Hurricane Hot Outside...

O, Mary, Star of the Sea, Mother of God, we present ourselves in Thy sight in all humility to thank Thee for Thy maternal protection. We who are in constant danger from the perils of storms and flooding humbly thank Thee for Thy loving protection, which Thou hast shown our entire area these past years. We offer this through Jesus Christ, Your only Son who lives and reigns with one God forever and ever. Amen.

I'm getting ready for the Hurricane with a little prayer they say every Mass down at St Mary Star of the Sea, a little mission church on the West End of Galveston Island.

I bet you could call on those two guys standing behind Mary in the picture and they would help also

Hurricane...

Hopefully the hurricanes headed for the Gulf coast will do no harm. Already seeing some folks around here getting ready. Here is an old picture, from Hurricane Rita in 2005. I am sure you have seen it on the blog before. It's my pick up and trailer loaded with supplies from a National Guard distribution point to transfer to the 1000 or so folks that were housed about a week at St Patrick's Church. It was about enough for one meal, then it was back to scrounging again.

I am doing nothing special around here. I noticed the chain was off my chain saw, might put that back on, make sure it will crank. I'll look in the wreckage of Mary's bedroom for my good flashlight, she is usually using it to find stuff under the bed.

Other than that I won't need much because I'll go where ever the action is, the hospital or the church. There will be stuff there, or I will work on getting it there.

Here is a link to the month of September 2005. Strangely the same what with hurricanes coming and the Panthers kicking off the high school football season in Tyler to night. Only thing different is I am not attending school in Kilgore.

http://theolderyouwillget.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_archive.html

Some Times it Feels Good on the Edge...

What's not in this picture is the fact that the boat is underway at full speed. What is in the the picture is El Guapo and a couple of warning signs that say things like, wear a life jacket, stay inside railing and must possess at least moderate intelligence to ride this craft safely.
Another instance of total disregard for warnings. I think that sign says "Warning, No Feeding Fish."


Look closely at El Guapos back. You can see the healing wounds of his latest adventure. Seems that when we went to Austin a couple of weekends ago something grabbed him right behind the neck and gave him a good shake. The result was a sore shoulder and numerous bite marks. These injuries were described by a health care professional who lives here with me as "bit all to be damned."

I think he was about dead when we got home. He slept on the couch 24 hours, I washed his wounds daily and made him take physical therapy. Two weeks later he is glad to go fishing. Good thing his insurance is good. If he was self pay he would never be able to afford my services which totaled $39,000. I guess after surviving all that I might stand and look over the edge also.

We caught 16 catfish. Maybe a little under average size but fun still, seems like we have not been too mad at the fish for July and August. Lots of these little birds perched on small stickups in the area we were fishing. They were waiting for schooling fish to break the top to get in on the bigs eat the littles action. We saw one flurry of schooling action, looked like hybrids or white bass, but a slight chop was making it hard for birds and big fish to spot the shad schooling near the surface.

Happy Birthday Miguel...

He's 18 today. Here's a picture snapped after a hair dying session a couple of days ago.

Hey guys, you missed the eye brows.

Taekwondo...

Here's Mary, she placed 2 nd in sparring and 3rd in form.

I placed 1st forms, 3rd sparring.

Morgan placed 3rd in his weapon form.

Ok, whose's doing it? Seems my youtube site, the American Taekwondo videos in particular is getting hit by folks leaving ugly comments.

One guy left some comments about how high the kicks were in one of my sparring videos. Claimed he could kick higher than that and he had been "out of the ATA 12 years." I checked his site and his profile. His age was listed as 29.

Well duh dude, the guys kicking in that video were all over 50. If you can't kick high than that at age 29 go see the doctor.

I simply delete these comments and block these users.

Ladies and Gentlemen...

The 08-09 Lufkin Panther Band!

I took this shot last night at the official session with the official photographer to make the official photo for the official football program.

I thought I could just sneak in and steal a picture for my own use on this official blog but most of the drum line shouted my official name and that brought on a lot of official shouting by the officials officially present to all hold heads still so the picture looked officially good.

So in the sake of officially documenting what was really happening as we are officially prone to do here I took a picture of heads unstill.

Here is one of the head movers.

Check the youtube site for a video made last week at band camp "LHS in the House"
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=theolderyouwillget

Got My Mojo Working...

Mojo is a word commonly (more common in some circles than others I suppose) used to mean a magic charm. Here is a mojo sitting on my old Bassman amp. Katie bought it at the Austin city wide garage sale which is held once a month in the new convention center at Auditorium Shores. Thanks Katie. She always picks up some good stuff at this sale and I know it's a great effort. She must get up real early to beat the big city dog eat dog thing that goes on at events like these.

Anyway that's about a 30 year old Fender amp. I have owned it 25 of those years or so, best I remember. It's got some mojo alright and any time I have a chance to add some more as in the case of this small skull I do. It helps with your tone. Recently loading in and out at the monthly gig there had been a little plumbing work going on, (not what you think, no poop involved) and the ground where lines had been laid had the grass scared away to reveal good old East Texas red dirt. I took this chance to let this old Bassman gather some mojo by sitting in the raw red dirt while I was loading/unloading other stuff. The guy in the band with a brand new amp just did not get it when I tried to explain it to him.

You know there is also a special mojo smoke sealed in these old tube amps. A couple of times I have accidentally let the special mojo smoke out of this amp. I am lucky though, there is a music store in town that will put the mojo smoke back in. They charge about $200 for this service. Slow work, takes them about a month to complete this chore.

My mojo works. It's all about the tone. If you got good tone, you can make it.

Church Scenes Around the World...

Here's a little Church near Cozumel, has a long history of being one of the first permanent Church sits in the new world. Least that's what the tour guide said, that's not like from academic research I did or anything. We visited this on our trip.




This Crucifix was to the side of the Church with a long plaque in Spanish beside it. Looks old and I bet that is what the sign said. I think I could make a hobby out photographing weathered churchyard art. Like I need one more hobby, but this kind of matches a statue of an old Virgin Mary statue I took in New Orleans at a Katrina abandoned Church. It's pictured here somewhere on the blog.


Couple of pictures Mary made in Australia.

More Band Camp...

More from Band Camp. You think they go for the music? Heck no, there is some serious bragging rights involved for the winner of the Karaoke Contest. Here is the drum line girls dressed and ready to perform. Sorry, I can't publish the name of the song they did because I would be flagged for inappropriate content. I think I notice several articles of clothing I have been missing this week.

Thanks to Mr. KK, who took this picture and forwarded it to me. I won't publish his name either, you know how it is. If his boss is like mine he probably wakes up every day and googles his name just to see what he's been up to last night. Any way he's going to have to take that ear ring he got this summer out when he starts teaching this fall, inappropriate content you know.

More jamming, that's me with Miguel on flute behind me. Standing there smiling is Gonzalo. He plays the sax. Miguel and Gonzalo play in a band together. I had a good time recently sitting around with Gonzalo and listening to Carlos Santana "live at the Filmore" and "Dance with Tito Puente." These recordings sound amazingly alike considering there was most likely different choices of mind altering agents involved. I am not talking about any choices me and Gonzalo made, I mean Carlos and Tito.

2008-2009 Lufkin Panther Drum Line.








Band geeks click the link fora band camp slide show on the Lufkin Daily web site.
Note the Band Sponsor at the bottom of the linked page.
http://www.lufkindailynews.com/news/content/features/slideshows/08142008_bandcamp/index.html

Last Band Camp...

Mary is a senior this year. It's her last band camp. After 3 out of 4 kids in band it's our last band camp too. We drove down there yesterday for the famous Snap competition. Drum Line took 2nd place. Here is a shot of the sign.



The drummer girl shrugs as the majorettes all fall down.

Jamming with my kids. That's Morgan on snare front left, Mary on cymbals in the middle and dear old living in the land of large and loud dad on the right.

This shot was taken after the famous Alumni march. Seems like more recent grads showed up for the Alumni March than ever before.

I just have to ask, does that sousaphone make my butt look big?

More Austin Music...

Here is the regular Sunday night gig at Saxon Pub in Austin Tx. It's a band, kind of a revolving cast of folks, called the Resentments.

Left to right, on bass is Bruce Hughes (had some big time pop success in Poi Dog Pondering), on guitar Scrappy Jud Newcomb (plays on a lot of Austin recordings) and a drummer and lap steel guys whose names I forget. Sorry guys. Missing are a couple of regulars, Jon Dee Graham and Stephen Bruton. These guys more than held their own, I think I enjoyed this show more than seeing the complete line up some years ago.

Close up of the steel guy, I am just partial to the slide playing you know.

This was an early show and the following set was by Bobby Whitlock, another regular Sunday night gig. Bobby was the guy who played piano on the famous Derrick and the Domino's album, "Layla." We did not stick around, but instead opted for some greasy Tex Mex at the Magnolia Cafe.

I am always interested in the economics of the music business. I would like to know if guys like these, Bruce and Bobby, who played on a couple of big hit records, made enough money that they can get by on Sunday night "vertical gigs" (look at a calendar, all the days in a straight up line, that's show biz talk) in Austin Texas? Of course Layla was recorded in the early 70s, some of those musicians on that session might be on SS by now and have to keep an eye that the gig money does not exceed the earning limits so that benefits are reduced.

Holy Smokes Batman...

Bats fly out from under the South Congress Bridge in Austin Texas and head out for night fun. There's like 1.2 million of them that do this on summer evenings.

Humans gather also. They watch the bats. Where there is humans they need rules. Signs everywhere that say, "Don't touch bat poop."

In case you are wondering I knew not to do that.

Someone said there's a hit movie called Batman out now. Won't folks that google "hit movie call Batman" be surprised this morning.

Bright Lights, Big City...

Spent the weekend in Austin. Attended a continuing education course on treatment of patients with vestibular dysfunction and balance disorders. If you get dizzy when you roll over in bed or fall down a lot come see me. I'll fix it. I can't promise you will still like me while I'm fixing it, but it will be fixed.

Anyway the off hours were spent with Katherine who lives in Austin and Morgan, who came up from College Station prowling around stinking Austin hippie kind of joints. Here is the big guitar outside South Austin Music.
Saw Ray Wylie Hubbard at Antone's, home of the blues. Great show. Here is Ray Wylie and his son Lucas. Lucas is pretty hot on guitar. Of special note is the symbol on his shirt. Low and behold that's a Pine Knot Mystic T shirt. You Nacogdoches folks know what I'm talking about. I have heard if you wear one of these while eating a Wally's Special at Morales Mexican Food all will be revealed to you.
Note the tilt back Black Face Fender amp behind Ray Wylie. Had some great examples of Black face, tweed and silver face Fenders on stage with these guys. Old stuff, tweed is 50s, black face in the early mid 60s and silver face is from the late 60s early 70s, just to catch you up on amp history. They almost had as many Fender amps on stage as I have in the back bedroom.

More Shots From Down Under...

Who knows what teenagers think? Here is Mary on an Australian beach staring out to sea. I would guess she is looking south, an educated guess based on the places they visited. She thinks repressed thoughts as she morosely glares at the cool Pacific water:

"My parents never let me go to the South Pole."

We are so mean.

For more pictures, these made by old friend Annie on her visit to Australia this summer go to this link:
http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLandingSignin.jsp?Uc=6g984dt.6tvqqvg5&Uy=-3fenf0&Upost_signin=Slideshow.jsp%3Fmode%3Dfromshare&Ux=0&UV=486883896443_795167667605&localeid=en_US

Annie was there to visit son Liam, wife Rebecca, grandson Sage and to be present for the birth of new grand baby Maya. She has posted some really great pictures.

Boats...

Some boats I photographed on the cruise. I post this because I got off early enough to go to the lake yesterday, but it was a little windy from the tropical storm so we stayed home.

Pirates in the Caymans.
Now here's a pontoon what am a pontoon. Can't feature what trying to make a sharp turn with this might be like.
Small boats in the sun swept harbor at Cozemuel.
Fishing guides in Honduras, not the guys we went out with though. Here they troll down the beach for tourist.

I recently checked what Texas fishing guides were charging and I think fishing in Hounduras was a bargin. Of course in Texas you do catch some fish.

So it's Hot...

But it did cool off a bit today with a thunder shower. Down side of that is it knocked the power out. Back on now, duh, I'm posting, but it seems like lately the barest poot of wind puts us out of business, signs of a collapsing infrastructure as the 21st century winds to a close.

Seems like those old hot paper mill days of summer are just a distant memory. Now I maybe cross a hot parking lot to my car, takes a minute to cool then I am off to a workout in the air conditioned TKD school (break a pretty good sweat there) or maybe some of the home health business so when I do finely get out side in the evenings it's cooled considerably to that old southern green Gothic humidity that I really like, closed in all around with crickets frogs and distant bawling cows hollering the news of relief as the sun sinks. I can take the dark decaying shade, just don't but that bright sun on me.

We do spent some time on the lake in the sun, but a cool water breeze and a quick did with few clothes worn makes everything alright. Check this short clip, Sam Rayburn Tubing, shot at the lake of the way we cool it:

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=theolderyouwillget

Also while we are showing new stuff check the new link to Raggety Resa's Place. These are some old friends, a family I guess I have known them 35 years or so. Raggety Resa started up a blog after a visit here. She's good at it with a great eye for old family photos.

Keep cool with this shot of me and Cathy, made by the ships photo guy, one of those cheesy souvenir things you buy on a big vacation. The river water was in the 70s and very cllear.

Music on the Cruise...

Lots of music on the cruise. I did not get a picture of all of it. Here is some.

A little chamber music trio, the Sunny Notes.
Big jazz band, horns, guitar, bass, piano and drums playing jazz stuff and backing up some of the comedians in the nightly shows with short Tonight Show band type pieces. Only limitation was no tenor banjo to cover the dixieland ground.
A tropical steel drum combo, bass and steel drum, they played on deck around the pools. They used backing tracks to fill out the band and some swore they herd steel drum sounds when the drummer was not playing?
Several solo performers around the ship each evening, good singers and players but covering all those pop tunes that geezer radio stations have long ago worn out. Kind of like my job, same thing everytime, good delivery, whether they want it or not.

There was a piano bar man I and did not get a good picture of him. We spent several evenings gathered around him, nice seats right next to the piano where we could chat back and forth between songs. Humorous guy, but a little heavy on the Elton and Billy Joel tunes. Had some great funny songs full of colorful language, but could have had a little more barrel house stuff worth of the dark bar room. Three nights, heard most songs three times.