A High Holy Day...

First a round of birthdays. Rose and Juan both have a birthday today as does brother in law John. It was also Granny Wallace's birthday.

I also asked Cathy to marry me on this day.

All Hallows Eve is really a great holiday. A day to remember and pray for those passed on. Some folks are a little bothered by the scary aspects of Halloween. Do they fear death? Tomorrow is all Saints day, Saints often endured terrible, scary things. Look where they are now.

One terrible thing I would not like to endure is a bite from that critter in the picture.

From the Party...

Couple of characters that appeared at Mary's Halloween party couple of weekends ago.

How that guy on the right got both ears on the same side of his head I will never know.

Some people get scared of clowns. Some don't like the dark. Two ears on the same side of the head do it for me all the time.

Aggies at work...

When my dad watched Texas A&M football he always referred to the team as the manure spreaders. Bunch of farmers out there trying to play football. From a family lifted from the depression with a chance at industrial jobs I guess that was my dad's view of farming, spreading the manure.

Spreading the manure as a different focus these days. Here is a picture of Morgan's place of employment. Some experiment there in College Station where they stir Chicken manure in those big vats, manually of course, they would not be Aggies if they did it any other way. It mixes with paper scraps or cellouse, a more scientific term and makes a natural acid that gives off gases that could power our autos.

The students, mix the manure with long steel shovels, which were surprisingly clean, unlike the work clothes which I saw hanging from a bush outside Morgan's apartment door. They

get paid a wage that is adequate for the amount of spending money a student needs each week.

What the manure does is makes the other additives rot so you get the gas. I think there is a lot of merit in this process. Seems to be a lot of manure around concerning the situation we are in right now that could be used in those big tanks.

More from the weekend...

Took a round about way home from Ft Worth the other day. Got this shot. It's kind of ironic, when I try to access this web address from work I see a similar message. It has not always been this way. Any way it just kind of makes you want to hit the woods and tell lies about why and what for later.

While driving around we made a stop at an isolated country store for gas. It was cheaper than gas in Lufkin. Made me say why and what for. I looked around in the warm store for awhile because it had been cold and blustery as I stood and gassed up in my caught by surprise short pants and punk rock teeshirt. I looked at some home manufactured crappie jigs hanging in the tackle section. Been hanging there five years I bet, I kind of inspect stuff like this as one of my more minor hobbys. Would catch fish I bet, with it's rubber skirt like legs. Hard stiff hook, maybe by design. If it hangs up, you break off no straightening the hook and getting it back. got to buy more. Too bad that skirt is old fish catching technology. All kind of quiver plastic out there now.

I kept looking around and Cathy found a ceramic monkey piggy bank and I bought it. Another minor hobby, monkey, not piggy bank. The lady at the check out was Asian. In a shrill voice she said, "You not from around here." And you madam? Maybe next time that way I'll stop in again. she will still be there and will say "You man buy monkey."

Passing through Coldsprings on Saturday on the way to the Panther game we were dodging horse excrement all the way and we found where it was coming from. Here you see a trail ride turning left into the fairgrounds and a biker ride turning into the American Legion Post across the street. Wonder what the bikers left on the road the way they came? Too bad I could not catch more bikes in the picture but hopefully you can get the juxtaposition. I came home a different way that night. Bet things got interesting by midnight in these parts.

Finely a celeb shot. Reggie McNeil at the Panther game. He's the former quarterback who lead Lufkin to a State Championship a few years ago, quarterbacked the Aggies, played for the Bengals and has signed with Toronto of the Canadian League. He appears here to give this blog some street cred.

If he saw his picture here he would say why and what for.

Go Gol Bordello in Dallas...

In a real busy traveling weekend that saw us cross the Trinity and Neches Rivers in 3 different places each, which is significant in that you can invoke a modified three river rule, which says that whatever happens after crossing three rivers does not cross back with you or something like that, I swear we just make it up as we go along when we have to.



Saw Go Gol Bordello, the namers of this blog play in Dallas Sunday night. It was in an old theater.















As usual I made a bunch of pictures but as sometimes happens when there are multiple moving performers, flashing lights and the occasional passing crowd surfer that jostles you I did not get such great results. We did sign up for a mailing list for pictures and got this today.

Notice the circled area. That's us.










He is one of my pictures of Eugene.



















Red wig and shoes.







Gypsy punk fiddle.














Cabaret girls and accordion.




















Stage shot.

Another shot from the club photographer.

Halloween Party Last Night...

Halloween is a High Holy Day around here. Can you say Halloween and holy in the same sentence anymore? Anyway we are like Christmas and Wal-Mart we start celebrating early. Christmas and Wal-Mart in the same sentence seems kind of dirty to me, but I will leave you to research that on your own while I present the most recent research I have done.

This sign lures them in. A sheriff deputy living in the neighborhood gave this a slow drive by. Gotta watch little stuff like this might be the sign of bigger things about to happen.











Inside Marie Leveau was laid in state with appropriate voodoo trappings.








Then it got real scary. Gangsta GW showed up with Zorro.












The scariness would just not let up when these two appeared.














Crowd shot.

Odds and Ends Again...

Not much going on but a lot fixing to happen. Sure is boring around here now that I have been cured of the night screaming.

First interesting thing is my neighbor has put his place up for sale. I mentioned it to a co worker and he has begun investigating purchase. He's an honest guy. "You might not want to live next to me" he said. Guess he has not heard about the night screaming. So anyway it looks like changes in the old neighborhood are a foot.

Friday night is a big teenage Halloween party. Yep, my blog. I can say Halloween. As many times as necessary. If you are reading this and are an adult and can bring a copy of your background check, don't everybody carry that in their wallet these days, you are welcome to come chaperon. Costumes are mandatory and if you do not wear one of your own we will put one of ours on you. We have a lot of costumes.

Next order of business is the Panther game Saturday in Conroe.

Sunday night will find us at a concert by the band that started all this and named this blog, GoGol Bordello. It's in Dallas. "As I walked into a bar, a man came up to me and said, you know the older you will get..."

I should be pretty busy with some pictures for this site next week.

Superior Rating...

The Lufkin High School Panther Band earned a superior rating from all three judges at UIL marching contest in Mt. Pleasant Texas this afternoon.You know that has to make a band director sleep easier at night.

Here is a shot of some of the snare players playing the cadence with the drum majors in the background as the band completes their entrance around the track and ascends the stands.

Marching Band Gets Ready for Contest...

The Lufkin High School Band heads to contest this week. Always a testy time of the year for band directors. They get nervous. They get crazy, with head Lufkin Band director Mr.William's maniacal look in this picture as proof and they might turn to drink as evidenced by the enjoyment assistant director Mr. Butler seems to be experiencing as he huffs something from an unmarked cup.

They have their reasons no doubt. After all they ride herd on 150 or so teenagers and we can only guess at what they might be thinking. I don't think there is anything to worry about. The drill looked fine on Friday night. Here is a clip titled Lufkin High School Band Contest Drill of the pin wheel segment on our very own youtube channel. The music here is the quiet trio part of the march "Chicago Worlds Fair" and you can barely hear the band for the cheering crowd.

http://www.youtube.com/theolderyouwillget

On Music...

Well, someone wanted a guitar story. Like I am just supposed to defecate this stuff on the command of the audience. Well let me tell you guys, what have you heard about the diminishing skills of aging bloggers? What have you heard about writers block? What have you heard about this sticking space key on my key board. Nothing you say? Well, there you have it.

I will write about a phone call I made last week to my old college roommate Ray. He lives in Longview, has a kid in the high school band. Our schools were playing each other. We had not talked in a while, just in passing if he was at his folk's house for a holiday or something. They live right down the street from my mom.

Any way we caught up on stuff, talked about the kids and such and what we had been doing and then he asked me "still got all those records?"

"Why I sure do," I answered. and many more since we lived together back in those old college days. Might have had 50 to 100 33 and 1/3 jobs back then which through the 80s grew to 400-500. Then cds and downloading came along and we have a good steady growth of 8-10 a month for an unknown number of cds now. Here is a snap shot of the room where the collection lives. Sometimes I imagine it breathing softly and I think I can hear it in the still dark of the night.

It's just funny he remembered all those records and how we played them again and again. Wonder if he can feature the eclecticness of the collection now, especially since you have two musicophiles around here adding to it all the time, makes for some interesting directions taken.

I think he did remember that collection as a treasure of out of the ordinary things. The Eagles don't get no respect around here.

Hey Song Performances...

Check my youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/theolderyouwillget

You will find a couple of short clips of the Lufkin High and Oaklahoma State low brass sections dancing to the Hey Song which has become a popular fight song.

Tubas!

Shot of the OSU tuba section. Pretty impressive,but...

...look out for those A&M tubas. I almost let them get too close.

Count those Aggie tubas. 25 or 30 strong.

This was how half time looked from my seat. I tried flipping this picture but some how it just was not right.

A&M Visit...

The trip to the Aggie game turned out good. Morgan is doing well in school and they put up a big welcome sign for us.












It was cool to walk around campus taking part in all the hullabaloo. Here Parson's Mounted Calverly gets ready to move.











The Corps march in. I had several good pictures of this entrance but I chose this one with the tubas in the back ground.












Oaklahoma State had a good team. Almost won. here is me with the OSU tuba section. Are those tubas making my butt look big?

I have some more tuba stuff to get up later in the week.









The gate for the day was 86,000











There were three ex- Lufkin Panthers on the field for this game. three on the Aggies and one for the Cowboys. Two of the Lufkin Aggies had a direct impact in the victory, Dixon with a fumble recovery and Lane with three touchdowns. Here is Lane, number 11, rumbling for the open hole.

A Lufkin Loss...

After beating Longview 12 times in a row through the years they put it on us last night 31-24. They came to play is all I will say about that.

I had called up my old college roommate Ray, who has a kid in the Longview band last week and I guess that was bad luck, consorting with the enemy so to speak.

The bands did look good. Here is the gate swings.

Then swings round and around to this. Guess you had to be there.

New Belly Pictures...

Yes it's swimming in her belly all right. I would say something about how that sea sick green baby room is making me swim but since I am bathed in 80s lavender around here which was installed in the 90s I think I will be quiet. They are lucky. The puke and excrement stains really show up on lavender.

Margaret and Kevin are getting excited. I may not have told you but they elected to not know the sex of the baby so it's really going to be a surprise. Cathy plans to go up there at the end of the month to help out. Bill and Geneva are leaving on another trailer trip and will be meandering their way that direction also.

Football Weekend...

There has to be a better way. I am up early to go get Lufkin football tickets for the out of town game with Longview. I mean by now they should just be giving everyone in Lufkin one when they pay their poll taxes.

I also have tickets to see the Aggies on Saturday. I guess since they won't let Coach Fran send out those email team up dates anymore we can only guess everything is going ok. Hey, I can still send the money can't I?

Here is the drum line apperaing on the jumbo tron.