There's Always Signs of the Times if You Look...

My son in law told me the other day a friend of his had seen me on my bike. The friend said, "man your father in law was really zipping along." I can't take much credit for the zipping, I do ride an ebike but I try to get out for a round through the neighborhood as much as possible and call it exercise. In fact I had a loop I was making that took me about 40 minutes and yesterday I added a good bit of distance and I was still finished in 40 minutes so I'm going faster and longer. I'm not the only one riding the area though. 

 There is one regular, probably around my age I see several days a week. I don't meet him often on the bike since I guess our riding schedules don't jive but he is in the traditional bike pants and road bike set up and probably like me doing it for his health. The past week there were several other bikers I saw that I don't think were in in for health but for the transportation. I guess that makes sense since I'm between Lufkin and Huntington on the back Farm Roads and depending on your starting point this could be considered a short cut of sorts. 

First guy I saw didn't wear a helmet but he did have on a orange visibility vest similar to what I wear. I wear the vest because people might not really be ready to see a bike rider out this way. I also avoid getting off work and going to work time of day. I was glad he had it on since I was driving a car into the sun when I saw him and it definitely helped. 

A few days later I saw another guy on a bicycle and he had the definitive going to town for cigarettes look about him. If you know, you know, know what I mean? 

A couple of days after this I took the grandkids to Free Sisters diner for a chicken basket. In case you don't know one chicken basket and an extra order of fries feeds five grandkids. Don't order it for yourself unless you have a hungry friend with you. In the way home just where you turn off 69 south onto my Farm Road there was a guy riding a bicycle with no lights, reflectors and wearing dark clothing. I would guess he does not take the Lufkin News so he's probably not aware of the auto bike accidents and fatalities in town this year.    

So what's going on here? A sign of the times? A homeless encampment in the area? A halfway house open in Huntington? Concern for carbon emissions? Trying to be like me? 

I'll keep you updated as I zip along.    

Gumbo and Zydeco...

  Another event that's been on my radar for a couple of years and I was glad when the stars lined up and we made it to the Gumbo and Zydeco Cook Off in Lufkin Tx sponsored by the Angelina County Citizens Chamber and The Pineywoods Trail Ride Association. Prizes were awarded for the best gumbo and the best dancers. Supplying the music for the dancers was Leon Chavis and the Zydeco Flames. 

Leon comes from a fine old zydeco family. He is the great nephew of Boozoo Chavis one of the all time giants of zydeco music. I've see Boozoo at the jazzfest in New Orleans and here's a photo I made that day which I can only date as sometime in the 1990s. As you may have guessed gumbo and zydeco is hot work. 

I think one of the best shows I have seen and one of those that fall under the category of I'd see it again if I could was in 2001. Right before jazzfest time Boozoo had a heart attack while playing in Austin, Tx. The band with guitarist Sonny Landreth filling in played their gig obligation at the fest dedicating the show to Boozoo. It was a heartfelt tribute and I was glad to be in the audience. Boozoo passed a week later. 

I've seen a couple of zydeco shows this year and they all play Boozoo's tune "Uncle Bud." 

I did manage to get my photo on the Lufkin Daily News web site, taken while I waited on a bowl of gumbo and an order of beignets. Many thanks to Brock West the photographer for keeping me in the news. 

At $5 a bowl the gumbo was a bargain and it was good with shrimp and sausage but next year I think we should enter Suzi Powell in the contest. 

Money from the event went to affordable housing projects in our area. 

There are many festivals for zydeco and gumbo, some with RV camping in easy striking distance just over the Sabine River in our neighboring state of Louisiana. Come spring they will be in full swing and I'll be looking for a good one. 

Leon and the boys were very good and very loud. It's been a few years since I have played the VFW and the stage has had some nice upgrades but I have never got to play that loud there. Good show guys! 

 

 

The November Fishing Report...

 

Lord I died and went down on the bayou in Louisiana or was it some where near Beaumont or maybe West Memphis. At the very least the ghost of my late mom and dad were sitting by me while I ate this old school dinner of whole fried catfish on a bed of Zummo's rice dressing with hushpuppies and fried alligator pear on the side.     

Even though we noted a big goose egg swelled up on a trailer tire that will need replacement we put on the spare and  headed across the lake for a moderate good middle of the afternoon fish bite. Fish did not seem grouped up but maybe it was the time of the day so we hit several spots all about 24'-26' feet deep and found a few catfish laying right on the bottom at each one. Final total was 23. Most were decent size with a mix of channel and blue cats. Since there is no minimum size restriction on catfish we threw is several like those on the plate because I felt like eating whole fried.  

Cathy with a fat blue cat. Catfish count is going to run low this year because we have been occupied with other things and our outdoor activities are split between boating and travel trailering. That's ok, we will live and maybe a little longer since we haven't eaten as much fried catfish.  

Matt lands another nice blue. 

I think that's why we call him Mr. Whiskers. 

We put enough of the big fillets into the freezer that we could have a grilled fish dinner for four. That will probably happen in early December because Cathy is scheduled for that shoulder in the foreground to be replaced and it will be sometime before she's casting and reeling again. The rest of those cats made a nice dinner for Miguel and the boys with a sampler package sent up to Mary on the labor and delivery night shift at the hospital. 

I have been reading a Tennessee Williams bio that when it relates the period when he moved to New Orleans and describes it as a city "...famous for it's catfish..." This blog won't equal the literary greatness of Williams but my fried catfish is pretty famous and the fishing report is ever popular.   

Anyone That Poops Their Own Nest Will Poop Yours Also...

I've lived here on this little dead end road 41 years. There's one house down at the end past me. Not much traffic passes, just the same people everyday. Out of the four houses on this little road all have had some greater connection to the area and the people around here so things have stayed clean and quiet. I guess quiet if you consider tuba quiet and forget about the couple of times I had a band playing out here and somebody called the sheriff but I don't think it was my closest neighbors that did that. 

I've got new neighbors next door. Other than knowing their names I don't know much more but they are like most of us out here, quiet and private. They mow the yard, get up early and go to work and mind their own business. They did put up some lights that make it a bit brighter than I'm used to. I like my nights dark but that's ok I can understand the reasons. I did pickup a 5 gallon bucket of wind blown trash scattered in the area which with the limited traffic is probably more than I've picked up in the whole 41 years out here. Maybe they noticed the road is clean and it won't become like climate change where everybody is just pooping in their own nest.   

Of course there is the contrast of the nearby dirt road where we often ride bikes. There's no houses on this stretch and lots of trash is thrown in the ditches. Cups, cans, fast food wrappers, full garbage bags and I've seen the occasional pair of underwear hanging from roadside bushes. Yesterday on a bike ride I photographed this dishwasher. I must add a conflict of interest here. I do dump my fish guts after cleaning my catch in the woods along this road but the East Texas Hygiene Committee, the buzzards, coyotes, the coons and the possums do their job and have it all cleaned up before I can make it back to the lake. I like to think on judgement day I'll be forgiven for this Mr. Natural way of doing things but I'll have to get back to you on that one.   

 

About once a year I make a haul to the scrap metal with stuff like this and make enough money to buy a 30 pack of beer if I drank 30 packs of beer. I'm certain there are people living within a five mile radius that make enough off scrap to have a 30 pack of beer everyday. I'm not sure that by myself I could get this out of the woods and across the road ditch and into the truck to make a scrap yard trip. In fact yesterday I stopped and helped a guy just down the road from here drag a kids trampoline into the house to surprise his daughter for her birthday and it was all both of us could do. 

Somebody younger might have to salvage this and for more difficult disposals of things with nasty environmental components such as TV, computers and old paint we do have a good place in town to take recycling and occasionally Angelina Beautiful Clean does a hazardous waste day. The person that dumped the dishwasher probably had a device in his pocket that would have directed them to easier disposal than the woods. 

I used to give away big screen TVs as a regular fundraiser for this blog. I think everyone has a big screen by now. Does everyone have a dishwasher?  

 

Work Harder Than What...

 It was interesting to note that news sources were reporting Elon Musk, a guy that makes money in ways you don't even know about as well as pocketing billions of your tax dollars from selling technology and space travel to the U.S. government said if appointed to oversee said government efficiently proposed that we all work harder and "everyone's going to have to take a haircut." 

I'm not getting a haircut. I have a doc appointment Monday. He always tells me if he didn't have to work a day job he would grow his hair out like mine. This is just a small sample of what the population thinks but I bet there's lots of people out there that don't want to get a haircut or if they do they want a weird one. 

Also I'm retired. I got my name painted on my shirt. I ain't no ordinary dude I don't have to work.

    

For the past year I have been volunteering with the local Conference of St. Vincent de Paul. Our efforts in assisting Neighbors in Need is funded by the generous donations of parishioners of St. Patrick's Catholic Church. The Neighbors I meet are mostly the working poor. They have had a situation such as an injury or medical issue that caused a missed paycheck, an unexpectedly big utility bill, a car repair, the expenses of elder care, sick children or some other expense that wrecked an already tight budget. We help them with those things and provide information or other resources that might be available.

 Over the past couple of weeks, you visit in pairs, with Cathy I probably made a dozen home visits, which are the hallmark of SVdP and in combination with other Vincentians she made 15-25 visits. I don't know the numbers for the rest of our group which is made up of some very dedicated people. A home visit is a way to meet people where they are and see them in their situation instead of in a government agency office. 

I don't think any of these people read what Musk said in the NYT. If you told them they were going to have to work harder they would say, "Harder than what?" 

So next time you are in the airport tell the Airline Agent to quit looking at the hair, get me in the air. They will surely work harder at doing that. 

  

A Wedding, A Camp Out, Everything is Everything Blog Post...

We made it out for another camping trip last weekend to Twin Dikes Corps of Engineers Park with the purpose of spending the weekend celebrating the wedding of cousins Kassidy and Pryde at Rayburn Country. 

It was a great wedding and I say cousins because both are my cousins from different sides of the family. Kassidy is my 3rd cousin on my mom's side and the connection to Pryde is through the Nerrens on my dad's side. My 3rd great-grandfather George Washington Nerren and his 4th great-grandfather Benjamin Franklin Nerren were brothers.  

I knew way more of the Wiley side of the family than I did of the Nerren side of the family present and I had a great time talking to younger cousins Caleb and his girl friend Angelica and cousin Justin.   

Thanks to Connie for the photo. Cousin Dixie sent it to me.      

Twin Dikes was a good enough camp. The lake views were great and another camper tipped me to a fishing spot in sight of camp but sites were much closer and less privacy than we are used to having on the beach and in state parks. Seemed like all the campers around us were part of a group or family and there was a rotating party that each of the camps took turns hosting. 

Lots of black squirrels in the campgrounds. 

We didn't fish but rode bikes all around the area. This photo taken at the nearby fish hatchery. Years ago I remember taking the old scout trip for a tour of this facility which was in a different but near location off the river and the scouts got to fish in some canals running between holding ponds. I recall one little boy whose name I don't remember having such fun fishing that we practically had to drag him away. 

The hatchery was closed today, the ponds were empty and there are tours on Tuesday and Friday that I'll have to bring the grandkids for.    

I made this photo from the Twin Dikes boat ramp and I think this must be the spillway for handling overflow. The lake is still scheduled for a draw down due to dam repairs so this won't be in use anytime soon.  

Locals probably have a name for this island but I don't know what it is. It's right there beside old Rattlesnake island and I would imagine as my dad used to say the bottom of the lake between them is "paved with beer cans." 

We checked out of the campground Sunday morning and stopped by another Nerren cousin, Della.  Della is my Grannie's sister Winnie's grand daughter. She lives in Brookland ,Tx and her home is a renovated dog trot house furnished with antiques and historical pictures from the area and the Willis family that previously owned the property. The house sits lakeside in an area once occupied by the Ayish Indians. Della gives you the full tour when you visit and as one of our hobbies has been touring old historical homes I can assure you this is one of the better history lessons you can get. 

It was a good weekend. A wedding, a camp, cousin visits and if life gets better I don't know what I'll do.         

Things My Dad Used To Say...

 My dad, Gene, passed away Oct 26, 1991. He's been gone a long time now and I am older now than he was when he passed. Cathy's dad Bill has only been gone 4 years and I had the time to know what he thought about everything so sometimes when I'm in a situation I wonder, "what would Bill do?" I'm left to wonder what my dad would have thought about this or that in the world today so to help me make my way I recall some of the things my dad used to say.

 Keep reading at your own risk because my dad used profanity. He didn't cuss the family but it was often said he liked his job because he could cuss and rear to his hearts delight. 

 

"How in the hell did that get like that?" Usually used when observing a tangled fishing rod. I use the expression in almost any situation. 

"Did he take it plumb out of sight." A question when bobber fishing for him to determine how good a bite you got. I ask my wife this all the time when we are on the lake. 

"Is he trying to run under the boat with it?" An attempt by my dad to determine how hard the fish you were fighting was pulling. I still use this. 

"It could outrun the stink of it's own a##." Occasionally used when describing the muscle cars of the 60s and early 70s but most often used to refer to some one speeding down the river with a 20hp boat motor. I wonder what my dad would think of the 200 and 300hp models common today. There's plenty of people trying to outrun it.  

"Couldn't stick a finger in his a## with both hands. An inept person usually one with a college degree. Used because though he had practical engineering knowledge his formal schooling only went to the 8th grade.  I have a college degree, my wife has a degree, my brother has a degree, most people I know have one and some of his grandchildren have college degrees. We might could convince him to change his mind.  

"Whatever she wore you had to be able see up it, down it or through it." Comment on women's fashion. 

"Giving it an enema" When you see a neighbor working on his car and requiring a combination greater than 3 of hood, trunk or doors open at any one time. 

"I'm getting to where I can't see." After a day of fishing when the evening shadows grew long with great ceremony my dad would remove the clip on sunglasses from his bifocals and say this. It was a signal that he was ready to go home. Once when drinking beer and fishing with my friends I told them about this and as they got more inebriated they began exclaiming this. I use my dad's old tackle box for my saltwater gear. Those clip ons are in there. Since my prescription sunglasses are several scrips old I am actually getting to where I can't see to tie a hook on with them so I may start with the clip ons and day now. 

"This is the day they pave the bottom of the lake with beer cans." My dad said this on holiday weekends. He was referring to weekend pleasures cruisers whom he expected to overcrowd the water, the parking lots, drink beer and litter. In modern times I often go to the lake on holiday weekends because that's when my family has days off and it certainty does not seem as busy as a weekend when I was a kid. It's possible that people are not outside as much and I'm not on the part of the lake that hosts big time bass fishing or maybe my dad just wanted a long weekend in the easy chair.      

    

Once when my son was little he told me, "you are not like other dads." That's another story but I think it's safe to say no dad is like another dad.