End of the Year Blog Post or It's Just Life...

 I sat down to do a year in review thing today. I put together a picture collage from the last year and there was so much I don't know if you can make heads or tails of the details from the crowded blend of action. I also reviewed back through the blog to get the catfish count for the year and while we are still thankful to be living better that most of the other 8 billion people on the planet December kind of has us limping into the new year. 

Cathy had a shoulder replacement at the first of the month and the joint is doing well and maybe is even a little ahead of expectations. She has been troubled with a lingering urinary tract infection and chest congestion. I have been having great fun with a visit from Katie and kids in from Chicago but Cathy has been out of action for most of it.  

Morgan, Ali and kids made it to Greenville, South Carolina yesterday for his new position with his employer. I'll miss them but it's nice to see your kids and their families doing new and exciting things and we look forward to the travel adventures to see them. 

On a sadder note this week my first cousin Betty Bush passed away at 97 years old. You might have noticed Betty at one of my fish fries. She was a tiny woman who sat and quietly ate her weight in fried catfish. May the Eternal Light Shine on her. I know your family and sister Dixie will miss you. Betty and Dixie were my mother's nieces but so close in age to my mom everyone thought they were sisters. That's Betty on the left with Dixie.  

The catfish count for the year is down. We managed 183 catfish on 9 trips. That does not include 4 or 5 sharks and one sting ray at the beach. That seems pretty paltry compared to some of the 500 fish years we have done but there were many swimming, hiking and tubing trips and at least a dozen camping trips with this old man spending a good bit of time in his lawn chair in the shade. Maybe I should count live music attended because there seemed to be a pretty good variety of that.  

Here's a photo from a hike at Martin Dies Jr State Park yesterday. Of I can survive New Year's fireworks with this bunch tonight I should cruise smoothly into 2025. 

   

  

        

Maybe I Need to Walk There Again...

My doc asked me if I slept well. I said after sleeping several hours I wake up and use the bathroom but get back to sleep easily but then in a couple of more hours I wake for another bathroom break but them I sometimes don't get to sleep as easily and I have to get up and read a book for 30 minutes and then I sleep on till dawn or sometimes after. When you do the math that adds up to 7 or 8 hours sleep which the journals tell us is about enough. 

What I didn't tell him is that second wake up is usually after a very vivid dream that leaves my mind awake and busy. I also didn't tell him because a family doctor seeing a basically well patient that he can get rid of in less than 15 minutes or anyone else for that matter other than a blog reader does not give a flip about what you dreamed.  

A couple of nights ago I woke from a dream like this and carefully sat up on the side of the bed. I kept very quiet so as to not wake Cathy but I wanted to think it over and have good recall since there were many themes at work.

I dreamed I was walking through the French Quarter in New Orleans with someone I knew but it was like the person was a composite of every person I had ever walked through the French Quarter with and also every person I knew that had told me a story about walking through the Quarter. Soon we were out of the neighborhood influenced by the old Spanish and French styles of architecture and entered a darker more slum like area. World beat music with a lots of congas, heavy bass and soulful vocals in an African language carried to us from an indistinct source. It was loud but not overpoweringly so. My composite friend tripped along lightly, almost dancing, occasionally whirling around to see if I was still with him.

We came to what seemed to be fire escape type stairs and began to climb. The steps seemed uneven and hand carved. A tall man in colorful African dress began to ascend the steps behind us and we all arrived at an open air restaurant or bar.

Inside there were quite a few people sitting at a plywood bar on barrels for barstools and it seemed like I knew most of them. We talked about walking down Bourbon Street and after looking at a menu on the wall written in a foreign language that I couldn't make heads or tails of someone told me to order the mosquito plate. "It means something special to them" they told me indicating the waitstaff behind the bar so I ordered. 

A girl sitting next to me who I did not know asked if I always wore a suit. I didn't realize what I was wearing but it was my old grey thrift store sport coat. I told her yes, this color in winter but come summer I would shift to seersucker suits for the hot weather. She asked if I was heading back to walk down Bourbon Street. I said no. I might never walk down Bourbon Street again.

I awoke from the dream and after a period of thinking all this over it occurred that while I've been in the French Quarter a number of times over the past decade I have not actually walked down Bourbon Street since Mardi Gras 2014.  

I never did get that Mosquito Plate. 

               

             

I Got A Shot but at Least it Didn't Blow My Brains Out...

In an age of the keyboard warrior where people that barely got out if high school know more than anyone else in the world and reincarnated taverners and candy sellers hold influential offices with the intention of getting while the getting's good I took a field trip on my bicycle to the old Nerren Cemetery that is about a 30 minute ride from my house. 

My Nerren ancestors are buried there I often make the ride. When I'm on the way I'll stop and make the loop around the closer Rocky Springs where I also have ancestors laid to rest. It's been a few months since I walked that larger burying ground but I always walk the 15 or 20 marked graves at the Nerren Cemetery. There's a few unknown graves marked head and foot by petrified wood and I like to think one of these might be my Great Great great grandfather John Nerren but I might not ever know.

Usually on these walks something reveals itself to me, a thought, an inspiration and today with public speculation and the grabbing of headlines by the taveners and candy sellers it occurred to me that here is the evidence that science is real and vaccines work. 

On July 16th, Albert Nerren, son of Alexander and Sara died. He passed on the same day he was born. In 2025 Texas has ranked 21st in the nation in infant mortality or 560 out of 100,000 births. I don't know what it was in 1923 but I think if you are born you should have a chance at health, clean water, education, good food, peace and a stable climate. Science works remember so these things should be achievable. Of course good schools are pretty boring if compared to space travel to an uninhabitable planet so let's just move on.           

To put this in my historical record, my parents were born in 1293 and 1924 and if Albert had lived I would have gone to school with his children.  

 It's pretty peaceful in the old cemetery. 

Wait a minute July 1923 just got worse. Alexander and Sara lost another child, Marchie who was 5 years old 7 days later. One day I might stumble on the causes of death, there's infomation out there and probably there is a living person quite possibility living within a few miles of me that knows. 

I've had a few bad years before, maybe the job was not going well or a couple of older relatives or friends passed on to their eternal reward but I've never lost two children in the same week.  

                     Here's the grave of Alexander 1851-1947 and Sara 1837-1904. If I think about that span of history I bet these people saw and knew some stuff.  

The best I can guess is that a Nerren married a Richardson which is why there are several from this family included in this cemetery. James David, born May 24th, 1942 and died the same day. If Hames had lived I would have probably had him for a rehab patient. I've met lots of cousins this way.  

Here's a photo I found on the internet. It's Alexander with what I imagine to be surviving children. I'd also guess late 1940s after the war. It would not be long before he was gone. 

I hope all this gives you something to ponder and I always recall Faulkner's quote: 

"The past is never dead. It's not even past."

 

Looks Like I Won't Get That Tree Up This Year or What is This Christmas Spirit...

Looks like we won't get that tree up this Christmas. I haven't even bought any presents. There's been stuff going on such as Cathy's shoulder replacement, Morgan and family moving to South Carolina, the fact that our planned Christmas Gathering/Wild Rumpus won't actually be until February when MOST of us will be able to be in one room and one thing or another.

We do have three poinsettias, good grandparenting there to put a poisonous plants is a room that regular hosts small children and a friend gave me a dancing tuba player that when you push a button on his boot plays Jingle Bells. Despite these meager outward signs there is some Christmas spirit in the air and I will play Jingle Bells if you push my button.     

 There will be some family gatherings before the end of the month with Morgan, Ali and crew this weekend with Texas family including Rose, Tim and kids to see them off and Katie and the boys will drive down from Chicago immediately after Christmas to have a last Texas visit. 

The past week I played Santa for the St. Patrick School Program. The kids all acted and sang great and that was inspirational to me to bring my best acting skills to the table and since it was a pancake supper I was at the table but this song reminded me of the Balkan Beatbox tune Part of the Glory:

Everybody wants to be King of the World 

Everybody wants to turn dust into gold 

Everybody wants to be like me on the mic

Like me on the mic...   

I only made two children cry. This photo might cause confusion, not my house. It's a studio backdrop.  

One of the criers was my own grandchild. 

I also played a tuba Christmas solo show in the park. There were a few walkers and joggers to play for but it was mostly just me but it was something that needed to be done and if I have time I'll do it again. 

If you don't get that tree up that's ok. Just remember the reason for the season and when the Wise Men show up on Epiphany, Jan 6th that means it's Mardi Gras.  

 

My Photos of the Dakota...

On the anniversary of John Lennon's murder I browsed back on photos I had made of the Dakota Apartment building where he lived on our visit to New York in 2016. I won't forget the night in 1980 when an old high school friend, Grady, called me from Houston on a land line and told me about the incident. I had not even known Grady was a big Beatles fan. That's how people were effected.  

Now with violence and threats practically everywhere do you call anyone when something happens? I believe Lennon, a great musician was a flawed man. Maybe not someone you would enjoy visiting your home but if you verbalize bun violence or make fun of victims of gun violence you are as bad as the killers themselves.   

Lennon was gunned downed on the street outside this entrance.  

The Dakota is right outside Central Park 

 

An old hippie thinking about what could be. 

Cathy photo'd with one of Lennon's guitars at the MET. 

When the Illuminati Calls...

It's been a busy week around here with Cathy's shoulder surgery, then visits from home health therapists, her sister Margaret, brother John and Mary, brother Matt and the usual parade of our family including grandkids to eat up the spaghetti Pam made and the chicken chili I made. Also I managed to squeeze in a Christmas concert with The Angelina Civic Band. 

The concert went well with the theme "Yes Angelina, There is a Santa Claus." Probably the best attendance we have had. We perform in Temple Theater and the large expanses of seating can look barren but that's the only stage that will hold the growing band size. The Civic band combines with the college band and last year we only had 2 music majors playing. This year there were 12. 

I snapped this selfie of the tuba section and we got some international attention when the Illuminati  noticed us and commented on the photo. Handsome guys in concert black holding shiny gold and silver instruments fooled someone's AI algorithm into thinking we were filthy rich and this was actual precious metals we possessed instead of my rejected jr high horn and confusingly decided we were way above percentage wise on our wealth out of the other 8 billion people in the world.         

Never to not take a shot I immediately asked for more information though I do know that any club that might have me for a member might be suspect. 

Civic Band resumes January 14th. The theme for the spring concert is "Folk Fantasy and Fairytales" or something very similar because really titles do not matter all that much to tuba players. If you can put together a horn, you belong. See ya there Ms. Rothschild!   

 

Cathy's Shoulder Replacement...

On Monday Dec. 2nd 2024 Cathy had a left shoulder replacement. Arthritis had been dogging her for about two years and ignoring it, exercising it and taking an injection from the doc had not helped making surgery the best option. Dr. McCall did the surgery and she was discharged from the hospital a little less than 24 hours after the procedure ended.   ,  

The rotator cuff was in pretty good shape but the supraspinatus muscle of the group which lifts the arm away from the body was torn. There's two kinds of shoulder replacement, anatomical, which is a prothesis just like the original joint or a reversal where the ball of the joint is placed on the socket side. The doc thought this was the best choice for Cathy.       
 

Surgery took about 2 hours and she came through fine. Pain control at Woodland Heights Medical Center was world class. The nerve block lasted well into Wednesday. In fact Cathy was so good I was a bit reminded why we don't let her drink. Prescriptions for home use have been adequate along with the use of the circulating ice pack. 

How much do you have to tip the surgeon so he avoids your ink? She won't say.   

Today, Wednesday Home Health Nursing came out and changed the surgical dressing and the Physical Therapist performed an evaluation. We had been performing a home exercise program as directed by the doc and the hospital therapist but though things will be pretty mild for up to 6 weeks he did add in a couple more exercises to be done 5x a day for 5 minutes or so and adjusted the immobilizer for more comfortable wear since it will be a friend and companion for the next 6 weeks. 

So far so good this experience has been smooth and it's been fun encountering old friends we used to work with and they have taken good care of us. We may be off the fishing and camping trail for now but the therapist said casting and reeling will be an excellent rehab. There will be some limits to what she can lift but as long as Cathy keeps catfish under 25 pounds she should be good.