We have been traveling and I am writing a quick blog to answer all your questions like where did you go and who is that woman in the closed beach area and so on.
We have traveled to Kentucky for my cousin Carolyn and husband Doug's 65 wedding anniversary. It was a great party with great testimonies from their kids (cousins I'd never met) to their love, good food, music and fun.
Along the way we camped in addition to our stay in Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas. The total trip was a little over 1500 miles.
All the parks we stayed were familiar places to us being we camped there before and in Kentucky at Lake Malone State Park we always see sister Margret and Kevin at their lake house which is right across from the state park swimming area. You can see the house and dock in the trees behind Cathy. I guess since we area back in Texas maybe Kentucky laws concerning the use of closed swimming areas no longer apply.
We are not home long and depart for the beach shortly where the swimming areas are always open.
This is a month for travel because with Mary off from work with the baby we have have some free time. More blogs soon.
New blog character Nico Manuel Zamora arrived today right on schedule and to quote the pediatrician, "he's perfect." Parents are doing well and should discharge from the hospital tomorrow.
Of course the brothers are very excited.
They all wanted to hold him.
Of course grandma wanted to hold him.
And you can expect that baby in the tuba photo soon.
Mary is off work for three months. The boys start school Friday and Milo begins 3 year old pre-k. When Mary goes back to work that's when Pop-Pop's tutoring will begin.
Yesterday friends and family gathered to throw a baby shower for Mary and Miguel who are expecting their fourth boy in early August. It was good times with great decorations, karaoke, hamburgers, hot dogs and lots of kids running around that accompanied all the moms and dads there to help them celebrate.
So far the name of what I'm calling old #10, our 10th grandchild id unknown to the public. They do have a system of naming, four letters ending with a vowel so guess away and post your suggestions in the comments section of this blog.
Technically the world cup should be concluded by the time the baby is due. Looks like this crew needs at least one more set of hands on the foosball to make it FAIR.
Lot of incoming fun for the rest of the summer. Old #10 will be here just in time for the first knee board ride, the baby in the tuba photo and more so stay tuned.
I'm a proud grandparent. Mine are the best and I post their photos to social media. When I encounter my friends and I'm accompanied by the grandkids they have already seen the photos and say, "they are as cute as the pictures." I say, "thanks, if I don't shave them they look just like me." I think that's a funny line. What's not so funny is that Milo, who looks and acts like so much they call him Brown Carl is in the grip of the terrible twos.
You may have experienced the terrible twos with your own children and surely had them yourself. It's when you don't get what you want or due to the fact that your communication skills have not expanded enough to keep up with your understanding of how the world works the frustration at all this makes you lose complete control of your emotions.
We kept Ezra, Luca and Milo this weekend while the parents were off on a trip. The kids were good. They helped with yard chores. We attended Honor America Night and they were good. We saw the Dino Light Show at Temple Theater and they were good. We went to church and they were good.
But if Milo is denied a "T-Tia" (tortilla), Pinky Panther on TV or if he has just eaten 4 Mandarin oranges (he can peel them) and you refuse him the 5th one he has a meltdown.
One night at bedtime he lost complete control because he was denied an apple (a tactic to stay up longer) and splayed himself across the floor howling in such existential pain that his brothers felt it and cried too.
When he does this I just stand there and look. After all it's his pain not mine and while not as cute as some of the photos there is a certain charm and style to these performances. The terrible twos will pass. He won't remember it and I won't either.
I like getting magazines in the mail and while Cathy can often be seen at the box by the road in pajamas as she collects them the diligent carrier tosses my newspaper way up in the garage so the only special going to get the paper dress up required first thing in the morning for me is a cup of coffee in hand. No matter what I am wearing this is how I get the majority of my news.
One magazine I take, Rolling Stone Magazine, once a great bastion of the counter culture which I somehow managed to acquire a lifetime subscription to pictures a world of music and culture I'm not a member of. It's changed. The other magazine, The New Yorker has a great mix of poetry, politics, short story fiction, science, books, music, theater, current events, food and more reported each week in it's pages. The Lufkin Daily News is a Pulitzer Prize winning paper and while at three days a week it's a shell of it's former self I think it does a good job.
Now I know some will say, "I knew he was a commie liberal when I saw him in boxers fetching up that rag the LDN out of his garage." Because we live in historical times and I wanted the best coverage I splurged on the introductory offer made by The New York Times to deliver to my email in box the entire paper for the vast sum of $1 a month for the next 6 months. The Times has been around since 1851. They probably know what they are doing.
I guess in addition to being a commie liberal I'm now a member of the East Coast Elite because Lord, Dorothy, out here in Kansas we don't even think about New York but the thing I see all these news sources have in common is that if it walks like a duck they say so with no bias. It's left for you to decide if it is indeed a duck.
Recently there was a story in the Times that touched my heart. A photo accompanying the story of the civilian causality toll of war in the middle east showed two wounded brothers, about the age of my grand children laying on cots. One of the kids badly wounded himself was rolled so he could keep his arm on the other in comfort. I watch my grandkids as they help each other, finding lost shoes, getting a drink of water or a snack, teaching the little ones how to climb and putting all that together with the picture of the two wounded boys I get just a glimpse into how we should treat each other in the world.
That's not how it is. It's the 21st century and in the middle east, the Ukraine, Sudan and other places human beings still bomb cities and civilians.
To try and get a grip on thoughts about this I turned to an unlikely place. I thought of the Grateful Dead song China Cat Sunflower. It can be tricky to turn to pop personalities for wisdom because like Popes and Presidents they are flawed fallible men and women and the song certainty has it's psychedelic overtones but reportedly the authors say it's less about this than it is about the connection we have to each other and what it's like to remember being three years old.
That's my prayer today. Let everyone splurge and remember what it's like to be three years old. We might then walk out to the mail box to some different news.
Look for a while at the china cat sunflower
Proud walking jingle in the midnight sun
Copperdome bodhi drip a silver kimono
Like a crazy quilt star gown through a dream night wind
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandanna
Like a one-eyed cheshire, like a diamond-eye jack
A leaf of all colors plays a golden-string fiddle
To a double-e waterfall over my back
China cat, china cat
China cat, china cat
China cat, china cat
China cat, china cat
Comic book colors on a violin river cryin' leonardo
We spent Memorial on a hike and a swim at Boykin Springs and the surrounding Angelina National Forest. I was probably about 16 years old the first time I camped here with friends. As a young adult I spent good times in the late 70s and early 80s with my dad and friends camping and fishing for the stocked rainbow trout and have continued all these years to hike and fish there with my own kids. Mary has kept up this tradition bringing her family down here for hikes, swims and as a backdrop for family photos.
Right near this spot in the photo is where I picked up my blues name, mudbelly. It came about as I was sliding down the muddy spring water slickened banks of the creek to splash into deep cool pools.
I noted that while there was plenty of spring flow the old artesian well pipes look to have run dry. Once while in college we were camping there we decided to shower under the cold flowing water of the natural bathhouse. Once a couple of us got well started on our bathing the rest of our camp buddies suddenly appeared with cameras and took plenty of photos. Years later when one of these friends married his wife discovered the naked photos of me and reportedly destroyed them. Occasionally I get emails saying something like, "we have pictures of what you been doing." I don't know if any of those photos survived and have been posted on the internet but I would click on a link sent from a trusted source.
I think I'll sit in this cool creek water a lot this summer. I'll have probably wear a swim suit.
That's equivalent to me picking up a 75 pound rock.
Creek bank caves.
Dam building 101. Man can't help even at 6 years old from making environmental alterations.
I would guess that one quarter of the old lake has been sanded in since the late 1970s by the spring feed creek that feeds it and the down stream creek that flows to the Neches River. There was a time when I stood at the tree line and casted rooster tail spinners to catch trout where the sand is now.
Things change but it is the perfect place for a first cold Texas creek water experience.
I think this summer we will go upstream to find cool pools. It's fine sand and there are no step banks and slippery rocks. The grand kids handle those things just fine but I'm pretty big to be toted out if I fall and break a hip.
I believe that round post on the right of the photo is all that is left of an Eagle Scout project built by Matt of our old Troop 135 that was sponsored by St. Patrick's Catholic Church. The bridge has been wrecked by the relentless push of water and sand. It was part of the trail that ran from Bouton Lake Bouton Lake to Boykin Springs. I have never hiked the whole thing and only spent time on the Bouton Lake side. I can't seem to find an internet map so it may not be open.
Nice hilly rock features in the area. There was an emergency landing field here during WW2 where bomber crews could put down if they had trouble during training missions over the vast East Texas forests.
The old Aldredge ghost town. I was 16 the first time I rode down here with Gil Stovall in his 1964 Fairlane station wagon. The car had no air conditioning and the roads were so dusty that anywhere we touched in the car left hand prints. On this trip hikers we met on the trail reported turning back because of the mud so we drove on good gravel roads in late model cars to within a couple of hundred yards before hiking the rest of the way on a clear trail. Bring skeeter spray.
My Senior Parks Pass got me in Boykin Springs free. US Forest Service parks, at least in this area are a bit rougher that the nice Texas State Parks I usually camp at but the facilities are good enough to wash up a baby after a day in the woods.
We have a couple of trips planned but it looks like half the summer is going to be spent running camp Pop Pop and Grandma. We took the short version of this, only three grands, out for a spin on the lake to see what it might look like and though we had a few pointers we patiently explained to people in hopes they would incorporate such into a little calmer boat discipline there was the excitement of the last day of school and all that to figure in so over all I think the trip was pretty smooth and we did catch our supper.
Water temps are 79 degrees and clarity slightly stained from the recent rains. We launched from Cassels Boykin, the county boat ramp since Hanks Creek is closed due to high water. It's a bit longer drive but still close to where we have been fishing.
From the looks of things Milo is going to be a water baby.
Actually this was Milo's second catfishing trip and I guess there might be some grandchild fatigue as we are only just now getting a photo of him with a fish. With the higher water our spot for the past month is 10' deep instead of 4' deep but after a slow start which caused some to lose their fishing focus the bite was on about 5:30 and we managed 8 fat cats under slip corks. Probably could have had more but with the Flying Zambroski Bros. circus onboard I thought this was a pretty good catch.
Milo eats catfish. He also ate fried eggplant. He's a big ol baby. When we pulled up to the dock we decided to divide and conquer so the big boys stayed on the boat and me and Milo went to fetch the truck and trailer. If you are familiar with the Cassel Boykin ramp it is on a high hill overlooking the Pophers Creek drainage toward the junction of the old channels of the Angelina and Attoyac Rivers. Probably quite the scenic overlook before the lake and it still is but carrying a big baby up that hill to the parking lot was a pretty good work out. I thought that of I did this every day this summer it would either get me in shape or break me completely down.
Later I related these theories to Miguel, Milo's dad and he warned me of the dangers of mitochondrial impairment due to excessive workouts. I thought the only thing to worry about this summer was the heat, besides I was in a band once that had this so maybe I have some immunity.
Many Thanksgivings have been non traditional for us. There was often a great catfish round up and then a fry in the place of turkey. This year was a little more Pilgrimy with Rose and Tim and kids celebrating at our house along with the Zamora's, Cathy's brother Matt and my brother Glenn on the day after Thanksgiving. The Morgan's and the Katherine's celebrated in Chicago together.
Food was a collaborative effort with dressing, smoked turkey, Dad's famous roadside roasted chicken, Dad's famous New Orleans sweet potato casserole, Rose's famous seafood dressing, crock pot beans, salad, with drinks, rolls, dessert and tea by Matt and Glenn. We granted Cathy knife privileges for the day and she served as vegetable chopper.
Let the young ones handle the selfie duty.
Grandma supervises the fire pit.
How some people were not so full to be able to roast smores and eat them is a mystery to me. Must be some hollow legs around here.
I think Ezra was especially excited for turkey but was still able to choke down them smores. Luca studies the best was to get a smore all over himself.
Milo brought his own special brand of lemonade.
I can only pray that those people in the world that find themselves in need, at war, or trying to better their circumstances with faith, education, immigration, or hard work enjoy the blessings that I have. My life is so good I want all to experience something similar.
We hit the lake to cool off from the 100 degree temperatures with 7 out of 9 grandkids as well as some of the parents as back up for tubing and paddle boarding. Thanks once again to my friend Darwin for the paddle board. It's a new favorite activity.
This is literally the moment I have waited for my whole life. I have my own personal paddler.
Only problem is that using the paddle board apparently turns your hair pink. I guess I'll live with it, my hair that is.
They crawl the equipment like lizards.
The gang. By supper time we had everyone together in town and have a lot of activity planned with a water park trip and the July Zamora birthday party.
The need for speed is satisfied.
More speeders.
I'm stepping back. Another goal accomplished. I have a boat driver now.
I bet somebody is peeing in the water in this photo.
Milo made his first trip to the lake. Probably won't be the last.
This photo reminds me of things my dad used to say when at the lake and there was still a lot of standing timber and he motored the boat up to some still green bushy stickout with me in the front to tie up. "You see a snake? A wasp nest?"
"...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
