Catfish in Shallow Water...

 After careful study of the weather forecast and much planning we made it out to the lake Monday afternoon. It paid off with 17 shallow water cats. We tried a couple of deep water spots since that was the last know location but they have moved up and hopefully will stay shallow till May. 

Nice size to the fish. All in about 6' of water. WE caught them under slip corks. Here's on more photo of Cathy with a catfish. 

How about me with a fish? I did catch a few. 

Cathy caught several of the nicer ones with a regular old Carolina type rig on the bottom. 

Pretty good mess of fish. We left them biting and will go back for more another day. We fried up a few of these right fresh and I used my new vacuum food saver to package up several two person meals that should be a quick thaw out for easy meals. 

I know people have been wondering, "did I miss a big fish fry? There has not been one in awhile." No you have not missed one. With the colder and wetter than normal winter and various family affairs we did not do a Mardi Gras Fish Fry. We will let you know. 

Now you have the fishing low down. Here's my relationship advice for the day. Marry a girl that cleans fish. 

The Accidental Gardner...

That might have been a movie or book title that I never saw or read but somehow stick in my head. That's how I take care of the yard. I plant stuff and it usually looks ok. Occasionally I ask Cathy's advice about organic placement but she just says "What you have going on is fine with me." I don't know what that means other than she knows that whatever she says I usually do the opposite. 

This is a photo of a line of oleanders I planted some forgotton years ago. The neighbor's privacy fence came a couple of years ago so this was a good choice since they are growing up the shield the bare wood look.

If you look closely at the second and third plants from the camera you will see how they got bit from the cold this year. The same plants also  got bit last year and I trimmed back the dead leaves hoping to jump start thick bushy growth.

Nothing else in the row is damaged by the cold and there are plants two and three times the size of the ones in question. Why are these particular two affected and others not? There is a slight dip in the ground where they are planted. That's the only thing I can think that's different from the others but one way to think about this is that lower plants should be shielded by taller plants.

Like a lot of other stuff, I don't know.  

I Always Think...

I guess as a parent you will never stop thinking things like this. You know what I'm talking about and I'll use Mary and Ezra as an example because they are right here handy in town and I see them a lot. 

On our Friday trip to Tyler Cathy went to the fabric store for supplies and lucky for me Guitar Center is right next door so I went in and browsed around. As I need another guitar like a hole in the head so I was just looking. I did see one of the staff members with an African beanie, called a nurdu like the guitar player for ZZ Top, Mr. BF Gibbons is often seen wearing. A quick Google shows the going price for these things starting at about $150. I don't need that either.

After listening to a middle age guy testing a guitar by playing Louie Louie I went into the  closed humidity controlled acoustic room. Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of a baby buggy being shoved in. I turn around and there is Mary with Ezra with friend Sara, her daughter and Davin. 

Mary grabbed up an acoustic and played. Next up outside Mary makes lots of weird drum sounds on electric drums. She then grabs a keyboard and hammers chords on it. The guy playing Louie Louie does not have a chance. 

That very day I had dropped a horn for Warren off at the repair shop. Word on the street is that Wallace has a trombone already. Morgan has 7 songs to play for me the next time we jam. 

Some times I listen to all this and I say, like a lot of parents do, "Is that my kid playing like that?"

Ezra tries out an electric. Sorry, you folkies in the family should have got to him first. 

Here's a photo of Mary giving drum lessons. I was mainly the one taking but Ezra gets into the act with a little skin drum we bought at the Tyler Zoo one time during someone else's childhood. 

I'm proud of my kids and grandkids. Music is the way to go. 

Visit With an Old Friend...

We had errands in Tyler yesterday. Cathy went to the fabric store for sewing supplies and I dropped off the little alto alto horn for repair at USA Band instruments. We called up our old friend Quince and had a meal and a visit with him.

Quince was next door to me in the dorm in 1976. Later me and a couple of dudes moved out to Samstown Trailer Park and I looked out the window one day and Quince was next door there also. We have some history. 

Now he lives in Tyler. I did not see any real estate for sale in his neighborhood  nor is there any openings in mine. We are not likely to live as neighbors again but after all these years we still keep contact. 

With the retirement years on the horizon looks like we will have a chance to make trouble again.  

Signs, Signs...

Right now early voting is available in Texas. While I have always followed politics I am more involved this time around than ever before. 

I guess stepping up involvement started a few years ago when Cathy began being an election judge. When I had a chance I started being the alternate judge and last Presidential election I was election judge. I have only done the bigger elections as we are limited to elections that fall when the old day job does not interfere. These have been a lot of fun as I am stationed at a fairly busy box. I have heard that school board elections are pretty slow.  You might sit there all day with only a couple of voters. If you don't know by now, people need to turn out and vote. Election judge does pay, a little over $100. The fee is paid by the party and I don't know if I ever get my money because I think Cathy donates it back. If you want to judge call the county and they will know how you can get started. It's easy. 

This year there seems like a lot of people I know are running for office. When that's the case you have a more personal stake in the outcome. We want to see our friends do well.

Brent Beal, who I met through friends is running for representative of Texas's 1st Congressional District. It's a seat held by Louie Gomert. If you know anything about Louie it's that he is unavailable to voters of the district, he gets on TV with crack pot theories and his campaign money is PAC money from out of the district. Brent takes his money in 10s and 20s from people like me and is doing well with the grass roots fund raising. No PACs. If elected his voice will be your voice. Word on the street from both sides is it is time for Louie to go. Vote Beal.

I am listed on Brent's web site as an advisor for Angelina County. It's a little bit of a symbolic thing so you can see that your neighbors, people you know are involved but I do what I can. I run a little facebook page Southern Angelina County for Change and yesterday I put up signs. It's a long run. There will be other things to do. 

Another candidate to consider is Shirley Layton for Texas Senate District 3. I know Shirley and knew her brother Cliff from working at the paper mill. This is from her web site:

• Work with our public teachers to ensure that they are justly compensated and have the resources they need.
• Work tirelessly to make sure that our retired teachers continue to get what we promised them while they were teaching our children. 
• Work to bring equal access to information and education to our children via high speed internet.
• Help our families struggling with access to healthcare, maternity care, child care and the weight of taking care of elderly parents.
• Work to provide mental health care for those in our families that are in need.
• Help businesses in under-served communities create jobs and opportunities while providing a living wage to their employees.
• Work to ensure communities practice responsible policing and every family is treated equally under the law.
• Expand access to Quality Mental Health Care for our County inmates.
• Work to improve our infrastructure across the district including highspeed internet.
• Work with Veterans to ensure our Texas Vets are taken care of when they come home. 

How can you not be for her? Here is a photo I took at an Indivisible meeting.

Jason Rogers is running for the Texas House of Representatives District 57. I know Jason from the time he went through the Christian Initiation Program at St. Patrick's Catholic Church and I was involved with that team. He is also a teacher at Angelina College. The seat he is running for is held by Trent Ashby. Jason's story on how he decide to run is that he encountered Ashby in the grocery store and had questions on an education bill which Trent had voted in an unfavorable way toward teachers. In the course of their discussion it came out that Trent could not remember how he voted on the bill. I know Texas State Representative is kind of a part time job but we do need something better than this. Like Jason on facebook here. This is my photo of Jason at the Indivisible rally.

I missed meeting Beto O'Rourke who was recently in Lufkin. He's running against Ted Cruz. Ted just uses his office to run for president and other outside the state agendas. Again like all these candidates no PAC money for Beto. Read about his visit to Lufkin in the NYT

If you want to help you can donate to these fine folks at ActBlue. It does not take big money. I asked Brent yesterday if he wanted money for the signs. He said "throw $5 at the web site." 

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This Kind of Work...

I have always enjoyed that song by Hays Carll that has the line, "this kind of work no one retires." He was talking about songwriting, music and the life of a musician. I have used that line to illustrate how I felt many times. I guess I can't use it anymore, especially when it comes to the church music we have been playing. Our bilingual church choir that sang in English and Spanish is no more. 

Here is what happened. Priests were shifted around leaving two Priests to cover two churches in Lufkin that had originally been covered by three. Also eliminated were any services with overlapping times to enable the two to cover at one place or the other either in English or Spanish. The bilingual Mass time still exists but is now a service in English. 

I don't know if you know the story but around 2003 I think, the LaSalette Priest were the order at St. Pat's and Father Ron wanted a bilingual Mass. We took the gig and as there was not a whole lot of music that did this kind of thing Cathy was the main driver in developing. writing and translating till we had a repertoire developed.

Since this beginning time the bilingual music has been good to us. Our kids all came through playing in the group as well as many other motivated movers and shakers on their way to bigger and better things. Church music can teach you a lot. You learn to play but then you also learn to play nice with others.

Here's a Palm Sunday photo of us playing a few years ago.

We have had some invitations to join other groups. Our hearts are with the community unity of bilingual music. We think it's a good thing. Many other people do also and often tell us so. There is always two sides to the story though. People that don't like it will usually tell you to your face. Bilingual does not seem too important right now in the Catholic Church as a whole but the winds of change often blow so we will see where it goes.

Doing music at church takes a lot of preparation and the bulk of that falls to Cathy. She picks the music, makes song sheets, reads the readings so the picked music is liturgically correct, makes packets for each musician and in the case of new music teaches the songs. Getting a few weeks of music in the can means at least 8 hours of work.

I have it a bit easier. I polish picks, tune and maintain instruments, set up, sound check and for a couple of years now have recorded the homily and posted on line.

If we do some simple math and say we played 52 Sundays a year. We do take off but there has always been weddings, funerals, quinceaneras and extra Holy Day Services so I think it's safe to say we are in the neighborhood of 728 set ups and take downs. That's decent but we can tell already that we have extra time on our hands. 

Here's the back of my main church axe, a Fender acoustic bass. The nice strap is one Cathy got me at Matt Umanaov's in New York City a few years ago. I covered the back with Holy Cards and a photo of Bishop Ed. I have an electric Fender P Bass but somehow through all these years this one has become my favorite.  

So what now? There will probably still be some need for the occasional bilingual Service. In the mean time without this weekly finger workout we need to find a new way to keep our chops up. We have one gig on the books as Goat Rodeo but it's some months away.

For now we say thanks and count our blessings at the good times and people that have traveled the way with us. Maybe you can retire from this work. 

 

White Bass Fishing Report...

If you follow here you know by now we make a couple trips each spring over to the Sabine River to white bass fish. We do it from the sand bar at River Ridge Campground and Guide Service. The fishing can be hit or miss. When it's on it's on but this day it must still be a little early in the season because our report is zero. 

Cathy sits in a lawn chair to cast. River was visibly rising after the rain of the past few days. That and muddy water are not usually a good combo and will break up the run for a few days but for the day camper fee of $10 they charge for this privately owned area it's a pretty good place to relax. 

If we do manage to coordinate with a good bite you see the white bass arsenal ready to go.    

I did not feel too bad about the dry run as we talked to 4 guys up from La Port for a guided trip. They only managed 5 fish. 

A Little Traditional N.O. Jazz

On our last trip to New Orleans we settled into the warm Back Room at Buffa's neighborhood bar early because it was New Year's Eve, the evening looked to be icy, we wanted a place to sit and watch a band and we expected to see the Royal Rounders as the main event of the night. We got a real treat from the opening band, The Steve Pistorius Quartet. 

I had not heard of the group before but it turns out Steve is a pretty famous dude. He's a throw back to the old Jelly Roll Morton piano style. Plays the river boat cruises, Preservation Hall as well as international venues. Really if you count Steve the band is a Quintet. Piano, clarinet, cornet, bass and drums. In the rock world I think you have such as the power trio. Bass, drums and guitar.  I don't think I have ever heard the Jimi Hendrix Experience billed as the Jimi Hendrix Duo. 

Vocals were handled by Steve and the cornet player.  

Lots of good solos with mutes of various kinds including a tin pan wah wah like you see some guys use a plunger. 

Great clarinet player. Solos went on and on and I am sorry I did not get these guy's names committed to memory. 

Bass and Drums. 

The band played a set, took a break and when they came back a funny thing happened. It seems that Steve, the leader had been called away and they played on as a quartet. The cornet player switched to piano, continued with the vocals and the clarinet player really began to let things rip. Seemed like the style shifted ever so slightly to something I could not quite put my finger on and things got looser and jammier.

We enjoyed the show a lot and hope things are OK for Steve. Looks like this is a regular Sunday evening gig so stop in and see them. A good venue with food that while nothing to rave about could be classified as hearty, filling fare.

 

Mardi Gras Time...

 As the name of this blog, the older you will get, getting older is a thought that crosses my mind from time to time. With another birthday this year I think of times spent doing this and doing that that there will be things that I do for the last time to pass me by. It's full on Mardi Gras season right now down in one of my favorite places, New Orleans and as I study about it and reflect on the several Mardi Gras I have attended I might not make it down there again for the big event.

Mardi Gras can be a lot of trouble. Too many people, loose who you came with, wreck your car, forget which hotel you are in and so on and I am just talking about the stuff that has happened to me. Today is a day for the professionals down there for sure as it's raining and all the parades ran back to back trying to beat the weather. I am off work next weekend, the big weekend and a trip is tempting. I said Mardi Gras was a lot of fun did I not? Since anytime is a good parade time I have these photos from the Sugar Bowl Parade that we made a few weeks ago. 

Mardi Gras Indian Suit in the US Mint Jazz Museum. Every at Carnival Time we make a new suit anyway.

Celebrate 300 years as a city. 

Cathy can catch beads. 

Note the braced stance when receiving a throw. 

Here's a Louie Armstrong float passing the US Mint where his first cornet is on display inside. Click this LINK to read hear about Louie as the Zulu King in 1949.  

Marching Bands. 

Pretty plain compared to the big floats that roll this weekend and next. 

More marching bands. 

Crawfish! 

Kind of technically mine and Cathy's first date was a Mardi Gras in 1988. I think the first Mardi Gras I went to was 1985 or maybe 86. As I said, Mardi Gras has passed this way, may or maybe not again.