaurant for lunch. The food was terrific.
Dulce enjoyed her hours in the spotlight.
Jill, Tom, Beverly, Eric, Cinda and Joe were there. Dulce said she would remember who was present when sending gifts next Christmas.
Here's a video of us all having fun.

The highlight perhaps was when Dulce Maria opened her cards after the meal and learned she was going on a cruise.

Leslie Stahl from 60 Minutes made an appearance ....

And Rita Hayworth guarded the door with her sexy pose....

And a video of the candle blowout and Happy Birthday song

Me Spacey? Nah...

2011-02-28T13:48:00.000-06:00

This is the Earth as it looked from Voyager 1 twenty years ago. Carl Sagan said:
Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselvese Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

Billy Elliot and Airplane Browsing

2011-02-28T07:51:00.000-06:00

Tom and Jill came to town and we all went to see the Houston opening of Billy Elliot. We had a good dinner and breezed downtown easily for the 'less than spectacular' show.

On a different note, here's what I was looking at on the flight returning from RSF last week.

Tank Exchange

2011-02-21T22:36:00.004-06:00

We had a good day today in Rancho SF
Breakfast sausages, hot air balloons and Lobster mac for dinner.

We had a little excitement because the hot water ran out. There was a leak in the propane tank.
So we had it exchanged.

Here are the shots....

And...

And...

I mentioned the balloons and here they are along with Nana and children returning from the garden with salad for dinner. At the end you'll see a table I worked on....

And finally here is a pic of the cheese that we had in RSF. It is fabulous. Humboldt Fog Goat cheese.
From California....

Lamb

2011-02-09T17:38:00.000-06:00

I mentioned on FB about our lamb chop dinner. Here are the pics.

The kids had macaroni with lobster as a side. We had spuds and broccoli.

Nana listening to Evelyn's secret....

RSF Feb 2011

2011-02-05T12:37:00.001-06:00

Here we are in Rancho Santa Fe once more. Steph, Al and Paige are traveling to the East Coast and we will take care of Graham and Evelyn for the next week or so.

First thing we did after getting here was go to riding lessons with the kids. Here are some shots.

Tall enough to hang the bridle on its hook!

Strong guy lugging his saddle

Saddle stowing is no problem for this girl.

Sunrise Saturday....

And a few videos.....

Interesting.....

2011-01-27T14:52:00.000-06:00

Paige left her fish for us to care for when she left. The fish was a pinkish betta. After I was gone for two days I returned today and saw this:

The fish was almost all blue and the flash brings more of the pinky color!!

Anther interesting event last week was the PDR we had done on the Mercedes. We went to Corpus for the Mobile Tech Expo and one of the participants fixed a couple of parking lot dents for us.
It was like magic to watch them work on dents and repair them so well you couldn't see where the dent had been. P D R ...paintless dent repair.

Wales Revisited

2011-01-16T11:35:00.001-06:00

A couple of years ago we went to Wales for Ken's 90th birthday celebration. It was a fantastic affair in a big tent on my nephew's sheep farm.
Almost all the family was there it was truly a great tribute to a good man.

Here Ken is going on about how he found wine underground in Italy during WWll

Here he is working the room....

It was a great time.

These two snook in under the tent flaps when no-one was looking..

Reliant Stadium and the Texans

2011-01-03T09:52:00.001-06:00

After being in Houston for almost 4 years I at last went to a game......... the fact that it was a pretty meaningless game didn't matter much to me; I was thrilled to see an NFL game in person once again. It's been a long time.

Our favorite Real Estate lady ( also a Cameron Hughes wine fan ) provided the tickets and even though I am hurting from back pain and still suffering also from the dreadful cough I've had for 4 weeks, I went. The tickets were incredibly good. Field level on the Texans side on the 35 yd line, WOW!

Here I am approaching the colossal amphitheater......And that's the left index finger of the stranger who took the picture.

I was really pleased with the seats... here's Matt Schaub ......

Despite the dismal record the Texans have this year the stadium was packed by game time. Here is a rather long video showing how the fans cheer each of the players by yelling their names as they are introduced....

Here's one where Steve Slayton returns a punt. It looks like if he'd cut right about 5 yards before he was tackled he would have had a blocker and maybe gone a long way........

It was a terrific time. Thanks Gayle.

Keeping Up

2011-01-02T20:55:00.002-06:00

We are so busy its hard to keep up. After spending Christmas with Emily and Jennifer and the Martins, we went to San Diego on Boxing Day to visit the Walkers. Al and Evelyn met us and we drove the 30 mins up to Rancho Santa Fe.

We had lots of good times and good meals in their spacious house and were thrilled by the views.
Here are some pics and vids.

This is the front of the house with the balloon in the air behind it.

Here's Beverly and the kids having breakfast in the guest cottage. There is not much furniture in there yet but there is a nice bed and we enjoyed it.

We went to a terrific little restaurant that encourages guests to bring their dogs! Outside dining of course.
Here are PK and EB at Claire's.

We went to Del Mar and walked on the beach there called Dog Beach. As you will see it is aptly named.

It rains sometimes in California and we were lucky enough to catch one of those days...........................

Guess what this is. Can you tell?

Wait for it........

Keep your shirt on........

Ah ha!

Christmas

2010-12-31T07:30:00.002-06:00

We spent Christmas at the Martin's home this year. We went caroling Christmas Eve and had a great Mexican style dinner. Of course we pulled crackers and wore the silly hats, told the daft jokes and played the naffy games. We spent the night at Emily's comfortable new apartment - we had our own b/r.

We got up Christmas morning and quickly hightailed it to P'ville to watch the kids open their presents. We had eggs Benedict with 2 bottles of fizz and ate my world famous pie-lets. Later in the day we had our Christmas dinner.
It was spectacular. Jenn did a leg of lamb on the rotisserie and we also had smoked Greenberg turkey. Nigella Lawson's recipe helped Jenn make the most scrumptious roasted potatoes I've ever had. (secret ingredient was goose fat)
Poor old Anth was off-color and we all wished him well over and over as we drank the Cameron Hughes Lot 200 Cabernet that Nana and I provided.

Surprise!!!

2010-12-23T14:05:00.000-06:00

We got a call from Steph yesterday afternoon saying that she and the kids had flown into town for an appointment. They were on us 1/2 hour later. We had been baking all morning and it was a very pleasant surprise.
We ate some of our cookies and then Evie took a nap. The twins entertained themselves as they are so capable of doing.

Later that night we were surprised yet again. After dinner - baked eggplant parmagiana - we were watching a movie when we heard noise at the front door.

Here's what we encountered upon opening the door....

Sausages make you Taller

2010-12-23T13:57:00.001-06:00

Here's Little Evelyn having eggs and sausage with Nana and Grandad just the day before they flew off to California.

Yet Another Cruise

2010-12-12T06:38:00.001-06:00

I soloed last week and did the same itinerary as Bev and I did last April.....Fla to San Juan, St Martin, and St Kitt's.

Wasn't as much fun without her but I had a good week. I spent the first night with Steve and Linda in Florida....

Then Steve drove me to the ship after lunch on Saturday. I was really pleased when I got to my forward cabin and saw the room.

And the view...

It was fantastic. I got to see things just as the Skipper did from my spot right below the bridge.
Here is San Juan. We parked downtown.

I saw several sunrise/sunsets...

Heading in an easterly direction that of course is sunrise.
I went snorkeling in St Martin but the weather wasn't the best with high winds and a few showers making the bottom murky. Fortunately the crew had plenty of suds so the day wasn't a total waste.

I got home early yesterday, enabled by a high speed $77 cab ride from Miami Port to FLL so I caught an early flight. At dinner last night Graham, Paige and Evelyn welcomed me home with this poster.....

While I read my welcome notes, Nana and Evelyn were telling each other how the cow ate the cabbage....

Sudie's Day

2010-11-19T19:10:00.003-06:00

My Aunt Sudie was interred today in Waco, Texas.

It was a beautiful day, cool and the sun shined on Sudie. The service was dignified and filled with many tributes to this kind unselfish woman.

At 95 years old Sudie looked good.

She was an accomplished college professor and, after her obit was published in the Waco Herald Tribune, we have heard from many of her former students. My brother-in-law Joe Brooks gave a heartfelt recap of Sudie's life and he had us nodding our heads in agreement many times. He put in a few funny anecdotes too, calling Sudie 'monkey tail' in Portugese, her first language, as her older siblings would do in Brazil in the 1920s.

Sudie and I got along well. I remember the first time I saw her.

She was very generous. She bought Emily a new car, She paid for Joe's debate classes at Baylor, She arranged for Steph's first semester at college, she bought Jennifer an Apple computer when computers were not common possessions, she shopped at Neiman-Marcus and brought dresses for my girls season after season after season. Paige wore a dress today bought by Sudie Pearl for Steph when Steph was 7.
She gave without fanfare and I'm sure there are lots of members of our family that were recipients of stuff I never heard about. That's Sudie Pearl for you!

She gave me Reader's Digest every year for 20+ years and I didn't know how to tell her I didn't want it. I guess she figured it was a rightist leaning pub and that I would therefore like it.

Sudie loved to play Scrabble. She was good. But as she got into her 90s she eased off a little and would often tell me she knew of a Spanish word or a Portugese word that would fit. Purist me I always chastised her and didn't let her use them. If I could play with her now, she can use any damn word she wants to.

I am particularly proud of my three daughters and my first granddaughter Anna who paid their respects today with music.

Here are two vids, one in church and the other at the gravesite.

Some Steak!

2010-11-14T22:02:00.002-06:00

I was solo tonight and, since I have a B12 deficiency, I thought a big steak was in order.

This bugger does not look as large in the photograph as it actually was.

But here it is.....

It was smashing. I only ate 1/3 of it and saved some for manana.

Legos

2010-11-08T07:49:00.003-06:00

My cousin Geoff and his wife Helen are visiting for a few weeks on their way to San Diego to see their son Mark.

Geoff mentioned to Graham that he was bringing Mark's Castle Legos and had them with him. Graham was excited and wanted to see them. So Graham and Geoff sat quietly for two hours constructing this castle.
It was great for me because Saturday morning while Graham and Geoff built the castle I had 2 hours of quiet time to do my crossword.

It's My Life

2010-10-27T20:24:00.002-05:00

Tonight we did a reprise of a dinner we had here at our pad with the Walker kids last week. They enjoy it so much last time and we did even better tonight with a few new twists.

We had sprouts, carrots, red taters boiled and in a butter Egyptian mint sauce. The kids love it. We had 16 lamb chops with a reduction sauce to die for from leftover Zin and buerre with a little stock and capers.....oh my. Shoulda took a pic I know!
Only 3 little chops were left over. Then, for dessert, we had Apple pie (peach for Graham) and cheeses. The kids were delighted with the new taste sensation of blue and cheddar cheeses with a'pie.

Then whilst Nana was cleaning up the mess we went over to see our neighbor Mr Bob. Here's a vid......

Evie at Lunch

2010-10-27T13:09:00.002-05:00

Here is a video that I was prompted to take while having a snack/lunch with Evie. She was all into this conversation about spicy food and I thought it would be interesting. Of course, when I got the lens on her the conversation stopped. Still worth a watch though I think because Ev and I have a chip snapping crackling contest!.

New Floors

2010-10-26T14:32:00.000-05:00

We've always wanted new floors so we decided to indulge ourselves.....

Bedroom

Closet

Stairs

Evie and the Chickens

2010-10-19T09:43:00.001-05:00

Evie came to my house today for me to walk her to school. Here she is working her computer....

We visited for 20 mins and when it was time to walk along the path to class she said she had to say bye to the chickens. I couldn't get my camera out fast enough so I missed the first part of her talking to the birds. Also, sorry about the sun flaring.

Chickens

2010-10-14T10:36:00.001-05:00

One of my sisters used to say, "so I thought I would indulge myself" whenever she bought something special for herself.
It was usually preceded or followed with, " I've always wanted one of those"

Well, I've always wanted chickens. I used to feed Antie Ett's in Fleetwood and I think of them like tomato plants or fruit trees, relatively easy to care for with a payoff-- fruit or eggs.
In all the places we've lived there wasn't one where 'farm animals ' were allowed by the zoning laws. So I never could indulge myself.

However, Steph has 3 hens and since she is not allowed to have chickens in the rental house they're renting , we (I) offered to take in her hens temporarily. We'll keep them until Steph and Al move to California in December.

We made a little area for them to run around in on our back patio. Here's a video...

And a video of Nana and Evie yesterday....

Addendum to this post.

Here are our first eggs. Pretty aren't they?

Graham and Evie .... lunch at Nana's

2010-10-11T12:55:00.001-05:00

Graham asked for a reprise of the potatoes with butter/mint sauce, Evie had yoghurt and cereal.

Evie wanted even more cereal, a different kind. Then she had more with milk. She can eat!

These videos show Graham nicely playing and Evie the Imp.

Emily's Visit

2010-10-09T14:23:00.000-05:00

Emily had a little business in Houston this past week. so we had big dinner plans at the Walkers. Steph and Evie didn't get much sleep the night before because Evie coughed all night. Dinner at Piping Rock was cxd so we invited the twins to Bammel Lane and had a nice dinner there while Steph and Ev stayed home. PK and GB were thrilled with the reduction sauce I made for the filets and the butter/mint sauce for the boiled red spuds. They each ate 3 lamb chops to boot!

Here are some shots of the house already decorated with some Hallowe'en stuff and some nice video of Auntie Em and Steph feeding Evelyn. went to the Walker's and enjoyed some nice wine. Evelyn is still not 100% as you will see in the video of Steph feeding her chicken soup..
First here are a few pics of the downstairs of the house on Piping Rock.

A great workable kitchen (with bat)

Hallway

Living room

Game room

Jumping Beans

2010-10-05T23:06:00.008-05:00

We visited the Walkers this afternoon. In their new home they have a trampoline, it'll only be there short while until it's moved by the builder who was storing it there. I videod the kids playing on it. There are more pics but it's late and I'll post more tomorrow. Well, tomorrow's here and here are more pics and vids

Evie making sounds like a lion roaring and it made her cough

Paige is a lion too

She did it again!

Graham is a lion in repose

That's a scary lion

Finally after a heat related writing block here is the next post

2010-09-29T09:23:00.002-05:00

Houston weather is great in Oct Nov and Dec and I am so looking fwd to it. I was spoiled by the July and August climate in New Mexico. September wasn't very nice here in Houston and the humidity and heat encouraged the mosquitoes, the bane of my existence.

Unhappily for Little Evie, they like her about as much as me. You can see the little bite near her mouth on these vids.

She has a little luggage lock and is intrigued by the little trigger that opens it.

Click

Next she plays Hide -go-seek..

Click

I don't know why I am unable to upload the videos from YouTube as I have in the past. I couldn't so I created links instead.
Enjoy them.

We left this one out......

2010-08-23T10:42:00.003-05:00

Here is a video of the kids playing with some clever masks they made.

Trestle Trail

2010-08-22T16:27:00.009-05:00

Since the kids and I got rained out a few days ago, Nana and I wanted to complete this trail. It is a tough bugger.
We finally got there and shared the roost with a St Bernard who was two years old and Patchie tried to snip at him.

Beautiful scenery.....

Finally we reached the end of the trail.....

Aww The kids left

2010-08-21T09:35:00.006-05:00

After a busy two weeks of hilltop activity the kids went home to P'ville. We are missing their presence around the cabin in these first few days on our own again.

We arrived at the airport at 1400, plenty early for the 1545 flight. We were checked in by 1415 and told the flight was delayed till 1630. :-(

We decided to go to a nearby PPP to while away some time.

Nana tried to sneak a lick of Anna's ice-cream

Patches in the bag

Before we left Nana packed some snacks for the a/c ride

Here we are waiting to board

Airplane taxiing out

Take off...

Rained Out........Almost

2010-08-18T20:15:00.007-05:00

For the kids last full day here in Cool Country we thought a nice hike down the Train Trestle Track was on.

We started out and walked to the trail head which is minutes from our rental. Grandad thought he knew better than the signs posted on the track so we took what was supposed to be a shortcut that turned out to be a big loop back to the trail head! Oh well, we started again and found the trail to be a beauty. About 1/2 mile down we heard a monster thunder roll and examined the sky and decided to press on. Only for a few more minutes for the sky was very threatening and the thunder rolls attention getting, so we decided to hurry home.

Then after lunch and two hours of lazing around we decided to go play tennis. Col and I biked the 3/4 mile and Anna and Nana walked. We played for about 2o minutes before the heavens opened and we were soaked. loathe to leave the fun we hesitated just a little to long to pack up and leave. By the time I shuttled everyone home on the bike we were sodden.

But, a great dinner of queso and chips and tacos, followed by the hot tub made our last day here together memorable.

We will miss the kids after they leave. This place will seem too quiet. We are thankful we got them for two full weeks.
We have two more weeks up here in Cloudcroft. I am going to rest up.

Here we go a-spelunking

2010-08-16T18:41:00.011-05:00

We went spelunking.....
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It was a great day today. After omelettes (Fr. sp.) for breakfast we took long ride through beautiful scenery and we went to Carlsbad N.M.

The kids were great on the trip because we had CDs to watch. They were totally blown away with the caves.

After we got home the kids had nachos for dinner ("Grandad, you make the best nachos"), we were preparing our dinner as they sang this lovely????? melody about telephones.

The World Famous El Paso Zoo and The Cross-eyed Moose

2010-08-15T10:46:00.006-05:00

The kids got up really early yesterday and drove 2 hours to the zoo in El Paso. They met with a new friend Nathan and had a few hours of fun looking at the animals and then went once more to Peter Piper Pizza. They have visited three of the 12 PPPs in ELP!

Here's Col eating breakfast before the trip....

Colin, Anna and Nathan on a tiger...

.
Giraffes doing a sexy dance...

And the sea lion show....

The Cross-eyed Moose is where we enjoyed Sunday morning breakfast.

Col ate a monster breakfast. Anna mimicked the moose.

Colin explained how you should pick up a crawdaddy......

Osha Trail Revisited, this time with Grandkids

2010-08-13T14:07:00.006-05:00

We have enjoyed this hike many times over the years we spent living in El Paso.

Today we packed a picnic lunch and headed out of town. The trail is a mere 2 minutes drive from the village!

The kids loved it and there were zero complaints and very few yarls. The only low point was when someone dropped half her BBQ sandwich onto the dirty trail. We used the 5 second rule and wiped off the muddy side. Nah, just kidding,

Here it is in pictures and video.

Breakfast of Champions

2010-08-11T10:39:00.005-05:00

Breakfast this morning was well received. Not only did we have good food but the meal was celebrated by two separate Sonic Booms. Of course, this time we knew what the noise and shake was all about.

Here is a vid of the kids enjoying the meal. We are going on a hike this morning. The route is yet to be decided; we may revisit Osha or we may go to Sunspot where there is an observatory.

And after breakfast the kids played for a while.....

Then we went on our picnic lunch trail walk to Sunspot N.M. -where there are lots of telescopes- but as you will see we got rained/hailed out. But it was fun.

Horseback Riding Adventures

2010-08-09T14:45:00.007-05:00

We drove to Ruidoso to Grindstone Stables. On the way we felt and heard a big 'boom-boom' on the side/roof of the car. "What was that?"
Nana said. "Dunno, I didn't see anything" said I........
Turns out that 15 mins later when we arrived at the stables they were talking about the sonic boom which we too had experienced.

Anyway we all got fitted out for horses and went up the mountain about 500 feet by a lake and we saw a deer who was apparently guarding her fawn from a coyote. We saw her on guard and got the rest of the story from the lead cowboy. He reported it back to Kevin 30 mins later so I guess it was true....

Here are the pics and the vids....

Day Two----IMAX and Space Museum, plus Hot Tub

2010-08-08T10:09:00.012-05:00

We went 'downtown' to thriving Alamogordo where there is an IMAX theater and the Space Museum. We rushed thru the 4 floors of the museum because we had reserved two hours of for scheduled shows at the IMAX and wanted to be on time .
Here are some snaps of the museum.

The IMAX was really good with the first hour explaining our position and status in the universe, then the second hour was a terrific account of the troubles encountered with the Hubble telescope after it was launched in 1990 and the arduous task of making repairs using large lenses not unlike contact lenses to repair the faulty mirror.

Big Day in Cloudcroft

2010-08-07T11:03:00.003-05:00

The Martins are here, well, two of them are.

We picked up Colin and Anna in El Paso yesterday and after eating lunch drove back to Cloudcroft.
The kids love it here and having a good time so far. Lots of activities are planned for the next two weeks so I will have blog fodder for a while.
Here we are meeting them at the airport...

And then we went to lunch at Nana's brand new restaurant...

More Peter Piper fun....

Arriving at the cabin in Cloudcroft,

Anna pops the bag.

Here it is

2010-07-29T15:25:00.002-05:00

I promised I'd post the pit........here is the sign.

More Deer

2010-07-26T16:34:00.003-05:00

Still have not revisited the 'Slash Pit' yet but, I will. When we move from this cabin at the end of the month we'll be closer to the pit..
The next cabin is in the village and I hope the bed is a better one than the one here :-(

Here are some more deer vids If I sound like I'm out of breath, I am. At 9600 ft walking up the 16 steps to the road to film the deer is an effort.

As you see I like having deer around.

We've been eating very well the past few days since our California care package arrived. We had fresh peaches, plums and corn and two very nice salame sausages. Oh, it is good stuff. Thanks Walkers.
Cards from each of the kids were appreciated too.

Big dinner tonight; we will have tenderloin, fresh corn and some Cabernet. Yeah!

Oh, I'm so at odds....

2010-07-17T20:33:00.003-05:00

Today and I saw a sign that said ' Slash Pit'
I was riding the bike and didn't have my camera so maybe I'll post it tomorrow.

The reason for my oddness however is that yesterday in El Paso I bought 12 bottles of wine.....all of them Cameron Hughes and 3 different varietals.......well, 2 of them had the same livery of silver cap and label.....One was lot 149 a Napa Cab $20 and the other was a Lot 140 a Sonoma Cab $12...they looked almost identical.

After we got home to Cloudcroft I saw that the Sam's guy had charged all of the wine at $12......He thought they were all Lot 140 !

I was so miffed.

What would you do? I will not be in El Paso again until August but my wife will be there next week. Should I send them $30?

In other news.......the bird that I let recoup last week made an appearance today. It's either the same one or one just like it......
I noticed that it stayed far away from the windows so it might be the same one.........I like catch and release, don't you?

Talk about Eclectic......Humpff

2010-07-12T15:28:00.007-05:00

This little cabin is very nice. We have a great view; we are 6 miles out in the countryside and we'll be sorry to leave it at the end of the month for the next one in the village proper.

While it has a lot of off-beat decorations and furnishings it is quite comfortable and is very well equipped with pans, dishes, cutlery, utensils and wine openers. We brought our own Laguiole but there is already one here! We brought our own hi-falutin' glasses and there were some elegant ones here too. As my mother said, "best be safe than sorry"

Here are a few pics of the joint......

Good Morning, Deer

2010-07-10T10:34:00.004-05:00

We have seen deer around the cabin a couple of times. They seem to be relatively accustomed to humans; they are not too skittish.
This morning we saw these as they passed by the back porch.....

I would like to have been able to video yesterday's visit by two bucks and two does but I wasn't toting.
But,
Here are two vids of today's action......

Independence Day

2010-07-04T15:46:00.005-05:00

July 4th. We went for a long scooter ride. It is a beautiful sunny day with no rain in sight. After the ride we stopped off for lunch in the village. Simple orders of shrimp basket and BBQ sandwich took 1 hr to deliver! It's Cloudcroft.....

Home on the Mountain

2010-07-03T09:44:00.011-05:00

After a two day drive we arrived at Cloudcroft New Mexico where we will spend most of this summer. The oppressive heat last year in Houston convinced me that Houston is not the place to be in July and August.

We are 6 miles out of the village and almost 9K feet high on the side of a mountain in the Sacramento Range. The cabin has three levels and while it is small in many ways, it is comfortable for two people and a dog.

Our first morning here yesterday we saw 8 deer in the front driveway. We are still working on our daily routines since everything is new.......

I did take a few shots yesterday

Here's the back patio view..

Here's a vid from last night....

It's so chilly we need socks..

Bev at work on side porch

Life is Good

2010-06-13T08:38:00.006-05:00

It's the twins 7th birthday today. We had a party on the lawn on Frday and last night , Saturday, we went to dinner at a lovely Indian restaurant. Joe and his kids, Jimmy and Becky were with us too.
I don't have pics of that but maybe Steph will post some on her blog.

Afterwards Colin and Graham came to our house for a sleep over. Nana loves it

This morning I made breakfast for the boys. I do have a few pics of that.
And a video.....

Look at Colin scoffing his eggs.

Sequel to Emily and Bill....July 4th

2010-06-07T16:23:00.001-05:00

After my Dad died, click I went back to NYC. But I was able to do so with an Immigrant visa which, different from the Visitors visa I had previously, allowed me to work in the USA. To call the circumstances of how I got the visa unusual is an understatement. More further down...

In NYC the first job offered me was in the garment district at $1.00 an hour. That was the minimum wage at the time.

I didn't take it. Instead I opted for a job as a psuedo college student selling magazines in New jersey. It was a great experience and I met a talented group of hustlers who knew how to shake $$$$ from the suburbanites in NJ. I didn't last at this job because it was all a lie. I can fib OK but lying is beyond me.

But, let me tell you about the visa I was able to get in 1958.
I've told this tale many times......but it seems almost miraculous to me even today some 50+ years later. So if you've heard it, sorry!

After the funeral- mid June- my oldest sister and my mother were planning to go to NYC where my sister lived. By the beginning of July they had decided on a ship from Liverpool to Montreal leaving july 23rd.

I decided to go too.

On Friday July 4th we went down to Pier Head where the Cunard offices were to book the trip. While we were there paying for passage at White Star Line my sister had an idea. "Why don't you emigrate so you can work ashore?" she asked.
"No problem with me" I said. Since the American Consulate Office was right down the block from Cunard we toddled on down there. It was about noon. The massive double wooden doors were shut. No sign of activity. We pulled the bell chain and banged on the door. Nothing. Again we banged. After a while we heard the lock slide back and the door inched open a tad. A man with shirtsleeves rolled up and not wearing a tie asked what we wanted. My sister gave him a song and dance routine telling him the sad news that I'd just lost my dad and that my mum was going to NYC and I wanted a visa.

"Do you know what day it is?" he asked. Like dopes we said yes it's Friday and he laughed and said "It's July 4th", "An American Holiday" and "There's nobody here working to do it." Then the magic happened. He asked us in and after about 10 minutes of a private interview with me he got out a form and with a big roller type of lithograph stencil thingy he gave me a visa, all signed and fresh from the press.
Well we were over the moon. Usually in those days one would wait several months with it would take many trips(and long queues) and extensive documentation requirements to get a visa. You also had to have a sponsor or you had to have a job in the U.S. to go to and all kinds of official paperwork .

I skipped the lot, thanks to July 4th. I'm sure you can imagine how much I appreciate all the fireworks celebrating my visa anniversary every year! Thanks all of you......

Rained Out........Almost

2010-06-07T12:02:00.006-05:00

Yesterday was Evie's 3 yr birthday celebration. It was planned to be held on the lawn from 4 o'clock to about 6 p.m.
At 4 o'clock the heavens opened and it rained -as it can only in Houston -for at least an hour.
There were two ponies, chickens, a duck and several rabbits to entertain the kids. Evie loved the pony ride and was on it for 1/2 hour.
We moved from the lawn to the pool and, as you see in the vids, everyone had a good time.

These are not in any particular time order......
First is the birthday song. Note that Paige leads us off..

Next we see Evie Bea eat a bit of cake and she can't wait to get back to the pony which she jumps on pretty much without help. Grace is on the lead horse...

Addicted

2010-06-03T11:38:00.003-05:00

I'm posting this because I know there are a few out there who simply can't get enough of this 3 year old

And here is the next day.

2nd day of Camp

2010-06-02T08:45:00.004-05:00

This morning I walked her down to Camp. She wanted Nana to take her but Nana was at the airport. Evelyn's conversation with her follows...Catch the ' booty wiggle '

Soft Boiled Eggs

2010-05-23T17:46:00.002-05:00

When they were in Morocco recently the Walkers were served eggs in little egg cups. They brought some cups back and we used them this morning.
Paige and Graham each had 3 eggs and Evelyn had 2.

Owl

2010-05-23T08:51:00.002-05:00

Remember the twin owls that Stephanie posted about?
Here
The tree that the owls hatched in died so we moved the nest-box to another tree in the front yard. Nothing happened for many months but now we have an owl- who looks just like one of the twins- perching in the tree by the box.

Here is yesterday's pic..

Brain like a Sieve

2010-05-22T16:18:00.002-05:00

I spent the day today looking for misplaced stuff.

Last night about 6.30 we packed lightly to spend the night at Steph's. I had placed my computer in a sleeve and put it alongside the garage in the alley while I loaded the bag into the car.....forgot it didn't I? Looked for it this morning, not remembering that I had left it, and finally figured I must have not brought it.

At 0830 this morning I went over to look for it and it was still there in the alley. Many people had passed it by and there were even workers at a neighbors across the alleyway.

We swam for a while after breakfast and I took some video and stills. When I went to upload them I didn't have the little adapter. So I went home to get it. I changed clothes and came back on my scooter. Couldn't find the adapter could I?
Back and forth 3 times, Bev tried too and we still couldn't find it. I resolved to just go to the Sony Store and get another....

So I took the camera and thought I would give the search one more shot and -bazoom- I found the adapter BEFORE I BOUGHT A NEW ONE...

Went back to Stephs on the bike and tried to use the adapter and, huh, where's the camera......
Back over on the bike to our house to look for it and no luck. Back to Bev and confess I am at a loss. She gave me a cold glass of water and told me to go back and look in the car..............that's where it was. Gotta tell you, I'm tying strings on everything and tying them to my wrists.

Destin

2010-05-19T08:22:00.005-05:00

We went to Destin last week. A 9 hour drive from Houston.
We were pleased to see the beautiful beach as yet unmarred from the oil gusher.

Brian and Sandy have a terrific house on a golf course and we were very comfortable.

Steve and Linda could not be there this year as Linda is recuperating from surgery.
Brian cooked these steaks perfectly

Every year we all would visit this beach rstaurant until it burnt 2 years ago. They opened it up and we restarted our traditional visits...

Jennifer's Party

2010-05-16T10:59:00.013-05:00

We helped Jenn celebrate last Saturday. Here's some pics....

This video is starring an old college friend who seems like family to us. Regina is so special.
And she can flop and squirm like a worm.

Here's My New Bike

2010-05-08T09:19:00.000-05:00

A beautiful Kymco People 250cc.

I Went to a Garden Party

2010-04-25T18:49:00.018-05:00

Everyone was there........

Evie wrapped in the net....Al and Steph with the children and Chef Jason Gould-Ozzie,Ozzie, Hoy!

Took me over two hours this morning to get this posted. Finally gave up on Apple and got it done on the old PC.

Old dog trying to learn new tricks. Oh well.

Memorial Park

2010-04-15T07:02:00.006-05:00

Here we are at Memorial Park. Nana was exercising and Evie and I were all over the playground.....
On the swings first..

And here she is adventuring on the playground......

And here more of the slides...

This is my first post using MacBookPro.

What did you do on your vacation, Grandad?

2010-04-12T10:08:00.003-05:00

Well we had a great time. The ship was superb and the staff great too.
We met lots of nice people and went to a nude beach in St Martin. No pics,sorry!

Here is a video of an airplane landing in St Martin.

It was a thrill. There are many vids like mine at YouTube if you want more of the same.

Sequel to Emily and Bill......July 4th

2010-03-30T22:25:00.007-05:00

For Emily and Bill

2010-03-16T21:23:00.009-05:00

When I got to NYC in 1958 I went to work on a cruise ship that was an English boat that sailed from New York to Bermuda every week. The QTEV Queen of Bermuda docked at Pier 95 on 12th Ave.
My first assignment on the ship was as a second class waiter, which means I served the Officers in their mess.
Seasick, Looking at food and serving it three times a day made me throw up two or three times every meal. I was doing this all the way down to Hamilton Bermuda and then all the way back to NYC. The Officers got tired of it so they moved me to the night shift on the telephone switchboard. That was a blast. There wasn't much activity after 9 pm. And it wasn't hard work.
If you wanted to you could surreptitiously listen in to conversations............I didn't because it was mostly boring stuff.

My partner at night was an old Liverpudlian who had developed a side line business for himself as a podiatrist. He was a crusty old bugger who catered to the many flaky waiters who were 'a bit off' and he would go to their cabins and give them pedicures. He had a little black bag full of tweezers, cuticles clippers etc.

He was also in love with a black girl who was about 20 ( he was 60 ) in Bermuda. I could tell you more about his love escapades but... decorum will not allow it.

I had been on the ship for 3 months when I got a radio call from sister Rene that my dad was very poorly and was not expected to live very much longer. The ship was about to leave Bermuda for the two day sail to NYC and when we got there we had to make arrangements for a flight to England.

It was Friday 13th of June 1958. The plane was a DC-7 and it had mechanical difficulties that were scary. We left the terminal twice and returned from the runway for repairs.
It was after midnight- so Saturday the 14th- when we finally left NYC.

When we got to Runcorn on Saturday we were all shattered and jet lagged. On Sunday a contingent went to Warrington to see Dad.
I was asked to wait until the next day because too many people returning from America would clue Dad into the seriousness of his condition. (Give me a break)

He died on Monday the 16th and I never saw him again.

One final note. As I was leaving Runcorn on that Friday March 7th 1958, I had walked out the front door of #6 and was about two houses up the street when my Dad made it to the front door. "Don't you want to say goodbye to your Dad?" said my Mum.
I went back and kissed him. He was ashen and had a 2 day growth on his face. But I'll never forget it. Never. I loved him. And today is his birthday anniversary. Happy birthday Dad -March 17th- you are 105 years old today.

For My Fans

2010-03-15T22:43:00.003-05:00

I have had a few murmurs from the gallery about the dearth of my postings. Well, truth is I haven't had my Austin kids here for a while and the Houston ones have been away in Cabo and now are in Morroco. So I've had no fodder.
BUT, I got a few pics today and will post them mostly for the Weaverham contingent and also for all you other lurkers who seldom comment.

But who's Counting?

2010-03-09T22:41:00.005-06:00

A smug post.

I was hugged today by Lindsey..(a smasher)....Graham (a choker), Paige, Steph, Beverly and Evelyn, (she said 'I missed you so")

And I had a massage from Wess.

I missed my Ink, Bink, CollyOlly and Anna.

Not bad overall though right?

Hide and Seek

2010-03-03T08:56:00.003-06:00

Here's a quickie video. Nana is hiding and Evie is looking for her. (At the end I get a little excited because Evie's head comes too close to untrustworthy Patches.)

And these two were a little earlier.

Isthmus be my Lucky Day

2010-03-02T13:34:00.002-06:00

Hurricane Ike blew out a bedroom window a little over a year ago. It took a while to pick up all the broken glass from the busted window. ( It exploded outwards from the upstairs bedroom!)
We had all the windows replaced and planted a few new bushes. Shortly afterwards I couldn't find my newest clip on sun glasses. Since then I've been on 5 or 6 cruises and had to use my old glasses which accommodate the old clip on sun glasses. A bit of a pain but workable.

Last Sunday my across the courtyard English neighbour, who is a non-stop workaholic, was outside sweeping up leaves. In the winter they accumulate around the bushes and our weekly gardening service does not ferret them out. Bob made nice little piles on his front grass area for the gardeners to haul away on Tuesday which is our regular gardeners day.

I watched him Sunday and took the day off.

Yesterday it rained all day but this morning after Patchie did her routine I decided to just flick the rake around the flower beds and make a minimal effort and make a few piles for the gardeners to haul away.

Good. I was just about finished when out comes Bob. He goes into a conversation about commercial real estate, monkey grass and financial planning. So I said " 'scuse me I got to go get the blower"

"Does yours have enough power" says Bob who has owned a chain of hardware stores throughout the U.S. and has two of everything.
Oh yes, Bob I said it's a Toro.

So he said bye and I went to get the blower.

It was a lovely morning about 65degrees and the work went well. With the blower funnel I was pushing past a difficult to move bush and saw a glint of glass. "Ah, some more broken window from Ike" I said to myself. Stopped the noise to pick it up and blimey it was my 'new' magnetized clip ons...

Just goes to show you that not every good deed goes unpunished. And the gardeners are here now picking up the mounds of leaves.

Chuy's Tonight

2010-02-14T19:18:00.011-06:00

Our weekend with Colin and Anna is almost over. They're pretty easy to have. Nana loves it and is going to miss them a lot. Me, I'm a little older and need my quiet time. Know what I mean? Woah! They're non-stop energy.

We had a great day today although Colly Olly is suffering through some kind of allergy reaction. Late in the afternoon we went to the Walker's house and had some fun. Here's a picture as we were about to leave. I will also post lots more video as soon as it loads on YouTube.

Here's Steph pulling on LuLu's ear

After this big day Nana and I did not want to spend time in a restaurant so we ordered take-out from Chuy's and ate at home. Everyone was stuffed and Nana and I swore off food for a week.

Museum Visit and Sunday Morning.

2010-02-14T12:09:00.010-06:00

Just some vids and pics from Saturday and Sunday......

It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it.

Cousins.

2010-02-14T11:35:00.003-06:00

Anna and Colin came to town Friday. Nana picked them up as she was returning from Waco. First thing they wanted to do was go to see their cousins.

Here is some of Friday's activity. Too bad I missed Evelyn being the mop as they were really swinging her around the floor like a Swirl of Life............

Paige is the mop

Colin and R2D2

Evelyn sings 'it's raining'

They played Doctor????

The popping noise on the last one was Colin with a cork gun.Next we played hide go seek Grandad style.

Nana likes her wine........

More Later.

It's a simple game...........

2010-01-28T05:22:00.002-06:00

Simon says has been a popular kids game for centuries. But look at the twist Evie gives it.

Here's Graham doing it correctly

The Cost

2010-01-25T21:59:00.006-06:00

(CBS) Thanks to a recently filed Congressional expense reports there's new light shed on the Copenhagen Climate Summit in Denmark and how much it cost taxpayers.

CBS News Investigative correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports official filings and our own investigation show at least 106 people from the House and Senate attended - spouses, a doctor, a protocol expert and even a photographer.

Read the Congressional Expense Report

For 15 Democratic and 6 Republican Congressmen, food and rooms for two nights cost $4,406 tax dollars each. That's $2,200 a day - more than most Americans spend on their monthly mortgage payment.

CBS News asked members of Congress and staff about whether they're mindful that it's public tax dollars they're spending. Many said they had never even seen the bills or the expense reports.

Copenhagen Congressional Junket

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., is a key climate change player. He went to Copenhagen last year. Last week, we asked him about the $2,200-a-day bill for room and food.

"I can't believe that," Rep. Waxman said. "I can't believe it, but I don't know."

But his name is in black and white in the expense reports. The group expense report was filed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She wouldn't talk about it when our producer tried to ask.

Pelosi's office did offer an explanation for the high room charges. Those who stayed just two nights were charged a six-night minimum at the five-star Marriott. One staffer said, they strongly objected to no avail. You may ask how they'll negotiate a climate treaty, if they can't get a better deal on hotel rooms.

Total hotel, meeting rooms and "a couple" of $1,000-a-night hospitality suites topped $400,000.

Flights weren't cheap, either. Fifty-nine House and Senate staff flew commercial during the Copenhagen rush. They paid government rates -- $5-10,000 each -- totaling $408,064. Add three military jets -- $168,351 just for flight time -- and the bill tops $1.1 million dollars -- not including all the Obama administration officials who attended: well over 60.

In fairness, many attendees told us they did a lot of hard work, and the laid groundwork for a future global treaty.

"I was there because I thought it was important for me to be there," Rep. Waxman said. "I didn't look at it as a pleasure trip."

But considering the size of the deficit, and the fact that that no global deal would be reached -- critics question the super-sized U.S. delegation -- more than 165 -- leaving the impression there's dollars to burn. In this case, more than a million.

Austin Caper

2010-01-25T20:58:00.007-06:00

Last week we got an email from Jenn asking if it would be at all possible for us to come to Pflugerville and watch the kids while she and Anth went to The Inn over Onion Creek to celebrate the anniversary of friends David and Deedra's wedding. They have done this for 3 years straight............
I was not scheduled to work and Bev can work on the fly so we were happy to do it. Col and Anna are a piece of cake to look after. They both listen well and are patient with Nana and Grandad.
Anth said that they needed to do their piano practice every day before ANY tube or game time. We complied.

We did a lot of interesting stuff. Nana took the kids to Super Target and while you wont see in the pictures the loot they got believe me they did OK. Anna liked her pillow so much that she slept on it! She also got Welligogs that are so cute they need a license.

I made a double portion of Lasagna for one dinner

And we had the pleasure of going to KaPow's for lunch on Saturday (no pics from me but Anth has some)And Anna got all dressed up and even put on makeup

Here's a coupla vids.....

The 2010 Houston Marathon

2010-01-17T16:29:00.010-06:00

Luckily the weather was perfect for the runners. It was cold for the spectators. Look at Nana and Evie.

We were particularly interested in this race because Gail Beckley Brooks was an entrant. She's Bev's brother Joe's wife and she has been doing marathons in the last year or so in just a little over 3 hrs. She did 3.05 in the 2009 Tulsa Route 66 marathon and came in 2nd. In 2008 she won in Tulsa with 3. 02. Breaking the 3 hr barrier was a biggee for her.
Here is the group arriving at the first stop-mile 8 water station...

We stood at mile 8 and I got this shot of the first ladies going by .....

Then Gail.....

Then at mile 14 this one.....

We grabbed a Starbuck's coffee and hurried up, climbing over a fence at one point, to mile 23. I thought I had video at the important mile 23 marker, unhappily it didn't record.
We decided at the last minute to go downtown for the finish but detours and cop cars made it difficult. It took us 1/2 hour or more to get there and by that time we knew from the internet tracking that Gail finished in 2 hrs 59 mins and 34 secs. Whooo!!
We are so proud of her.
NAME: Gail Brooks
EVENT: Full Marathon
DATE: January 17, 2010
BIB/DIV: 982 / F3539
TIME: 2h:59m:37s (gun) / 2h:59m:34s (net)

Despite no cell phone coverage downtown??? We were fortunate enough to spot Gail in the thousands of people just as we had given up hope of finding her. Here is a video of that........

Here Gail and her sister Michelle celebrate.

Here's what the crowd looked like downtown...

And another group with the friends...

And finally old Brian. This guy was walking downtown with beer and cigarette after the run. Go figure.

It was a great day...........

I'm BACK!!!!

2010-01-10T11:57:00.002-06:00

Wow between Christmas and New Year's and a nagging back ache that lasted 3 weeks I haven't had time nor inclination to post.

We had Paige overnight last week and I missed taking a picture of that event. We had crab for dinner and PK loved it.
This week was Graham's turn and he wanted crab too but got award winning chili con carne instead. He loved it and had two helpings. Next morning I made full English breakfast and he ate like a starving prisoner........
Here's a vid...

Coronado Christmas

2009-12-22T15:00:00.005-06:00

Today was my second meal at this terrific Downtown dining club in the past week. My belt is tightening.

Steph and Al have such an easy way of making an opulent meal and an incredibly lavish event seem like its done just for us and their lovely family. I am thankful.
Here is our picture with Santa Claus....

We had a great meal and the kids were so well behaved. I didn't take any
movies until the end of the event when I took these vids of the kids with Santa's talented elves.........

Nelson is neighbors Will and Lisa M's son. He's the little guy in the first two vids. He is so cute in this bit with the elves. I missed some of his better stuff too!

Ferry Hut

2009-12-21T11:06:00.021-06:00

Along the Manchester Ship Canal in Runcorn there is a strip of land called Ferry Hut. The name is a vestige of the ferry that operated across the river between Runcorn and Widnes until the MSC was channeled and opened in 1894. The ferry cost 2d per person per trip.The hut was a little protective building for the ferryman.
There is a song famous around the area about the ferryman and a family who wanted to get across the river cheaply.
Here's link. You'll need to hit the return button after listening to get back to my blog.
This is how the unspoiled Ferry Hut looked.

In 1905 the Transporter Bridge was built as another means of crossing the river. As you can deduce from the proximity of the railway bridge in both these photos its footprint was right on the hut building.

In 1961 the bridge was demolished as a new road bridge was constructed to allow cars
to cross the river easily.

One of the most prominent memories I have of Ferry Hut was an unpleasant one- I was 3 years old and reaching for a stick in the water and I fell in. I was with my mate Joey who was 4. Luckily I had on an overcoat which I think had a little buoyancy and kept me relatively close to the surface until 16 year old Jackie Gleave, who had a magnet tied to the end of a length of string, swung the magnet my way and on the second attempt, just as I was going down for my third gobful of canal water, I grabbed it and they pulled me ashore. I vaguely remember being carried/dragged up the wall to safety but I remember well grabbing the magnet.
I have good memories of all the football matches that we played down there. We seldom had a real soccer ball. Usually it was a (new at the time) plastic ball about 1/2 the size of a regulation soccer ball. It wouldn't last but 1/2 an hour before bursting under the pressure of all the scrambling feet and from being in the cut (water) every 4 or 5 minutes. Then they'd fill the thing with rags and kick it about for another half hour till it was so split it wouldn't hold rags..

I remember pogging (throwing stones)at those stumps that came out of the water near the hill (under the bridge)by where the original hut had been.
We'd make a game of seeing who could hit the most stumps with 10 stones each, or we'd line up glass bottles on the wall and pog at them till all were broken.
Another activity we enjoyed was digging. We would spend all day digging 6 ft deep trenches in the sand at Ferry Hut. High up enough above water line so it didn't fill with water and cave in. Alfie Collins had a shovel that was cut off at about 7 inches of blade and he could dig like an prairie dog with that thing. His brother Leslie was my friend and we would watch with awe as he went deeper and deeper.

Climbing the sandstone wall that led up to the Transporter was another scary thing some kids would do. With lifelong acrophobia I was only able to go up the wire alongside the wall about halfway, Joey went all the way. However on the western side of the approach road there was an easier climb where I got a real scare one day. I climbed about 8 ft high and grabbed a wire coming from a little utility building. I got an electric shock so bad that my hand was frozen to the wire and I was dangling 6 ft off the ground. Fortunately the electric sputtered and I was able to let go and tumble to the ground scared as hell but grateful.

Another great memory of Ferry Hut is the American ships that would come carrying goods to Manchester. Ships as big as 10,000 tons were able to make the trek up to Manchester from Liverpool. We knew which ones were American because the same liners came year after year. Lykes Lines had a few repeaters. When a ship came into view by the bridge you would hear the kids in the street yelling " Big feller" and everyone would scramble down to FH and beg the Americans to "Throw us summat Mister"
And they more than not did. They threw cigarettes, apples, oranges, candy and chocolate. Every one would fight and scramble on the shore for the goodies. One guy tried to throw a watermelon. It dropped real close to the ship and after the ship was gone we spent an hour pogging at the water just beyond the melon to make it come closer to shore where we could wade in and retrieve it. It tasted great and was the first watermelon I'd ever had. Must have been the same for my mother too for she put salt on her slices!

Ferry Hut was unhealthy because effluence from the sewers overflowed into it, and also the petroleum sludge from the nearby Stanlow Refinery was evident throughout the year, still many people swam in the canal every summer. It was a growing up rite for boys to be able to swim out to the gantry wall separating the river from the canal. You had to go out about 50 feet and look both ways to be sure no boat traffic was coming. Some of the tugs and smaller ships moved quickly and once you decided to continue on to the gantry, speed was required.

My sister Sybil recalled the time I took my nephew Roy out to the gantry on my back. He could not swim but had more guts than sense and was confident I could do it. It turned out OK.

There's other stuff I could pass on but this has already become too hefty.

Anna's Recital 2009

2009-12-21T07:21:00.011-06:00

For the past three years Anna's ballet group performed a recital at Christmastime.
The first year it was in a small hall with folding chairs. Last year they upgraded to the nearby High School auditorium. It has padded seats and is pretty plush.

We drove up to P'ville Sunday a.m. and drove back to Houston after the show. Gruelling I know but well worth the effort.
They do a great job and while the tickets are expensive the results are worth it. They even give you Dean and DeLuca class snacks at intermission. The costumes are world class and the kids have a great time performing.

Despite the hours of practice to make everything perfect, the law of contrary seems always to find its spot and something goes awry. The first year a little girl tumbled and broke her arm in what at first appeared to be a harmless slip. This year the cardboard cup that the kids were hiding behind fell forward and revealed them. Funny. And I captured it on forbidden video.

Here's Nana and Colin before the show started.

And the pretty flowers Nana bought for Anna.

Here's video of Anna in her routines. It's not professional camera work but you can see the nice job Anna and her helpers did.

And here she is with her bouquet of roses.....Picture courtesy of Anthony and sorry it will not enlarge.

Well done Anna. We love you.
Nana and Grandad.

My Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T19:46:00.005-06:00

After we dropped off Grandma Dulce and Sweet Sudie Pearl in Waco, we stopped off to see Emily, Jenn and Anth and the two growing kids in Pflugerville.

The next morning we went over to Steph's to see that she had decorated the outside for Christmas.

A Little Taste of Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T16:09:00.013-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Grandma Dulce got a ride in the Aston Martin.........

And we had a terrific dinner with Kistler to go with the butternut squash soup Nana prepared and Fort La Tour Bordeaux to complement the tenderloin and smoked turkey we had.

Here's the table before we messed it up.

And here it is after we started...

Graham and Paige dressed as a Pilgrim and an American Indian

Pictures of the ladies who flew in to be with us for our Thanksgiving celebration.

And Graham after the feast asleep with the dog-----the flash did wake him up!

And Paige licking the whisk....followed by Dulce getting a pedicure.

It's no wonder these ladies don't want to go home..

Finally Nana and Evelyn

Grandparents Day

2009-11-26T06:16:00.006-06:00

Paige and Graham both had Grandparents Day at their school last Tuesday. I went with Paige and Nana went with Graham.

It was a treat to go around these two prestigious schools and we took a few videos and pictures.

Here is Paige standing outside the Computer Lab.

Here's Graham explaining his work to Nana.......

At Paige's school the kids did a little program where they gave information on their family tree and talked about their Grandparents. Paige talked about me.

Our friend Henry W. recited the words of wisdom he learned from his Grandfather.......

Graham's class did a song or two for Nana...

Paigie's did too....

Here's Paige showing me her work at her desk. Her teacher Susan Spitzberg thinks PK is brilliant. I do too.

Here's a cute one of a couple of kids talking about Grandparents...

For those who wanna see more vids of these events, search 'get2eric' on youtube.