Simple dreams from a simple man - Almaguer

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2010-12-17T01:37:00.002-06:00

One dead rat or a doggie snack

2010-11-16T02:09:00.003-06:00

Two weeks ago both sons came over to help me set the storage shed on a better foundation. I locked the dogs up in their pen just in case there were any rabbits still living under there. We emptied the shed and moved it about 15 feet. There were still two young rabbits there and they took off running as soon as we got near them. Maiko found a mummified rat. He was so proud of the complete skeleton. I put a pan on the ground and told him to put it there until we finished working on the shed. He called his girls over but neither one was very impressed or willing to get near the dead rat.

This brought back memories of why Elfida stopped checkingMaiko's and Carlos' pockets when she did laundry. As kids they would put dead lizards, dead birds and dead bugs in their pockets. She had too many scares while checking pockets.
This was an impressive specimen and even my sister Dora would have been proud of it. It had skull, legs, feet and even the tail.
I collected skeletons too and had never gotten a complete skeleton. Well we went back to working on the shed. We did a great job on it. Maiko and Carlos screwed the plywood floor to the 2x4s we had laid under the shed. Elfida went and got some foam sealer and Maiko did all the edges to keep the rats out.
While we were busy doing other things. I decided it was time to let the dogs out of their pen. I don't like to keep them in there too long. The like to run around the yard and their is plenty of yard to run in.
I was by the side of the house when I heard Elfida screaming at the dogs. She screamed at one and then at another one and she took off running after them. I ran to the back thinking they had bitten one of the girls. Well, it wasn't that bad. Sister found Maiko's rat and took off running with it. Elfida saw her and screamed at her. Sister dropped the rat.... but as soon as it hit the ground Izma came running and snatched it up! She took of with it. Elfida gave up on saving the rat. So all we have are pictures and memories of this magnificent rat skeleton.....

Were did I go....

2010-06-16T22:05:00.003-06:00

I have been here all along. Working, laughing, traveling, learning a little, living a little, etc. I was looking at two of our dogs as they slept. What a life. Sleep, eat, walk around outside, get hot, bark until they get back in the air conditioned house.

This one is to big for her bed, but her life is almost the same as the other dog's.

Una mascara...

2010-01-27T00:58:00.005-06:00

Many years ago Carlos bought some wrestler masks in Mexico. For years they were stored away with his knife collection, soccer socks, toys, and other items his mom couldn't part with.Last Sunday he went through the boxes looking for a backpack and rediscovered some of those masks. You can't just bring stuff like this out and not try it on again.

Maiko came over and put one of the masks on and left it on. He went to cook dinner for himself with the mask on. I knew that was the moment for a photo. Then we, Carlos and I also put on masks. We had fun.

Now I realized how much fun we could have with just a piece of clothe and vinyl to cover you identity! Yeah, we knew it was us, but it was different. No, it was like when we were kids. My Tia Lile made Batman masks for us out of some vinyl she had. They were baby blue mask, but that was okay.

They were still Batman masks. There were about six of us with the same mask but were wore them while we fought bad guys, monsters, Germans, and imaginary wrestlers.

You know, a mask hides your identity so well that grown men will wear there underwear outside their stretchy pants and go out in public. They feel no shame or embarrassment as long as the mask is on.

We had so much fun putting on the masks last Sunday that Maiko kept one on. Carlos understood and left it with him. The grand daughters stayed with us and Lily put on the mask. I took pictures, then Isabelle put it on and I took more pictures.

I crush your head!

Oh yeah, we wrestled.

And we posed for the customary pre-match photo.

And the traditional magazine cover photo.

Ah yes, special moments. Maybe one of this days Elfida will put one on too.

Hello there, its been a while....

2009-12-01T22:25:00.004-06:00

I got on Facebook and kind of neglected this blog. I've picked some photos to post here but then something always came up and I never got around to doing it. My change of schedule really has hurt my active life. Today I woke up late and then I heard the rain. I melted back into the covers and zoned out watching TV. It took great effort to get out of that bed. Cold weather is perfect for sleeping. My writing ability has also decreased lately, okay, maybe in the last two years. I just haven't been able to sit and concentrate long enough to expand on any one idea. My picture taking is still doing okay, but I really wish I could write a few poems, maybe a short story.We saw the movie "The day the earth stood still" and I remembered this beautiful place we went hiking. It was still green in some areas but the trees were already changing colors. Now I realize that we are doing so much damage to this world, yet technology is so much a part of our lives that we wouldn't be able to change enough to save the world. At least not fast enough to do it in my life time. Even now I am at home running the central heater, watching TV, typing on my laptop and tomorrow I will drive to work in my truck.

Could I give up the comforts and luxuries I enjoy now? Could I walk to work? Yes, I could, but will I? I would be a liar if I said I would. Not because I don't want to save the world, but because through our acclimation we have become weak and dependent on technology to survive. Such beauty, clear water, bright sunlight, trees, fish and we wouldn't survive very long out there with out a gun, matches, clothing, etc.

Wouldn't this make great shelter? It would protect us from the rain, snow, wind, but we would have competition from the animals. Not so much the big one, but the little ones, snakes, spiders, scorpions, rabid skunks. Yeah, not the big ones.

Eventually nature will kill us or we will kill nature and that means we will kill ourselves. We probably are already doing it, killing ourselves slowly, poisoning our own water, food, and air.

Ah, but we are not content with doing it slowly. No, we are killing each other for money, glory, power, and as that is not enough we are also killing each other in the name of god. Not just one god, but every god we can think of. And if a person is too much like us, then we use skin color to justify hating them and making it okay to kill them.
In the end, when we are almost through killing everyone there will be two survivors. Those of us who aspire to be tolerant will probably be killed first. Yeah the last two survivors will be same sex, same skin color, from the same group, same religion, probably brothers or sisters and they will both be willing to kill to be the lone human alive. To be the winner. And in the end they will die too.
And this world will be a better place... maybe... maybe not. Without humans this planet will not be Earth.
Tonight I hear the rain outside my window... cool, wet, washing away the dirt from the trees, grass, bushes, giving them new life... and us too. I close my eyes, say my nightly prayer. My faith in the goodness of my God, allows me to sleep knowing that tomorrow the sun will rise above the hazy horizon behind the gray clouds, another beautiful day.
Good night Europa.... Earth's cry, heaven's smile.

Making it to Las Vegas

2009-08-31T20:06:00.005-06:00

On the way to Las Vegas we stopped at Hoover Dam. The lighting was different, which is good. I prefer natural light to using the flash. The sun was below the horizon but it was still very hot. Extremely hot, so we just got out for a few minutes. We decided it was too hot this time of year to be walking here.

A little photoshopping adds some texture and mystery. Nice.

A new bridge was getting built. The picture was taken by Elfie as we drove by. Very nice work. The bridge looks like something out of a space movie.

With the telephoto lens it made it even better. This looks like a battle scene.

At the MGM we found a giant frog. During the day it was so hot in Vegas that you just had to spend the time indoors. But there was so much to see inside. The souvenirs were so expensive in this store. Later on we went to the ones on the strip where they were a lot cheaper.

Elfie in front of the Monte Carlo. This was so grand, the statues, the fountain, the entrance, it was great.

I love this wall! I don't drink Pepsi but the wall graphic is great.

We didn't find this entrance to our hotel until the second day.

Vegas at night is more impressive. So many lights, people, traffic. Something is always going on. Of course the temperature drops and you can walk around in more comfort.

MGM at night. The golden lion and its fountain.

This is the main drag at night. I wouldn't want to live in this town but I think I could enjoy working here... at night. I saw some of their bike patrol officers and I think I could enjoy working here.

Summer's Road Trip

2009-08-18T08:38:00.005-06:00

It's been a couple of months since we went on this trip. Time went by so fast. The summer got hotter, the days longer, and my memory shorter. I love what the camera does, it keeps an exact image of one instance of this life.

So many thing have changed in so little time, here. Things we have seen changes in. Yet the rocks in these photos will remain the same. Ironically the photos will cease to exist long before the rocks are gone.

A sign on a quiet road in the middle on the night, a memory of another road, long ago paved over. It's a cool, cool night warmed by the yellow mercury glow of a nameless street light. Small town life.

The view is expensive, tranquil, breath taking, a view across eons of time. A large scar left on the surface of this earth by a persistent muddy river who knows not its bounds.

A nice paved walkway in the wild, another scar on the land, this one for our enjoyment.

One more photograph. A memory of a trips end. The start on another journey to another place, same year, same summer...

2009 Road Trip

2009-07-14T10:38:00.005-06:00

We started out from Waco on our annual road trip. This time it was just my wife, my brother, my sister and me. Dora bought a new SUV and a 2500 mile round trip was just what was needed to break it in. We took off a midnight after waiting all day to get our home air conditioning unit worked on. I drove for the first eight hours. Roje took over the driving after that. We still needed another eight hours to get to Williams, Az.

We stopped in a small town to eat, due to wanting to get to Williams soon, we opted to eat a Subway. Next door was a hill so Dora and I ran up to climb it. It felt good to run up the hill after being in the SUV for about 14 hours.

We finally made ti to the Arizona state line. Had to stop for a traditional state line photo.

Dora took this photo of me. That is one huge rock in the background.

We could see clouds way ahead in the distance. It look like a rain storm was coming up. As we got closer it became clear that it was a dust storm. We got hit by some strong winds and lots of dust.

This was our last stop before getting to Williams. The dust storm was behind us, the skies were blue and the rest area had some rocks we could climb.

This has to be the best rest area we've stopped ever been at. The day was perfect for picture taking.

Roje took this photo for us.

We made it to Williams and we went to eat dinner. I was so hungry I left my camera in the room. The next morning we got up late and had a big breakfast. We made it to the Grand Canyon at about 10:00 AM. At the Grand Canyon we would walk for a few yards and then take pictures. There was so much to see. That place is so huge.

This photo is from the spot we first saw the Grand Canyon. It was a hazy day. They had a rain storm the night before and the water was still raising through evaporation and it was visible across the hundreds of yards of air between the rims of the canyon.

We had our walking sticks, hats, Camelbacks, and cameras. We were ready. The landscape was so awesome that there is no way my camera lens could capture its greatness.

This people, is the Grand Canyon seen from the south rim. The trip there was another excellent time spent laughing and reminiscing about our childhood.

The month of May

2009-05-27T12:00:00.005-06:00

Elfida and the girls working on her garden. She has now harvested zucchini, cucumber, and peppers.

Got my mower working, then spent another two weeks trying to fix a flat tire. A new tire cost as much as a car tire.

Lily happy to ride around the yard helping me charge the battery up on the mower.

Maiko and I went to Isabelle's field day at school. She was very happy to have us out there.

Blue Bonnets

2009-04-07T07:10:00.007-06:00

It was a great day for photographs. Two beautiful little girls in a field of Blue Bonnets.

Two sisters holding hands smiling in the sunshine.

Sweet sweet smiles.

Sometimes a smile just can stay a smile, so a giggle forms and a little laughter follows.

Skipping in the sun.

Almost floating on fresh air.

Going around in circles, dancing with joy.

Little sister running as fast as the wind.

Big sister dancing again.

A moment of rest.

An upside down smile from little sister.

It just couldn't stay upside down.

To hard to hold in happiness.

A serious moment.

Happiness is an afternoon with Meme.

Such a young grandma.

Kisses and hugs for grandma.

Happiness is an afternoon with the grand daughters.

The Sister's Visit

2009-03-09T05:33:00.004-06:00

Well, the sisters came back to spend an afternoon with the grandparents. While we worked on the yard, they rearranged their toys. Lily wore angel wings while playing outside. With a little team work many things can be accomplished.

Got to show grandpa her fighting face. She was very proud of her rub-on tattoo on her right arm. Is that a mean look or what?

So big sister was showing us how she can climb poles. Well, little sister had to try it too. Couldn't do it yet but she will soon. I love watching from a distance because they will just be themselves then. Once I get near with the camera they start hamming it up. But even those photos are great.

Elfida's sister gave Isabelle the trampoline a few years back when her kids out grew it. That is their favorite toy when playing outside. They like their picture being taken when they are jumping on it. I get lots of, "Watch me grampa!" and "Take a picture of what I can do."

Big sister can get some pretty good air now. She's still working on her somersaults.

This is one of my favorites. I love it when the sun cooperates. Forcing the flash on the camera helps to light up the foreground.

Look at little sister watching big sister. Taking everything in, she will be doing the same in a few minutes.

Nice horns! I wish I had a stronger flash, but oh well, its still a nice photo.

And then comes a moment of solitude. Big sister took some time to sit by herself. I love this moments. What thoughts come to a little girl's mind when they sit out by herself and contemplate the evening sky and the cows grazing?

Then it was back to getting grandpa's attention. She is getting very agile on the swing set. It gets hard when both are asking for attention. Its easier when I can focus only on one at a time.

By now big sister was really into posing for the photos. "Take a picture of me doing this!" So grandpa did.

She really liked this one.

Well, since they were in a photographic mood, I decided to try some motion blur photographs. I slowed down the speed on the camera to 20 and followed their movements which blurs the background. Very nice.

Little sister was the first one willing to run across the yard while I took her picture. It takes four or five runs to get a good match between their running and my following with the camera.

Now her is a fast runner! I love this one. It is such a joy to have them over, even with all their arguing. They are carbon copies of Miako and Carlos. We had a great time with them. We went inside when the sun went down and had dinner. Then grandpa told some ghost stories and showed them what hand sign to make to keep the Cucuy away. We went upstairs and watched Bratz. I googled it first because I figured it was a movie for older kids. The reviews said it was a good movie for all kids. Well, it was kind of corny but the girls were really into it.

Being little

2009-03-05T01:28:00.003-06:00

I am amazed at the spirit in a child. Simple things can take on such great meaning and bring so much joy. Four dollars worth of toys turn into a priceless afternoon with Lily and Isabelle.

Saturday, Elfida and I went to the dollar store. We were looking for some plant bulbs they had. As Elfida looked at the different packages of bulbs, I walked to the toy isle. I picked a jump rope for Isabelle and some pom-poms for Lily. I saw some headbands with red hair attached to them. They had Hannah Montana's picture on the package. I chose one for Lily and one for Isabelle, slight difference in color so they could tell them apart.

Isabelle put hers on and played on the floor with some of the board games we have for them. She is quieter that Lily. She loves anything that has Hannah Montana on it.

Lily spent the afternoon doing cheers for grandma. She just loved the pom-poms and the hair. She knew the routines from watching Isabelle at cheerleader practice in Robinson. It is a wonder to see a child play and find so much happiness in such simple things.

What I would trade to be able to see what goes on inside that mind, to be able to recreate the sense of adventure, the curiosity of a child's mind. To see the world with those eyes of youth again.

Balloons, we always keep a bag full of balloons. Another toy that never grows old. The fascination of a child with a balloon, I just can't remember what it is. I am too old, so I learned how to make balloon animals and balloon flowers.

I had to work Sunday, so I wasn't able to say up all afternoon with them, but I sure enjoyed every minute with them. I went to bed and they stayed with grandma. She played board games with them. When Maiko and Carlos were small we always had Monopoly. We had some great times playing it. Maiko was very good at it and usually won. Carlos had a disadvantage because he was a lot younger, but it helped him learn to make decisions. We have a bunch of board games for the girls to play but some times you just have to let them use their imagination and play with the blocks of wood left over from that shelf project or on that dirt pile outside. I love watching them just being kids.

Playing dress up

2009-02-22T22:51:00.004-06:00

With the promise that we would picked them up early Sunday morning, both girls went home with their father. Arriving at their home around ten AM Sunday to pick them up, they came out of their house with their mom. Even their dog was excited to see us. She wasn't allowed to get in the car with the girls and was handed back to Amy. The girls competed for attention, talking at the same time and asking questions. At the restaurant they ate their breakfast carrying a lively conversation about their parents and about what they were going to do at our house. We got home at about noon. As we worked on our bedroom, Isabelle and Lily played. Lily alternating between their room and ours. She had found a feather to write and to dust with. Isabelle sat in the stairwell landing by the picture window. She decorated the glass with sticky notes.
I went out to work on a project and came back in to find both girls in the living room. Isabelle made a quick dash to hid behind the sofa. Embarrassed that I had seen her playing dress up. I thought it was a great moment needing to be preserved in a photograph. She was a reluctant model.
Grandma helped her pose for the photograph but she was not happy. Elfida made the suggestion of cutting the dress so it would fit better.

Isabelle's embarrassment turned to joy now that grandma was helping with her gown. The footstool served as a pedestal to stand on. Now the center of attention of both grand parents, she smiled.

With long gloves and green eye shadow, she is ready for that imaginary ball. The one where fairies, princes, kings and queens attend and dance all night.

The smile grows to loud laughter when little sister announces that she is going to shave all the hair off Fifi, grandma's chihuahua! Lily not into long gowns, gloves, and dance shoes, is content to pretend her battery powered fan is a set of hair clippers. She exits the room in pursuit of Fifi and her hair cut.

Now a willing model, she spins and smiles. She is a princess. The scraped knees and bruised legs from roller skating accidents have gone away. What wonderful world the imagination of a little girl can be.

The gown almost compete. Grandma leaves the back a little longer than the front so it can trail as the princess walks into the ballroom.

It is a perfect fit. And it will be a perfect evening with laughter and lots of dancing and grandma will be there too. Like a fairy godmother, always ready to help, always there to make thing right. There is no place like grandma's house for a little girl's imagination to come alive. Where else will plants bloom and flower on a fireplace mantle? Yes, they are real plants.

Different talents of our sons

2009-02-19T15:56:00.002-06:00

We always knew that our two kids had very different personalities, tastes, and talents. They look totally different. One thing they have in common is their ability to resort to acting like little kids as soon as they walk into our house. It becomes more apparent when they are together and if I close my eyes and listen only to the sounds I can go back 20 years. It's still, "Maiko leave your brother alone!", "Quit wrestling on the sofa!", "Carlos, Maiko, where did you leave the remote!", and the popular "Car-maiko, or Mai-carlos behave!"

Anyways, Carlos was suppose to come by this weekend but didn't make it until Monday. He had a camera in Iraq and broke the screen while over there. The last time he was here he had ordered a new screen for it. It had come in and had been sitting on the table for about three weeks. Monday he sat down at the kitchen table and took the camera apart, put the screen on and put it all back together. He handed Elfida a working camera. Carlos got online and googled how to replace the screen, read the instructions and fixed it. He always had a talent for understanding electronics and computers.

He gave the camera to Elfida, who really liked the camera, but what she really loved were all the pictures of Carlos while he was in Iraq that were still in the camera. The first picture on this post was one of those pictures. I downloaded the pictures to my computer and then it was like going through the boxes of stuff we have in the garage or going through the boxes in the attic and finding all those little treasures we have kept and forgotten. We were able to recapture an era in Carlos' life that we had missed out on.

Maiko's talent? Well, his is in the kitchen or on the grill. He can watch the cooking shows and understand all they say. He can then go to the kitchen and make whatever he saw on TV and he can read a receipt book and make what is in the book. He is a great cook.

This was the 3rd weekend of eating seafood. Oh, It was good. I couldn't stop eating the breaded calamari. I finally quit eating so that I would leave some for the others. Later I found out he had left some uncooked so he could use it as fish bait! That was some expensive fishing bait.

We love having our kids at home. They are welcome anytime. But... we also enjoy our time. Time spent with just the two of us. On Valentine's day we got up and went to McGregor to eat breakfast just the two of us and in the evening we got dressed and headed out to dinner with some friends and then to the Sweet and Sweetheart event. I took this picture right before we left. Sunday Morning we got up early again and went out to have breakfast again, just us.

Another home project

2009-02-09T09:49:00.006-06:00

This was the start of putting planters around the trees in the front yard. I thought we were going to finish Elfida's raised gardens in the backyard, but she said she needed the front yard done first so she could start planting flowers for the spring. Saturday we got up late and ate breakfast at home. Big breakfast. We made it to Home Depot about noon, then went to Lowe's, then to The Restore Store. Finally we went back to Home Depot and bought the landscaping timber. I started with the little chainsaw but it was taking too long. I brought out the big one and things went quicker. We stopped at about 05:00 pm when Maiko and family came over for the big dinner preparations. Maiko was going to make Chapino! He did and it was so good.

On Saturday I used the truck as a tripod to take a couple of pictures of us working. Notice the gloves, safety glasses and belt. After lots and lots of minor injuries, I finally figure out why people wear safety gear.

Sunday morning we were outside by 10:00 am, after eating a big breakfast. This time we had a photographer. Isabelle had spent the night with us and I gave her my Canon camera to take pictures. For an eight year old she takes very good pictures. Well, she took more pictures of the dogs than she did of us, but the ones she took of us came out very good.

We would build the planter off to one side to make sure we were setting the timbers right. Then I marked the area where they were going and then leveled the ground. I was going to drill holes on the timbers and use rib bar to hold them in place, well drilling through all the timbers with a 1/2 inch bit was too much for my little cordless drill. Elfida went to Wally World and bought an electric drill form me.

The planters look good. They are sturdy and should last unit we decide to tear them down. We still need to fill them up with dirt. We bought the material to put in them so weeds don't grow in them.

By three o'clock we had finish building them it was getting cool already. This is another Isabelle picture.

She went to sit with grandma so I could take a picture of the two of them. Now all we need is the rain to keep coming so our grass will grow again.

They do make the yard look a lot better. It will also make it easier on me when mowing the grass, once its starts growing again. While we were out there taking pictures Carlos called. He was out shopping for some shoes. It always makes Elfida's day when he calls.

Isabelle had been waiting for us to finish so Elfida could help her decorate a shoe box for Valentine's day. I went up to shower and Elfida and Isabelle started on the shoe box. By the time I got back down, Elfida was working on the shoe box and Isabelle was playing in the movie room. I gave her permission to get on the computer and she spent the about an hour on the Hannah Montana website. I gave her a bag of balloons I had in the garage and she spent the next hour getting me to blow them up and trying to make balloon animals with them. Amy picked her up at about six 0'clock and we settled down to watch a movie. I put on "The Frighteners" and old Michael J. Fox movie. It was a good weekend.

My wife's home town and others

2009-02-04T09:45:00.004-06:00

Years ago we were passing through my wife's home town in west Texas. We stopped at the house she had grown up in. It was a cool sunny day in March. Winter was over but spring weather hadn't arrived yet. Walking around the house, my wife found an old rusted metal wheel. It had been her favorite toy. She wasn't sure what it had originally been used for, but for her and her brothers and sisters, it had been an ideal toy. You could push it, roll it, and ride in it. How simple the times had been during that era in her life. Happiness was spinning around in a metal wheel.

Bargaining for some New Mexico Chile. Going down the main drag in the big city of Pecos, Texas, she spotted this sales person. This was a great bargain, but what to do with a sack full of red chile's. My wife remembers looking forward to the big city of Pecos as a child. It was always a treat, a very special occasion when going to town. As a teenager, Pecos was where the big dances were held, it was the place to go cruising, where the theater and drive-in were at and there was also a city park to go and hang out at.

While still in West Texas, we came upon one of the many ghost towns in the area. Towns that at some point had been booming because of oil or agriculture. Schools, churches and post offices had been built. The towns now almost abandoned except for some die hard residents set on living their last days in the same town they were been born in. Playground long void of children remained well preserved in the dry climate. They slowly spin in the strong west Texas wind. The winds carry the mornful squeaky voice out into the dry dusty plains.

Isabelle in a field of blue bonnets. Okay, this isn't near Pecos. I just found the photo while going over some of my old files. One of my first great pictures taken with a digital camera.

Back in west Texas, a few miles north of Pecos, one deep man made hole. Elfida's brother-in-law kept telling me that there was a big canyon north of Pecos. We drove there one day. Sure enough there was a huge hole in the ground. It was a place to go with someone who knew the area. The hole was invisible until you were within a few yards of it. It wouldn't be to difficult to fall into it while driving in the area. It must have been a gravel pit for many years. The roads leading into it are still visible even though they haven't been used in years. My wife said she never knew that it existed.

What a strange creature. I saw many of these in the area, but got near only this one. Elfida's brother went to supervise the workers on this project.

The Dairy Mart. We have to stop by this place every time we go to Pecos. My wife has to order a Milk Shake and Burger. This was the main burger joint in town when she was growing up. I learned that I had to buy my diet soda at the store before going to eat here. They don't believe in diet anything here, so don't ask for a diet drink. They don't sell any here.

Rocket Park in Pecos. The zoo is across the road. It doesn't have many animals but it is still a zoo.

A restored theater. She remembers it opening only once in a while. Now it is open on special occasion only. There aren't enough people in town to open on a weekly basis.

These little towns far from the large cities fight a losing battle every years. The young people leave in search of better jobs, more excitement, greater opportunities and different experience. My wife was one of the many young people to leave the very small town of Barstow, Texas. She wasn't the first and wasn't the last. Her family Web Page still gets posting from ex-Barstow residents that have moved away but still retain the fond memories of the simple days growing up in a small town.

Starting 2009

2009-01-29T00:09:00.006-06:00

These pictures aren't from the last freeze, they are from the first one, January 5, 2009. Ah, the start of a new year. I took about 10 pictures before that bulb turned on in my head and I started using the flash to get that reflection of the ice. It was a windy night when the temperature fell below 32 degrees and the rain froze showing us in which direction the wind was blowing.

All the trees had ice on them but there was none on the road or drive way. Even the grass had very little ice on it. Our flags were frozen. The sky looked so gray.

I love the glimmer the ice gave off when I used the flash.

Sister didn't mind the cold weather. She spent most of her time chewing on the ice that formed on the fence. Sarah and Sister spent all day running around the yard, I put hay in all three dog houses to keep them warm. I guess they spend very little time in the houses. I could hear them barking most of the night and day. Usually from five in the morning to about eight they stay inside the houses. When I take Izma and Fifi out the others come running from their houses.

That's their pen area. They ate the wooden door so now they come and go as they please. Each house faces a different direction so they pick which house they sleep in according to which way the wind is blowing.

I took out my tripod and took a picture of myself. I was dressed very warm.

That night we put on the fire place and spent an evening by ourselves... and the inside dogs. Izma got the best spot in the house. Fifi has a lap magnet, she's going to attach herself to someones lap as soon as she can.

Two weeks later we had beautiful weather. Carlos came to town and we started to build the raised gardens for Elfida. She wanted tall post so I can put chicken wire around them to keep the dogs from eating her plants. She had spanked Sister for pulling out her rose bushes.

We had plenty of unwanted help while we worked. Boy it was a sunny cool day. Just perfect for working outside. We worked until my drill ran out of juice. By this time my two helpers were hungry so we called it a day.

Elfida was taking pictures and called Sister so she could get a nice picture of her. Well, Sister was still not happy about getting spanked. This is the "go to h...." look she gave Elfida. Later on we found out why she was so teed off at Elfida.

See the cattle, they come right up to the fence and the dogs bark and run and bark. The cows don't care any more. But see Sarah on the right. She is pulling on a little hackberry tree growing on the fence. She's the one that pulled out the rose bushes!!! Look at sister diming her out. Elfida refused to apologize to Sister.

Well, after working so hard we needed a Texas size meal. Carlos and Elfida went to Whataburger to get us dinner. Carlos was showing off his Chrome rims.

Elfida went with him while on Saturday when he was pricing the rims. Oh yeah, he likes them.

See that shine! One big sparkle! This here is Ford country. Carlos left the following day and Maiko came over in the morning to help finish the raised gardens. It was still too cold so I told him to take a nap in the guest bedroom and we would get to work in the afternoon. About one in the afternoon we went out and worked till he had to go pick up his girls from school. I figured I would pick up dog poop from the backyard while he was gone. I don't like the soft squish of doggy surprise on my feet. Well, I pulled a back muscle while picking up poop with a shovel. I missed four days of work and fell two weeks behind on the gardens. I told Aaron about pulling my back muscle while picking up dog poop and he told me I shouldn't let that poop get to where it's to heavy to pick up!!

The next time all three of my boys are in town, I am going to have a poop picking party for them!

Life's reflections

2009-01-20T09:40:00.003-06:00

Sometimes I would like to see a different colored sky. Just for change, just for a minute.

You walk through life for years. Always able to look back and see where you have been but you never know where that road ends. Or when it will end. You never know for sure how much longer you will travel on it. Is there a place you will get to or does the line just end nowhere?

Sand like years just pile up, covering up some of our failures and some of our successes. We know they are there but others will never see them. I know that power pole was not set that low. So many years ago, so much sand blown around it.

" Oh the wonders that I find

In the playground in my mind

In a world that used to be

Close your eyes and follow me

Where the children laugh and the children play

And we sing a song all day."
by Clint Holmes - from "Playground in my mind"

Some times we hit some big bump as we travel the road of life. Some of us worry ourselves till we're sick. And then there are those who take it all in stride. They get locked up for something, and they accept it. Just enjoy the outside air whenever you're allowed outside. Sit and watch for a while.

And those of us who worry about life? Well, sooner or later we find a reflecting pool. Some sit down and enjoy the moment.

Me, I find a pretty lady and ask her to sit by that reflecting pool. I take a picture.

Then I sit by that pretty lady and ask a friend to take our picture. Preserve the moment. Years from now, I will look at it and remember the sun's warmth on my arms, the fresh smell of green grass, and the pretty lady by my side.

And life goes on. Some memories can be recreated again. Like the childhood pleasure of swinging on a tire. Ah, warm, warm sunshine on my face.

Sometimes you have to share with a friend a little bit of the knowledge you have. You have to lend your favorite toy to your friend too, so you can be in the picture. Sam is a quick learner. Great picture.

"If I had a day that I could give you

I'd give to you a day just like today

If I had a song that I could sing for you

I'd sing a song to make you feel this way."

by John Denver - from "Sunshine on my shoulder"

We spent an eternity on a merry-go-round. The old years drifted away. floated to an era of long ago. A care free world where mother's arms could heal all injuries, warm any cold night and dad's presence would ward off all danger.

So we went round in circles. The sun revolved around us. Until the shadows started to grow. Now with eyes open the years came back but that old feeling lingered. Got up. walked away.

A purple sky with a crescent moon. A different colored sky, just for a moment.

Did you ever read a H. P. Lovecraft story? Maybe they were here....

My favorites

2009-01-13T10:21:00.003-06:00

Christmas was just a few days aways. "The night before Christmas" book was brought out once more. This was Carlos' book. He probably doesn't remember it. It was read to Isabelle when she was little. Now it was Lilly's time to learn the story. Her face filled with awe, she was full of wonder and so impressed with Santa bringing presents. She wanted to know how come there were presents under the Christmas tree already. "Those are for the grown ups. Santa brings the presents for the little children."

This is probably one of the most spoiled dogs living. She thinks she owns the house. Any dog, no matter how big is challenge as soon as it gets near her. She has chased dogs as big a dobermans. She is queen of the house.

This is my niece, Lulu, and her mom, Aide. Aide is Jose, my oldest brother. One mom and daughter moment captured as a digital image.

This Holly my nephew Alex's wife. I added texture to the photo and thought it looked very good. I sent a copy to my brother and he emailed me back that the picture hadn't come out right.

There are other photos I took that I liked but I have already posted them.

Mosheim Texas Trip

2009-01-06T08:17:00.005-06:00

On January 3, 2008, we embarked on another unstructured road trip. We left home at 09:30 AM en route to McGregor, Texas. Only 16 miles from home, but a town we had visited only twice before. Some old buildings still stand, but too many have been renovated and in the process lost some of their beauty.

Some of the small town charm is still there, easy to recognize the football pride. This mural downtown was done very well by some very talented painter. Nothing else could show how big a part of small town life high school football is.

The real reason we went to McGregor was to eat at Papi Taco. Our friends the Olvera's had opened their restaurant a few years back. Toño recognized the cooking talent his wife had and invested his money on her ability cook some excellent meals. We were hungry and knew that whatever we ate for breakfast would have to hold us until late in the afternoon. I had the "guevos rancheros" excellent! Dora, Sam and Elfida had the "menudo". I usually finish off whatever Elfida doesn't eat, well not that day. She ate all of her breakfast, said it was some of the best menudo she ever eaten. Papi Taco is located at 809 S. Main St. If you make it McGregor before 0200 PM, stop by and enjoy some real Mexican food.

As we meandered through the narrow roads and forgotten towns southwest of Waco we arrived at Mosheim, Texas, in late afternoon. We saw the old school even before we turned on to highway 217, okay, we were on highway 217 but it makes a 90 degree turn or it actually becomes highway 215 past the intersection and the road that hits perpendicular to what was highway 217 becomes highway 217.

It must have been a beautiful school. The building was huge and it had a strange resemblance to the Alamo. It was asymmetrical and we would learn from one of its alumni that the adjoining wings were added later on. It is now in very bad conditions and close to collapsing. The grounds around it are kept mowed and clean of any trash.

This building is located behind the main building. The water tank appears to belong to the school. This building also has the structure of a school building or possibly an administration building.

This is the front of the School, while we were there another vehicle pulled up. I thought is was someone coming to tell us to stay out of the building, but it turned out to be a very nice woman there to take pictures of the building. She was very friendly and told us that she graduated from this school in the early sixties. The school housed 1st grade through 12th grade. It never graduated very big senior classes, some years six some years less.

I counted eight fire places. The fire places must have originally been the sole heating source for the school. In this picture you can see how well the property is taken care off. Very clean. I think the building is beyond repair now, but its beauty is still apparent.

The front immediately brought the Alamo to mind when I drove upon it. At some point some renovations were done to it. We were told by our new friend from Mosheim that the stairs were originally located towards the center entrance but now they are to the left of the main entrance. There was also a gymnasium detached from the building which was torn down somewhere along its history.

While we were standing in front talking to the Mosheim alumni we were so lucky to meet, another lady walked over. She told us she had graduated in 1947 from this school. She remembered the school went only to the 11th grade back then. I wish we could have stayed longer and talked more to our new found friends, but it the shadows were already getting long, our one indicator on this unstructured trips that time for heading home is getting close. Our two friends stayed to look at the school and we said goodbye, starting our drive towards Valley Mills.

This is Highway 217 going towards Valley Mills. Just down the road, some more Mosheim High alumni were planning their next reunion. Go Mosheim Mohawks!!

This lonely feline guards the school. It watched us from that window ledge, but when we got too close it jumped into the building from where it could watch us and still feel safe.

Dora and Elfida wait for me to take my last picture. We took off for Valley Mills and then got into a discussion as to whether we were going in the right direction. We knew we were on Highway 217 but then we had turned left at the intersection. We had to be on another highway now. So we turned back and got to the intersection, but weren't we suppose to turn here? We drove back and verified with the two ladies whether we were on the right road to Valley Mills. We were assured that we were on the right road. It wasn't until I got home and Googled Mosheim, Texas, that I realized how Highway 217 turns 90 degrees and what continues on straight becomes Highway 215.

We arrived in Waco at 0700 PM, hungry and tired. Our first stop was at Logan's for dinner, then home to look at the pictures taken during this trip and finally to bed. I will post pictures of some of the other places we visited later on.

December at the Almaguers

2008-12-28T20:01:00.006-06:00

I loaded up these pictures but couldn't remember in what sequence this blog loads up picture. They came out all out of sequence. This was a great December so far, and I took many photographs that I was happy how they came out. Dora and a Christmas Tree. Black and white photos convey more emotion that the color photos. The warmth of the white lights bring across those old feelings of being a child on Christmas, feeling that anticipation of Christmas morning.

Grandma and grandchild. Grandma's joy of giving will always be more rewarding than the joy of receiving. Christmas is a holiday that helps us a grandparents brighten up the lives of our grandchildren.

In the corner of our house sits this doll in a basket on top of a wig box, in front of an old walking cane. All bathed in an cool afternoon sun light.

Grandma reading "The night before Christmas" to a grandchild who for the first time in her life understand Santa Claus and chimneys. We bought this book for Carlos when he was little, only he was too old to believe in Santa by the time we bought the book.

Caroline finds an Christmas orb on the Christmas tree.

So many places to explore, so many things to touch.

Christian.

The best things about Christmas are the Christmas hugs.

The happiness of a grandchild in the arms of grandma.

The days before Christmas became fewer and fewer. Some toys were under the Christmas tree already, not as gifts but for the grandchildren to play with. They played Christmas music and that music brought huge smiles to all of us.

It is so easy to be silly when you are young and dont' worry about what others think.

But with all the lights, TV commercials, toys, Christmas trees, etc., this month is still for family first. The best memories are not from the expensive present or the big dinners, but from the quiet moments with family.

Start of December and ending '08

2008-12-15T23:48:00.003-06:00

Lily was over a couple of weeks ago. Isabelle dressed her up as a cheerleader. She loves those boots.

The cold weather finally got here. We turned on the fireplace and enjoyed some time together. That coffee sure tasted good. We had to add another stocking to the fire place. Caroline is the news grand child and this will be her first Christmas.

Lily and Isabelle decorated this end table. Bell is Isabelle's and Cinderella is Lily's. We bought the music dolls for them last January and put them away. We gave them to the girls the day they came to decorate the Christmas tree with Elfida.

We tried to get Izma to stay by the Christmas tree and she kept wanting to run off. Finally I told Elfida to stay in the picture and we got this nice photo.

Elfida got up and Izma just stayed there. I had taken the camera off the tripod and hurried to get it back on. I took this one and Izma stayed there waiting for me to take more pictures. She is a smart dog. We had her outside for two years. Last month we decided to make her an indoor dog. She had done great and now sleeps on her pillow downstairs. She figure if she didn't poop or pee inside she wouldn't have to sleep outside. Now she lets us know when she needs to go out and she lets us know when she has to come back in. She takes care of business quick.

Thanksgiving Day and after

2008-11-29T12:57:00.006-06:00

The night before Thanksgiving Elfida gave the turkey a good hot bath in the kitchen sink. Carlos had come home, so we watched a movie with him at home. Elfida had made steaks for dinner. Carlos ate three! He called from some where near West to make sure dinner was ready when he got home cause he was hungry.

The next morning he came down for breakfast with a hand print on his right shoulder. He said it was from sleeping on top of his hand. It went away after about a half hour.

See how well defined the hand print is?

That afternoon Maiko made last minute preparation on the cooked turkey. We had Maikos family, Dora and Sam and Carlos over for the feast. Oh, the food was soo good. We ate and talked and ate. We then went into the movie room to watch the Cowboys play. They won again. Elfida and Maiko were very happy.

Cause grandma spoils her, Isabelle got to get a turkey leg. She and Lily had to eat in the little kids table.

Isabelle went and got dressed all by herself. We have bought them different outfits that they can play dress up with. Those are Isabelle's boots and Isabelle's cheerleader outfit. Lily is in constant trouble because she loves to talk back and then ignores her parent when they try to make her do something. I had a talk with her Friday night, so far she has been behaving. I don't know how long it will last.

We ate too much! Maiko and Carlos vegging out after eating. As long as they are not too close they can sit quietly. Once they get close they go back to being little kids and start wrestling.

As soon as they were both on the sofa they were wrestling and laughing like little kids. They didn't notice me tying their shoe laces together! That was funny.

I had connected all the video game machines to the LCD projector. Carlos and Maiko played bomber man. Carlos bought the game station in Japan so they could play all the vintage Nintendo games. Later that night Maiko showed Isabelle, Lily and Isabelle's cousin Gabi, how to play the game.

The following night I got the girls to stay over. We ate ice cream, candy, cookies, pie, popcorn, and lots of other junk food. Lily fell asleep while going from one seat to the couch while we watched "A Smokey Mountain Christmas. Isabelle watched the whole movie with us. Carlos had gone out, like a good son, he had spent the last two night with us. He even went shopping with us on Friday.

Elfida's flowers

2008-11-17T23:15:00.004-06:00

Elfida bought some pots with plants that were flowering. I don't know the name of the plants. She planted them in the ground on our front yard and they kept flowering and flowering. Every morning she would cut some flowers and take them to work. She would also put some on a vase to decorate the dinning room table.

The flowers attract different insects. All looking for the sweetness of the nectar in the flower. This wasp was so green it looked like it was made out of glass.

Fluorescent spots, so bright they looked light lights. This butterfly visited the flowers for as long as I sat there and took pictures. Not shy at all.

Even a yellow jacket came to feed and was in a good mood. She let me get some close ups without trying to attack me. Twenty years ago, when I was still surveying, I got stung by this yellow jackets too many times. The most painful one was on by bottom lip, but the one on my eyelid was pretty close to that same pain.

The day was overcast. I switch to taking the photos using the flash. It really brought out the colors.

Now this guy and his kind have given me some pretty nasty blister too. He was the only one of his kind at the flowers. He stayed to himself and the other insects stayed away too.

Now this fellow was also by himself. Two years ago I spent the Spring and Summer fighting his relatives. They had built a nest between the wall under the balcony. Some days there would be hundreds of them. I was told that the only way to get rid of them was to remove the honey and the queen bee. What worked was putting screen wire all under the balcony so they couldn't get back into the wall. So far they have stayed away.

Some days I walk by and the butterflies lift off the flower in a huge cloud. They float around until I have walked far enough away. They return slowly back on to the flowers.

It seems that the more flowers Elfida cuts from the plants, the more they bloom. This late in the year and they keep growing. We had that one night when the temperature dropped into the 30 and I thought the cold would kill them. They are still here, still blooming, some yellow, some white and some with a tint of purple.

Duchess Isabelle

2008-11-13T00:02:00.003-06:00

Isabelle was a Duchess for the 1st Grade Class. He grandma took her to get her hair done with Barbra, their hair dresser. We had bought the dress for her a few months ago and she hadn't needed it for any special occasion until this day.

Her tio Carlos drove in from Ft. Worth for the event. He got home and promptly laid down on the couch. Foxy was visiting and went to lay down with him.

The photos are out of sequence. Here is grandma with Isabelle and Lily. Obviously, Lily doesn't think the occasion is that special.

There she is with her Duchess hair style. She was very serious about her role as Duchess. The dress looked great on Isabelle and her hair, well, grandma was very proud.

The school was packed. Wall to wall parents and grandparents. All the kids looked great. I had to call work and let them know I was running late.

Lily was being herself. She talked, argued and fought with her Uncle Carlos. She got in trouble for talking back to her parents, too. She stays in trouble. Later on their mom dropped them off at our house and they got to spend the night with grandma. I left for work and in the morning stopped at the Michoacana and picked up some barbacoa for breakfast. Carlos actually got up early and ate breakfast with us. Maiko also dropped by after work to eat breakfast. He beat me to the house since I had to stop and pick up the barbacoa.

Halloween pictures

2008-11-11T09:29:00.004-06:00

All the scary people were out on Halloween night. Elfida made sure she bought plenty of candy. We got had lots of kids and grownups showing up at the house. Even a truck pulling a trailer full of trick or treaters!

This group showed up and made our day. Check out the ladybug up front. The black cat is Isabelle and the clown is Lily.

I took this photo from the balcony. The NBA was interested in the guy with the gray hoodie.

Check out the cowgirl on her galloping horse.

This is my favorite. I took it from the balcony with a 200 mm lens and at 400 ISO and the camera flash. I was about 75 feet from the girls. Scary!!

Come January it will be President Obama!

2008-11-05T00:33:00.005-06:00

We ate left overs from two nights ago (ribs) and followed the vote counting on TV. Elfida kept Maiko up to date by phone on the electoral votes from each state. I was ready to ask Elfida if she was ready to go upstairs, when they suddenly announced that Obama had won the election. It is crazy that they would know the results before the popular votes were counted. Then we hear the TV talking head say that Sen. McCain had already called Obama and conceded the election.
It certainly was a historic night. Sen. Obama will be our first African-American President!! It is finally coming true that any little boy or girl can grow up to be president of this great nation. Makes me prouder to be an American.

The following photos and text are from the CNN website.

McCain called Obama at 11 p.m. when polls closing on the West Coast gave Obama the electoral votes to become the nation's first black president.
Obama thanked McCain for his graciousness and said he had waged a tough race, according to Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs.The new president-elect told McCain that he was eager to sit down and talk about how the two of them can work together. "I need your help, you're a leader on so many important issues," Obama told McCain.
In his victory speech to the nation, Obama said, "I just received a very gracious call from Senator McCain. ... I congratulate him and Governor Palin for all they have achieved, and I look forward to working with them to renew this nation's promise in the months ahead."
"While the Democratic Party has won a great victory tonight, we do so with a measure of humility and determination to heal the divides that have held back our progress," Obama said.
"To those Americans whose support I have yet to earn -- I may not have won your vote, but I hear your voices, I need your help, and I will be your president too," he said.

"We have come to an end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly," McCain said. "Senator Obama has achieved a great thing for himself and his country," said McCain, calling Obama a "good man."
"This is an historic election, and I recognize the special significance it has for African-Americans and for the special pride that must be theirs tonight."McCain urged his supporters to "join me in not just congratulating [Obama], but offering our next president our good will and earnest effort to find ways to come together to find the necessary compromises to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited." "I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America. In a stronger, better country than we inherited."

"I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties, but to believe, always, in the promise and greatness of America."

Me again:

Now that is the McCain I admired for years. This last year, he was a totally different man. His campaign was too similar to Bush's, too negative, too unlike him.

Tomorrow is a new day and a new era has come to be. We will have some trying days ahead. We still have the economic crisis, the war in Iraq, the same greedy CEOs running most of our major corporations, too many of our own government agencies spying on our own citizens, and the high crime in our cities, but there's a new sheriff in town. I hope he will be able to unite this country so it can once again be the bench mark that other countries measure themselves against.

Oh yeah, and maybe Joe the Plumber can go back home and quit being so annoying. : )

Rehashing some old photos

2008-11-04T00:19:00.003-06:00

Nice cool breeze flows quietly through the bathroom window, drifts past our bed and smoothly wanders out the open sliding glass door onto the balcony. Over the wall, rustling the green leafs of the tree that stands guard outside lifting it skinny arms towards heaven like an old Indian praying to the yellow moon high above our world.

On the bright laptop, I see photos I took over two years ago while spending Christmas in Eagle Pass. Cuco Sanchez sings in my ear, a sad ballad about a man with a broken heart. Mocedades follows with their song imploring their love to "take them or leave them". The rest of the world's sounds blocked out by the head phones on my ears. A long thin wire attaches them to my MP3 player loaded with over 2000 songs from years ago.

My world right now is made up of artificial light and artificial sounds. The only thing connecting me to the actual world is the cool silky feel of that silent breeze. It glides slowly over my skin, gently pushing against the small, thin hairs on my arms. The cool sensation causes the hairs to stand up, creating a landscape of goose bumps across the surface of my arms. Small shadows created by the white light from the screen gives the skin the appearance of rough, raspy texture.

The bright glare of the screen floods out all other shapes in the dark bed room. Only the keys, may hands and the arms attached to them are visible. My fingers move up and down touching each key, pressing down, making the letters appear on that screen.

My eyes lids narrow, my eyes blink to refocus on the images, pictures... words. Pictures from over two years ago... in Eagle Pass... an old old song starts up. Agustin Ramirez sings now to a lover who's death he morns. The horn section comes through, dating the song to the early 70's. Chicano songs.

Light tapping on the bed, like a finger striking the side of the mattress... nothing visible. A slight pulling of the sheets... still nothing visible. I remove my headphones. An audible whimper, a small cry, like a puppy in pain... My eyes adjust to the darkness. A small black figure begins to form. Another whimper, the black figure becomes familiar, something I have seen before... A dog name Fifi. She can't talk, but I have known here for 11 years. We can understand each other well. I will end this post, she wants to go out. Nature calls.

The run, Oct. 26, 2008

2008-11-01T22:42:00.007-06:00

We were there by 06:00 AM. It was chilly but not like last year. Elfida was in charge of photography and the run started at 07:30 AM. This year we didn't get to drive the course and we didn't have a map, so she had to get photos at the start and at the end only.

I had my sunglasses on but once we made the first turn around the sun was to my back and the humidity was going up. My glasses kept fogging up so I took them of. I ran the 13.1 miles with out them.

Dora was just behind me running with a small group of women. The first part of the run was easy. Nothing but flat roads. We were still with in view of most of the runners. This made it easy to keep a fast pace.

This was Elfida's last photo of me before meeting us at the finish line. I was feeling good. I didn't train enough but I knew finishing would be easy, the question was - How much slower this year?

Dora had pulled away from the group as she made it past Elfida. Dora's running pace was about the same as last years. Once we made it into Cameron Park we ran into too many hills. Boy, that ate up my legs. While running through Pecan Bottoms I got bit by a mosquito on my leg. Either that was a very hungry mosquito or I was running too slow.

I was about half a mile from the finish line when a female runner caught up to me. I had passed her at about the 3rd mile. She was in her mid 40's and about 30-40 lbs. over weight. I picked up the pace for about 200 feet, but she kept going and going and going.... and passed me. Anyways, I crossed the finish line with 2:12:24 on the clock. My official chip time was 2:12:14. The microchip they give you records the time you run across the starting line and then the finish line.

Dora was just a few minutes behind me. She actually gained about 7 minutes on me this year. She came across with the clock showing 2:18:40.

And Yes!! This year we did get the half marathon medals. Last year I complained about them not giving participation medals to those of us who ran the marathon as a relay team and guess what? This year they gave participation to medals to all the relay runners.

This is the only photo on this post that I took that day. Well, Dora placed Third in her age level and got another medal. It was more painful to run this year because I had trained less. Last year we went and ate after the run. This year we went home and I had a bowl of frozen fruit and three Ibuprofen!!! Old age sucks.

One last photo. Dora took this one. Elfida, my photographer, and I.

Comparison Photo

2008-10-25T00:45:00.003-06:00

Gov. Sarah Palin. ( I borrowed the picture from another web page)
Okay, this is just so you can compare and decide on your own if the hair looks the same. And no I did not vote for her. I did go and do the early voting thing. Man, those volunteers are old!!!

Friday's little moments

2008-10-25T00:18:00.003-06:00

This one loaded up out of sequence. I took the photo Friday evening at our house. It reminded me of when we lived in San Antonio and our boys were little. We would watch TV while all of us were on one sofa. No matter how small the sofa, we would all fit in it. Oh yeah, Foxy went to spend the night with the girls.

All the controversy that has popped up because of the billboard that the Waco Police Association put up on IH 35 got me looking at this fence near the downtown area. How safe does the area feel? What is so wrong is that this fence has been there for so long and I never paid attention until today.

Nice contrast between the sign and its shadow.

Lonely cat searches for food. I drive through here two or three times a night. It looks so different during the day. Not better, just different.

Back at home. Lily was not happy wearing grandma's glasses for a picture.

Isabelle was happy to wear them for the picture, of course she has grandma's hair cut too.

This is what got me taking pictures of the girls. Lily with the Sarah Palin hair style. She was showing off her hair at first, then got mad that I was taking too many pictures.

This ones even better.

Foxy and Isabelle were playing with a ball. Even Maiko got into the game. Foxy is still a puppy and loves playing. Maiko and Amy had to go home so the girls took foxy with them for the night. She will we happier a their house, since Fifi still won't let her into our bedroom.

Another day...

2008-10-20T09:49:00.004-06:00

Woke up late on Saturday morning. The sun was already high in the sky, bright, bright, yellow white. The dogs impatient and ready to go out. I grabbed my camera from the night stand and headed down stairs. Yes, that's 10:00 am sunlight shining on our lawn. Fifi's bed is already empty. She waited by the back door to be let out.

Mr. Blue Jay was hunting for breakfast. There were Blue Jays all over our neighborhood. I could see then across the street on our neighbor's yard. Such a beautiful blue hue on its wings. They outnumbered the red Cardinals 3:1. He heard me coming down the stairs and flew across the street to the safety of our neighbor's yard.

The space was quickly covered by a squirrel in a big hurry. In the two minutes it spent on our yard, he climbed both trees, dug for something in about 7 places and stopped to inspect three of the flower pots. It moved on to explore the rest of our neighborhood.

Looking back from where I had come, I saw my in-progress work. Those frames have been leaning against the wall for about a month. They will go up as soon as I print a few other pictures that I have already chosen. I just need to find the right frames. I added one more to the line later on in the afternoon.

We use to have problems hearing the door bell upstairs or in the kitchen. The housing kept the chimes from being heard. Elfida had bought me the Devil mask many years ago in Mexico and it had been sitting next to my computer for a few months. I needed a place to put it but it didn't go with any of the furnishing in any of the rooms. It makes a great housing for the door bell! I love the colors on it and the details. I had more masks but Maiko now has them. We now buy handcarved masks for him.

I finally made it to the bottom of the stairs. Both Chihuahuas were already yelping for me to hurry up and open the back door. I had one more photo to take. Just love the shadow cast by this plant.

And this is what an evergreen looks like when it is no longer green.

We finally made it out of the house at about 10:45 am. Elfida watered her plants just before heading out to "Los Altos de Jalisco" for some Mexican breakfast.
We didn't make it back home till after the Cowboys' game started. Elfida watched it while I cleaned the area around my computer. Three trash bags of junk made it to the garbage can. After the game we watched "Across the Universe". It started slow but the sound track was all Beatles' music sung by the actors. The last hour of the movie was intense! It will be on my list of "see again" movies.

I walked to the back door to let the dogs out and saw the sun moving towards the horizon. I asked Elfida if she wanted to go with me to watch the sunset from somewhere south of town. She joined me a I drove towards McGregor. I was surprised by the large amount of traffic on the small roads and onn Hwy 84.

McGregor made a beautiful foreground for shots of the glow from the setting sun. We drove around and made plans to come back at an earlier time and walk the old downtown area.

Elfida suggested this shot. She liked the flags in the distance. By now the sky was just an orange glow. Windows down and radio low, small towns are quiet at dusk.
The sunsets are beautiful but the view away from those sunsets is also beautiful. The orange light gives everything a fiery glow. Almost like looking through red glasses.

We started the drive home in darkness. The sun was gone and a slight chill settled in. I rolled up the window, the wind coming in was now quite cold. Elfida commented on how dark it got out in the country. She prefers living close to more people... in an area with street lights. We skipped dinner, she read and I surfed the net. The Chihuahuas shared a sofa with us, home is so good.

Friday Night Lights!

2008-10-07T19:23:00.007-06:00

Maiko made Lily her birthday cake at home. He is getting to be very good at this. Lily really loved the Barbie cake.

And she loved all the toy jewlery she got as presents! She looks like a Leona Hensley. Check out the Wilma Flintstone pearls.

The cake tasted great and it went well as make up too. Only Lily could eat cake and end up with frosting all over her face.

This little friend was clinging to our back door. He was keeping our back door bug free. He is one of the biggest geckos I have seen outside the house. There are hundreds of them out there. If only they would feed on mosquitoes only we would have a mosquito bite free patio.

Friday night lights!! Elfida wanted to go to the University High vs Waco High. University High had been having some great games, but they kind of fell apart against Waco. I had a great time listening to the football experts on the stand. All University needed was one of these experts to call the plays and they would have won by 30 or 40 points. These guys knew every play that would have worked. Okay, they knew it after the play on the field had been run. Kind of "armchair quarterbacking". Anyways, it was fun listening to their comments.

Shooting from the middle of the stands wasn't too great, but I wanted to sit with Elfida through out the game. Usually I am walking up and down while she sits, this Friday I sat with her. Maiko and the girls came by later on and finished watching the game.

There was plenty of action on the field. The fans got thier money's worth Friday night at Waco ISD stadium.

The Trojans came back to show their appreciation to their fans.

Dora was there working the stands with the rest of the University administration. We got into the game courtesy of Dora DeAubrey, who's name was called out during the game. Thanks, sister!

Lily and Isabelle. They loved listening to the band play and seeing the half time show.
When we got home, I showed Elfida the new light we had put in the back yard. She really liked it, but she noticed that the bench needed the boards replaced. That was another job she put on the "honey do" list. I worked on the bench on Sunday and it is now looking brand new. I will include a picture of it next time.

With Lily while sister was at church

2008-10-04T22:51:00.005-06:00

Last Wednesday afternoon Maiko, Amy and Lily came by the house after dropping off Isabelle at church. We ate pizza and then went outside to play with Lily. She ran around chasing a wheel that Maiko and I were rolling on the street. Here she is, jumping from the curb to the pavement. What a jump! Of course, grandpa has to be watching. Its no fun unless grandpa and meme are watching.

She got on the bed of the truck where Amy was sitting and when Maiko came near she jumped at Maiko yelling, "Catch me, Daddy!" Surprised the hack out of Maiko.

So.... I told her to do it again cause grandpa had missed it. She went and did it again. This time Maiko was ready. That girl has no fear. She is just like Maiko.
She got her little tricycle and rode it around the street. That is the nice thing about living on a dead end. No traffic.

Well sister and Izma were feeling left out. Sister came up to the fence and I saw a good photo op. I bought some dirt a while back and now the dogs use it as a vantage point. They like standing on it to look over the fence and out to the street. They play king of the hill too. Last week Sister ate my "chanclas", one pair of gloves, two humming bird feeders, and one flower pot. Elfida threatens to get rid of her at least five times a week.

We were ready to go in when Maiko dropped the little wheel we had been playing with. Izma got it and took off running. She thought it was fun having Maiko chase her around the backyard. That was funny!

It is now nice and cool in the evenings, so one can actually sit outside and enjoy it. Now if all the mosquitoes would die... Maybe we will have an actual winter this year and we won't have so many bugs next summer.

Around north Waco

2008-09-24T22:28:00.005-06:00

A few nights ago Jay called me to go look at some tagging being done in north Waco. I didn't photograph it then since the cameras we carry are not very good. Today I had to go in for a little while, so I figured I would swing by N. 26 and Grim and get some photos. Seems to be two or three taggers with one showing some talent and the others just learning.

I started looking at the buildings and noticed what nice lines they had.

This is one old sidewalk.

The back of the 25th St. Theater.

Look at the work just above the metal overhand. Isn't that cool.

This isn't very old, just painted with cheap paint which faded quickly.

Old TV program "The Rookies"

2008-09-23T23:23:00.004-06:00

A few weeks ago I bought a DVD Titled “The Greatest 70’s Cop Shows”, It has the first episode for “The Rookies”, “Charlie’s Angels”, “S.W.A.T.”, “Police Woman”, and “Starsky and Hutch”.I just finished watching the first episode of “The Rookies” which aired on Sept. 11, 1972. “Concrete valley, neon sky”, has the rookies dealing with the inner city gang problem. Although they talk about the gang members as juveniles, they all look like they were in their late 20’s or early 30’s. The show takes place in the city of Southern California. The characters were named Terry Webster, Willie Gillis, Mike Danko and his wife Jill Danko. Kate Jackson, who was a lot better looking in this show than she was in “Charlie’s Angels”, played Jill. Oh yeah, they didn't have a Sgt. only Lt. Ryker.
I was almost 12 when this show started. I was attending 5th grade at the Sam Houston Elementary School. It was located at the old Brazero processing center in Eagle Pass, Texas. I liked the show, okay, I liked all the cop shows on TV then, but I don’t have any one episode that stands out in my memory about the “Rookies”. I don’t even remember ever watching this episode.Well, I guess street gangs only existed in large cities in the early 70’s. I am sure I would have been impressed back then with the tough hoods that came out in this episode. They sure were a lot friendlier looking then than the hoods from now. They all looked like construction workers.
This was not a great episode, but it was fun watching it and seeing how little TV has change in its portrayal of what police work is suppose to be. Oh well….

Can't sleep...

2008-09-18T02:59:00.002-06:00

I couldn't sleep... so I walked out of the house with my camera. I found the moon a willing subject for my midnight photo safari. The air was crisp and cool, clear, clear dark sky. It felt like a Fall night. Aaah, such a beautiful moon. Made me think of forty years ago when our astronauts landed on its surface. I watched it on our new 19 inch black and white portable TV. We were in La Salle, Colorado. So many things have changed, so many things will change again, yet the moon looks the same. It's surface creamy white against such a dark sky....

There were a few clouds floating high, so high above me. They slowly disappeared leaving the moon by itself.

Hey that's me!!! Yeah, no one to play with, so I used myself as a ghostly subject.

Yes, I still love my wife and I wrote it for her with light.

Elfie slept through my experiments with light.

The neighborhood was quiet. Somewhere past our fence, beyond the dark pasture, a lonely cow called out for the rest of the herd. A lone cat hunted crickets quietly under the street light. Sister stood by the gate watching me taking pictures. The yellow light from the street corner washed over everything out on the street. No breeze, the flag was motionless on the flag pole. The perfect night, wish my sons had been with me.

Family time on the front yard

2008-09-15T21:40:00.005-06:00

Sister came up to the fence to smile and show us her pearly whites that she uses to chew up everything in the backyard. That is one silly dog.

I was outside taking pictures when Elfida got home from work. Maiko and the girls came over a few minutes later. Isabelle showing me her disco pose.

Maiko had come over to watch the Cowboy vs Eagles game. I hooked up the projector to the cable and he was happy. He was even happier when the Cowboys actually won!!

Lily chased the dogs and caught Foxy. Foxy was not happy.

Oh yeah, she knows the cheers and the dance steps that Isabelle practices. Lily will be playing then all of a sudden break into a dance. She is funny.
Isabelle was also practicing her cartwheels. Even grandpa did a couple of cartwheels.

I was going to give Maiko a piggyback ride, going to... nah.

She was playing pic-a-boo with grandpa. She is silly.

Almost got it.

Nice close up.

Up in the air. It's fun when daddy is strong enough to lift her up in the air.

And Strong enough to through her up in the air and catch her. Boy she just loves this.

Elfida's flowers.

Backyard safari

2008-09-09T22:28:00.006-06:00

This morning I got up and went to eat lunch at school with Isabelle. It was grandparents day. Elfida met me there. Nathan, Isabelle's friend, adopted us as grandparents for the day too. His dad recruited Carlos into the Marine Corps. We ate with both of them. I wore my uniform, and met about 15 more kids at lunch.
I got home and it was to hot to do any yard work. I grabbed my camera and went on a photo safari in my own backyard.

The first two are pictures of our crape myrtles.

It was such a hot and muggy day that all the dogs were hanging under the Live Oak shade.

Elfida said she was going to buy braces for Izma. I don't know why he makes those eyes when I take pictures of her.

I drove down the old Lorena road and went under the new bridge. I took some more pictures of the water that still remains there.

The minnows still survive in the small puddles of water.

I placed the camera on a tree stump and took a picture of myself.

Don't know their name, but they are beautiful.

Use a tripod for this one.

I found a crawdad grave yard.
The rain came out of nowhere. It pored for about 30 minutes. It was still raining when I headed home. I drove about a mile and the ground was bone dry.

An exploding rain drop.

I spent the whole 30 minutes under this bridge. I took over 100 pictures.
Love the colors after a rain.

Lots of traffic here. Everyone was friendly and would honk and wave.

My last photo. Pearls falling from the bridge.

The sisters

2008-09-07T22:00:00.004-06:00

Summer sounds, light laughter,

sweet smell of green grass.

A little girls voice,

cheers learned just yesterday.

Pom poms and uniforms.

No more soccer games.

It's cheerleader dreams for now.

What thoughts fly inside the mind

of such a pretty girl?

How many dreams will come true?

Let me hold your hand,

let me walk with you,

Be my sunshine.

Proud grandma!

At home

2008-09-05T23:49:00.005-06:00

We finished the fence around the patio and put some solar light on the front posts. They make a beautiful pattern on the concrete. One bad thing about our fence. Izma can fit right between the fence post and the first board on the gate. Well at least it keeps Sister out. She is the one that was chewing on all the chairs on the patio and she would bang on the patio door sounding like some lumber jack was trying to get into the house.

Since I had the tripod out I went into the back yard about 100 feet and took this photo of the house. Nice.

We celebrated Maiko and Isabelle's birthdays today. We bought the meat and I started the cookout. I cooked the chicken breast and all the knuckles on my right hand. Maiko then showed up and finished cooking the rest of the meat. I hate cooking on a grill. Maiko and Amy are trying their hand at making cakes. They made this one for Isabelle. It is Chowder. A cartoon character that Isabelle loves.

It is also a cartoon character that is drawn by her Uncle Alex Almaguer. If you go to the link on the right side of the page "Alex Almaguer" you can see some of his other work. Maiko called Alex and told him how much Isabelle likes the cartoon. Alex sent her some of the cartoon toy figures that are made for the artist that work on the cartoon.

This was taken just as grandma pushed Isabelle's face into the horn or hair of chowder causing her to bite it off. You can see Lily's hand reaching out to get some of the cake.

I love black and white photos, they capture more emotion that color photos.

Isabelle opening the toys Alex sent her. She love them. And look at the excitment on the other kids' faces as they react to the cartoon figures.

Okay, got to put some more lotion on my burnt knuckles. Next time I will leave the cooking to those who know how to cook.

Grand Daughters

2008-09-01T20:36:00.003-06:00

Maiko made this cake for Elfida for the University High back to school party for employees. Nice work.

Okay, we had the grand daughters with us for Labor Day. Oh yeah, we spent the weekend building this fence around our patio. Elfida was tired of seeing the dogs planting themselves on the patio and banging on the glass door. Anyways, Isabelle and Lily were inside the house playing dress up while we worked on the planters. Lily came out dressed as an angle cheerleader from Hawaii, or something like that.

Isabelle was dressed as a fifties cowgirl with fuzzy sweater. They were proud of their fashion outfits. Lily ate all day long. She played in the sprinkler and chased the dogs. Isabelle played more girl like games.

What a pose.

Fifties power ranger cowgirl in fuzzy sweater. We were going to go out and eat. Isabelle came down with green eye shadow and pink lipstick. She couldn't understand why playing with her makeup kit and actually wearing it out in public were two different things. Grandpa had to put his foot down and make her wash her face. We had a blast with them at the house.

Once upon a Friday...

2008-08-26T08:06:00.004-06:00

A child's world is small, safe and fun. Running barefoot on green soft grass. A bag full of candy. What a wonderful world.

Soft summer sunlight, light breeze flowing through the tree tops. Find the candy on the ground.

La pinata... los dulces! Pegale, pegale, otra vez!

Waiting for the pinata to break.

Mother and child.

Mother in blue light.

The new Almaguer Family member, Foxy Lady (aka brown dog). We are also minus a dog. Mopy is now Dora's dog. She got out of the yard one time too many. She is now a Waco dog. I am sure we were wearing our warnings out with Hewitt's animal control officers.

Another grand daughter! Grandma is happy again.

Maiko and his mini-me. This girl can memorize a bad word quick and will repeat them. No letting her watch any Marine shows.

These are some of the pictures from a Friday in Hewitt. My camera was getting lonely in the closet.

Last day in Denver before the ride home started...

2008-07-29T03:42:00.005-06:00

On our last full day in Denver we went shopping in the morning and ate lunch. After lunch Dora and Sam stayed at home and Carlos had a dinner date with friends. So Roje, Elfida and I went to the Greeley area to visit some of the places we use to go to when we worked in the fields some 40 years ago. It was a nice mellow trip filled with great conversation.
Along the way we passed some areas that were still very vivid in my mind and some that I had totally forgotten. Roje's recollection was better than mine and helped bring back memories of these long forgotten places.
We drove to downtown Greeley and found the park where our parents use to take us every Sunday. There were many changes made through the so many years that have passed. We found the old store where we would go buy sodas and candy while at the park. It was located about half a block away, I don't remember that name of the store but we use to call it "La tienda de los chicanos". It translates to "the chicano's store". It was one of the few businesses that were owned by Mexicans or as my parents called them "chicanos" to differentiate them as being U.S. born. They spoke Spanish and sold many of the products that we were use to buying in Texas.

The park is still here but it has changed too. We drove around remembering where the playground use to be, where our parents would congregate with the other parents, and where the older teenagers would hangout. It is still a beautiful park. Our families would work in the fields all week long, Monday through Saturday, but on Sundays we would meet at the park. We played with the other kids, many who's names I couldn't recall and had to ask Roje. I would start with a description of them or retelling of an event that occurred at the park and Roje would start naming the kids, their siblings and parents. Our parents would meet and exchange information about working conditions, areas that were needing field laborers and most important information about the farmers. Which farmer treated the workers fair, which ones paid well and which ones were willing to take advantage of the workers.
On this day thunder storms had visited the area ahead of us. There were still some rain puddles on the streets and a nice chill in the air. Perfect weather for walking the downtown area.

When we drove by this building, I immediately recognized it. This is where they use to have the Mexican dances. On Saturday night you would find most of the young migrant workers here. I was too young to be interested in dances, but I do remember going inside once during a wedding. I remember they had a band that played nothing but polkas and no singer. Every song sounded just like the one before. Not much has changed for this old building except maybe its use on Saturday nights.

Roje's memory was so sharp that he was able to guide me to this old house. We lived here for a few seasons in the late 60's and early 70's. This was Henry's farm. The house had two bedrooms and a kitchen. My dad build an enclosure behind the house which we used as a shower area. The outhouse was located about 100 feet behind the house. That old wood fence next to the house use to be part of a huge corral where they kept about 100 cattle. Everything smelled like cow dung. We use to go to town on Sunday nights and my mom would do laundry there because you couldn't hang anything outside because by morning everything would smell like the corral. The farmer lived across the driveway from us and they were use to the smell.

When we got to this farm house we parked across the drive way right were the farmer use to live. That house is now gone. The older two-story house is still there, it is located about 200 feet farther into the property. The lady that now lives there was on her way to church, I went to her and asked her if she would allow me to photograph the house. Roje came up too and we told her how we use to live here many years ago. She was very friendly and talked to us for about 20 minutes. She ended up leaving late for church. We walked around the house, it looked so small.

We drove back to Greeley and decided to find a place to eat dinner. It was late already and it was now a little colder than just chilly. We ate at the Rio Grande Cafe. The food was excellent and the waitress extremely friendly. They also had great coffee or maybe it was the cold weather in the middle of summer, something we, who live in central Texas, are no longer use to.

Dinner was great and the restaurant was nice and quiet and lent itself well to us carrying a long conversation. Before we knew it we had been there about two hours, it was getting dark and the weather was looking more menacing. This photo is of the sugar processing plant in Eaton, Colorado. This was our mediator in any disputes between the farmers and the migrant workers. I remember it as being way bigger than this. It is closed now and abandoned. The processing is now done somewhere else.

We stared back to Denver. It was almost dark. We were still deep in conversation about the years long ago when we were kids. About the times spent chasing rabbits through the alfalfa fields, chasing mice in the silos, or riding down the dusty farm road in Roje's motorcycle. The old McDonald's is still there. That was our Saturday lunch stop. Oh we loved going there, I don't know if my parents thought the food was as great as we did, but they took us there because we liked those little burgers and over salted fries so much.

As we neared the Greeley city limits I thought I could here a whining sound. At first I thought it was my mp3 player and lowered the volume on it, but the sound was coming from outside. To our surprise, it was the severe weather warning sirens going off! The sky ahead of us was cloudy but not threatening and I could only see a small part of the sky behind us through the side mirrors on the truck. That sky was black, long gnarly bright bolts of lightning would surge from the clouds and strike the ground. Memories came back of the times we would scramble to the huge potato cellars, when the radio would announce that a tornado was seen somewhere near. The storms stayed over Greeley, it took about 15 minutes to out run them, but we made it back to Denver well past ten at night. The time had come to start packing. We were hoping to leave at five or six in the morning. Ahead laid a 14 hour drive back home.

Another Day on the road....

2008-07-16T00:06:00.008-06:00

Well, we made it to Denver! We woke up early and headed to the mountains. Carlos, my brother, went with us. He was our guide. We had just started up the paved mountain road when we met a bear!!! Right in the middle of the road. That is lucky, yeah, that we got to see a real bear and that we happened upon it while we were safely inside our vehicle.

There was so much to see, but we had to get to the mining towns early enough so that we could make it back to the Cog railroad train and take the trip up to Pikes Peak. From here you can see Colorado Springs in the back ground. I don't know how high we were but its a long ways down.

The road was an old wagon road, not very wide. When coming to a tunnel or a sharp curve, okay, any curve, Carlos told me to honk so if anyone else was coming from the other direction they would know we were there. Okay, they have some real idiots out there driving way to fast for this little roads. Anyways, we came upon this tunnel and got out to take pictures. It is so cool, carved out right through that mountain.

We made it to the first town and got out to explore. We missed a lot of good photo ops on the way. See the hills in the back ground?
They use to be mountains that were mined for many years. When GW Bush says that oil drilling in Alaska or in the gulf won't destroy the environment, just remember those hills. Anytime you exploit an area you end up with destruction.

Here is a better example of what happens when greed exceeds concern for our planet. That is huge, it is the rubble that was dug from the mountain then dumped over and use to create a dead mountain. Nothing will grow for a few hundred years. Just remember that when a politician calls himself or herself conservative, they are all for conserving their dollars not the environment.

Isn't that beautiful.

This is what a small mountain look like before mining begins.

That is one of the trains that takes people up to Pike's Peak. The trip up is slow. You can see the middle rail which is where the cog under the car connects to the ground. That is the only traction that the train has to climb up the mountain.

This area gets so much snow that trees don't grow. There are plenty of animals up here though. We were so high up that we were level with the clouds. It wasn't raining, we just ran into the drops before they fell.

This is awesome. You can the the mountains, the clouds and way back, you can see where the sun is shining.

When we got to the top of the mountain, it was snowing!! July 1st. and it is snowing!! Boy, was it cold. Elfida was out there for a few minutes then went inside the souvenir shop where it was warm. She even bought a pair of gloves.

Here they are mugging an old miner. They sold all kinds of souvenirs, most made in China.

Sam was so excited about being up here, he didn't even notice the cold. He ran around all over taking pictures. I finally got him to sit down and took his picture.

He was so excited, I thought he was going start singing "Rocky Mountain High".

The clouds moved higher that us and the snow and rain stopped.

That is the train that took us up here. Sam was still somewhere taking pictures.

I like this shot. What a bunch of tourist.

Sobering moment.

What thoughts come to mind when you are so high up, so close to heaven?

Deer enjoying the warm weather, the green grass and the clean air. Oh yeah, that is snow.

This little guy didn't seem too happy to see all us tourist invading his home.

That is the old steam engine that use to take the tourist up the mountain many decades ago. Yes, that is me. Sam took the picture.

We stopped and ate at TGI Friday's, spent about two hours talking and made it home at about 11:30 PM. Tired, very tired, but very happy to have been so high.

Day 5 - Going to Colorado

2008-07-09T22:43:00.004-06:00

We slept late till about 0800 AM and then went back to a Mexican restaurant we had been to the day before. The food was very good and the prices were reasonable. Roje liked the friendly waitresses there. After eating Dora and Elfida looked at the map and picked a route to Colorado. We were about 8 miles out of Santa Fe when they decided they wanted to go through Taos so we turned around went back to Santa Fe and then north.

We made it to the Rio Grande again and stopped. It was carrying more water this time and we couldn't find a way down to its bank.

I found this relative of the dandelion. It was huge!! I tried to climb the side of one of the hills but it was too steep and the rocks to loose. There were to many prickly plants too and I didn't want to slide into them.

We stopped at a tourist center and as I was walking to the building I saw this cloud growing from behind the hills. It was awesome. It kept getting bigger and bigger. You could actually see it growing.

We took a detour just past Taos, Dora and Elfida insisted on letting Sam see the Royal Gorge, but I think they just wanted to go buy hand made jewelry from the vendors that sell their stuff there at the bridge. Anyways I found this two butterflies and spent about 10 minutes trying to get a perfect shot. I never did because a crow came over insisting that I feed it.

This is the guy. He was very aggressive and persistent that I fed it. He came up to within a foot of me and I would put the camera right to its head. He started scratching just like our parrot use to do. Boy he needed some lotion on them feet. Now I know why they call wrinkles next to the eyes "crow feet".

Yeah, he got close enough that I was able to photograph the inside of its mouth. I had never seen the inside of a crow's mouth. Interesting.

It took us about six hours to travel about 200 miles. We stopped at too many places. We finally made it to Colorado!!
Elfida was stretching her legs by taking a walk along the interstate. Now she can say she walked from New Mexico to Colorado.
We were talking about the Huerfano and telling Same about it. Roje insisted we had passed it already. When we saw it he made a bet with Elfida that we had passed it already and that this one wasn't it. So we stopped at its marker. Roje lost the bet.

I remember this long dirt roads that lead to the farms from when we use to come work in the fields. A little past this road we saw a bear on the side of the road. By the time I made a U-turn he had disappear. We made it to Denver at about 0930 PM. We did stop to eat before getting to Denver and broke the "no burgers" rule. We were to tire to eat at a regular restaurant.

to be continued....

Going to Bandelier Park

2008-07-07T22:25:00.004-06:00

Ok, we are back in Waco already. I got way behind on my blogging. We were staying out to late and I was too tired from all the hiking and sightseeing to get on my blog at night. The time I spent awake at the hotel was spent in the swimming pool and the Jacuzzi. Anyways, here we go with the pictures of our trip. This was day number 4.
We got up early and raided the continental breakfast at the hotel. Taking with us apples, bananas, yogurts, etc. for our trip to Bandalier Park. We also stopped at a grocery store and bought water, sodas, cookies and other munchies. We got to Bandelier and did not meet the huge crowds that we had read about on their brochures. As we prepared all the equipment for our hike, Elfida noticed a deer spying on us from the edge of the parking lot. This area had too many visitors and the animals are not scared by humans. We filled the camelbacks with water, loaded up our pockets with corn nuts, trail mix, cookies, apples and bananas, got our walking sticks and headed out. Roje, not into hiking decided to hang out at the visitor's center and to check out the areas close to there.

Sam, Dora, Elfida and I decided to take the long hike to the Aclove House which was a couple of miles from the visitor's center. The hike was easy with no climbs. When we got to the Alcove House we gathered courage to climb the wooden ladders to the caves. Elfida was thinking of waiting at the top of the first climb, but then saw a pregnant woman climbing down one of the ladders and decided if she could do it so could Elfida.

Dora and Sam took of on one of the path not facilitated by ladders. The drop from there wasn't to far but the rocks would scrape all the skin of any exposed part of the body.

There was a series of steps carved into the rock that you use to get to the ladders. The steps have metal hand railings but the steps are only about 10 inches wide. Only one person can be on them and they are used for going up and coming down. You had to kind of stand on the slanted rock or straddle the railing to let people go past you. There were four ladders you had to climb to get to the Aclove. the first one was about 18 feet long, followed by a 40 ft., then a 16 ft. and then a 12 ft. ladder. It was scary going up and thinking of having to climb down the same ladders was even scarier. However, we found that once you start coming down it is actually easier. There were some little kids there running up and down the ladders. Darn kids!

On our way back on the trail we stopped for a potty break and met Mr. Squirrel. He was guarding the restroom. No fear.

On the way back we took the trail that follows the cliffs and stopped to inspect some of the other dwellings. They actually let you go into some of them. Inside the caves the temperature was about 15 degrees cooler than outside.

The inside was pretty big. Very comfortable and safe from predators.

I had taken some walkie talkies that Maiko and Amy had given us as Christmas presents about three years ago. We always carry them with us when we go hiking. I had never had to use them before other that for very short distances. I had left one with Rojelio and started calling him from about a quarter mile away. He was able to hear me and met us while we were inspecting the dwelling. I talked him into going with us to see the waterfalls. I had read that they were only 1 1/2 miles from the visitors center. It looked easy on the map. He took my walking stick and set out with us to see the big water falls that the brochure showed. Well, it was a mile and a half but it was all climbing and the trail got pretty rugged. Rojelio decided the water fall wasn't worth the long climb and turned back to the visitor center. We found the first water fall about 100 yard from where Roje had turned back. I called him on the radio and told him we had found them. He told me to take a picture and he would look at them later.

Ok, see the disappointed look on Elfida's face... and look behind her, you may make out the water fall. Not very impressive. Well, we decided that we would walk the next half mile to the second water fall. We had talked to some hikers coming back and they said the trail got harder but the second water fall was better that the first one.
That is what the trail looked like. You definitely needed hiking boots for this and the walking sticks really came in handy. No railing and the drop off was about 150 feet. In some parts the trail was only about two feet wide. Storm clouds were just beyond our view and we would hear the loud thunder but we were determined to see the water fall and make it to the Rio Grande which is where this arroyo emptied into.

We made it to the second water fall and by now we had eaten every snack we had. Our camel backs were down to about a quarter full. We were out of the shadows of the canyon walls and that sun was hot!! The water fall was right next to this rocks but you couldn't see it from here. You had to hike down another 100 yard.
While Dora, and Elfida rested and Sam explored the area, I went down to take picture of them and the water fall. This one was bigger and you can actually see it pretty clear. It's no Niagara Falls but it was cool.
We climbed down all the way to the base of the canyon and found that the river, creek, arroyo, what ever you want to call it, goes underground from the fall to the Rio Grande. Well we were tired and from there decided we had seen the Rio Grande before, so we turned back around. Two hiker told us that it was another half mile to there Rio Grande. Sam was running around like a mountain goat. He said he felt great and wasn't tired at all. He wanted to hike another 10 miles.

Elfida had a different idea. She was ready to head back to the truck. Climbing out of the canyon really zapped us of what energy we had left. We were taking breaks about every quarter mile. Sam was way ahead of us and would stop every so ofter to let us catch up. About half a mile from the truck I was able to talk to Roje over the walkie talkies. I was impressed. The canyon is not straight and there are lots of trees. Those little radios have some excellent transmitting power.

We found a Furr's Cafeteria, Roje can locate one by instinct, and ate there. After all the hiking and sightseeing, we were ready for a buffet!! Oh yeah, we had that waitress running back and forth with plates of food. At Furr's you get your first plate of food and then the waitress bring you what ever else you want. I found out that all their cakes, cookies, jello, etc. are sugar free!! Okay, Elfida didn't believe me either but it was too late. I ate all of those goodies!!! I do remember going to the swimming pool and sitting in the Jacuzzi for a couple of hours while our bodies recovered. When we made it to the room we looked at the photos I had transferred to my laptop. Sam was more tired than he thought and fell asleep before any one else, so I took a picture. : ) Uhhh... he looks so cute with his mouth open... hee, hee, hee...

TO BE CONTINUED....

Exploring North of Santa Fe

2008-06-29T23:51:00.003-06:00

We had gone to Chimayo earlier but the place has become a tourist town. They have tried to fix up the church but it looks more like a tourist trap than the old historic church it use to be. Anyways, I didn't get any real good photos there. But, we stopped at a little store by the side of the road and while Roje flirted with the cashier, Dora and Elfida looked for things to buy, I walked across the road and found this interesting tree branch. It must have broken a one time but it survived and grew back against the trunk. It looked like a strange creature was trying to hug the tree.
The day started very warm and then the wind kicked up and the temperature dropped into the low 60s with a windchill factor of about minus 20 degrees. It was cold!!
We stopped at an old church and I made same walk across this wall four time before being satisfied with this photo.
Elfida found some protection from the cold wind behind this old door.

Hey, its Nacho Libre. "I don't believe in religion, only in science."

We made a sudden stop when we spotted something unusual for this part of the country. Roje went to photograph it and...Watch it Roje!!! That would have been funny... not to Roje, but to us...Okay, to me and Elfida mostly.

Well, that's one way to get water across a gully. Two hollowed out trees connected together spanning across the gully worked perfect. What crafsmanship!
That is increadible.

See how well it works.

We made it back to Santa Fe and went to the Olive Garden to eat. Roje, Dora and Sam review some of Roje's photos. We had a huge dinner. Elfida helped some young kid recover some money he had dropped on the floor. The money was picked up by an employee who hadn't turned it in to the lost and found. After dinner we went to the hotel and then spent an hour in the jacuzzi and the pool.

2nd day of Almaguer Road Trip 2008

2008-06-28T01:22:00.004-06:00

Ok, its about 0200 AM and I am falling asleep. I loaded up the pictures and scanned through them. This are some of them. We had a great time walking downtown Santa Fe. Big tourist trap area. They have some nice art work on display. On this first picture I had to put the camera on top of a trash can and then run across the street to be in the picture.
This is the oldest house in New Mexico. Notice the sizes on the doors.
Had to get this quick one. I thought it was cool.

Caught this bumble bee feedings. We drove around Santa Fe just exploring the edges of town for about 3 hours.
Veterans memorial cemetery. Those crows were as big as turkeys!!
Found another cemetery and in it this strange looking plant. Sam had to smell it.

Elfida was walking when she said she felt a cold breeze touch her leg them her shoulder as she walked by this graves. They were two children's graves. If there are any dead people near, Elfida is going to sense them.

Hard to imagine that there were people here this long ago.

Very cool picture.

Roje took this one.
Heading back to the truck. Roje told me, "All we got to see was empty lots, rocks, dead people and old buildings!" He wants to go to the casinos.

We kind of got lost and ended up on a road at the top of a hill. The sun was just starting to set so we waited for about 15 minutes to catch this sun set. Ahhhhh...
We drove down the road looking for highway 84 and came up on another hill. This is what we saw from there. ooooooooh.... We ate at Applebee's again. Too tired to go anywhere else.
Well, got to go to sleep, we are getting up earlier tomorrow to explore the towns surrounding Santa Fe.

Almaguer Road Trip 2008

2008-06-26T23:46:00.004-06:00

I got out of work at 07:00 AM. I got home expecting everybody to be ready to go. People were just getting out of bed. I fed the dogs and gave them fresh water. We started loading up the truck and managed to get out of Waco by 09:30. Our trip had stared. Roje drove first and Sam took the second shift. I slept taking a few pictures when ever I woke up in between naps.
We stopped at Clovis, New Mexico, to take a potty break and stretch out. We had gone through a rain storm just before coming into the town. The temperature went from 97 degrees to 67 degrees with in 15 minutes. It sure felt good.
Sam was driving down highway 84 when I saw an old church off to one side of the road. Sam made a U-turn and we were off on our first exploration. It was an old abandoned wooden structure that had been a church many years ago. The congregation long gone and the sermons silent for many years. It was in the town of Tiaban, New Mexico.

Sam did a thorough search of the base boards where the alter had once been. The old wooden floor was rotting, but still strong enough to hold our weight. When it was built there must have been no electricity there. The switches and outlets had been wired years later so they were on the outside of the walls.
Some other explorers less responsible that ourselves had left their mark on the wall.

It was still a very pretty building. It has aged gracefully and stands with much dignity.
I set my camera on the bed of the truck and set the automatic timer on. It took three tries before I manage to run from the truck all the way to the stairs and be sitting down before the camera took the picture. Dora, Elfida, Roje, Sam and I, the explorers for the 2008 Almaguer Road Trip.
I took this photo in Ft. Sumner, New Mexico. I slept the rest of the trip until we made it to Santa Fe. It was a long 13 hour drive. We located our hotel after making Sam drive in circles for about 30 minutes. Everyone was tired so we walked a couple of hundred yards to the Applebee's and had dinner. After dinner it was time to crash out and get rested for tomorrow's adventure.
Oh yeah, Sam did violate the rule of Road Trips of never listening to directions from a rear seat passanger!

Summer days

2008-06-22T23:31:00.006-06:00

As summer comes upon us, we grown ups worry about the lack of rain, high electric and water bills. Elfida and I were at Big Lots. We saw this swimming pool, 10 ft. diameter 2 ft. high. It went home with us. Aaron helped me put it up while Maiko cooked some meat on the grill. I had four kids in swim suits standing around watching the water in the pool slowly rise. Very slowly.
With about four inches of water, I could no longer look at the kids faces filled with anticipation. I gave the go ahead! Four inches was all the water they needed to forget the heat. They splashed, jumped, scooted, and dunked their heads in the cool, cool, clear water.

Oh yes, I envy them and their care free spirit. They can create so much joy out of so little. There were giggles, laughter, screams, and a few tears, all the confines of a small pool of water. Beautiful memories.
One day I was walking through the living room and heard a click, then a few seconds later another and it came every few seconds. I checked all over the room for the source. I found it under the buffet. It was a cry for help from a beetle trapped in a spider's web. Every so ofter it would find strength and twitch its body making it click, causing the spider to move away, then it would return to try and finish off its meal.
Saturday Elfida and I went to Ft. Worth to see Carlos. We got there while he was still a work, but he came out to meet us and get us our hotel room. He returned to work and we went out the lake at the base. We walked along the shore. I found this white flower with a small bee feeding off it. I stood over it trying to get a picture of the bee on the surface of the flower. That bee never cooperated.
Carlos came back as soon as he got out of work. It was a hot humid afternoon. He was looking great and we decided to go eat dinner at Pappadaux. We missed the exit twice and when we finally got there we couldn't find the front door. Ending up on a side entrance, Carlos pulled on the door but it was locked. We started to walk away when the door opened and a waitress called to us to come in. She even took us to a table by the window. No waiting. She was so nice. We also went to see a movie and when we walked into the theater it was almost full. We were standing at the bottom when a lady began to wave her arms and point to the seats behind her motioning with her hand that there were three chairs there. We must have met two of the most friendliest and helpful people in Ft. Worth that day.

We found this church and I went to photograph it. Carlos volunteered to take our picture. I think he's got his daddy's talent for taking pictures.

Not bad for two old grandparents.

I took this one of Elfida and Carlos having a good laugh...probably at my expense.
Yeah that's them again. Beautiful church.
We came upon Mr. Squirrel as we walked around the church. I think it was one of those psychotic killer squirrels. It had this crazy look in its eyes.

Yeah, it was ready to attack me, so we left in hurry. Yep, we met the two friendliest people in Ft. Worth and one crazy squirrel.

Rogelio and Yvonne Almaguer's Wedding

2008-06-02T22:33:00.006-06:00

Well, we went to San Antonio to my nephew's wedding. It was great, good food, good music and lots of dancing. Rogelio Almaguer Jr. married Yvonne. Beautiful bride and of course being an Almaguer, a very handsom groom.

Okay, we called him Rojelin when he was little. Here they are with his parents.

And grandma with her son, grandson and bride.

The new Almaguer Family.

Bride and groom with the Luis Almaguer Family.

Carlos and Grandma.

Elfida took about 10 photos before the two of them behaved enough to get a normal picture.

Yvonne and Rojelin dancing.

Jorge Rangel, Carlos friend and guest at the wedding.

Carlos and Jorge in their uniforms. Real headturners everywhere they went. Lots of people came up to them to thank them for their military service. Everyone wanted to know if they had been to Iraq. A yes answer from both of them.

Of course Elfida had to have a picture with both Marines.

We took a family photo and Lily just had to be in the picture with her daddy.

Carlos went up to dance with Rojelin during the dollar dance.

Amy dancing with her daughters. Isabelle and Amy dance the Electric Slide together too.

Before the end of the night they started playing 60s music. Maria Elena, Carlos' aunt, came and got him to go dance with her. The DJ went into a 30 minute set of none stop twist, swim, and other 60s dance music.

Carlos was ready to pass out after that marathon dance. His aunt had to help him off the dance floor. Boy it was a fun night. Walking was painful the next day for just about everyone. Too much dancing!!!

The next day we went to my brother's house to eat breakfast. Carlos showed his new tattoos which I didn't know he had gotten. Well, someone named Tara wrote her name with a perma marker. He wouldn't tell us where that came from.
This one is suppose to be for his mom, but he won't put Elfida's name on it. Okay, got to go to the old website and remove some very old pictures of Rojelin from that site.

Memorial Day in Waco

2008-05-29T22:59:00.005-06:00

I left work sick Sunday night, got home about midnight and laid in bed trying to fall asleep. I don't know what time I finally fell asleep, but at 07:30 am, my wife got up. We had to go to the Memorial Day service they were having at the Rosemound Cemetery. Carlos came home since he had a four day weekend. He knew we attended the Memorial Day services and to my wife's delight he brought his uniform. Upon parking and walking towards the service area we met Maiko's High School Marine ROTC instructor. He recognized my wife but did not recognized Carlos, who was all of 11 years old when Maiko graduated.

The ceremony was very moving. There were more people there then in previous years. So many flags, so many wars,...
The Marines were there in their dress blues. Very impressive. The Army, navy, Air force and Coast Guard were also represented. It was hot and humid, an overcast day.

The old veterans were there with their patches commemorating battles, ships, wars, and work groups. All proud to have served this country.
All life members of an elite group that has served their country in times of war.
All proud of their Service.
Some young, some old. Bill Erck and his wife knew Carlos when Carlos was just a little kid. Elfida use to take him to our C.O.P and C.P.A. meeting. He was too young to be left alone at home. Bill is a former Marine who never lost that Marine walk.
I think I will let the pictures do the talking now.

Advise and well wishes from an old Marine to a young Marine.

I wish more people had attended to hear the speakers talk about those who have lost their lives defending this country. This is the best way to show our children why it is so important to stand up for our freedom, at home and abroad.

My brother

2008-05-15T00:06:00.005-06:00

This is my brother Rogelio. He is three years older than me (but I look much younger that him). When we were young, we got along very well. We use to buy tons of plastic toy soldiers, toy guns and little cars to play with. I always had a playmate.
As the years came and we made it to our teenage years we became very different from each other. Rogelio, better know to us as, Roje, grew more conservative, a lot more mature. He enjoyed the benefits of having more in common with my older sister, Maria Elena.
Roje got into being an frequent escort for weddings and quinceañeras. Maria Elena bought him the suits and ties. He wore his hair short and combed. Remember Santana's "Europa (Earth's cry, Heaven's smile)? Roje and I shared a room at home and during the week he would listen to a radio program called "La Media Naranja". People would request dedications for their boyfriend or girlfriend or would also ask for the DJ to set them up on dates with other listeners. The theme song for the program was "Europa". Every time I hear that song, that is the memory that comes back to me. Well, listening to that program was one of the few things we would agree on. Roje had a 1971 Camaro that Maria Elena had given him. During our teenage years, he hated having to give me a ride to Piedras Negras. Either I had to give him gas money or mom had to order him to take me. Some of the things that bother Roje about me were - I drank beer, hung around with my cousins (his cousins too), dressed like the 70s, drank beer, and drank more beer and smoked.
Roje never wore T-shirts by themselves or blue jeans. He preferred the button down shirts and slacks. He hung out with our older cousins who were more mature than the ones I hung out with. He stayed out of trouble, always. I don't think mom ever missed a night's sleep because of him. He worked, went to school, had a formal girlfriend and came home every night.
Me, well, I drank beer, smoked, got into fights and just barely manage to stay out of serious trouble and would leave home on Friday and come back on Sunday. That's me on the right side of the picture. I wore that shirt every day, owned one pair of dress shoes and wore sneakers all the time. I also had one or two dress pants and a couple of button down shirts. Mom made sure of that so that if I had to go dressed to some important event (like a funeral) I could look descent. Yeah, I would get a hair cut once in awhile, but it was usually too long and kept me on my grand fathers problem child list.
Check him out! Que carita! This was from Maria Elena's wedding or Dora's quinceañera. The girl was really pretty and Roje was really love struck. He was actually nice to me that night. Didn't yell at me at all.

This is from his wedding night. That was a great night. They had a pretty good band playing at the dance hall. My cousins and I danced most of the night. The only bad thing was that some drunk ran into Dora's car after the dance. The actual dance ended at 0200 am, but some drunk relative paid for the band to continue playing at the "torno boda" which is the party after the dance. That lasted until about 0800 am. We ate "menudo" and continued dancing till the sun came up. Oh yeah, I did wear a button down shirt, dress shoes and slacks that night. I also behaved since both my parents were there.
Here I am in something different other than my green army shirt. I use to listen to American music more that Mexican music. Roje preferred to listen to Mexican music. He had an 8-track player in his car and we would listen to "los Terricolas, Los Angeles Negros, Camilo Sesto, Nelson Ned, Estela Nuñez, Juan Gabriel, etc". Once in a while he would let us play Elton John or John Denver. That was a wild a music as he would put up with.
After he got married he let loose a little and moved away from full button down shirts and wore blue jeans. We started to get along better by then. I also cleaned up a bit.
I was still doing the same things but since I wasn't at home any more, it wasn't as noticeable. Well, now since I have matured some, I really like that old Mexican music Roje use to like.
I was already married when this one was taken. Roje actually invited me and Elfida to a party at his in-laws house. Well, I started thinking about Roje because I found that "Youtube" has music from all those old Mexican singer from the 70's. Some of the songs I hadn't heard in more 30 years. Listening to them brought back some old memories. I realized that I didn't have a whole lot of memories of Roje and me doing thing together as teenagers. OK, I did remembered lots of funny stories about things we did that would get him mad at us. Yeah, there are lots of those stories. We get along great now, except when we travel together. I don't like being late for anything and he is never in a hurry to get to any place. He's told Elfida that he is going to get her a medal for putting up with me and my lack of patience.

Coming Home.

2008-05-04T00:44:00.002-06:00

Carlos is back in Texas. He is stationed in Ft. Worth. He came home on a weekend still in his desert camies and Elfida got a picture with him. He is way taller that his mom. Elfida went to pose, I was taking the picture, Isabelle and Maiko were watching. Everyone forgot about Lily.
Yeah, she climbed up on the chair that Isabelle was using to help Elfida wash dishes. So many suds!! What to do with them.
How about washing your hair? Very good.

Don't forget the neck. She was so proud of how clean she got herself. What a character!!!

April 2008 begins...

2008-04-06T21:04:00.003-06:00

Perfect weather moved into Waco. Maiko started playing softball and asked us to go to his game. Ok, softball is a stupid game. Too many rules and they have real goofy umpires. I think they all rode a little yellow bus to the games. I like soccer, very few rules, most having to do with the size of the field, the uniform or the length of the game. Anyway, the smurf standing on the left side of the photo tried to kick me out of the ball park for saying loudly that he was being too buddy, buddy with the other team. We had a great time watching him play.
On the way home we saw this fiery sunset over Hewitt, Texas. Deja vu. Three and a half years ago we were coming home from eating dinner with Carlos. It was his last night in Waco. He was heading for San Diego to start his life as a Marine. That evening we saw a sky just as red, just as fiery. I took a picture of it too. I will have to find it and compare them to see which one was the reddest.

The next day we went to see our newest grand daughter, Carolina. Aaron was getting ready to go over seas. Sheila and Aaron invited us over for dinner and to meet Carolina. She is beautiful.
Jonathan wanted me to see him ride his bike. He is pretty good at it. He drove around the backyard having fun letting me watch him have fun and taking pictures.
Christian took out his scooter and showed me his skills. He could get some air on it. I spent about and hour out there with them. Elfida was inside with Carolina, she just loved holding her. Jonathan cried when we got ready to go home. I hope they can come over on a weekend when we have Isabelle and Lily so we can have all the grand kids at our house.
Oh, there she is with Carolina. We had a wonderful dinner and I ate a sundae. It was delicious. I paid for it the next day. I don't do milk products. Well, Carlos is coming home but now we have Aaron overseas. I can't wait until we have all our sons back home. Maybe have a family dinner with all our sons and grand kids. Oh yeah, a house full of grand kids running around, chasing the dogs, climbing the trees, and playing on that dirt pile I have in our backyard.

Pictures from a short weekend

2008-03-31T00:12:00.007-06:00

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...

2008-03-24T22:43:00.006-06:00

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

2008-03-14T23:25:00.004-06:00

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

2008-03-08T00:29:00.002-06:00

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

2008-03-05T23:45:00.003-06:00

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

2008-03-05T00:43:00.005-06:00

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.