It was cold, windy and wet but that did not stop us from enjoying a the 12pm parade this past Saturday on the beautiful, choppy, gray Gulf of Mexico for Galveston Mardi Gras.
We had a good spot, floats were great, caught several specular throws and there were lots of tuba in the marching bands.
They let you put your RV on the Seawall starting on Thursday morning before the parade at 5am. I talked to the fellow in the camper across the street behind Rose and Miguel and he said at 5am Thursday he was unable to secure a spot close to friends he was trying to camp with. Looks like fun but I don't think I can get Cathy up this early to get a good place. Maybe next year at least bring a BBQ grill.
Waiting for the parade.
Getting drunk on Vienna Sausage.
He's making a good Mardi Gras Man.
Who dat in the mask?
If I mention it enough when you google the Gulf of Mexico my blog will be one of the hits.
These beads will be used at the church Mardi Gras, Tuesday March 4th at 5:30. I'm cooking gumbo.
Throw me something mista!
Tuba!
They ended up canceling the 6pm parade because of rain but opened up the area of the Strand requiring tickets to free admission. We headed home as relocating this circus might have been a Mardi Gras too far.
I am pondering recent events where our country seems to be swinging in favor of Russia by negotiating a peace in Ukraine that grants them what they want. My whole life time America has stood against Communism and I think we should still. I looked back on photos I made in New York City in Spring of 2019 at a Ukrainian Festival and wondered how the people in them have been affected by the war.
In thinking about the war I thought about a story a WW2 vet I had as a nursing home patient. He was 98 years old at the time, an old Sgt. from Pine Bluff, Arkansas and his duty was something to do with supplies and feeding the troops. He was a member of the 69th Infantry Division, the unit that made first made contact with Russian troops at the Elbe River on April 25, 1945. Coincidentally those were Ukrainian troops.
The old Sgt. told me how the Russians were invited to the mess tent. He said, "they were a different kind of soldier, rural peasants, uneducated, crude, wild and you could tell that life was cheap to them." They lined them up for chow and when a serving of food was put on their plates they went to a seat and began hungrily devouring it. The American food line was much like the buffets and steam tables you seen in our restaurants of today. The war would be over in a matter of days and supplies for Americans were plentiful. It had to be explained to the Russians who were used to little or nothing in the way of comforts that you go through the line and get a meat and three sides, don't forget bread and coffee. They had never seen such bounty and had been used to the single serving meal.
Someone told me the other day, "those of us doing like we are supposed to are going to be alright." It's my understanding that Russian soldiers in WW2 did as they were supposed to to defeat the Nazis suffering 26 million civilian and military causalities. It was a war of attrition and it seems like Russian tactics have not changed much today as the war in Ukraine continues. The count varies according to your source with the high end being a possible 839,000 total Russian causalities.
Like my Sgt. friend told me, life for the Russians is cheap. I find it strange that our country which values the Sanctity of Life sides with one where life has little value. Lots of things to unpack from this. Men who ate in that American mess tent have probably lost great grand children in the Ukrainian war and to continue with more Sanctity of Life issues think how all our unborn descendants will be affected by future climate change.
I'd say these are forces we should oppose but like they told me, "those of us doing like we are supposed to are going to be alright."
I spent the last 9 years before retirement working in a nursing home. I thought often about what I would do if I became a resident. I decided I'd read all the books I never had time for. Then I thought, well what if I couldn't see? I guess there's always audio books but then I don't hear so well and I really never saw anyone using such a thing or very much reading by the residents anyway. With cuts underway at the Department of Education and much debate over funding of public schools there will probably be less reading in the future. When I read "The Crossing" and "Canticle for Lebowitz" it occurred to me that people have to know stuff to appreciate these stories. These days people who barely got out of high school think they know more than scientists but I don't think so. I wonder how they would fare reading these books?
"The Crossing" is a Cormac McCarthy book. I have probably read half a dozen of his novels and this is part of a trilogy that I have read now the first two. Taking place along the border with Mexico I'd call it a modern day western set in the not too distant past. Crossing borders is an element of the story and if you have read any McCarty the style can be unusual with beautiful wording, passing mention of distant past events and with quite a bit of dialogue in Spanish it helps to know stuff if you read this book. Although my favorite book of McCarthy's is "Sutree" I very much enjoyed this book.
I had read "Canticle for Lebowitz" as a teen. It's old school post apocalyptical sci-fi and was first published in 1959. It's never been out of print and I figured it was due a re read. The story covers several thousand years. Civilization has been destroyed by nuclear war, there was a "Great Simplification" where learned people were martyred as they were associated with the causes of the war, books were burned and knowledge and memories of what came before were muddled. Through all this a Catholic Monastery manages to assemble fragments of science which they safe guard till mankind puts it all back together and destroys it's self again. Sort of sounds like it could happen anytime. When reading the book it helps if know (that old know stuff thing again) a bit of Latin and a bit about the Church. My mom studied Latin at Munford High School in the late 1930s and early 40s. She spoke it and read it. She was also good at Pig Latin.
Though I do read the book reviews in the New Yorker magazine I rarely read current books and am content to read authors I already know, stay with subject matter I like and reread things I think I could get more out of. Both these books were thrift store finds and I wonder when the "Great Simplification" and book burning of our time comes will they think to check the thrift stores for contraband?
As a last note "Canticle for Lebowitz" had a Central High School Stamp and sticker with the amount of reading points a student accumulated. Guess they won't be accumulating that anytime soon or didn't have the time.
Gabby Moreno, who won a Grammy just a few days ago for her album "X Mi" appeared at the Pines Theater in Lufkin Tx last night. It was a very nice show and Gabby seemed a bit shy talking to the crowd but she built intensity with her songs through the evening and when called back for an encore played three more tunes.
I first got on to Gabby a Guatemalan immigrant, a few years ago when she released an album of bilingual Christmas songs. It was during the time Cathy and I were playing in a bilingual choir at church and there were songs we played included and was very much in our style something that validates what we were doing and encourages us to continue our vision.
She played no Christmas songs this night but songs touched on many emotions and in a climate when immigrants are demonized (maybe that's why she was shy in East Texas) she spoke up for her belief in what makes America great performing her song The Immigrants. In case you are getting a narrow view of the situation I'll post a clip of the song and (you have to read, sorry you voted to eliminate the department of education) The Pope's letter this week on migration.
Gabby performed with herself on guitar and bass and drums. Now a native of L.A. the Fender Jaguar guitar and Fender amp gave a reverb and vibrato laden surfy desert sound that blended with the English and Spanish lyrics and her solid rhythm playing and occasional tasty leads. There were many of my church friends present and I got a big kick when Augustin, a musician I have collaborated with for 30 years said, "she plays that Carl Wallace guitar" and indicated all over the neck.
I wouldn't go so far to say that myself but it was a great show, the kind we need more of in Lufkin. I know country music probably pays the bills down at the Pines but a growing diverse city needs music of the same.
We had a successful road test of Cathy's replaced left shoulder (Done on Dec. 2, 2024) with our first fishing trip of 2025. With Cathy, her brother Matt and myself we totaled 19 cats in 2-3 hours fishing, wore shorts, no shirts and had a great time with family and friends for a fish fry afterwards.
The fish were in the area of the lake called the Canyon. The area has islands, underwater humps, a flooded rail road tram and the fish were 4 feet deep. We fished punchbait under slip corks. This has been our go to spot for a couple of years and we haven't fished our old shallow water favorites in the Deer Stand area of the lake, The Place and The Horseshoe very often at all. Maybe one day again we will give those a try.
Cathy gives the shoulder a good work out netting a fish for Matt. That's my fish hanging in the foreground and get a good look at our rigs. We use some of the Bass Pro Shops Thill style floats but the old saltwater popping corks work well also.
This channel cat was one of the smaller fish of the day. Half our catch was blue cats. You can see us tried up close on the bushes and I doubt we cast much over 20' feet to the fish.
It's getting to be tats out fat's out weather. Lots of interesting fishing log info for this day. Cathy caught her first retirement fish on this day in 2022. In 2019 we caught them shallow with a wind chill of 33.
Cathy flexing the guns for her 7.3 pound blue cat. I bet the 4 biggest weighted 20 pounds and all total went a good 35-40 on the hoof.
WE had spent the prior evening trading fishing stories with Chuy and Maria so we gave them a call to come eat. There were more fish stories. The Zamoras came and they ate catfish like it was their job. We managed to hang on to a couple of the big fillets for some later fancy cooking, Matt took enough for a dinner and this morning we delivered a serving to Father D who is laid up with a back surgery. I might be able to make a po-boy later with our left overs.
We have a couple of camper trips planned but might look at a date for Hanks Creek camping and cooking soon. If you see us stop by.
I don't know everything. That was painfully apparent the other day when I stood in a group of classically trained musicians and listened to them talk. "ya, that Beethoven slaps" would not even have added to the information passed back and forth. I have a neighbor though, not a right beside me neighbor but more of a cattycornered up a little rise neighbor who does know about everything. Once on hearing me play the tuba he told me he had a Portuguese trumpet that was so expensive and if he played it and it broke there would be no one who could fix it. I think you get the idea.
I was on the porch with chicken, yellow squash and onion on the grill. Sweet potato was baking inside. Cathy was entering cases on the computer from St. Vincent de Paul visits we had done It had been a rough week with highs and lows all mixed up and Cathy asked that I put on the Beatle's Sgt. Pepper album. I put it on and cranked it through the two sets of inside speakers and the bluetooth jobs on the porch. Those bluetooths were punching way above their weight.
In a drop a track world Sgt. Pepper's is one of those albums you just about have to listen through start to finish. Take a little trip with it so to speak. I remember having a music professor who said in 100 years the Beatles would be revered with the classical composers for their work. Sgt. Pepper was about 7 years old at the time. Now it's almost halfway to that 100. It's familiar tunes that forever influenced pop music. I hear music all the time and say, "they listened to their Beatles."
Still in the taking a trip mood to wind down because after all Medicare is not reimbursing for micro dosing yet I put on the old Quicksilver Messenger Service record, Happy Trails. Side one is a long jam on the Bo Diddley (pay Bo Diddley) tune "Who Do You Love." There are long eclectic guitar solos with sudden shifts in tempo, style, dynamics and mood with highs and lows all mixed up accompanying Bo's supernatural lyrics. The tune last for the whole album side.
This is when my neighbor walked over. By myself I guess I had been enjoying the volume of the music which had been easily heard at his house and the Beatles raised no eyebrows but the QSMS brought him out. To communicate we had to shout to be heard.
"I've never heard anything like that, all those guitar slides and scrapes" he said.
I said, "Was I bothering you?" (no)
He knows I'm a musician and I realized he thought it had been me playing.
He said, "That's different."
I said, Quicksilver Messenger Service," and I could tell it didn't ring a bell.
Since normal conversation was out of the question he glanced around and spotted my Little Giant Extension ladder leaning under my RV stall. "I know the guy that invented those." he shouted.
"...I know I've seen that face before," Big Jim was thinking to himself
"Maybe down in Mexico or a picture up on somebody's shelf..."Bob Dylan from "Lilly Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts
