Cowboy Church

Cowboy Church of Young County, Texas.

Pam singing. (Picture taken with my iPhone to impress my parents.)

Dad showing me the Christmas tree.

Pastor Will after service, talking to Joe and Jon.  Pastor Will is in the maroon shirt and black hat.  I rode the school bus with Jon.

My new best friend Joe.

Dad wanted me to go to church with him and mom Tuesday night, and asked me to bring my camera.  It is an arena-based church, thus the western theme.  They took an old metal arena building and have slowly done the work to turn it into a meeting place.  My dad, a retired contractor and carpenter, has helped with much of the work and he proudly showed me around, explaining all the things they had done.

It was a simple service, with singing a few songs, a prayer, and a brief message.  The topic was Jesus feeding the 5,000, but the point Will was making was that Jesus said to his disciples, "You feed them."  In a sense, it was about not asking if a thing was possible, but simply doing the thing.  That would come back the following day to me, in a way I will relate as I move forward through the week.  

I met a lot of folks--my dad must have introduced me to about everyone there.  A man who looks like Festus of the old Gunsmoke series came up and asked where in Mississippi I was from.  He had gone to college in a Mississippi school--a small town below Jackson.  I met Joe, one of dad's friends, who hugged me and happily posed for a picture.  Joe has lots of buggies that the church uses, and he had to take me over and show me the picture of his horse pulling one of them.  The horse, Buddy, is a breed that is Clydesdale and something, but I forgot what the something is.  It is like a Clydesdale, only not quite as large.  Joe has not missed a service since the church started, but he was going to have to miss next week.  He planned to come by, start the coffee, put out the cookies, and assist in the preparations so that he could still have "attendance."

I saw a man from my old school days.  He rode the bus with us.  We were among the last of the kids to get on at the pick up, since we were at the edge of town.  Jon was the first kid on the bus.  We reminisced about a few people we had known, and where they were and what they were doing.  I asked him about my first "love" who broke my heart when he dumped me for my best friend.  I told my parents "thank the lord for that now."  He is still living out on his "home place."

Abilene to Graham

I left Abilene Tuesday afternoon to drive the 100 miles to my folks' house in Graham--a little town near Possum Kingdom Lake.  Driving north out of town, I noticed an irrigation sprinkler that had iced with the cold temperatures of the last few days.
Irrigation in West Texas is essential, even in winter.
Just as I was heading back to the truck, something caught my eye--yep, a Texas tumbleweed blowing across the field.  A number of them were caught up against the fence as usual.  
A sight I have not seen in a while: cattle at the winter feeder.
As I topped the hill out of town and heading toward Albany, I was struck by a new site.  Hundreds and hundreds of wind generators.  I had heard a wind farm had been established.  It had--like many things do--divided the community in terms of wanting it and not wanting it.
The further I drove, the more eerie the scene, yet strangely beautiful at the same time.  It was like something out of a science fiction movie:  just row after row, cluster after cluster of windmills, each slowly turning.  It was both somewhat frightening, and yet, the technology, the clean lines, and the symmetry of the blades was mesmerizing.
The idea that all that wind that blows so freely out here could be put to use to generate electricity was mind boggling.

And finally, the incongruity of the oil pumpjack, pumping crude into a pipeline going to who knows where across how much land, in the shadow of the clean energy wind generators.  

I cruised on into Graham, unable to get the images of acre after acre of windmills lined up across the gently rolling pastures of the ranches out of my mind.

Welcome to West Texas

I awakened Sunday morning to beautiful West Texas warm temperatures. I went outside barefooted in my pjs to meet Chicago--Chet's favorite cat.
I headed into town and made a stop by Lake Nelson, behind my old house. One of my favorite things to do whilst living next to the park was to walk over and feed the ducks, gulls, and geese who lived there. They all remembered me and came walking up, but were quite disappointed that I had nothing to feed them. :(
And what would West Texas be without mesquite trees full of mistletoe?
I did a double take driving down the park road. What? Goose's toilet paper in West Texas? Actually, I think here we called this vine that grows all over fences--usually barbed wire fences--"Grandpa's whiskers."

I made all my usual haunts in town--it looks lonesome and empty. My old street looks terrible, and I could not find Gigi's old house on Peach. The address was right, but they appear to have remodeled so it does not look like the same house to me. What's up with that? I drove up to Hardin-Simmons and through the campus. It is still a pretty campus, but cannot hold a candle to Ole Miss, who just won the National Landscape Award for the prettiest, best-kept campus in the nation, and an award for our efforts at becoming a Green Campus, including tree preservation. :)

On up Ambler, and I stopped for lunch at Los Arcos, my favorite neighborhood Mexican restaurant. I had my old favorite, the guacamole enchiladas and a big ole iced tea. They have enlarged and remodeled, but I kind of preferred the old hole in the wall it was before.

A little further out Ambler, and shades of civil disobedience!
This is the gym that Jane aka Gigi and I occupied one night with about 200 Hispanic families (from grandparents and elders down to babes in arms) as we stood with the community to protest the city's demolition of part of their community block grant funded community center. The community said "No way" to the city's plans to demolish part of the center that people in the community helped to build (literally doing the construction) in order to make way for a private-for-profit business serving a clientele of white kids from the suburbs while the neighborhood children were tossed outside instead of able to use the gym for their afterschool program. Gigi had been waiting for years to chain herself to something, and had her chance. :)

BTW, we were successful at stopping the demolition and were part of the community's development of ACCESS, the Abilene Child Centered Educational Support System, where Jane and I served on the founding board and had many opportunities to work with the community and our amigos, Billy, Joel, Olivia, and others. They even took me with them to see Little Joe y La Familia--one of my life long dreams.

Then, off to potluck with my friends. I made a middle-eastern themed dinner. I wanted lamb, but alas, there was none to be found on a Sunday afternoon. I might add the wine selection on a Sunday was none too promising, either, but at least in Texas you can buy wine on a Sunday, unlike Mississippi. However, as always when in Texas, I buy Llano Estacado, which is actually a quite decent wine.

Cumin crusted pork in white wine. Judy brought the Killer ribs, per my pleading. Somehow the picture of the ribs did not turn out, but they were delicious, falling off the bone, finger-licking good.
Sherri's job was to put the feta on the butternut (with olive oil and cumin) after it baked. Judy also saved me on the lentils, as I forgot the tomatoes while at the store. She had some in the pantry and brought them after my frantic last second phone call.

Sherri brought a beautiful fruit salad with pecans and coconut, and Karen topped the charts with a chocolate cake.
The gang was not all here, obviously, but it was still a beautiful spread in our friend's beautiful home.


After dinner, we all called Gigi and had a "sit around the phone" visit. Then I walked into the kitchen and said, "What a mess!" Sherri turned around and said, "Hey, wait a minute, the only thing in here is me!"

It was great to be back for a visit again, with the people I love. Now, off to Graham to see my folks there and then after a stop in Arlington for one more friend visit, back to rainy and cold Mississippi for Christmas with my son, husband, and dogs. Sounds like a great place to be.

Hello Texas

Today was the last day of the semester; I have graded all but the last 10 papers and plan to finish those shortly so I can post grades.  Thank goodness for Internet and the ability to post grades from any computer.  One year, I posted them from South Africa!  How awesome was that?

I am off to Texas in the morning to take my father-in-law home after his two week visit.  He is really ready to go--all packed and stacked and waiting impatiently for the next 12 hours to pass.  It has been a blessing and a joy to have him here, but I know he is ready for his own bed, his own bathroom, his own house and routine that does not include juggling dogs all over the place.  He is easy to get along with, eats what is put in front of him and says thank you and tells me over and over what a good cook I am.  

I will be there for a couple of days before heading off the Graham to see my family for a few days, and then it is back to Mississippi, building another shower, and getting ready for my trip to Belize January 2.  I feel pretty confident this second shower will go much quicker after my experience with the first one.  

The Belize trip will be for the purpose of research as Kim and I continue to work on the plan to implement the South African child maltreatment prevention model.  While community work is always a vacation for me as I enjoy meeting new people and going to new places, it will also present some actual vacation time.  We have to go from the island of San Pedro (where we will work) back to the mainland and while there, will see the Mayan ruins, and some other place Kim told me about where she has to go for work since she will be there for 5 months.  Belize will give lots of opportunities to take pictures and have stories of interest about a different culture.

I've got the rainy day end of the semester blues

It has been pouring rain all day long, with black clouds and tornado warnings all around.  The thunder right now is almost as loud as the TV as Chet watches something and the surround sound booms down the hall and reverberates the walls all over the house. :)  It is pitch black outside and only 5--early even for us when east of the Mississippi gets dark quickly in the winter.  (I know, Alaska friends--it ain't nothing to be dark before 5 for you guys.)

I have been getting my final exams ready for the next two days and trying to wrap up my grading, in between fielding calls and emails from students who do not understand why they made this or that on a paper, or why a paper is not yet graded or posted.

My new dog Roadie is napping in the floor right now, after I have pulled him off the bookshelf, chair, guitar case, removed the camera from his mouth, along with a bag of potatoes that he drug down the hall.  Got to love him; he's the baby.  I think he is finally worn out (I know I am) and is happy to just put his head on his paws and take a little nap before supper.

He laid in my lap (which for a lab that probably weighs nearly 50 by now is no easy feat for me) last night while I was watching TV with Chet.  Chet kept trying to get him to come to him, but Roadie kept his distance.  However, Kate has been snoozing on the couch with him all afternoon.

Thanks to my friend Jane for introducing me to Shelfari--yet another fun thing for adding to the blog.  I tried to also show the book I just finished, but have not yet mastered that one.  I was able to load the book shelf with the current book I am reading though, Richard Wright's Native Son.  My cousin, who is a journalist and author, recommended it to me the last time she and I were in Square Books.  She said if I am going to live in Mississippi, I need to read that book, and she was right.  I also recommend Sutton E. Griggs' Imperium in Imperio, which is a fascinating novel written about black nationalist government in the south in 1899.  The time of the novel alone is fascinating to me, and will make an impact on anyone's thinking about the issues of race and the south.  It is written by an African American author whose sense of place and time is fascinating, and still timeless.

And thanks to Sarah, Miles, and Elle for the beautiful Christmas card with the family picture.  Jane's girls are the closest to daughters I have (along with my niece Jacq) and the closest to grandchildren I will most likely get.  I get to be "Auntie Susan"--an honorary title in South Africa and I think it fits perfectly for these sweet girls whom I adore.

Texas Beats Mississippi--but only in the score

UT women's basketball creamed us today, 74-50.  It was a close game the first half, but they jumped way out at the beginning of the second half, and that was all she wrote.  There were a few UT fans wearing orange in the section next to us, and I am sure they were gratified to see the win after the long trip--although for all I know, they were UT fans living in Memphis and it was not all that long of a trip. :)

I noted that while the Ole Miss fans were respectful during the introduction of the UT players, the UT fans booed during the introduction of our team.  Now, what is up with that kind of behavior?  I also noted that the UT women used elbows on a regular basis--many times which were caught by the refs and called, including once when a player seriously injured an Ole Miss player.  It may not have been a game that "counted" and was just cannon fodder practice for UT, but still, I would have thought such a prestigious school as UT could do better than that.  I, as a life long Texan until 2003, was embarrassed for my home state, and quite proud of my adopted state.  

Lady Rebels, you may have lost the game, but you definitely took the higher road in terms of character and sportswomanship.  Hotty Toddy, and you go, girls!

Late Lunch/Early Dinner and Roadie Time

We took Chet to Old Venice Pizza Company today as he loves pizza.  He saw the eggplant parmesan on the menu, however, and changed his mind.  He was impressed with the place, and especially how clean it was.  He called our server over to ask if she was a native, and when she said yes, said, "So, is this Lah-fah-ETT or Luh-FAY-ett county?"  She laughed and said there was actually a Lah-fah-ETT county near her home in Ocean Springs, and yes, people here said Lah-FAY-ett.

He and Randy are watching the ball game now...the 14th or 15th this week possibly.  :)  We sort of forced him to watch a movie one night, and he watched one hour of TV last night before switching the channel to a ball game while we were out of the room with dogs.  LOL  I have given away 3 big screen TVs in the last 3 years, and now I actually needed one of them. :)

I got Roadie a new squeaky toy and he is happily chewing and squeaking when he is not digging through something he does not need.  Just like a baby, and I have to redirect him to the appropriate toy every few minutes.   I think I will take him to Texas with me--what are the odds Jimmy will let me stay in his house with Roadie?