The Zamora Spirit Animal...

There was a noise it the garage last night. It was the Zamora Spirit Animal. It usually shows up at just the right time when a spirit animal is needed and I guess it was showing up to make a welfare check on Luca and Ezra who were fast asleep during this appearance. 

There is a fine folklore to these Spirit Animal appearances. For some reason many of them happen during the Christmas season when you have a house full of guests and then suddenly a possum comes to be in the house amongst them and then the yearly "Christmas Possum" tradition and prophecy is filled. 

Lately Miguel often is visited by a possum he calls "Fathead."  Fathead can be found guruing around the cat food bowl. While he's munching on a diet higher in proteins than most of 7 billion people living in the world right now he demonstrates sage wisdoms, patience with the cats who own the bowls and throws the I Ching to answer the eternal burning questions of life.  

The eternal questions this Spirit Animal proposed on this visit were about the same as Brother Man might ask, "Where's Hippy?" or Parker who wants to know if Ezra is here. It also asked like some people do, "when is the next big fish fry?"  

  

 

 

Cleaning Up in the Record Room...

This is my recorded music room. There's also a musical instrument room but that's another blog post. 

If you are 2 years old and yea tall you are just the right height to stand dead center of the CD shelf on the left hand side of the photo below and to easily sort through all the titles listed alphabetically K thru M and after a brief examination toss them on the floor. Yesterday I tasked myself with cleaning this up and after a donation of a pile of old records by my friend Will and the revelation it was a bucket list destination experience my friend John set as a goal I thought a little organization never hurt anything.  

I think this room might have once been a back porch that was framed in. In my time it was used as a kid bedroom. Long and narrow I think they threw lots to establish who would be confined in here on some kind of rotating system of exchange. After all the kids moved out we put the records in here and I can't remember exactly where all this was set up before that. Back in those days there were not any cds for 2 year olds to toss and there were probably only about 400 records so relatively compact storage was adequate. 

Starting about the year 2000 the cd collection really exploded with us beginning downloads using emusic and purchasing from mostly obscure bands we saw play live. By 2010 we became dedicated used record store and thrift store hounds saving obscure music from the landfill as if on a mission of mercy. 

Since retirement and the institution of the old fixed income I could probably count on one hand the brand new cds I have purchased. Thrift store records have become my main intoxicant. 

Another feature of this room is the concert posters. If we saw a show, usually in a club Cathy lifted the poster, but only after the band finished and advertisement was no longer required so not really stealing but a form of recycling.     

The paint job on the walls was by Cathy and the kids. There are lots of hand prints, footprints and original art that needs scientific interpretation about the walls and I try to gauge the importance of all works so the are not obscured.   

Click the photos to make them bigger. 

You won't find any Springsteen or Stones. 

That's a late 60s/early 70s Harmony guitar. I think I paid $40 for it and then took out the original pickups, installed a lipstick pickup, used only three stings and made it into a drone blues guitar. I still have the original pickup and maybe I'll find another $40 guitar that needs them.  

I mentioned there was a musical instrument room but this room also serves as a drum room. Are drums musical instruments? I don't know how I accumulated so many. I consider myself a terrible drummer even and I turned down a invitation to play a set on cajon with a guitar bass duo this past weekend.  I already had two gigs in that day and also worked in a voter registration booth  

Maybe this gives a bit of indication of the variety of music. I'll always need a Musical Mysteries of the Andes for those special ambient moments. I don't normally collect Steve Miller Band albums, most specifically anything later than 1976 but his second album from 1968, Sailor is the last one featuring Boz Skaggs and is listed as the 353rd on the 1000 best albums of all time. It was made at a time when everyone wanted to put out the next Sgt. Pepper's. Actually I had two of these records and last week I let one go to the thrift store. I should have kept that one because I think the cover was in better shape.    

The box is my favorite swing and polka records and boxed sets so I can find them easily. There's also about 50 cassettes of music that is mostly recorded from the albums belonging to friends that was the coin of the realm in the days when cars had tape players.   

So kids, when I'm gone if you really want to hustle there are probably some titles that might be worth $20 each in this collection. If you happen to feel like quiet quitting is your thing and you sell all cds and records for $1 each which should be pretty easy I think those profits would purchase your old dad a very nice cremation package including urn and everything at one of the more modest funeral homes in town.  

I don't know what ya'll going to do about mom. 

 

Forest Festival, Lufkin Brass, Multicultural Fiesta, Did I Miss Anything...

It was a busy weekend. On Sunday our band The Lufkin Brass played the Texas State Forest Festival for the second year in a row. Our Bilingual choir played the music for Mass for St. Patrick's Catholic Church Multicultural Festival. Me, Cathy and her brother Matt worked booths, helped set up and take down and Cathy assisted with the money counting duties. Proceeds from the Festival will fund a renovation of the old church building, now called LaSalette Hall. It's where me and Cathy were married when it was the old church and word on the street is that more than enough was raised.    

The Lufkin Brass gig went well. Morgan sat in on drums. Two funny things happened in the course of this gig. While setting up for the church festival Saturday evening a young curly headed fellow with a fade hair cut answered a call for set up volunteers and after a bit he said, "ok I have to go because I'm going to the Forest Festival with my grandma." I said , "great, thanks for the help and if you are at the festival tomorrow catch my band the Lufkin Brass." He looked at me and his eyes widened as he said, "yeehaw, That's you?" I affirmed it was. 

The next day right before the Brass began to play another young man comes up and says, "how are you, good to see you!" I don't recognize him but as I'm a local personality I chat him up and he says, "I'm still playing that cigar box guitar you made me." I've made and sold close to 100 cigar box guitars but probably not made one in about 3 years. I asked so its holding together and playing well? He said, "still plays great!" That's good feed back to hear.       

The church festival was great with food musical entertainment, dance groups, games and people many countries represented and working together for fun, fellowship and purpose. 

This is a Salvadorian Dance group. 

Mexican Folkloric Dancers. 

Plenty of good food at the festival. Mexican, Sri Lanka, El Salvador, and the Philippines and if there were others I hope to try them next year.  

Here's the judge and High Sheriff working the jail booth. For some reason no one wanted this job. The way it works is you pay the judge $5 and you point out the person you want arrested to the HS. He locks them up for 15 minutes. All the prisoner's friends make pictures. Someone can bail you out for $5 or you can buy a get out of jail card for $10. That's what I did since I worked the voter registration booth and had the forest festival gig. No time to get locked up.  

Another word on the street is that this festival will be on a date next year not to conflict with the Forest festival or the Diboll church, Our Lady of Guadalupe which had a Fiestas Patrias Celebration yesterday.   

Next gig for the Brass is The Stonewall Jam Fest and M.D. Anderson Cancer Benefit on Oct. 15th. 

My grandson Cullen gives Ross a few pointers on the ins and outs of drumming while we set up for the gig. Only problem was when we started playing he was out on drums and his dad was in. He was disappointed but he will be big enough to sit in before you know it. 

  

 

Recent Live Music...

 On our recent trip to Evansville, Indiana we managed to sample some of the local live music. Most was at a downtown Saturday event with musicians playing on street corners but we did make it out to a show at a club. There seems to be a good variety of music to be seen around the town.  

This is Kelly  and I'm sorry but I forget the last name. Maybe someone will comment. He's doing the DAG thing (dude and guitar) but it's a nice selection of music with the older rock tunes funkily updated and good use of a looper pedal to back himself for solos. The sound was clear and I liked the sound he got from some type of envelope filter for his solos. He has played parties at my brother and sister in law's home and we chatted about music, looping and pedals afterward his gig. 

Very nice guy. There had been a gas main explosion in Evansville that destroyed a row of homes and he was helping out to raise money with a set at charity event the next day.  

Did not catch the name of this group but a standard blues combo sounding very nice. Too bad stuff like this is not more in demand around here. 

I did not catch this group's name or even if they had one. I liked how the groups were spaced out enough that even if there was sound reinforcement in use they did not step on each other. This music on a street corner thing was tried a few years ago in Lufkin and we participated as an acoustic group looking to set up under store fronts to enhance our sound in natural ways but always ended up blown out by other groups with amps playing unimaginative sets of the same old same old.  

We also spotted some singer song writer looking types and a guy with a sax as we drove though town but did not get to listen to them.   

We did make it out to a bar one evening to catch a regional personality Boscoe France. Boscoe is working the blues, SRV, Allman Brothers, Southern Rock thing and while I have seen SRV he is gone and guys like Boscoe will have to do. 

If you visit his web page at the link he has an impressive list of endorsers but is a humble dude. He made the comment from the stage that his bass player was the smart guy in the band and was writing a book about what it was like to hand out with dumb people. 

Later on at break Cathy and her sister Margaret went to buy Boscoe's cd had I noticed he liked to talk and as I had talked to lots of guitar players in bars, usually the ones I was in a band with I at first deferred but later joined the group. Boscoe was telling them how dumb he was but that he could read cursive. I went to tune away and Bos asked me where I was going. As I had turned toward the stage I mentioned I was checking out his gear. He said, "come on I'll show it to you," but at that moment someone else wanted a cd so he got busy with that and I slipped off. I look at guitars all the time. They are wood and wire and that's all you need to know.       

Boscoe is really not dumb. He's crazy like a fox. Catch live music and talk to guitar players in bars when you can. Beats watching TV. 

Shakedown Cruise for the RPod and Good Blue Cat Bite...

 We stayed close to home for the shakedown cruise for the new to us rpod heading out 15 miles down the road to Hanks Creel Park on Sam Rayburn Reservoir. Our camp site was on the water and being so close to home we made a second trip back to get the boat because it is our normal launch with our best fishing spots nearby. 

I posted this photo on facebook and many thought we were tent camping but the trailer has a zip on canopy that provides shade and also served as sleeping quarters for brother in law Matt and also my son Morgan and his son Cullen who stayed one night. We were also joined in nearby campsites by my mother in law Geneva in her new truck camper (should have got a photo of her rig), the Zamoras in their VW camper and my brother Glenn as a day camper.  

The hot Texas summer finally broke a bit with temperatures a few degrees less making it more comfortable for the outdoors and the fish bit well. We probably caught less than 30 fish but it was enough for a fish dinner each day for whomever was in camp with the number of campers and fish eaters reaching a high of 8 adults and 4 children. 

A neighboring camper stopped me and asked if these were all my grandchildren. I said, "yes, half of them." He said, "my kids have not had any so it's just me and my wife and it's so boring!" I felt a bit sorry for him! Of course I don't have a boring wife but that's another blog post. 

Everyone caught some fish I think. They were mostly blue cats running to good size and we just threw back many of the smaller but still keeper sized channel cats. Parker caught a PB (personal best) two days in a row and even Miguel caught a few. 

Good fish for Morgan

Matt helps Luca land one. 

Cathy caught a good one and before we could land it I hooked one and we netted mine before she could get her's untangled. 

I can't believe they ate all that fish! Usually with the smaller channel cats I fry with the fish cut into strips. These big blue cats were fried up in big fillets and large hunks. 

Well, we can get more! just for the record the big blues like this were 40' deep and the bite was extremely light with the larger fish just clamping down and sitting on it. Your pole would just suddenly feel different, not a pull but a second sense of when to set the hook.   

The last fish of the trip was caught by Matt on a rod baited with a small sunfish that he casted behind the boat and left out overnight. It was a 3 pound blue cat, caught, photographed and released by campsite #16 in case anyone wants to try for him. 

We were not the only ones fishing the area as the river otters put on a show for us a couple of evenings playing and dining on our left over fish cleanings right beside our boat landing and we also had a bald eagle sighting.  

One last look a camp catfish. There's a couple of minor repairs and adjustments to make on the camper and looking around for our next trip we have discovered that any parks an hour drive from metropolitan areas are going to take planning several months in advance to get a site. 

Also we have a bike rack around here or on loan to Miguel I think and we had a lot of fun riding bikes in the park. They will be a piece of equipment to always have on these trips. We also carried guitars and I played one afternoon but they may be more used on future trips where the boat is not involved and we have relaxed sitting around time. 

I think this crew can handle camping. 

 

  

 

Bridges Too Far Maybe Not...

When I'm driving and I cross an impressive span of bridge I always whip out a camera and try to take a photo. I know, you should not be operating electronic devices while driving but one of my favorite imageries is that final journey over the river to eternal reward so if a crash does happen at least I'm halfway over. 

Some of ya'll might think that's the best old mudbelly can do, halfway but on a recent trip I crossed many of the big rivers that drain the heartland of American. The photo I made is crossing the Mississippi and I forget exactly where, maybe in the vicinity of Memphis, but I remember the Ohio, the Cumberland, the Wabash, and the Red right off hand and there were many more. 

 

I have a childhood memory of crossing a bridge on a family vacation. We were driving in an old Pontiac at night. It was pouring rain and the bridge was very narrow. Seems I recall a narrow bridge at Vicksburg Miss. existed at one time but if it's still in service it's widened by now to accommodate the progression of vehicle size. I read something that said most Americans drive a car larger than WW2 tanks. I went to an old tank show one time and I noticed some were so small that I thought them to be mock ups but this statement makes me now think they were the real thing. Getting new info will change your mind like that. 

In my memory there was a Greyhound passenger bus passing the other way. Traffic was creeping due to the rain and the narrowing of the bridge. I always sat in the backseat behind the driver so it seems like the bus passed inches away from my rain streaked window. Thank God seat belts and automatic windows were not invented yet so if we went off the bridge we could have rolled down a window and escaped from the sinking car and instead had drowned as we fought the current instead of strapped into a hunk of big American iron and had our bodies recovered in New Orleans just in time for Mardi Gras. 

You know if you don't make it all the way over there is always a next best thing. 

I always imaging on that last crossing you step into the boat on the Earthly side. There's a person to paddle and they are all wrapped in a hooded garment so you can't tell if it's man or woman as if that matters because paddling is paddling and like most anything anyone can do it and also to discourage any attention you might give them because after all this is a last time thing so you need to be looking. You pile up all that junk you thought you needed, physically and metamorphically right there at the muddy, messy landing and step into the boat to head to the other side directly into a bright light. The light is bright because probably every thing you have thought about that far side is going to be wrong and He don't want your brain using any preconceived ideology to sort through what you might see on approach and arrive on the other side acting just like you did on the Earth bank of the river.

I could go on about getting there but like the electronic device I made that photo with your's is going to be different from mine.  

        

 

All Hail the Turtle...

 When I was a child I recall, and of course after all this time this reminisce might not be exactly factually correct, the family making the discovery of a large snapping turtle crawling through our backyard. 

There were still woods behind our home and the houses and streets back there were a few years away and there was a creek drainage snaking through this undeveloped area to emerge into a man made system of under street culverts and ditches to funnel the water away. This makes the turtle unsurprising as when you have woods you have mammals, reptiles and if there is enough water there will be fish.

I think and I'm not sure they thought like this back then but that now days parents make the attempt to turn anything a child experiences into a learning experience even to the extent of diminishing the traditional classroom.  I might be wrong but maybe my parents were ahead of the game but they did allow us to take a stick and poke the turtle. 

This of course made the turtle furious in the exact same way it would make you furious if you were poked with a stick and it exhibited the behavior for which it was named. It snapped at the stick. My parents told us that if it snapped a body part it would not release till it thundered. Surly a teaching moment and I probably told my kids the same thing and I'll tell the grandkids also but I now see signs at the boat launches on the nearby lake that due to rarity and approaching extinction I should report to Parks and Wildlife sightings of certain snappers including photos and GPS coordinates. 

The sighting of this statue in a Texarkana BBQ restaurant kind of boiled all this up in my mind. Why? They did not offer turtle on the menu which is quite common in certain parts of the country. 

My first impression was that little boy has two turtles but someone pointed out that it might not be a boy and I'm ok if you present how you want to. I felt the figure was showing a certain carefree joy so I looked up the symbolism of turtle and it's what you might expect. Longevity, slow and steady perseverance, healing, retreat, the Earth, receptivity, survival and determination are just a few things people associate with turtles which by the way are related to crocodiles and birds. Demonstrations of all these traits are necessary for a successful life and there are many ways to put them to good use. 

What do you think about the statue? 

That snapper we were poking with a stick that day was allowed to proceed on it's way. It's entirely possible that it's still crawling today as the life spans of these are thought to reach 100 years. I have not poked another turtle with a stick since then and have not had another snapping turtle encounter. I have caught a few fishing, all gently freed and observed many in the wild sitting on logs and once while canoeing in cold clear winter waters every time I looked down seemed like the turtles were swimming like aquatic acrobats under my boat. I've probably killed a few by running over them on the highway accidently when they crawl in the spring but I've tried to make up for it by stopping to recue others from the same fate. It's the way of the car. I've probably run over everything you can run over with a car but that's a diminishing occurrence as the wooded places near where people live, just like those of my childhood are now less and less.        

     

A Driving Trip, The Cousins and More...

 Cathy has often pointed out to me what she thinks is lies that I have written on this blog. Hey! I try to get it right! This time though I wrote down all the important stats on our recent trip through America's heartland to Indiana and back with stops along the way so this is really right:

Drove 1795 miles in 28 hours and 4 minutes. 

As near as I can account used 62 gallons of gas. The old 2013 Ford Cmax Hybrid got 35 miles to the gallan just like it did the day it was brand new. It's closing in on 180,000 total miles. 

Gas cost was $179. That's still cheaper than a round trip flight for one to Chicago.

The folks we visited were Cathy's sister Margert and brother in law Kevin in Evansville, Indiana.  

Cathy with the nieces Grayson and Addison. While I'm sorry not to catch everyone looking this was a good photo of Grayson. We were very well entertained in Evansville with good food, musical events around the city and the zoo.    

On the way up to Evansville, which is basically a drive on Interstate 69 (old Highway 59) till they name it something else we made a slight reroute to Holt's Summit, Mo to visit cousin Mary. Mary used to live right on the way to Evansville or if we made a drive to Chicago but has recently moved to be nearer son David and daughter in law Stacy. 

Looks like Mary is doing fine. Her duplex is spacious. Though she does still drive a bit she walks to the doc, shopping, dining out and you can tell that this activity is helping maintain her health. She did relate a humorous story of the call someone made about the suspicious person with an umbrella wearing a purple coat walking the neighborhood but that's all straightened out now. 

Plenty of room for the doll collection.      

There is a pool in the area for resident use so if you visit Mary, bring your suit. 

Mary is the daughter of my mother's sister Lola. Keep and eye on those two in the photo. Might be more suspicious people reports filed.   

From Evansville we looked at the map and there was cousin Carolyn and husband Doug about one and a half hours away in Elkton, Kentucky. We visited before on a trip to a music festival in Kentucky and they came her to a fish fry several years ago. Carolyn is the daughter of my mom's brother Alec. Alec and her mom Margie divorced many years ago so that separation has been a barrier to getting to know each other that we have kicked it apart by making the effort to make these visits to each other. As Carylon put it herself, "we have wasted too much time getting to know each other." Great people. If we hung out more I bet we could trigger a suspicious person report.   

Here's a photo I'd guess from around 1960ish of standing Carylon, grandma Pinky, ad me and my dad.  

We stopped in Texarkana, Tx on the way back to visit friends John and Janet who used to live in Lufkin. When they moved to Texarkana Janet met a woman at church who when told they were from Lufkin said "I have a cousin in Lufkin named Cathy." Janet said, "my best friend in Lufkin is named Cathy." So here we are, Cathy George is Cathy's mother's mother's brother's granddaughter. Hope you follow that. She is married to Jeffery who has family here in Lufkin that we also know.  

Our stay in Texarkana was pleasant. We mostly drove around in John's award winning 1987 Pontiac Safari Station Wagon, 4000 pounds of fun eating BBQ and driving up and down Stateline Avenue hollering out and people in Texas on one side of he street and those in Arkansas on the other. 

See, if I come visit you I'm easily and cheaply entertained, well beside the fact that a 1987 Pontiac Safari gets 0 MPG in the pricy, declining years of carbon burning.      

These visits were great. As I got home and reviewed I did not really take the photos I usually do when traveling but I think the memories and the people I shared them with will mean every bit as much as something floating around in the digital space. I think I got it right.