My eyeball...

The right one to be exact. It has a detached retina. Kind of like looking through a dirty spot on my glasses lens. First cropped up sometime in the last couple of weeks (is it coincidence it was after I had a colonoscopy? Just how far Doctor...?) and I guess I should have had it checked out then. Anyway I got checked out by my eye guy yesterday and a specialist that comes up from Houston every couple of weeks to Lufkin today and this is the guy that will do my surgery.

Surgery will be in Houston on Friday. Out patient, but need to stay in town to have things checked out Saturday morning before heading back to Lufkin. I will be off work two weeks. I'll be sleeping sitting up, no hardship, I can sleep most any position and after that I'll have some weight lifting precautions for about six weeks. Sorry coworkers, no 500 pound patients for me for a while.

As with any surgery, it's a toss up as to how successful it will be. There are three different methods to do this repair and if this one, for simplicity we will call it the "gas bubble method" does not work it's possible we may try another.

As with any event that happens or what ever body part is involved the latest news will be posted here.

More Vegas...

Here is the gang from Lufkin dining at Rock and Roll Sushi. I think it was the best meal I had in Vegas. A little strip center type eatery looked to cater more to locals than tourist and the sushi was the same as it is everywhere, raw. I won't name the names of all the folks pictured here because we don't want employers, SOs and mothers googling up their fun. Standard answer for "how was Las Vegas?" is "the buffets were good."


Mary doing her form.











Morgan doing his form.










Old Las Vegas, down on Fremont St.

We Are Back...

From Las Vegas. Tournament went good all did well, not in the way we all hoped though. Mary is the only one who really helped herself with some world champ points in sparring by taking a second place. Morgan took a third in forms, I think he hoped for weapons and I took a second in forms. I had hoped place in sparring, I won one round and then lost the next match but I guess it's good that an old guy can get out there and be graceful at a national event.

Here is me sparring in the match I won. That's right folks that is a two point kick to the head by little old me on the right. Thanks to Cathy for the quick shutter snap.









I returned the favor later on down on the strip.

More pictures as the week goes on.

I Get calls, emails...

About the bruise I mentioned. Here it is, you wanted to see and I guess I am touched that you all are concerned.

You know, it's hard to make a real good picture of your own hiney. Maybe you got to have a good hiney to make a good picture. Someone once told me when I first started posting my pictures on the web that it was a short slide to posting pictures of yourself naked. I made sure that you could see a little bit of my pants in this picture so you would know I was not quite to the bottom of that short slide.

Anyway I am a little bunged up going into the Las Vegas tournament this weekend. Bruised butt, bottom of my foot has been bruised for over a week now and I ripped off a little toe toe nail on Monday night while sparring.

On top of all this there is always the delights of that gilded town of sin and distraction to tempt you to leave your game on the practice field.

Humble Tournament...

We were in Humble Texas fora taekwondo tournament yesterday. Here is Morgan and another student from our school, Mr.Wells judging a ring.








Here is one of our instructors, Mr.Martienez, holding up the traveling trophy our school won for bringing the most competitors to the tournament.

As far as placing I did pretty good for me, third in both forms and sparring. Mary took 3rd sparring and 2nd forms. Morgan did not compete due to a pulled hamstring and is hoping to heal in time for the Vegas tournament next weekend.

I have a slight injury from falling on the floor while sparring. I could give all kinds of medical terms but in simple layman's language it's know as a bruise to the side of the butt. Hopefully I'll be healed in time for our trip to Las Vegas where we compete next Saturday.

Grayson is a Busy Baby...

Grayson left to meet her mom at the airport last evening. I think she had fun in East Texas.

Here she inspects livestock on a real Texas ranch.







We signed her up for the Rodeo club, kind of like other parts of the country play soccer.










Are we getting fussy? I think I see horns sticking out that babies head. Seems I remember someone coining a term that has since come into regular use. It was "Devil Spawn"






But don't worry mom, we took it to church. You can find her receipt in the diaper bag somewhere.

Too Much Fun With the Baby...

A good old East Texas Time.

Grayson ,Koch...

Niece Grayson Koch visits from Evansville Indiana this weekend while parents Margaret and Kevin vacation. Little do Margaret and Kevin know but they have to pay us back for this, and I'll let them choose, by either keeping Rose or Katie for a weekend, paying for any towing fees Morgan accumalates or explaining the birds and bees to Mary.

Strange Doggy Doings...

I have mentioned my neighbors here before. Their names are Buford and Brenda. They rent from another nearby neighbor. I don't see Buford much, keeps his nose to the grind stone to feed a bunch of stair steped kids. Brenda has too much time on her hands.

They got a couple of dogs who lay in the road and if the newspaper comes after I have left for work they get it and tear it up in the cow field that seperates our houses. No big deal, the Lufkin Daily, a once proud Pulitzer prize winner is somewhat in decline, at least the print version is. More features online these days. Burford and Brenda are poor folks and I got considerable more than 50 cents in my pocket if I want hard copy, so I let the paper thing go.

The strange doggy doings is that Brenda has seemed to adopt my dogs. Kind of started last weekend, I was home alone, stero was blaring kind of lost to myself what with my better half at work and there is a knock at the door, only the screen as the weather has been so mild and Brenda burst right in. I'm a bit startled, she is a big ol loud gal and she starts telling me my dogs are at her house in the laundery room. She says she has not seen her dogs. I note that I have seem them on the highway and shereportslater that she tracked them down, a neighbor had taken them in to the "vet" ,and it cost $185 to bail them out.

So bear with me here, I'll try to cut to the chase. The last really cold night Brenda leaves a note on the door, "I have your dogs call me and I'll let them out they were cold." Couple of days later, a telephone message, " I am gone to town, be back in an hour, I'll let your dogs out then." Last night the dogs apparently slept in all night in their landury room.

Tonight, no dogs around. I march down there, careful not to trip over a kids toy in the dark and beat on the door. It takes 5 minutes to summon someone.All the while I can hear dogs sniffing on the other side of the door and now and then catch a glimspe of them through the curtain, Finely Brenda pokes her big head out, relases them reports they were cold. I ask if the dogs are bothering them. I report that the dogs have dog houses to get in when cold. I mention that I like for my dogs to come when they are called and I offer to pen them up.

Now stop me if wrong. Most dogs in North America generally have it better than most people in the third world. As my little dogs sleep on my living room couch tonight I pray for all those poor folk. I try not to get too wound up about dogs, I like them of course, but I need to know. Do these neighbors seem weird to you?

Spring...?

Heck, it aint even Ash Wednesday yet.

One of my most suscessful plantings, a bed of bulbs about 5 or six years ago. Bloom each spring, last a long time and then I cut down the left over greenery with the weed eater at a time convenient to me in the summer months.

You can't beat yard work like that.

Mardi Gras Weekend...

It's Mardi Gras weekend in New Orleans. It's a work weekend for us, but sitting around spinning some Professor Longhair, Nathan and the Zydeco Cha-Chas and so on I decided to put up some pictures from Mardi Gras past. All in New Orleans, my guess is that most of these date from 1988 although a couple might be a little younger.

What ever year, they were scanned in from real photos developed at the drugstore where you hand your film over to a total stranger and he develops it. Not like today at all where you post your pictures on your blog and thousands view them. Also the cameras we had back in these days were something. They were as big as a 1977 Pontiac and colored monkey poop brown. A lot of trouble to carry around, and you had to focu yourself.

Me and Cathy. I think we were on our second date.














Banner from a parade, local Social and Pleasure Club, I think these groups were pretty scattered by the hurricane evac.















Me making friends at the streetcar stop.
Could not tell you who these guys were, I think they were friends of Nancy.

I really love the bead throwing floats. Great way to blow off steam, pushing down little kids to grab a string of cheap plastic beads.

Me and the friends again. That was a hat store behind us selling that famous topless and bottomless New Orleans hat. Makes it quicker to get dressed, you just put it on how ever you pick it up. They were sold out though and closed that day.

More floats. I don't think I have peaked yet on my Mardi Gras float photos. Got to get back and try again with the better camera I have now.

Is that woman smiling at me?