Pictures from a short weekend

I found this lifeless lady in a museum in a little town in central Texas. She has been standing motionless while the eyes of the living stare at her. I got the feeling that in the dead of night she walked the quiet floors of that building. Her eyes were clear, moist, ready to blink as soon as my gaze left her.
Mona made some beautiful chocolate cupcakes covered with creamy white whipped cream with strawberries on top. They were as tasty as they were beautiful. I ate three while my wife warned me about my blood sugar going sky high. Oh, were they wonderful.

Cruz's son in a quite moment of contemplation while everyone else talked and laughed loudly at the festive get together at Mona's house.
Mona's grandson taking center stage while the rest of the family posses for the family picture. The joy of being a young child at grandma's house.
Dora and Elfida in front of a long closed business where they use to give out Green Stamps in another era.
A very artistic person took great care to paint the Train Depot in Deleon. Even the electric wiring was painted over. Our family use to come to this town to pick pecans. That was many decades ago. I remembered that the place where we lived had an enclosed courtyard. Dora said it was a lumberyard that had living quarters which had been turned into a migrant camp. We drove around trying to find it, but our memories were to faded.
Edric crosses the wide street at Deleon. Dora and Elfida window shop along the empty store fronts.

It was good to get home. Two doves sang for me just outside our bedroom window on a chilly Monday morning.
This silly dog is Sister, so named by Isabelle and Lily. Yes, she is one messy dog. Everything is a toy to be chewed up, dragged around, and torn to shreds. Here she is in "Time out" for chewing up more plastic bottles, water hoses, and for flipping over the trash cans.
Lily with Fifi, who looks pitifully at me for help. That is one rough playing little girl and one old moody dog that does not like little children.
Christian doing a flip for grandpa. Actually he did five or six before I got this one. He is good on that trampoline

Jonathan running with two guns ready. Oh yeah, grandpa thinks its OK for boys to play with guns. Luckily so does there dad and mom. I had three guns with about 700 plastic ammo pellets for them.

It is good to be back home again.

Traveling to Midland and into the past...

We took a trip to Midland and meandered through central Texas into west Texas, got lost along the way, saw the funeral procession for a Marine returning from Iraq and stopped at some old stone homes falling apart from age. A few day before while eating and talking, trying to figure out where to go for what was left of Spring Break since we had some rainy weather at the beginning of the week, I suggested going to visit our cousins, Cruz and Mona. We hadn't seen them in years, for Dora it may have been 10 years, for me it was over 15. Cruz and Mona's house was our hang out while we were teenagers, their full names were Maria Cruz and San Juanita. There mom was pretty cool with us and she did spend a lot of time traveling, so the girls had the house to themselves most of the time.
I called my brother in Eagle Pass and asked him to get my other aunt's phone number so I could call her and see if she knew Cruz or Mona's phone numbers and their married names. I finally got a call from my brother the following day and I called my aunt. She gave me Cruz's phone number and I called her on a Thursday morning. She was very surprised to hear from me, but we talked like we had seen each other just a few days before. I told her we wanted to go see them. We got to Midland on Friday night, later than we had planned since we took a wrong turn at San Saba and ended up in Llano. Oh well, just got to see more of central Texas.
Cruz took out her photo album and we swiftly travelled 30 years into the past. There we were back in 1975 or 1976. That's me on the right with my leather hat. Dora had gone to Monterrey that year and bought me that hat. Carlos, my cousin is wearing one just like mine. Mary Jane, my cousin from Lubbock, Texas, is sitting next to me and Guero (Ruben Milton) and Mona follow. Ruben was Mona's nephew.
These are some of my other cousins. Dora is sitting up front on the left and I am standing on the right. Man, that was the place to hang out and just be teenagers. That's not all of the cousins that use to hang out together, there were more, lots more.
I had forgotten about this picture. Mona and Cruz got the idea of sending a picture to their mom that would shock her into coming home sooner than planned. Cruz put a pillow under her night gown and I was suppose to be unrecognizable with mona's disco sunglasses. I don't think they ever mailed the picture to their mom but we did have some great laughs taking the picture.

This is Maria Cruz getting ready to go to a dance. Disco was now popular even in Mexico, but the best dances over there were the weddings and quinceaneras we use to go to. Those were free and so was the food and beer served.
San Juanita (Mona) was more vivacious and a great dancer. Both her and Cruz worked, which most of us (the boys) didn't. While traveling that old road called memory lane, we realized that most of us had married within two years. The cousins that married between 1977 and 1978 were, Dora, Cruz, Mona, Carlos, Mary jane, Rafa, Martha and me. What is even stranger is that I didn't attend any of those weddings.
Well, the years have come, decades of them. In those many decades we have all aged, had kids, and our kids have had kids. These are Mona, her husband Robert, with all their grand kids and two of their daughters. One daughter was out of town. We celebrated Easter at their house. They had some great hamburgers, cup cakes, and lots of Easter eggs.
These are Cruz, her son, daughter-in-law, daughter, husband Victor, and all her grand kids. We had a late dinner at Cruz's house when we got there Friday. Her daughter, Chica, got some excellent take-out Mexican food and I over ate. On Saturday night they went and got chicken wings. Oh they were good, and I over ate again.
My wife, she is great and very beautiful. Well, the years have been many and two days was not enough time to spend with Mona and Cruz. Their kids are very friendly and I wish my sons could meet them. When we were growing up, most of us lived close to each other and growing up together was so easy. There are so many memories, so many stories, and so much to catch up on. I know that next time we go I want to take our grand daughters with us. It is so hard now to keep those family ties fresh and alive. I had a great time. Finding out they had those old pictures made the trip worth taking. Getting to see Cruz and Mona after so many years was such a beautiful experience, I will place the memory in my heart today until I see them again.

March Snow

Woke up one March morning to a snow covered playground. Mr. Sun came to visit and play with the snow. He came over my neighbor's roof through my tree and onto my front yard.
But there were no children home. Mr. Bus had come by and taken them all to school. Just another regular school day. All that snow, and no little feet to run, to stomp, no child to make snow angels.

And the snow touched everything. So soft, like.... snow.
But then our door bell rung. It was my child. He had come to visit. Time to get up. Go out. Look, look at all the snow!
Oh, look at the blue sky, the white ground, the empty playground.
look at the lonely tricycle, just waiting for a little girl to play with.
Ah but look at the foot prints of my child. Yes, they are big, but they are my son's foot prints. It was a special snow fall after all. I remembered my other son, so far away. Looking up at the flag pole, I noticed the Marine Corps flag had suffered through the night. I lowered it and took it inside. My wife would mend it by hand. It will go up again.

My son and I went to town on this snowy day. Harbor Tools had a sale on its tools. It was almost like Christmas for grown men. We left with a shopping cart full!!! Drills, work benches, electronic fly swatters, nail guns, etc. It is good to have sons.

Sister Sister Giggle Giggle

A bright glow from above, crisp cool air and the silly giggles from two sisters on a trampoline. Blue, blue skies. Hair like fire.

Up in the air, suspended by nothing. Stopped for a second, falling again. Giggle loudly, jump again. Sister, sister play with me again.

Static in the air, static in my hair. Silly, silly little girl, so funny with your hair up in the air.

See me too, just like sister. Silly, silly sister, stay we me today.

Jump with me, sister, sister. Grandma watch us play. Blue skies, cool day, giggles everywhere.

The Beauty Of True Sportsmanship

I believe this game was from Feb. 22, 2007. The University vs. Midway rivalry has existed for many many years. At time it has gotten very ugly, specially up on the stands. On the field the game has always been intense.
Players collide with each other, there is pulling and pushing and lots of trash talking among the players. Too many parents and others on the stands have no understanding of the use of the body in a soccer game. They see a player protecting the ball with his arms extended and start yelling for the player to be carded. On a clean shoulder tackle they want the player called for pushing.
They want every pull of the jersey called and the play stopped. Not understanding of the referees decision to allow the play to continue so that the player with the ball does not lose the advantage. Most fouls are committed with the intent to frustrate the opponent, not to injure him.
Every goal has its hero's. The sad part is that everyone wants to blame the goalie for allowing the ball to go past him. By the time the ball gets to the goalie it has gone through 10 other players that should have been playing defense. I have always admired the goalies. They have to be acrobats, mind reader, planners, and a wall.

I love seeing the attackers going one-on-one, sometimes one-on-two. They go from full speed to a complete stop then redirect the ball and go back to full speed.
And then there is the one-on-one with the goalie. The advantage goes to the attacker who can see the goal. The goalie has to make a split second decision whether to come out and challenge the attacker or hang back defending the goal and hoping that the defender will catch up with the attacker.
The best part of this game was seeing some of the Midway players (winner of this game) go and comfort the University players. Most of these kids play together on select teams or in the adult soccer league. It wasn't just the formal and expected slapping of hands at the end of every game.
It was real gestures of sportsmanship. Yes, that was the best part of the game. No sore losers and no arrogant winners. Two teams had played a very hard and intense game of soccer and both could go home knowing they had given their best effort. Now if only the parents could learn from the kids and behave in the same manner as these extremely talented boys. I love soccer.

The Rain Came

They came by the hundreds, moving like a low black cloud. The brown dried grass an inviting place to land and to feed on the insects driven to the surface by the moisture. Thick fog lifted of the earth’s surface and hung a few feet of the ground.

The rain had come the night before. A noise affair, lots of thunder and wind mixed in with a few drops of rain. They settled among the cattle that grazed on the moist grass. For a few minutes they freed the earth from thousand of insects. Picking them off like fleas off a dog.

As the breeze picked up and the moisture thinned they flew into the air like a great army. Together they parted from that field. Heading north, following the warm weather that with the approach of spring moved farther up.

They left me standing there with camera in hand…. Just my dog, Mopey, and I. The moisture left too. The clouds followed.

A yellow sky appeared in the spots abandoned by the clouds. So, I turned around and walked back to the house. Sleep would come soon. My day was at an end with the rising of the sun.

Good night black birds.