Another Day of Retirement Knocked Out and the Great 2022 Yearly Catfish Total...

 We went to the lake for the last fishing trip of the year (probably but this day is still early) and knocked another day of retirement off the calendar. This marks a year Cathy has been retired and I'm seniority riding along at 2 years and 8 months. Our retirement/financial advisor, a guy who calls me up a couple of times a year which through diligent internet research I have discovered happen to be on the two very worst days of stock market performance assures us that at this pace we have enough money to last until we are 90 years old and that takes into account the cost of buying the name brand Cheetos. I'm not sure where the yearly catfish report figures into that plan but here are the numbers. 

         The count is down somewhat from the past couple of years. Seems that we caught 286 catfish in 14 trips which averages to about 19 fish a trip. Cathy had big fish at 8 pound 7 ounces. This total does not reflect other species such as bream, bass, white bass, whiting, speckled trout, snook, the single ribbon fish I caught or does it count salt water, swimming, skiing or canoe trips.

The count for past years was 572 catfish in 2018, 582 in 2020 and 492 in 2021. 2018 was a really good year and 2020 and 2021 might reflect COVID isolation when we did not go anywhere else but the lake as 2017's count was more in line with this year's numbers at 252. I could not find a count for 2019. If you do let me know. 

It's good to run those numbers like this. I would not want to show a documented decline that might indicate to the kids we are slipping and require more assistance and supervision. 

By the way we did catch 7 catfish yesterday and it was pretty slow. We came home and that was exactly the right amount, along with a few fries and hushpuppies and a poor man's spinach Rockefeller that Cathy made for us to have a good supper.

Actually I had a taste for grilled or broiled fillets with sautéed bok choy and onions but Cathy wanted the traditional southern thang so you see how that seniority thang is working out.    

In case you are wondering people that fished with us took a few of the past year's catches home, we donated a bag of fillets to the Joseph House so that residents and staff could have a good fresh dinner and I traded a few pounds for produce from a friend's garden. The rest we ate. No fish were ever frozen. 

The lake is pretty in the winter, water is clear, 53 degrees and is still low. I would like to see it under the cypress tress for some slip corking. Judging from the water filling the Gilland Creek bottom on the way to the lake we got quite the rain the other night and it should start to fill. 

We didn't count those bike and rod expeditions either.  

Why not me? 

    

The Little Changes...

I had a new boss once that told me, "you sure do handle change well." The new boss had taken over from the old boss whom everyone liked and decided to change everything. At that particular point in my life I was only on my second career but in the cold hearted glare of global corporation strategies had actually worked for at least six different companies. I had seen a lot of Monday mornings where people came to work reinventing the wheel. 

I'm kind of like that new boss when I talk to people about wind power, solar power electric cars and so on. Most are not inclined to handle change all that well and see no reason to convert to some other way of doing things and don't think it will work. In the case of alternative energy they are kind of right in the fact that it won't really work completely as we need it to like it is now but that does not mean it will never work. On my recent drive around the country I spotted various evidence of folks making alternative energy sources work for them. 

Here's a sail boat I photographed from the ramparts of Castillo de San Marcos which were completed in 1695 overlooking Matanzas Bay in St. Augustine, Florida. As a good contrast of the old and the new note the wind power propeller at the stern of the boat. The camera shutter froze the fan but I promise you it was spinning it's little heart our generating those kilowatts.  

       

As I have been contemplating adding a portable solar suitcase to our RV there's a lot more to this than meets the eye. An appliance will have some info it the owners manual about how much power it draws and then there are equations on what kind of battery you need to collect, store and deliver the juice. As a tuba player I don't really have to know all this but I have a son that is an engineer and a couple of son in laws good at math that will tell me what I need.  

So what's this guy running? Maybe a coffee pot? A fan? Could be charging and running a laptop on which he does remote consulting work that pays $100 an hour. That would certainly be low overhead costs and go a long way on making that sailboat payment. 

Driving through sunny Florida we saw a couple of fields of these solar panels. Seemed quite large and with the sunny local weather it should do well but it does take up land and other nearby areas were crops and hay production. People and animals have to eat. Something to work out.        

At the Fort Pickens National Seashore Park the bathrooms which had all flush, hot water as well as washer and dryer convivences had a roof lined with solar panels. I don't know why I did not take a photo of this. Maybe I felt self conscious standing outside the bathrooms with a camera but I have never shied away from taking a photo of an outhouse before.     

A priest told once as I helped him set up a Christmas Manger scene, "don't put the donkey too close to the front, they will think you are a Democrat." I know what you are thinking. Old Mudbelly, he's an all warm fuzzy tree hugging if it's mellow let it yellow donkey down front kind of guy. On our cross country trip we spent $528.37 on gas. That's .22 cents a mile and the bikes on the rack saved us a few bucks in addition to contributing to some heart health traveling inside the parks where we stayed to see the sights.

That new boss changes things quick some times but I've seen evidence of slow change coming and it's happening now.      

 

Cathy's Aunt Shelia's 90th Birthday Party...

The whole reason for our recent camper trip, other than the fact we make fun a year round seasonal occupation was to visit Cathy's Aunt Shelia in Edgewater, Fl. for her 90th birthday. Her kids, Claire, Ann, Doug and Paul were all there in addition to some of their kids and grandkids so we count them on our cousin world tour list and a very good visit was had by all. 

I think as best I can recall that in addition to the local Florida residents states represented were Pennsylvania, Alabama and Massachusetts as well as Texas. Shelia is Cathy's dad Bill's sister. Her  husband Art and Bill passed away within a few days of each other back in 2020 and as it was at the beginning of Covid and due to the various restrictions there was never much of a family gathering to honor either man so this was a joyful fun celebration.        

There were several gatherings for nice meals at local restaurants and in the evenings the cousins hosted get togethers at one location or another. 

Shelia lives in a very nice assisted living facility and we visited her there. Cathy enjoyed the remembrances of the many old family photos that decorated Shelia's apartment.   

Ok, who is up next on the cousin tour? Cathy asked me last night what trip I wanted to make next year. 

 

Alvin Youngblood Hart at Chickee Wah Wah...

If you haven't listened to Alvin Youngblood Hart you should. Bluesman Taj Mahal said "he's got thunder in his hands." One review referred to him as "the love child of Howling Wolf and Link Ray." I have all his CDs, recordings by groups he has been part of such as the South Memphis String Band and many compilation albums he has contributed songs to. During our stay in Fontainebleau State Park near Mandeville, La we ventured across the Pontchartrian Causeway into New Orleans to see him rock out at Chickee Wah Wah.        

A W.C. Handy award winner in 1997 and a Grammy Winner in 2005 Alvin's recording of a Stephen Foster song Nelly Was a Lady received a feature in Bob Dylan's new book, The Philosophy of Modern Song as a song that matters. He's also been out on tour recently opening for Mike Campbell of Tom Petty fame. I guess that shows you that people that know, they know. 

The music rocked and for you gear heads out there he had a huge electric guitar sound through a small Fender and a small Marshall amp. I mean small as in Champ looking sizes. The guitars were funky looking pawn show jobs that are souped up sound monsters.   

As an extra bonus Papa Mali was asked on stage to jam. Some of the old Nacogdoches crowd that hung out at the old Crossroads club might remember Papa Mali, who back in those days used his real name Malcom Welbourn and played in a reggae band The Killer Bees  that played there frequently through the mid 80s. I think I have all Papa Mali's cds also as well as one by the Killer Bees.          

I am not sure where you can buy Alvin Youngblood Hart cds these days. There's a few on Amazon. There's some tunes on Bandcamp. You can come over to my house and listen or you can get out and see a live show. It will be live. 

 

 

Tales From the Road...

We are back from 11 days on the road with pour 2011 Rpod camper. It was our 4th trip out with the camper and our longest one to date. With things shut down with covid about the time I retired we feel like this is our first real retirement thing we have been able to do.

The reason for our trip was Cathy's Aunt Shelia had a 90th birthday in Florida so we met up with lots of family there to celebrate that. On the way home we took a leisurely route and enjoyed it very much.   

The camper or Road Toad as we named (you are supposed to name Rpods) it, performed very well. One thing I tell people is that if you are retired and have about six hours a day to work on it and plenty of grandkids to assist you buying an 11 year old camper is a good idea. There are some minor repairs and adjustments to make but the heater worked on cold nights, I sleep better in the camper than I do in the house and the thrift store bike rack that Cathy bought years ago was finely put to use and the bikes rode securely and ready for use in all the parks we stayed at.  

Here's a few photos and I'll go into details in this journal as time permits. 

This is Meaher State Park in Alabama. It's located where the Tensaw River flows into Mobile Bay.  

In Edgewater, Florida where Aunt Shelia lives we stayed at the Sugar Mill Ruins campground that we call for lack of a better word a commercial camp where in addition to travelers like us there is a population of permanent residents and snowbirds with standing reservations. It was scenic, we had a good spot and we caught snook from a pond and slough right behind our camp.    

Cathy says Jimmy Buffet lives in a gated community and has not driven himself down A1A in decades. We took a longer route along the Atlantic coast just for the romance of it. 

Faver Dykes State Park is located right outside of St. Augustine. They call it "like old Florida."  

Ft. Pickens National Seashore near Orlando. We never went to town instead biked the trails, fished and poked around the old fort ruins. 

Fountainebleau State Park near Mandeville, La. We visited Cathy's friend of 35 plus years, Nancy here, saw a band in New Orleans as well as hiking, biking and checking out historical sites of the area.    

Here's the stats. I kept a record of gas costs but have not added it up. Most parks had a senior discount or benefits with the National Parks senior pass. We did all the free stuff we could and count the whole experience as priceless. 

I must get busy with winterization of the camper. There is a hard freeze expected here and I want to be ready for the next trip. 

 

Be Back Later...

I'm gonna take a blog break for a couple of weeks. I'll be out and about, talking to people, seeing things and traveling around. When I get back I'll tell you about it. 

 

"Nochebuena: Christmas Eve in Mexico...

 Once again the Angelina Arts Alliance brought a great show to Lufkin. The show was a dance troupe with a mariachi band called Nochebuena: Christmas Eve in Mexico. Nochebuena means good night and refers to Christmas Eve which depending on your beliefs or whether you get what you want is a pretty good night, maybe one of the best in history. The crowd was a bit sparse I thought for these great performances compared to attendance at some shows but I did see quite a few people I knew there. There was a no picture policy so I did not take any. The wiry little older lady who was an usher had to visit the row in front of me several times to request that they stop filming and taking flash photos so I figured if I snapped one photo she would probably jerk me up by the coat collar and drag me out.  

This video and the people in it is the very show I saw, right here in Lufkin, Tx. 

Speaking to the audience I seem to recall and this was back before COVID that there were actually public meetings so people could have input on what kind of entertainment we needed around here. Somebody must have spoke for me because I think the shows have been great with something for everyone.  

I do have a friend, a musician who has spent a life time in music who attends almost all the shows at Temple Theater as well as at the Pines Theater. This person attends with an older cohort of people and from here I have received some feedback on what people of Lufkin are thinking about some of these shows. 

On the recent Squirrel Nut Zippers/Dirty Dozen Brass Band show (one of my favorite groups) which is a cross between old time vaudeville, a medicine show, a gypsy blues camp, who along with the Dozen which probably have at least a couple of guys who were drum majors at some HBCU so this is stuff you should have heard by now there were several complaints. "Too Loud!" "Well he played fiddle ok but I did not like the way he swung his hair around." 

My friend the musician says, "It's a show! It's how things are done!"

There were also complaints on the M5 Mexican Brass who used no microphones with the good acoustic of the Pines Theater and played a classically based repertoire very delicately completely from memory, "Too Loud!" 

Of course this is probably the minority but as we have seen the minority can be a vocal majority. The sparser that usual attendance could be explained by the fact there there were several local Christmas Concerts at the college one of which I played in, some at churches, a traveling family musical group that visited my church and more that I probably don't even know about. You do have to make choices. 

If you are fan of the Hispanic traditions such as this I advise you to catch our local Danza Guadalupana De San Patricio. Their dance venerates Our Lady of Guadalupe whose feast day is this weekend. Here's a photo of the local group in which some friends participate. Check this website for Spanish Mass Times Saturday and Sunday to see the dance as well as a procession beginning in the Planet Fitness Parking lot and heading to the church. 

In September at the St. Patrick's Multicultural festival you can catch traditional Mexican and El Salvadorian dances. 

And if you need more and I mean a lot more I plan on being in Kiwanis Park about 11am tomorrow to play Christmas music on the tuba. 

Get out and see something different. 

   

Next AAA show is on my birthday, Jan. 20th and it's Pink Martini. We have followed them for a few years and have a bunch of cds. They do have a pretty good Christmas CD as well.