Happy Birthday...

Happy Birthday to Rose and Juan, both born on the 31st.













Happy birthday to brother in law John, also today. Today would also have been Granny Wallace's birthday.

I also ask Cathy to marry me on this day, so happy anniversary of sorts!

Shameless Self Promotion...

I'll be playing harp with the Stonewall Rockers, 8-10 pm Saturday night in downtown Lufkin for the First Street Arts Center Anniversary.

It is an outdoor gig, in the structure they are calling the "Alamo." Show starts 4 or 5pm and there are other bands and community groups, who knows what all. I caught part of an ad on the radio. Must be the event of the season is all I can figure out.

Trapped...

We own a mouse trap that catches them live. With the arrival of cool weather I heard suspicious digging in the walls. Somebody was setting up a nice winter retreat. Could not have that, the no vacancy sign is out folks so I baited up this trap with a peanut butter cracker and the next day it had a prisoner. See, if you get in the trap, you can have all the peanut butter you want because one thing is for sure, you can't get out.

Doing the human thing (hey we are voting for Obama after all) we loaded up the trap in the back of the pickup (some mice are big) and drove to a near by dirt road. Not too far, (small carbon foot print) and tried to get a picture as we opeaned the trap.
He/she what ever did not exactly stand still so I only got a picture of the butt.

This mouse hit the ground in the middle of an East Texas sand dirt road, jumped the ditch and went straight into a small hole at the base of tree, right between two roots. It was almost like he knew that hole was there. I doubt that a glance at the tree base by human eyes would have noted this hole, but once he drew attention to it, it was easily seen.

The best comparison I can draw, kind of an allegory of life so to speak is like when you enter a public building and you are about to poop your trousers. A kind of sixth sense kicks in as quickly enter the building, a glance about sends information from eyes to brain that is hard to exactly qualify, over there it says, turn right, past the women's there it is, just in time. It rarely fails us because we all know how embarrassing it is to poop trousers publicly.

Inter-School Tournament...

We held a taekwondo inter-school tournament this weekend at the HOPE Center gym. Only students from our school competed, about 50 or more as well as several rings of the young black belts who did a big portion of running the tournament. These are most all black belts lined up here.
Little of the action, so fast it's a blur. The money raised went to the H.U. Lee Memorial Scholarship and will get Master Olford's name on the wall of Masters at the garden in Little Rock. You have seen pictures of the memorial garden in past posts. We have three students from our school eligible for this scholarship.Mary is one, with a top 10% of her class academic ranking.









More black belts.

Drum line...

A photo from a game a couple of weeks ago. The band spins the little pin wheels while the football team looks on.








Check the youtube site for last nights drum line performance at the candle light pep rally. They played "The Beast."
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=theolderyouwillget&view=videos

More Band Photos...

Some long shots, mean far away, zoomed in whatevah the photo term is from Marching Contest last weekend.

Here the Lufkin Panther Band jumps in celebration when their Superior rating is announced.





After the Stephen F. Austin University Lumberjack Band Marched their drum line played on to entertain as the crowd exited the stadium.




Check this link for photos made by Dan-Danz, see his link at the sidebar, of the Lufkin, SFA and other area bands. Thanks Dan!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dan-danz/sets/72157608194923257/

Women's Services Fish Off...

Cathy and the girls from work took the boat out today for the first annual Women's Services Fish Off. The total was 13 cats. Here's Sharon showing off one of the big fish.










Otters played up and down the bank where they fished.
Here's Stacy showing off the haul. Looks like pretty nice size fish. They made 5lbs of fillets.

Cathy was very proud of the back in job she did with the boat into the garage.

1st Division...

Great weekend for the Panther Band, not so good for the football team. Lost the game, won the half time and then on Saturday the band scored a 1st division superior rating at UIL marching contest.

Here's the drum line during the school song.
Pop and Geneva came to the game which was played in Conroe.
More cowbell. Curtis gets down during a rendition of "Low Rider."

Check this link. It's the Lufkin High School "Jam Band." Jam Band is a loose group the performs material arranged by the students during the game. They are getting better and better and while I don't think this is one of their best tunes you will recognize it. Most of their stuff is current pop hits which I don't recognize and I think it's pretty rare to find a group permitted to do this kind of thing at a game.
http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=theolderyouwillget



I'll get a youtube of the contest drill up later.

Signs...

So my neighbor was surprised. You think you know a guy after living next door to him but then he goes and does something like put an Obama sign in his yard.

He asked me, "you really voting for Obama?"

I said, "Yes."

He said, "I can't. I just don't think this country is ready to have a Muslim as President."

I said, " I don't think he's a Muslim."

He said,"I don't believe that."

If you watched any of the debates you know that some of the charges leveled back and forth were simply best deflected by much better debaters (can I say that word here?) than me. In this case I just mumbled something about how I thought my candidates had a better social justice agenda that seems like it might come closer to ending problems in society with health care, addressing root causes for the need for a law that legalizes abortion, as well as evening out the tax system in favor for the little guy. I could go on, but as I admit, I mumble. I'm just an old peace queer, what do I know.

My neighbor allowed how he was afraid he would be taxed $50,000 if the Democrats got in office. Not a problem for those making less than that these days.

Just Thinking...

Here's one of those old hippie throws I bought in Austin a few years ago. I always liked this symbol, I think it's some kind of Hare Krishna thing, I first saw it on old George Harrison album covers in the 1970s.

Anyway I had put it up for a fish fry party decoration last weekend. That bright spot on the left hand side is a yellow bug light bulb, you know we go in for the juke joint type lighting around here and I need to take it down because the cotton fabric will rot with outside exposure.

It has set me to thinking. Three symbols, (I count the little curve with the dot in the right hand corner as one and always have since I saw this 35 or so years ago), in a circle. I think the Hare Krishna must be under some Devine influence because three symbols in a circle clearly means Father, Son and Holy Spirit, all one.

Just goes to show, everything is everything.

The Game Is Not Even Over Yet...

And here are the pictures.

Mary on the Jumbo Tron, note the score they scored again before I could get home and download these snapshots.
Here come the tubas.
This is the contest drill. Marching contest is next Saturday.
Start the second half!

I think I left too soon, the radio is reporting a big fire, must be near where I was standing to make these pictures.

I'm Reading This Week...

It's a thriller.

No spoilers here, get your own copy.

Everyone Likes to Fish...

As reported on a previous post folks were more than ready, despite recent reports of impending financial doom, to line up and pay their $39,000 to have their picture on the blog holding a big catfish.

Here Mary and Master Olford drag a big one to the weigh in.
Left to right, Big Chuy, David, Monica and Isabel pull the pick up in to load a big one.
David. He thinks it's a real fish.
Mike and Joanie. They don't see stuff like this in Oregon.

Stocking the Freezer Back Up...

Caught 9 catfish today on a short trip. Better than average size. Fall fishing is here and I always think the way the leaves arrange themselves under this tree where Cathy poses for a tub shot is just a perfect representation of the many browns fall and winter brings us.
Look what Ike did. The new floating dock has some leaning poles. With the low water I don't think this dock is floating right now so I guess the surging waves from the storm picked it up and slammed it on the hard sand. More than once. The camping area is closed, we were not allowed to even drive through it. There are a lot of new screen shelters and I wonder how they fared.

Fish Fry...

The big attraction was the "pose with the fish station." With the economy crashing the $39,000 price tag that it costs to get your picture on this blog is a bargain. It sure goes a long way for my financial bailout.
The buffet line goes for a belly swim. We cooked 30lbs of Sam Rayburn catfish, all caught by Cathy.
There was a big jam session, guitar, drums, bass, flute, sax, new arrangements of very old tunes were explored in the best behind the pine curtain fashion. Left to right, Ruth, Gonzalo, Miguel, Runt.
Cathy and Gonzalo discuss the bridge. It's a wide ranging discussion, the bridge is part of a song, a place where we fish, man everything is everything.

Friday Night Football...

And the band that goes with it. Panthers not doing so hot right now, playing some tough teams, but the band is doing well. They got their contest drill on the field tonight and it is a fancy challenging performance.

Mary on drums.
Marching in around the track.
On the field.