New Poem

Return to owner, please

My mind is gone...
left with Ike
Blown out with the surge
gone with the leaves and birds.
Perhaps it will be found
among the soggy bits of dry wall,
broken twigs and branches
in the debris pile at my curb.
My sense of time and space
sits beneath the water's surface
like a sunken boat
leaving an emptiness among the bones
waiting for something
something safe and sure.
I should have labeled it, I know.
My Social Security number etched
upon the right temporal lobe.
Return to owner, please.

@Kay L. Cox

Halloween is just my absolute favorite of holidays. I love decorating for it and getting out my collection of witch hats and ghouls and I love greeting all the kids at the door. We are blessed with a neighborhood full of children and that is safe enough for them to go up and down the streets Trick or Treating. Parents are usually in the background with flash lights but what a creative tribe...some of the costumes are so imaginative that my artist heart just swells.
Saturday my grandaughter brought two of her friends over to create Halloween ATCs. We had so much fun and the kids stayed for hours . I love 5th graders...they can do so much and yet haven't gotten to the reticent "I am too grown up" stage to try something fun and new. Taylor and I had gone to Hobby Lobby and gathered up a couple more rubber stamps to add to my collection and some more stickers. I had cut out the cards from orange, black and white card stock and they delved right in. It was interesting to watch them work...John loved rubber stamping and whizzed along; Michelle loved collage and was quite selective in her choices working slowly as she experimented; Taylor's were a mix of stamping and collage and stickers. I gave them all official sleeves for their cards and baggies to cart them home. After cookies and a few phone calls from moms they hurried off on their bikes agreeing to meet today for their trading.
We leave for Charlotte day after tomorrow and I am excited to be spending my first Halloween with my other grandchildren. It will take us a day and a half or so to get there and we will be back home on the 11th. It will be fun to share election day with my son and his wife as they have been really active in support of Obama so we will have a lot to celebrate on Nov. 4. I'm hoping that Texas will return to being a Democratic state which it was for all the years I was growing up. How could one grow up in Austin and not be interested in politics? I think it is in the water and Molly Ivins, bless her departed soul, will vouch for me.

More of Ike

In case anyone has forgotten us, this is a reminder that there are still thousands homeless and devastated by Hurrican Ike. This picture was taken this morning a couple of miles from my house on a street that runs along the Bay in my small community of Seabrook. Just one of many that were thrown off their piers or wiped out. Everyone seems to be at the mercy of FEMA who makes the decision on whether they can rebuild. It is hard to explain how or why some homes nearby seemed to come out unscathed while others are flattened or just flat disappeared. The clean-up and rebuilding will take years.

The Princess Star

Buchart Gardens

One of the highlights of the cruise for me was in Victoria, BC visiting Buchart Gardens. I could have spent days in there. This is a dahlia like none I had ever seen before. Some of the dahlias were the size of soccer balls...amazing. I would so love to go back to Victoria and spend a week. We only had a few hours so we had to breeze through the 53 acres.

More of the atrium

This is a close-up of the ceiling. On formal nights a photographer set up on the bottom floor and every evening there was a pianist playing.

The Princess Star

This ship is so beautiful. Amazing decor and so clean. This is a shot of the artrium...a little over the top, huh! Shops all around the second level and usually tables of vendor all around. Geez...who buys all that jewelry? Why would anyone buy diamonds on a cruise? They weren't even great bargains. There is a whole part of the female population that I've never been a part of and just don't get. It's been years and years and years since I have been to a "style show" and guess I've just developed my own sense of what I like to wear and feel good in. I love handmade clothes like Blue Fish and hang on to those wearing them for years and years and years.

Alaska rocks for Obama

This sign was near the entrance to the salmon hatchery where thousands of tourists go every day. Ha! We never saw any McCain/Palin signs anywhere in Alaska which makes me question just how popular is she?The salmon hatchery was very interesting as we learned how they gather salmon eggs, hatch them until they are about 6 inches long and then turn them loose after clipping a small dorsal fin near their tails. When fishing for salmon, it is okay to keep a hatchery salmon identified as such this way but one must throw back the wild salmon. The NY Times ran a picture of Sarah Palin, her daughter and their salmon catch spread before them. Three of the salmon were obviously wild. This woman does seem to do whatever she wants to whomever wherever. We saw lots of salmon in the fresh water creeks who were loosing skin and dying. Evidently the females lay eggs and then die and only the guys get to go back into the ocean. Another interesting bit of salmon trivia is that when leaving the ocean for the fresh water streams, they swim into a mix of brackish and fresh water where they rest for a while and physically adapt to the change growing different gills, etc. Then do the reverse when returning to the ocean. I was disappointed that we didn't see any whales but I did see a seal near Victoria, BC. We did see a brown bear on the road gathering berries when we toured on the Klondike Highway into the Yukon.
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Saturday October 11, 2008 - 12:15pm (CDT) Edit Delete Permanent Link 1 Comment
Leaving Tracy Arm for Juneau

It was amazing to me how this huge ship could turn around in this narrow channel but it was so fine as everyone got a view of the glacier and the ice flow.
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Saturday October 11, 2008 - 11:57am (CDT) Edit Delete Permanent Link 0 Comments
What a treat!

We arrived in Tracy Arm early in the morning to view the glacier and ordered a champagne breakfast served on our balcony. So all bundled up ( it was in the high 40s) we sipped and dined and thought we had died and gone to heaven. Then I remembered I'm not crazy about lox.
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Saturday October 11, 2008 - 11:36am (CDT) Edit Delete Permanent Link 0 Comments
The blue glacier

This was as close as we could get to the glacier up Tracy Arm as there was so much ice coming off of it. It is a lovely blue between these mountains and is melting at an alarming rate. Go soon as it may not be there in a few years thanks to global warming.
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Saturday October 11, 2008 - 11:29am (CDT) Edit Delete Permanent Link 1 Comment
Check out God's painting with light

Now here is a view!

Hey Sarah Palin (with lyrics/subtitles)

This pretty much says it all.

Was that a debate?

After last night, the Saturday Night Live clip seems not so funny after all.

Well, like everyone else I suppose, I watched the VP debate last night though I can hardly call it a debate. Palin was a huge disappointment. I thought she had more in her than that but I guess I set my expectations too high. I hear some had such low expectations that they were thrilled she didn't shoot herself in the foot. I felt I was watching a high schooler on her first debate team outing. She didn't debate! She came with a well-rehearsed, memorized speech that she was determined to get through somehow. She responded to every question with another one of her canned prepared responses. At least she was honest enough to more or less announce that is what she was going to do. I felt like I was watching the vice-president of the elementary school PTA enjoying her 10 minutes of fame chairing the school carnival BUT I'm sorry...I expect more than that from someone who wants to be a breath away from the President of the greatest country in the world. She gave no specifics really and scares the living daylights out of me. She stands for losing nearly everything that my mother, grandmother and I have worked so hard for these generations to gain rights for women. Having been to Alaska where I encountered women who had struck out to create new opportunities on the frontier, it surprises me that she serves as governor. I thought Joe Biden did an incredible job of addressing specific issues and reining in himself in what must have been a challenge facing this woman.

And Hillary, where the hell are you? You are the one Democrat who could legitimately go after her woman to woman. I was willing to vote for you if you had been the nominee but now I am SO disappointed that you have put yourself off the radar. Obama can't do it...Biden can't...at least not in the way that you could. Come on, Hillary. You pledged to support the ticket.

Back to the Alaska adventure

Back to the cruise

The Princess Star at boarding in Seattle
Our flight to Seattle was uneventful but crowded. On arrival we nabbed a taxi (I hate the Seattle airport...one has to trek up and across with luggage to get any ground transportation) and headed for the best kept secret in Seattle...the Executive Hotel Pacific downtown. Old hotel but very nice rooms and very reasonable. Leaving our luggage until check-in time, we walked over to the Seattle Art Museum which had an amazing installation of white cars with beams of light hanging from the ceiling. After checking in, we went in search of food and found a rather trendy spot called Purple with a huge wine rack in the middle. We were pooped and the food was just fair. Off to bed.
The next morning we left our luggage in the hotel's care and went off to meet Tom, a blogging friend. We sat for hours talking in Starbuck's...very interesting guy with his fun Kindle...very enjoyable way to start a vacation. Then off to Pier 30 to board. Boarding went quickly and well organized and we were led to our cabin.
Talk about being pampered! We were upgraded to a Premier Suite which meant we had a double balcony, a living room and bedroom and a huge bathroom with a jacuzzi tub and walk-in shower, 2 TVs and a wet bar with fridge. OMG! Chris and Karen had arranged for flowers to greet us and after meeting our cute steward, we went off to tour the ship and find food and drink, of course. It's a cruise...isn't that part of it? Even after days on board we still got lost or turned around.
The entertainment the first night in the Princess theater was just fair in comparison to what was to come but it was fun and we learned to get there early if we wanted a seat. Casinos aren't our thing so we went for the entertainment and there was lots of it. Nice bars with small bands and singers. Not being much of a drinker I managed to nurse a drink all the way through one set.
Then we were on our way to Ketchikan with beautiful scenery on the way.

More after Ike life

Frog finds lost sofa

Ike plucked this sofa from someone's home and frog found it on Nasa Rd 1 and claimed it. Rather poignant, don't you think?
Life here in our house is getting back together. The debris is gone, the frig is running, laundry is done. Parts of the fence are still missing and there are some large branches dangling from our trees. Our insurance adjuster is scheduled to come Tuesday and I'm trying to be optimistic in spite of reports from other folk.
But life around us is still lagging behind. There are still people without power, water, and often jobs. Our favorite Mexican restaurant is still closed and it is doubtful that Margarita can reopen. She was struggling as it was and the present state of the economy doesn't help. Such is the story of other businesses in Ike's wake. Our nearby grocery finally opened to a waiting group of loyals and I noticed a woman living in her car in their parking lot...no house, no $$$ and likely no job. I saw another doing the same in the parking lot of a local park...at least the lights of parking lots offer some degree of safety. A friend who lost everything was offered 6 months of housing in Alpine, TX by FEMA. She would have to quit her job and move hundreds of mile west of here. FEMA claimed that was the closet hotel housing they could offer. I am aware that our economy is getting ready to break but Ike's wrath has seem to have fallen off the radar here.

But back to the economy, we spent yesterday packing up a friend who has gone bottom up in this economy. He has worked hard all his life, great guy and is courageous enough to take a hard look at how he got to this point. He is temporarily taking a sabatical to the North to help a friend with some rennovation and we wish him well though we will miss him.

Geez...this is a rather gloomy post. I am off to church and perhaps will return in a lighter frame of mind and get busy posting pics about our Alaska cruise which has been rather overshadowed by Ike I'm afraid.

More on Ike

We have electricity! AC, drinkable water, Dancing with the Stars, laundry and ice cream. Awesome!

This picture was taken at the entrance of our little village of El Lago in Seabrook after Hurrican Ike gave us a visit. Boats are everywhere while others remained moored...go figure. Big, big clean up necessarythat will take months if not years. Directly behind this stack of boats one can see the mast coming out of a huge boat that has sunk along with a couple of others. It is all surreal...the condo complex, The Landing, adjacent to this marina has been condemned. After we were able to get back into our area our local pub, Boondoggles, offered a burger and a beer for a $5 donation a few days ago where we met a cute young couple. He is 22, worked hard and had just finished redecorating his condo at The Landing and paying off his $55,000 mortage. It is now condemned; it will may be months before insurance and FEMA pay. He was to start fire fighters' school the following Monday and had to find somewhere to live. His dad's law office was wiped out along with his parents' home. The stories go on and on, many of them of miracles, many of them very sad.

After Ike

After Ike

What a week! We are fine and our house is FINE! Amazing grace...we have so much to be thankful for. Thanks to all of you for your good thoughts, concern and prayers...they worked. We had no water in our house, no trees on our house. We returned home last Monday and began the clean up. We had many big limbs down in our yard and a yukky refrigerator/freezer to clean out which took several days and help from my next-door neighbor. Our fence is down in several places. Like many other neighborhoods our neighbors have been just wonderful and generous with their time. One community member drove by and stopped to see if she could help. She had finished at her house and knew there were elderly residents that could use a hand. She raked and bagged piles and piles of leaves. She works at the Galveston Yacht Club marina which had burned and may have lost her job. Her husband came by and he was a manager at Landry's in Galveston on the Seawall which was wiped out. He can't move to the Landry's in Kemah because the Boardwalk is under 2 feet of mud. They both are facing the possibility of no work.
Now it is late Saturday night Sept 20 and we are in Austin after the big clean-up. Our son, Chris, and our grandson, Sam, had plans to fly into Austin from Charlotte to attend the UT game and invited us to come up and enjoy some air-conditioning. We jumped on it and therefore are able to get online. We still have no power at our home and still have to boil the water but slowly El Lago's power is coming to life. We plan to return on Monday power or no power and try to get our lives back together. And so grateful to Chris for this break away from the chaos and are loving being with them. We haven't seen them since last Thanksgiving...way too long ago.
I have no complaints...the first day we were allowed back into our street the National Guard drove down our street making sure we were all okay and handed out cases of water and MR3 rations. The next day FEMA set up pods and we were able to get ice, water and more rations every day. It has been amazing out here though I hear it hasn't gone so well in Houston. Our neighborhood pub offered our community a burger and a beer out of a makeshift kitchen for a $5 donation which was so welcome after a few meals of potted meat and vienna sausages. A few groceries opened....Kroger opened with no power allowing 10 folks in at a time to shop for 20 minutes and we were able to pick up more batteries and soft drinks. No fresh produce anywhere. But all in all we are just so fortunate though surrounded by what looks like a war zone.
Closer to the bay in Seabrook two of my neighbors and good friends lost their businesses...across Clear Lake friends lost all their downstairs, cars and trucks and one lost everything; another, I can't reach. All of you have probably seen more of the devastation via TV than we have as we've had no electricity. The Universe provided us with a cold front with dry air and cool night temperatures so we could sleep with the windows open the first few days. Our cats have another story to tell of their adventure in being boarded near my cousins but that is a story for later.
A big frustration was nowhere to recharge my cell phone. Our land line will be out as along as our electricity is out. I was able to charge my cell once at my cousins' via a neighbor's generator. Finally I located my car charger and am back in business. We went to bed a little after 8 as there was nothing else to do. The mosquitos are too bad to stay outside and I soon gave up trying to read or write by flashlight.
While going through all this aside from getting pretty grumpy and a few bouts of frustration, I was pretty calm for the most part with only a couple of melt downs. The first came while hugging the National Guardsman who handed me the rations....I was just so moved that he was going door to door to help and probably a little in shock from the devastation seen on our way in...trees on houses, huge power lines down, sides of buildings missing and numbers of huge boats wrecked up against each other at the edge of our development.
The second melt-down was on our way here. We stopped in Columbus to eat and when I saw the buffet with all the salad and veggies, I was just overcome with the thought of real hot food. But it didn't keep me from finishing a full plate. Why does it take something like this to have this awareness of the many in the world who greet hunger every day! I still stop while brushing my teeth looking for the bottled water.
Life is looking up and though we are still reeling a little (we've lived in the area for 42 years and have never seen anything close to this kind of disaster), we are looking forward to hugging some folk and helping others who suffered much. Thanks again for all your good thoughts...we are in good shape and very grateful. Photos will come later.

This hilarious card was sent by a dear friend congratulating us on our 50th wedding anniversary. She and I have a standing running joke about our memory loss. I don't think we miss our minds very much...only when trying to find the car keys.

Another rainy Tuesday

A rainy Tuesday, again

My sinus infection seems to be improving thanks to the antibiotic from the doc...went in yesterday feeling crappy with it and a little paniced. I can't be ill now...we leave for our cruise on Saturday!
And added to it we're halfway in prep for Gustav's landfall just in case it should arrive in our absence. Part of the prep was retrieving a reject from a show at Brazosport Collete today with my friend, Adelyn. Geezus but it is a long way down there to Lake Jackson...thought we would never get there through the flat, flat treeless grassland that makes up the coastal prairie. The volunteer at the Gallery was very nice and accomodating but we thrilled to find that Adelyn had won a $400 first prize and nobody had bothered to let her know. Weird. Anyway the picture is of one of my quilts that was accepted...no prize but it got in.

I'm hooked! and need a nap!

I'm hooked!
Not enough sleep for 3 nights in a row but it was worth it! I'm hooked on beach volleyball and just loved watching the US teams play. What an exciting game! Fast and full of strategy and finesse. I had no idea but now I can't stop watching. And the US teams, both men and women, won the gold. And it wasn't just a walk-away...they worked hard for them. May-Treanor and Walsh had to play in the rain and Dalhauser and Rogers played in 100 degree heat. Wow! Sure beat anything TV has had to offer all summer. I loved it but will definitely have to take a nap. This is one time I wish I were 20 years younger and could try playing the game on the beach in Galveston.

Tony Melendez, english subtitles, vd.selfip.com

Beautiful story...very inspiring.

If pigs could fly...

This is a picture of the bonus room I painted for my grandkids in their last house. I've always loved the saying "If pigs could fly..." and took it as the theme. Their other grandmother helped with painting in the clouds and we had such a great time doing it. On an opposite wall we had a sign for Pig Field where they could land. I guess the people who bought liked the room as well as they had small children.

The anniversary gift

The anniversary gift

Some of you may already know that our 50th wedding anniversary is coming up on Sept. 5. Our son and his wife have gifted us with a fabulous cruise to Alasaka aboard the Princess...something we have always wanted to do. We leave on Aug. 30.
In preparation I could not think of anything gold to give my husband, Ken, that he would want or wear so I decided to write a book of memoirs of our journey together. What a daunting task as there have been so many years and so much has transpired that so far I have only made it up to our children graduating from high school. And I'm well aware that this is only my side of the story and I hope that Ken will feed more memories and information into it. And hopefully there will be many more adventures to come. It is just so hard for me to believe it has actually been 50 years and with the same man....imagine that! I've been married all my life!
The picture is of the quilted cover I have created for the notebook holding my writings. This is the front. I used tea dyed twill, some patchwork fabric and a photo transfer onto fabric. I added ribbons along the spine and may put some beading on it somewhere but for now I'm just writing as fast as I can.

An afterthought

Entry for August 13, 2008
Gee, I've never been to a funeral this size and so moving. I was holding it together pretty well until a fireman playing Amazing Grace on the bag pipes came down the aisle of the beautiful church followed by 150 or more firemen and women in uniform. I know now gratefully that my new makeup is indeed waterproof.
The church was surrounded by fire trucks and ambulances...so much so that one might think the church was on fire. The priest described his relationship to Stephen while riding around in his little red sports car (the Mercedez Benz finally gave it up) to the 59 Diner for breakfast and getting a call. His question to him: "Father, do you want to go to a fire or go home? So much for breakfast this morning." And there were at least 400 others in attendance who had been blessed in knowing this extraordinary man. His dept at Baylor College of Medicine sponsored a beautiful lunch following the service and I caught up briefly with friends from my past career. It was great to see interns that I had supervised doing so well now.
Whew! God in his great wisdom took Stephen quickly saving his wife and daughter months of anguish and lots of $$$$. I still feel he keeps my back and always will.

In memoriam

In memoriam

I lost a very dear friend this week, Stephen Pierrel, the kindest, smartest, funniest dear man with the highest integrity of any man I've ever known. And much too young to make his transition but I know, God, you don't make bad decisions so I need to trust. But what a loss to the community. His whole life was one of service to his community.
Stephen and I started out in the business of therapy together when we were office neighbors at Texas Research Institute for Mental Science. We both were on a big learning curve treating the indigent and supervising psychiatric interns in the child and family clinics. When TRIMS lost their funding and closed, Stephen asked me to come with him to Houston Child Guidance Center to help establish a satellite clinic out here in Clear Lake and we did. He had a Phd in Psychology and I was a LPC and LMFT and we were a great team. Until the Clear Lake clinic was built out and running we shared a desk at the downtown office seeing clients. Stephen was a pack rat and we had some great laughs over my trying to claim a bare spot on the desk. He was a great support to me in meeting the challenges of operating in another dysfunctional system.
We got the Clear Lake clinic going well, no lack of patients and along with 4 or 5 other therapists in the area organized the Bay Area Network of Mental Health Professionals which continues to be a vibrant organization of value to the community. The purpose came about because in the early 80s there was a rash of teen suicides in the Clear Lake area and though there were many therapists in the area, they were overlooked and therapists in Houston were called in to help in the schools to try to get the community back on even footing. The organization has served to make a presence of mental health professionals in the Clear Lake area and offer continued training for them and continues to do so.
In the meantime Stephen began dating Marsha Bauman, a social worker from Child Guidance, wonderful woman and they married. Stephen had this cute little gold Mercedes Benz convertible sports car that he was constantly looking for parts for and he and Marsha were just so cute together running around town in it. A great match and later they adopted a precious baby girl who is now a beautiful young lady adored by her dad.
Stephen loved unusual ties and wore them well with great humor. The above picture was taken at an office birthday celebration for him. He never failed to find humor in the most difficult circumstances which helped to keep us all balanced. He was very creative, enjoyed woodworking and while taking a class in silver casting, cast one of my designs for me, a pendanct that I still wear.
In 1987 we made the decision to leave Child Guidance and set up a private practice in Clear Lake and Stephen found a great office on El Camino Real from which we operated for a few years inviting Edie Apt in with us on a part-time basis. But it became evident that Stephen's main practice was going to be downtown and we closed the Clear Lake office. He went to Park Plaza medical center and I took over Charter Hospital's clinic.
Stephen and I sorta lost touch in the last decade or so...he was teaching at Baylor and I, at U of H but I always felt he had my back and hope that he felt the same from me. He became an expert in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and was called in to organize care following Hurricane Katrina with all the evacuees and after explosions at local plants. He was a great teacher and mentor to many. He was the Chief Psychologist for the Houston Fire Department and won many awards for his service.
Stephen developed prostate cancer about 3 years ago and it appeared to be in remission but returned this year. He was on chemotherapy and contracted a staph infection that he couldn't shake.
I will miss him along with many others whose lives he touched. An amazing gifted man.