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.

Whew!

Eduard from the porch

Whew! Dodged the bullet once again and got some much needed wonderful rain and so far, so good on the roof. No big limbs down in the yard and full electrical service. Yay! Good rehearsal I guess. The pantry is full, lots of bottled water and two movies to watch. I don't even think we had any tidal flooding. Thank you, dear Universe/God, for taking care of us one more time. Time to crank up the stereo on the soundtrack from Mama Mia and dance!

Eduard, we're ready

Bring it on, Eduardo
We're as ready as ready can be...but damn, I hate this part of living on the Gulf Coast, living through the summer wondering when or if a hurricane or tropical storm will be coming our way. At least so far this seems to be minimal and we are staying and riding it out. But all day has been spent in prep...shopping for canned meat, bottled water, batteries, fruit and hot dogs, food that doesn't need cooking, filling the car with gas and then using part of it in search of extra ice to put in the freezer. Groceries were already out of ice and big jugs of water early this morning. I finally ended up getting a bag of ice from Sonic which of course, needed to be accompanied by one of their iced lattes and so now I will probably be up half the night. Then it was hauling all the hanging baskets and pot plants along with the patio furniture and grill into the garage. Some pots are just too heavy to move so I figure that a 70 mile wind probably ain't gonna shove them around...hope I'm right. Then it was sweeping and working to clear the drains in the back yard. And then checking all the flashlights in case we lose power and digging out the candles...at least I remembered to buy matches. We already had a little roof leak and I fear we may have a bigger one with this storm. The joys of home ownership. But it wasn't all grind and grim...I took time out to see Swing Vote with Kevin Costner. It was fun and I'm a Costner fan in spite of some of his really bad movies. He's just so darn cute in a bad boy kind of way.
Saturday while I was out my granddaughter set up a lemonade stand at the end of our driveway and was pretty successful. She was earning money to take to camp to spend in their bookstore. And Sunday was the big day. We had a great time going with our daughter to take my 11 yr old granddaughter to Sea Camp at Texas A & M in Galveston. We drove her out to the campus on the peninsula after a great lunch at the Star Drugstore and Grill. She was so excited...she's been determined to be a marine biologist since she was 6 and went to this camp last year and loved it. This year she is studying sharks. We got her room altogether and met her cute roommate from New York and it was clear Taylor wanted to be in charge and ready for us to leave. And then last night we learned that this storm Eduardo is headed right for Galveston. Aiiiiyayaiiiii. We knew that the staff wouldn't take any chances and sure enough, my daughter got a call this morning that they were evacuating the camp to A & M's main campus in College Station. She called her mom later so excited that she is going to see the main campus...I think she sees herself as a pretend co-ed for a week. What an adventure I am sure she will never forget. Hope she takes lots of pictures. She was equipped with Aggie flip-flops and Aggie cap and a toy Reveille, their mascot.
Fortunately I have a stack of books to read if we are without electricity and I can always draw. So here we go.....I'll let you know how it all turns out.

Today was just awesome. The Thursday Life Story Writing group had some wonderful stories to share. What a great group of women with amazing lives and stories to tell and all are becoming better and better writers which is so fine. Border's coffee shop can be quite noisy when the blending or grinding machines are going but we manage pretty well. We will meet 2 times in August and then it is back to Alvin Community College for Gilbert's class.
This afternoon I picked up artist and sister/friend Betty to see the exhibit at the Menil Art Museum. If you ever get to Houston, put this beautiful building on your list. We are so fortunate here to have had the Menils as Houston residents with their passion for the arts and willingness to share it in such a beautiful manner. I loved the work of Sterne and Steinberg...delightful drawings. I loved his drawings with a lyrical calligraphic touch...very humorous and fun. You might recognize his work in the New Yorker magazine. And his wife was a wonderful painter to whom I can so relate...she never gained much recognition because critics claim she never had a particular style. She tried lots of things and I suppose in the art world that doesn't create what the critics would call "a body of work". I have the same problem.
We actually went to see the Menil's NeoHooDoo: Art for a Forgotten Faith exhibit. Very interesting work, lots of assemblage. A large sculpture of golf bags stacked up around a tall cardboard cylinder...sounds corny but it was interesting. Most impressive to me in the show was the work of Doris Salcedo. Her piece, Atrabiliarios, commemorates those who have disappeared amid political violence in her native Columbia. Actual shoes of the victims are inserted into niches in the wall which are covered with transparent animal skin and stitched all around with black thread...seen and not seen.
Then it was on to a great salad at Pronto's on Montrose before the opening of the WIVLA show at the Museum of Printing History. I have a collaged photograph in the show titled "Unabridged". It is a nice show and there was a great turnout at the opening reception.
What a great day...it approaching midnight and I'm about to turn into a pumpkin.

Poets galore!

Poets galore!

Home again, home again, jiggity jig with enough poetic lines to fill my soul and ears to last for a while...at least a week or two. The picture above is of the Texas Poet Laureate of 2008, Larry Thomas, a charming man, great poet, who read poems about Texas...all over Texas!
I met lots of interesting people and found myself along with my girlfriend, Barbara, middle-aged among the aged. There were women there I'm sure were marching upon 90 years. Does one have to be ancient to write poetry? I don't know whether to be encouraged or discouraged...most of the group have been writing for 20 or more years and have published, published, published. Of course, some have published great poems, others have published some not-so-great but that seems to be the name of the game. Why is it that I can't seem to get excited about seeing my stuff in print?
At the late night readings I either broke new ground or will never be allowed up front again. Yeah, I've done it again. I read my poem about my crush on my Lyme Disease doc called "Breathless on the table". The last stanza says something about leaving with "a handful of prescriptions and a juicy crotch." OMG, there was a roar...evidently it bordered on new ground, the edge of passion and desire. Two guys came up afterwards saying they wished they had gone to medical school; one said he wished that there were more poetry like it and that he noted that the woman who has been know to walk out at profanity had stayed. Maybe it had been a long time since she had had a juicy crotch...who knows. A few women said they loved it. Anyway such was my debut into the Poet's Society of Texas. I think I made an entrance that wasn't planned.
Lots of really good poetry was read and what a broad spectrum of topics. Much to learn and live up to and I'm definitely challenged.
Tomorrow I'm off to the Museum of Printing History to help with registration and to take my entry. Should be fun.

Robert Genn

Robert Genn

If you are an artist and haven't checked out Robert Genn's newsletter, you have been missing out on an articulate accomplished artist's wisdom. For a long time I have felt that my art making is my spiritual work, that God steps in and guides me into other realms. Painting is like prayer work and this week Genn offers his prayer which says it all better than I can:

"The spiritual," said Thomas Carlyle, "is the parent of the practical." Many years ago I wrote myself a private prayer. I've repeated it in a couple of books and tacked it on the wall of my studio. Here, under the dripping cedar-boughs of a Queen Charlotte's forest cathedral, I find my prayer again on a folded paper down in the sticky part of a much-travelled paintbox. It contains the sort of innocent zeal found in many youthful conversions, but it's still welcome:

The world's engagement of beauty is my bible,

And Art is my religion.

I come to it as a child.

I add all the grown wisdom I can gather.

Creativity is my salvation.

My easel is the altar.

My paints are the sacraments.

My brush is my soul's movement,

and to do poorly, or not to work, is a sin.

Robert Genn

July 4th and a poem

Happy 4th

This ATC is called peace and as we celebrate the 4th I feel so blessed to enjoy the freedom that we have in this country. Alarmed as I may get over the war and the transgressions that this administration seems to gallantly tred over our constitution I am grateful that as a woman I can vote, practice the faith of my choice and have the right to make choices over my body, at least at this point.
On another note, I have learned I have won a prize for one of my poems in a small local competition. Does that make me a prize-winning poet? Wheeeee! I may have posted this before but here is the last revision that won:

Deductible not Met
All I wanted was a postcard, not a drama.
I’m in it now, reluctant player
waiting for my turn to pay.
“$362.43”, speaks the pharmacist from behind the counter.
Tremors run through the tiny wrinkled body standing right in front of me
as she struggles with her wallet in a worn and ancient bag.
“Before, I paid only $20.”
“Deductible not met” replies a firm authority.
“That can’t be true,” she says,
“Give me back my paper. I’ll take it some place else.”
“Sorry, can’t do that,” he says,
“It’s in our system now, can’t be removed.”
Filled with empathy and anger,
I want to jump up on the counter,
scream and holler, call it wrong, wrong, wrong,
then pay her crazy bill.
But I don’t.
“I don’t have that much money, I need the medicine today,” she says.
Just give me back my prescription. “
He shakes a no, looks beyond her shrinking form.
“Next, please.”
Her hand falls limply to her side; she turns and walks away.
.
“Don’t make a scene, don’t interfere,
not much time to stay, really not my business,” I tell myself.
“Hell’s bells,” says the other voice,
“Someone needs to speak, to stand against injustice.”
My tourist self takes over, wrapped in a cloak of guilt,
walks toward my family waiting in the car
but I never, ever forget this old woman.

Yesterday we went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see the DeVinci exhibit. Wow!
What a genius this man was! He actually had the orginal idea of so many machines like the airplane, the car, an army tank. So amazing. I was familiar with his paintings of the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper but all the machinery was awesome. The museum showed models of his many works including the wings with attached harness, his attempt at flying. Incredible. I came away wondering if there surely isn't an equal genius here today on our planet somewhere that has some solutions to the mess we are in now with the energy crisis, global warming, war, overpopulation, poverty. If you are out there somewhere, dear genius, please speak up. We need you NOW!

Starbuck poetry

The girl in the “fuck me” shoes

All heads turned including mine
as she walked up to the counter,
the girl in the “fuck me” shoes,
You know, the high heel see-through plastic ones
brightly painted toes spreading at the end.
That’s what caught my eye
but others probably went to the bleached blonde hair
framing dramatic make-up and bright red lips.
Perhaps the tight black skirt with its hem
midway up a tan and shapely thigh
caught their eye.
Under the halter top with a pristine white collar.
lay a gold and shiny buckle
trapped in cleavage of bursting boobs.
Heads turned, yes, indeed, as she picked up her coffee
headed for her Hummer parked just outside.
leaving us all to wonder
“What might her day job be?”

@Kay Cox

The other quilt in the TAACL show. This is of my husband who has been involved in the space program for over 45 years. I started to name it "Space cadet" but decided he might not accept that label so this will have to do.

A week to remember

Dear Mama,
If you were alive today, you would be amazed and I'm not sure how you would react. Down deep I think you would be elated as I think had you lived this long you would have grown to be more tolerant and accepting. I would like to think so as I know you stood along with Dad for honesty and integrity. But I do remember when I was 19 years old, I wanted to join the protests against segregation over on the Drag by the University. You told me that if I did, I needn't bother to come home again. And so I didn't. To this day I don't think it was so much that you were opposed to blacks attending college as much as it was something that "nice ladies" shouldn't do. I think you was terrified that a picture of me carrying a sign would show up in the paper. "Ladies would never attract that sort of notoriety." The only picture appropriate would have been an engagement picture or a wedding picture and you made sure that happened.

This week a black American, Barack Obama, became the Democratic nominee for President of the United States. And this was in a close race with a woman, Hillary Clinton....haven't we come a long way on both fronts. I am thrilled that this wonderful compassionate Harvard educated young man of mixed race is going to lead this country that was founded by immigrants and diversity. And to think that a woman came so close. Today as she conceded to Obama and ended her campaign she gave the best speech she had ever given in the last 18 months. If only she had addressed women in this way, who knows how it would have turned out.

All this in my life time, just such a short time it seems since blacks came to the front of the bus and joined classes at UT. All this since 1974 when paying cash for some property in my name, the male realtor insisted on my husband's cosigning. Fortunately my activist nature was never squelched...you and Dad taught me about justice and rights and I am grateful for that.
So Mama, who knows...maybe you reincarnated as Hillary or Dad, maybe you coached Obama from above...but however these two were manifested, I am grateful and am sure that you remained staunch Democrats. Maybe we will take back the state of Texas this year. A year of change and possibilities. We've come a long way, babe.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Well, we are back after an exhausting few days in D.C. The conference went well in spite of some major clitches with the set-up. After days of little but acronymish (space cadets speak in acronyms that I have decided is a new language--acronymish) I escaped the Hilton to wander a bit. This was what moved me to write a poem about my journey.

Memorial Day in McGregor Park, D.C.

A soft breeze cools the cement beneath my feet
as geometric shadows of nearby buildings
grow long across worn patches of green grass.
Making their way slowly, one by one they come.
With walkers, wheel chairs, crutches they come,
come to find that certain bench,
come to stake a claim on dream time.
Black plastic bags lay near torn and ragged soles
holding what’s left of a life of hard times and bitter memories.
What will the darkness bring?
Nightmares of “Nam”?
Dreams of beds and showers?
Will they sleep tonight as sirens wail down K Street?
Ducks and pigeons scurry with flapping wings
circling round the woman all in green.
Midst the clamor, a hand turned rusty brown
reaches into a bag and throws the fowl some crumbs.
She who has so little sharing what she can.
Oblivious, suited figures scurry through the park toward appointments
while engaged in conversations wrapped around their ears.
I’m an intruder in a strange land.
Do I bring anything to the table?
Can I hear their pain?
I take a seat on a fading sun-lit bench
feeling overwhelmed that here
on Memorial Day near the Wall of honor
gather the forgotten ones
lost in the “land of the free and the home of the brave”.
How did it come to this?
A dark figure stooping under his mighty load
is ranting, raving at sights unseen
as he stumbles from bench to bench.
He looks at me and I become afraid.
He shouts a greeting and I nod.
Fearful and ashamed
I walk away toward my cozy place of respite
knowing that my meal tonight will fill my belly
but will it feed my soul?

Oh my! Get this!

Oh my! Get this!

Only in Texas! This was parked in front of a convenience store on Hwy. 6. Just step right up and buy a divorce along with your lottery ticket I guess. Somehow it grabbed my quirky sense of humor and I had to stop.
We're off to D.C. early Monday so no blogging for a few days. Hope to get some great photos and sketches in wandering around the Mall. Can't wait to get to the National Gallery....wheee...and then the Corcoran and the Hirshhorn. And maybe my asthma will clear up.

There is redemption! Blessed be! And homage to Our Lady of Perfection! And never mind, Mother Superior! Look at me! My poem "Monster Monday" has been accepted for publication in an anthology somewhere in Massachusetts. Holy moly...I'm a poet and didn't know it.

There have been additions to my spiritual life of some saintly women who appear at random without invitation. Meet Our Lady of Perfection who pulls up a chair along side mine whenever I sit down to write or paint. She draws her Pearls of Wisdom Rosary from her long, white skirt and reminds me that she has not seen me recently in the Chapel of Knowledge. “How can you possibly imagine that you have anything to say when you have been so negligent? Who do you think you are? And why would you even want to try to put anything down on paper…no one is interested in what you have to say. Why bother?” I try to argue with her that surely my many years on the planet have granted me some rights and perhaps some wisdom but she just looks at me disdainfully and shakes her head. Our Lady goes on to reprimand me for spending too many hours sitting and sipping at the Self-Indulgence Café on Easy Street. I’d like to choke her with her stupid Pearls.
Mother Superior, in charge of the Chapel of Perfection, nearly always joins Our Lady wearing a starched apron, her white gloved hands clutching a copy of Better Homes and Gardens or worse yet, Martha Stewart Living. Mother Superior smiles sweetly saying: “I am delighted that you are writing, dear. You have always been so bright and have had a way with words. Don’t mind me….I’m just here to remind you that your sheets haven’t been changed in two weeks, the mold is a pinky inch thick in your shower, you are out of milk, there are finger prints all over the back door and isn’t this the second time you have served tacos this week? I am just so proud of you just working so hard but I do wish you would take better care of yourself. Your nails are a sight and what are you doing about your weight? Your paintings are interesting but perhaps, dear, they might be more appealing if you, well, you know, put something more defined and cheerful in them like flowers. Petunias are lovely, daisies are always refreshing and I am just sure there is a market for Texas bluebonnets. And those crazy aprons? Now who do you imagine is going to wear one of those much less understand your very strange sense of humor?”

Jeez, MS, go away. I gotta do what I gotta do. I can't stand bluebonnet paintings and these funky aprons are just too much fun to make.

What's the big deal?

What's the big deal?

Today I just had to go to Starbuck's to do research on just what it is that our devoted Far Right countrymen are so upset about. Well, there she is the Starbuck buck-naked mermaid right there on my cup. Obviously taken from an ancient woodcut from some Celtic culture and I can't see what all the whoop la is about. Golly gee whiz...now how many mermaids have you seen wearing a blouse, coat or even a wet T-shirt? Good for you but I haven't seen any. A mermaid is a mermaid is a mermaid. Those antiquainted hill billy Bible toting righteous folk really need to get a life! Come on! We have 70,000 + dead in Mynmar and thousands in China, poverty throughout the planet, polar bears becoming extinct, a stupid war in Iraq and these folks are raising hell about the boobs on a Starbuck's cup? Give me a break!

Art cars

Yesterday was the annual Art Car Parade in downtown Houston...an event like no other...the biggest art car parade in the world with over 280 cars. I try to never miss it! And the cars just get better and better. We loaded up the family and a wagon full of chairs, sunscreen and cooler and friend, Patti, and off we went. Drove right into the parking garage across the street from Sam Houston Park (free parking) and strolled over to a shady spot across from the judges' stand. Let the fun begin! And fun it was! Over 280 cars and they get better and bigger every year. Amazing work with all kinds of themes.

The picture above right is the Grand Prize Winner and is called Our Lady of Transportation. Amazing work by a local artist using car parts. The grandkids loved it and we all had a great time and made plans to go back next year and the next and the next.
The top picture is of local quilter Kim Ritter's car covered with quilting notions of all kinds.

Dear Eckhart Tolle

Dear Eckhart Tolle

Dear Eckhart Tolle,
I'm having an Ego moment or more like an hour, hopefully not a day. You see, I've been spring cleaning...amazing but true. I went through my clothes and pulled out many garments that I no longer wear, either because my body doesn't fit in them anymore or I'm tired of them or I don't go anywhere that warrants panty hose, etc. I took 3 bags to Goodwill and a car load to the church for their garage sale and gave 4 pieces to a friend who was delighted. I saved out 4 of the very best, most awesome, most adored, in the very best of shape to take to the consignment shop. One of them is the pictured dress I once wore at my son's wedding and considered it my very best dress up garment should there ever be another dress event in my life. Well, after 12 years there hasn't been...definitely a commentary of my lack of social importance...so it, too, joined the consignment store group.
Well, after touring the local consignment stores, I can tell you it ain't good news. Life is sad when no consignment store will take your very best..."out of date" I'm told. When did I lost touch? I was once a fashion diva. One shirt and pants I just bought last year and the Mother of the Groom dress (known as MOG) was only worn once. I was told "they are wearing much simpler now". Looks pretty simple to me. Maybe that was just their kind way of saying "We hate it". I love this dress and I look smashing in it! So what the hey...I'll just put it on and stroll through Wal-Mart. Now where are those matching shoes! Maybe I'll get a corsage to go with it for Mother's Day to wear to IHOP for our Mother's Day brunch. Or should I save for another 20 years to be buried in or is that another EGO moment? Please, Eckhart, tell me, tell me.
Sincerely, Kay Cox

Printing lino cuts

I've been playing with linoleum cuts again. There is something about the simple shapes that appeals to me along with the black and white. I'm debating on whether to try going back in with water color on the one on the left. It is of a blossom on a pink magnolia tree. These are handprinted using a spoon for a baren and water-based ink.