Some old Photos

I carry my camera just about all the time. I take hundreds of photos of people, places, structures, events, landscapes, etc. I take some just because and some because people ask me to. We were in Lubbock, Texas, when I saw my wife, my sister and cousins comparing the nail polish on their toes. One of them asked me to take a picture, so I took a picture.
Then at my niece's wedding I saw them comparing shoes. This time I just went up and took the picture. Then they compared nail polish on their fingers and I got a picture of that too. I liked the pictures because they caught a ritual that these ladies do when ever they are together. It is not a competition but more of an act of sisterhood. Something that is a common bond among them.
I don't think any of those hands do a lot of dish washing.

One day we are driving down the road in Colorado and we see this rainbow. We can see where it starts and were it ends. We pulled over and got out to take pictures. Its beginning was right there, right in front of us. Right next to the power pole. I was so glad I had the camera with me.
We were on a train ride in New Mexico when we rode by this painted tree. Some creative person with lots of paint and time walked through here before us. I wonder if this person walked by saw the dead tree and decided to come back carrying paint and painting the tree. Maybe this person had the paint with then while walking looking for something to paint and this tree just happened to be there.

We were at my sisters house sitting around a fire. I took this picture, okay, I took about four pictures at different speeds and apertures before I got the shot I wanted. It looks like Sam is on fire, so cool.
I was driving south of Hewitt when I stopped to take a picture of a field with a single tree in the middle. When I looked down I saw a cactus with its prickly pears just starting out. They looked like miniature green star bursts.
I went for a walk one day while visiting family in Woodrow, Texas, and came upon this mud puddle. The mud reflected the blue sky and power pole like a crystal mirror. Funny how mud, brown wet mud can give back such a clear reflection.
We were in Piedras Negras and my wife, my sister and cousins stopped to look at some pottery. I found this odd couple sitting in the bright December sunshine.
We were exploring the Chimayo Church area in New Mexico. Many visitors had come before us asking for a miracle, help, hope, or just giving thanks. They left their rosaries, different colors. I wonder how long they remain there.

Some times I go through the many photos in my computer, there are thousands of them. Each a moment in life... in time....a very short moment.

22 years of Carlos

Twenty two years ago I drove Elfida to the Santa Rosa hospital just after sunrise. A couple of hours later we had our second son. We let Maiko pick the name. He chose, Luis Carlos, adding a third Luis to our family. And like his brother, at home he would go by his middle name but at school they both chose to go by their first name. Very confusing for teacher when ever we went to the schools.
He had a very healthy set of lungs. Your could hear him crying all the way to my parents house. When he cried at night, my mom would come over and take him to their house next door. After he fell asleep, she would bring him back. He learned to speak Spanish first. For the first three years of his life that is all he spoke. We started refering to Carlos as, "el chiquillo", the little one and Maiko still refers to his as "el chiquillo" even now.
He was quickly spoiled by Juanita, his babysitter, Wilma, his godmother, and by both grandparents, Lupe and Juana. Oh yeah, and by his mom. He loved eating beans and tortillas at his babysitters home. She had a daughter and a son a couple of years older than Carlos. Her husband and her little boy wore western attire, so Carlos dressed like a cowboy too.

When Elfida started taking him to a day care center, Carlos was into the Pee-wee Herman show. He wore the sportcoats all the time. His grandfather always had a stash of M&M's for Carlos at their house. He loved eating candy as a baby, but quit doing it as a grown up. Both Carlos and Maiko loved going over and eating breakfast at grandma's cause she always had homemade tortillas and because "guelita and guelito" spoiled them.
We moved to Waco and Carlos started playing soccer at the age of four. Okay, he was in a soccer team and spent his time daydreaming inside the goal or chasing butterflies on the field. His legs were so short that we couldn't find shin guards short enough for his legs. The shortest ones we found went all the way up to his knees. His jersey was also to big and went down below his knees and Elfida had to take in the shorts around the waist so they wouldn't fall off. He did good and we enjoyed going to his games and watching his first soccer coach throw himself on the ground when ever they were scored on. He was never mean with the kids but he would throw himself on the ground and kick and scream.
Carlos was also good a throwing himself on the ground once in a while. I was always ready with the camera too. Oh yeah, we still rag him about it, every chance we get.
Right before starting school he went into his Terminator/Michael Jackson look. He was Mr. Cool. We were living at the Four Seasons apartments in Hewitt. There were tons of kids there and he was the coolest. He already would spend an hour getting his hair combed in the morning. His best friend was Roger, our neighbor. Roger would get out of work at 0700 am, and go sit outside with two cups of coffee. One for him and one for Carlos. Carlos would get up early so he could have his cup of coffee with Roger every morning.
He had alot of hair when he was born, but most of it fell off with in a few months. So we didn't cut his hair for the first five years of his life. He had long hair except on top. He would spike the top of his hair. Eventually country singers would catch on and start wearing the same style in the 90's and call it a mullet. By then Carlos had cut it off. Actually when he enrolled in pre-K, he had to cut it off to comply with the Midway dress code. He could read and write by the time he went to pre-k, knew all his colors and could add and subtract. Elfida was a stay at home mom, she and Carlos made daily trips to the Hewitt library for books.

We got a computer and within a year he was loading programs and figuring out Dos and widnows. I would come home and he had made changes on the computer. I would have him show me how it was done. The big advantage he had was that he never worried if what he was doing was going to work or not. He just tried it and if it worked, good, and if it didn't, well he just tried something else.
And then he hit those years where everything is boring. He was getting better at soccer, okay, he was real good at soccer but was still the smallest player on the team. Still his main interest were computers, books, soccer, and trying to be as good as his brother at what ever his brother was doing. There was a big age difference, seven years, Maiko was getting ready to leave home.
When Maiko left for Boot Camp, Carlos really missed his brother. We put Maiko's picture in his room. His brother became a Marine. We should have figured out then that Carlos would have to become a Marine too, cause his brother was one. When Maiko got married, he asked Carlos to be his best man. They both looked great, Maiko in his Dress Blues and Carlos in his Tux.
We groomed Carlos for College. He was smart, dedicated, studious and a good son. Then came his senior year. He told us he would not be playing soccer. It was no longer fun and he wanted to get a job. We didn't know what to do on weekends. For almost twenty years, ever since Maiko started playing at the age of 6, we had soccer games on weekends.

Carlos went to work at H.E.B. He was working 32 hours and going to school. He was sent to train to work the front desk where they handled large amounts of money and his schedule started to conflict with his school hours. He finally told the manager that he couldn't work those hours. He also told them that he was still in High School. They quickly moved him back to cashier, since their policy did not allow for high school kids to work the front desk. They had assumed he was a college student because he was so mature. In January of that year he told us he wanted to join the Marine Corps!! Elfida and I spent rest of the school year trying to convince him to go to college. When that didn't work we tried convincing him to join the Air Force, then the Navy, then the Coast Guard... eventually we figured that he wasn't going to change his mind, and we told him we weren't happy but would support him. In October of that year he signed up with the Marine Corps, and thank God Gunny Sunday was sent to Waco's Marine Corps Recruiting Station. That is another story about Carlos and his Boot Camp injury.

Well, he has been in the Corps for almost three years. Two more and he will be out. He has changed from that skinny kid to a tall muscular man. We are as proud of him as we are of Maiko. Both are good sons.

A special thanks goes to Dr. Cooney and Dr. Sharp for putting him back together and sewing him up every time he injured himself playing soccer or just running outside the house.

Oh yeah, his mom still spoils him. And we both love him, even though both our grand daughters act just like he did when he was little. We tell Maiko that it is his payback for the gray hairs he gave us.

Old webpage from about 5 years ago

Click on the picture to go to the webpage about 1977. I love that year.

Carlos got promoted

Carlos got promoted to Corporal in October. He sent these pictures. He is putting on weight again.
He he is showing off his arm muscles. He sure is proud of them. Well, its like Elfida has been told by people, "He looks like a Marine should look."
Back in Japan again at one of the festivals.
In his Dress Blues at the Marine Birthday Ball in Okinawa. Elfida is counting the days until he comes back to Texas. Hopefully he won't volunteer to go to Iraq again. We will miss him on Thanksgiving Day.

My Father

Traveling across this country, following the crops. The family and most of our possession carried in one station wagon pulling an old trailer. Two days travel on long lonely roads. The days going by faster than the nights. Clear blue starry skies, cool winds flowing through open windows. A sky so deep blue, so many stars, and that AM radio picking up a fading station hundreds of miles away. Always hoping for a good tomorrow. Looking for work, for a house, for a way to make it through another day, another summer, another year.

Father’s silhouetted by the lights of the dashboard. So strong, so confident, a real father, a husband, our strength. We would follow him to any place in this world. He could take us there and bring us back safely. He was not an infallible man. In my eyes he was as close to being one as no other man ever could.

I miss him….really miss him. Sitting on his lap with my head against his chest, there was no place more secure, warmer, loving. I miss sitting on the ground watching him work. Hearing his voice making up new words so he wouldn’t say a cuss word in front of us. Looking at the dark scar on his shoulder blade, darker that his already dark skin.
His thin mustache that he took great care in keeping trim. His large hands with thick fingers, the same hands I now see on my son Maiko, same patience, same easy manner.
I miss working with him on the survey crew. I miss seeing him sitting outside the house at night, swatting mosquitoes off him with a towel.
I miss hearing Elfida telling me that I needed to go outside and help him cut the grass, paint the house, fix the truck, unclog the sink, build a fence, replace the faucet, clean the garage…. I miss him.
I also know that my mother misses him more than I will ever know. I know that no matter what happens she will hurt, hurt in her heart. I talked to her this morning, and the pain is as strong as the day he died. She awoke happy a few days ago. She had dreamed of him. She said he was young, she held his hand again. He had come home…I miss my father, she misses her husband.
He won’t ever come home, but one day we will go to him. In time our family will gather again, maybe travel on a long road, on a starry night, in our old station wagon and hear a fading radio station from many years ago.

Visiting the unusual

Back in 2005 we walked into a herbal medicine shop in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico. The owner of the shop was on his day off. He was not doing any consultations, but he was friendly and willing to talk. I don't recall his name, but his shop had so many interesting things on its walls. It was a contradiction of images. There were saints, death, demons, dolls, images of God... and the shelves were full of packages of tea bags. Teas for curing diabetes, cancer, liver problems, colon cleansers, kidney problems, etc. There were candles to fix everything else. There were candles to attract money, women, men, luck, love, hope, faith, and on and on. The shop owner was a healer. He was a listener. You talked and he listened and diagnosed your aliment. The healer explained the connection between God and all the images that he had there. The all served a purpose in doing Gods work. Faith was the main ingredient in all his cures. Without the belief in God none of herbs, teas, or candles will work.
Elfida had no reaction to the shop or the environment. A good indicator that there were no evil or negative forces there. Having lived with her for almost 30 years, I trust her ability to read a person's Karma, vibes, aura or whatever people call the force that surrounds them. In talking to this healer, he did say that his biggest customers were USA truck drivers who came by every three months to get the teas that serve as body cleansers. He said the teas rid the body of all chemicals that have been ingested by the body. Well, we were there for about an hour and learned more about his faith in God than about the herbs and candles he had.
I was surprised that he allowed me to take photographs inside his shop. I was in New Orleans and they have lots of shops like this run by people with black nail polish, purple lips and jet black dyed hair, who act like you will expose their scam if you take one picture. Not this healer, he was relaxed and even welcomed the opportunity to be photographed.
Two years later we went back to the shop. Elfida was looking for a St. Christopher medal for Carlos who was in Iraq. He had some small ones for sale and we bought two. Before we left the shop, he gave Elfida two "estampas" of St. Christopher. He told her to send them to Carlos so he would make it back safe and unharmed.
During that same trip, we met the owner of one of the oldest hotels in Piedras Negras. the "Hotel Reforma". She was very friendly and gave us a tour of the hotel. She was a teenager during the flood of 1954 and spent almost two weeks trapped inside the hotel with about 20 other people. She had a very interesting life story. She showed us her dogs, which are descendants of the dogs the Aztecs bred. They have almost no hair and their skin is bluish. There breeds name is Xoloitzcuintle. About three weeks ago one of the other Sgt.s at work mentioned a news story about someone possibly finding a dead "Chupacabras" here in Texas. I pulled the story up on the Internet and saw the picture of the dead animal. It looked like one of this dogs. I am pretty sure that is what it was. I took about six photos of the dogs at the hotel. All through the glass window since they aren't use to people other that the hotel owner and her family. That photo is the one that shows the dog better. My brother Carlos was with us and he took this photo of me and Elfida. Sometimes Elfida doesn't feel comfortable with me talking to total strangers, but then if I quit doing it I won't make any new friends. I figure that if I walk into a building and they don't want me there, they will let me know and kick me out. Ok, the camera helps break the ice when meeting new people. Anyways, she enjoys meeting new people too.

Almaguer Marathon Running Team

Well, Dora and I signed up for the Miracle Marathon Run again this year. I was training for it about four months ago and then other things came up and I really, really slacked up on the training. Soooooo, I started training again about two weeks before the run..... Anyways, the day came up and I was there at 0700 am ready to run. It was nice and chilly but I saw two other friend there who were running as a team too. Elfida dropped me off at the starting line and then drove off to take pictures of me running. The run started off well. We ran towards the Baylor area and than back to the original starting area. This made the rest of the run easier because I started to count only the miles after leaving the starting area the second time. At about the sixth mile I hit the my zone. I was running good, not tired and breathing easy. Everything was crystal clear and I thought about all these great thing I was going to write in my blog about running. As I crossed the intersections being controlled by the police officers I would greet the officers working them. It made the time go by quicker. I came up on the midway point and didn't feel like I had run 13 miles. I was feeling good.
Elfida, Dora and Isabelle were waiting for me there. I transfered the chip to Dora and she was off and running. I crossed the street to where Elfida and Isabelle were waiting. Isabelle was laying on the grass. She had a McDonald's biscuit for me. I couldn't eat it since I didn't have anything to drink.
We drove to the area by the soccer fields and waited for Dora. While there I heard someone call my name. There was this tall man and a young girl manning the drinks and snacks there. I took some pictures and then this man asked me if I remembered him. I went and shook his hand and told him no. Well, It was Brin Chandler, one of the kids, I had coached in soccer. He was one of the best goalies I ever coached. He was tall, way taller than me! I guess I still pictured his as the 14 year old kid tending goal, not as a tall grown up man. It was great to see him again.
Dora arrived and she was in high spirits. She came off the dam running strong. Last year I ran the second leg of the marathon which allowed me to run through the finish line. This year Dora would get to go through the finish line.
We then went to the MCC area to wait on Dora. While there Elfida and Isabelle decided to have an up hill race. By now the morning was perfect, cool, sunny, and dry. Racing Elfida got Isabelle in a running mood.
When Dora arrived, Isabelle decided to run with her. I thought she would run for a block and then turn back. Dora had a good pace going as she crossed the 20 mile marker, which was her 7th mile. Isabelle stayed after her. I watched her run and then had to take off after her. She just kept chasing Dora. She ran about a half mile. I couldn't catch up to her. I finally yelled at her to come back. Dora hear me and realized that Isabelle was behind her. She told Isabelle to run back to her grandpa. Boy, my legs had cooled down and were already stiff. Running after Isabelle was painful. When Isabelle came back to me she wasn't even breathing hard. Ah, to be young again.

We drove back to the suspension bridge and waited for Dora. I waited at the middle of the bridge and then ran with her up to the finish line. She was still running strong. The morning had been perfect for running. This was our second marathon as the Almaguer Team. Neither Dora nor I were very athletic when we were young. Dora started long distance running years before I did. In fact, the first 10 K run I ran, I ran because Dora signed me up for it. It was the Friendship Day run in Eagle Pass, about 12 years ago. In fact that was the only 10 K I have ever run. Done lots of 5 K runs though....
Elfida got this shot of Dora as she neared the finish line.
And here is her actual or our actual time. It was better that last years. This year they had fried chicken for the runners at the finish line. Can you believe that!!! Fried Chicken!!! Yeah, boxes, and boxes of Bush's Fried Chicken!!! Greased fried chicken!!!

Man, I ate six pieces!!! Oh, it was sooooo good!!! That was the best part of the day. Hey Carlos, eat your heart out!!! Free Bush's Chicken. I bet they don't have free Bush's Chicken in Okinawa!!!
These is Roy, John, me and Dora. Roy and John ran as a relay team also. They came ahead of us by about 3 minutes. Roy and John came in first place in there age group and Dora and I came in fifth place in our age group. All in all it was a great day. Elfida took some great pictures and Isabelle got to see her granpa and her aunt run a marathon.
And all those great things I though about while running.... well, they all disappeared along with the pain in my legs. Oh well, next weekend I will be running the 5 K Leatherneck run. Oh yeah!