World Championships 2008...

We spent the weekend at the American Taekwondo Association World Championships in Little Rock Arkansas this week. It was a great time, got to visit some Arkansas relatives and have some fun.

Mary competed for world champ sparring but did not place. Good job this year of getting into the Top Ten best which is what is required to participate in the competition.

Me Mary and Morgan got the new tournament year off to a great start. I had 3rd in forms and sparring, Morgan had second in forms and Mary started with a bang in the adult rings for the first time with a first in forms and second in sparring.


Here's me getting the pick on a three way tie for forms, they make you do in again to break the tie. Doing it twice for an old guy is victory anywhere!

By the way, I'm state champ in forms this year, decide by points, no competeing required. Thank you, I'll take it, just means I have a better form than the other 7 guys my age in Texas.


Here's Morgan breaking a four way tie for second.

More pictures and video to come this week.

June 24th...

19 years ago me and Cathy were married.

Happy Anniversary!

Then.

Now.

Now Ear This...

You gotta keep jumping to make an interesting Internet buzz these days. Used to just a few naked pictures of yourself and you were set back in the early days. Now folks want more, lotta noise out there, gotta get your message through.

This week, I think the hot thing is ears. Ears can say and do a lot.

These ears say, "Oh, sorry, I did not know you were sitting here."








Hauling ear can be a big chore.












Do nothing ear, all nice and shiney, just like a big old hiney.

A busy ear, phone, sunglasses, jewelry, before long ear fatigue will set in. Mamas warn us about stuff like this.

We don't listen, but we do use our ears.

Drumline Pictures From May...

So much happens it's hard to keep track. I don't think I ever posted anything about the Lufkin High Percussion recital held last May.

Middle school and high school drummers performed ensemble and solo numbers in various styles, on various instruments and various combinations. Here's Mary playing a big drum.

Check the youtube site for a fun little skit/number in the Stomp style called "Moving"
http://www.youtube.com/theolderyouwillget

Baby Bird Progress...

You may have been keeping up with the growth of the baby birds we found on the lake in a hollow stump if you are a regular visitor here.

Here is the latest shot. We are really getting busy right now and with the world Taekwondo tournament coming up it's going to be a couple of weeks before we get back to the lake. I bet these guys have flown by then.

Fishing...

Here's big fish of the day.
Miguel gets on the score board! That's a $28 catfish right there.









Abandon ship! Some people jumped in.


Take a good look at the overalls. Last time you will see that pair. They blew out of the boat. They sank. In them were all the things a guy carries in his pockets, keys, wallet, phone and so on. Fortunately the fellow wearing them did not blow out, did not sink, and if it's bothering you the rest of us kept our overalls on.

Crawfish...

Mary and Miguel purge crawfish. That's 28 lbs.

$1.45 a pound, not a bad price.














A few friends joined us, that's Master Olford and Mr Martinez from the TKD school, along with Cathy, Morgan and a little bit of Mark peeking out.

We also cooked about 2lbs of catfish fillets just for good measure.

Here is an image from a hot still June afternoon spent cooking out side.

Fire in the hole! They swim here before they swim in out bellies.

Another Birthday...

Happy Birthday Morgan!

He's 21 today!

I Just Noticed...

What with the birthday posts, they are dated wrong. Seems if you create a post, save it and post it the next day, the day of the birthday, it dates itself the day it was created. Add one day to the two most recent posts to know what the correct birthday dates are.

Anyway I have more video from the choir of cousins rehearsal:
http://www.youtube.com/theolderyouwillget

The first three new videos.

Today Would Have Been Dad's Birthday...

Born in 1925 he passed away in 1991.





I think this is a significant picture to post, in his military uniform, because he landed in France, part of D-Day, but on the second day of the invasion, June 7th which was his birthday. What a present.



Here is another good picture. I might get into posting some old family pictures. This is me and Dad on Easter Sunday 1959.





Happy Birthday Dad!

Somewhere a Tuba Plays Happy Birthday...

To you, Katherine!



It's an old custom, not birthdays, tubas. Call me on YOUR birthday, I'll explain.

What I See...

If you tune in here regularly you see lots of pictures. I or my close associates make those pictures. Pictures of things I have seen with my eyes. I heard something on the news today that brought back memories of something I saw with my eyes a few years ago in a suburb of New Orleans.


It was spring break. We had gone to New Orleans, taken the kids, the in laws and had a big old time at the St Patrick's day parades. Just like Mardi Gras, just more green for the Irish. What most people don't know is that a couple of days after St. Patrick's day is St Joseph's day and this time it's the Italians celebrating with more parades.

We were at a St Joseph's parade on the outskirts of New Orleans, actually on our way out of town in the Metairie/Kenner parish area. Before the parade a bad man and his entourage passed down the street. It was David Duke, former Grand Dragon of the Klu Klux Klan, seeker of various public offices from State Rep to President and he was shaking hands and kissing babies, pressing the flesh on his home ground. The area we were in had been a strong point of his public support.

As he drew near I warned my kids, they were used to catching the beads and trinkets thrown from parade floats "don't take any thing from that man" just in case he was handing out freebies. He actually stopped by us and shook my father in laws hand, just grabbed it up. My father in law looked sick, but he felt better later when the parade stalled and Pete Fountain's float was stopped in front of us for 20 minutes wailing away of some great dixieland music.

So it was the news item I heard today that brought into focus the things I had seen with my eyes. Today I heard that John McCain, with the nomination of Obama as the Democratic for president in the bag, campaigned in Metairie and Kenner Louisiana. He was going for those voters that would pick him for all the wrong reasons. He was covering that old ground that I saw Duke walking that day.


Those facts, as I saw them were not included in today's news. It's one of those things you have to get out and see yourself.