St. Patrick's Catholic Church Honors Black Catholic Witness to Our Faith...

 Saturday St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Lufkin celebrated the contribution of Black Catholics to the faith with a Mass at Pitser Garrison Civic Center led by the Bishop of Tyler, Greg Kelly and with music by the Liturgical Choir of St. Francis of Assisi from Houston, Tx. Many volunteers from our Lufkin Parish worked together to provide a beautiful alter to celebrate the Eucharist, a great meal with greens to die for and hospitality for all who attended. These are the photos I made. 

The gospel Readings selected for this Mass were from Luke 6:27-38. I found them very though inspiring.

27 “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.[e] Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

I especially like our Pastor Father Denzil's thoughts on the day as published on the local TV station web site:

Father Vithanage emphasized the unity that faith brings, particularly in today’s climate.

“Especially in the midst of racism and division, we are one. Especially when it comes to our faith,” he said.

The event was spearheaded by Father Denzil and Dr. Guessippina Bonner. Father Denzil said the event will be the first of many commemorations for Black history.

I am proud of my church and my friends for the efforts to preserve this history and the story of the people who have lived it. . 

Of course I bought their CD. 

History tells us the first Black Catholics were in Texas in the 1500s and that there have been several Black Popes. 

A great day for all people and it was right here in Lufkin. 

 

  

The Ever Popular Fishing Report...

 Last February, March, April and May there were almost more catfish caught than I could clean. This February is off to a bit of a slow start. Last trip was good fishing deep but it's high time for the blue cat to roam the shallows for world class slip corking. Only problem is the lake is 9' low and the shallows are dry dirt. There are still the old flooded creek channels and instead of hitching the boat to the willows and buck brush there are plenty of the normally underwater stumps allow premium tie ups. 

Using this creek channel strategy and slip corking we managed 5 nice cats even though it was a noisy boat with all three Zamora's on board. I suspect we might have been positioned right in the catfish path of travel from deep to shallow to find our baits and scared off some verses the multiple paths to the shallows that the high water affords but that's just technical stuff about fishing that goes on in my head which is not necessary to verbalize to others who just need to know, "cast over there."

How crowded can a 20' pontoon boat get? Pretty crowded as I didn't make many photos yesterday. 

I did take this photo on the way back across the lake. I think he might have been meditating on how bad he was or contemplating the nap they all took on the way home. 

Five catfish won't feed the Zamora clan so since they were asleep almost before we drove out of the park Cathy took them on to a rendezvous with their dad and I cleaned fish. Pop Pop and Grandma out lasted them again and the prize was red beans and rice with a side of fried catfish. Eat it everyday if I could.  

See you on the lake.

  

     

A Big Announcement at Galveston Mardi Gras...

 It was a big party this past weekend as we camped at Galveston Island State Park to attend the first Mardi Gras Weekend (before the big one) with the Scheurer's and Zamora's joining us. Capping off the parades was the announcement by Miguel and Mary that our #10 grandchild will be a boy. I guess you stick with what you know as it will be their fourth boy and I don't know how many Mardi Gras we have been to. We just keep doing the things that make us have fun. 

They all got blued by the wind blowing the gender reveal smoke back on them but it ended up looking like some kind of Mardi Gras Face paint. 

Parades were good but maybe just a bit shy on the beads. I guess that could be expected as we were standing in the free area along the Galveston Seawall with beautiful views of the Gulf of Mexico as opposed to the downtown area where a fee is charged for admission and and you find all the expected Mardi Gras things. I would imagine the word was out to save throws for the paying customers.

Each year when we attend a parade we store up the beads we catch to use for decorations at our St. Patrick's Catholic Church Fat Tuesday Party. This year the party is Feb 17th at 6pm with Fried Catfish by the Knights of Columbus and Gumbo by yours truly. Plates sell for $10 to benefit Saint Vincent de Paul helping our neighbors in need (97% of funds this past fiscal year assisted our neighbors with the remaining 3% for cell phones, checks, etc...) and gumbo is all you can eat. 

Cathy and Warren beg for throws. Note the long fingers on Cathy's hand. You see that throw coming your way and then those fingers extend and it's not yours anymore. 

You ought to go Mardi Gras. It's a good way to throw a monkey wrench in the cogs of the machine which expects you to be doing something constructive like watching a Kid Rock Concert or something. 

Actually Milo's second Mardi Gras as he did attend last year at age 9 months. He's an old pro now. 

We had a great spot on the Seawall. We got up at 6am and with help from Warren and Coraline who camped one night with us arrived to set up the grill and lawn chairs for a full day of fun. Many folks set up campers. I think some actually camp but others just drop a trailer and pay for the parking space to save a place to watch the parade, cook and have a bathroom. 

Someone decided he like his hamburgers rare. Both Ezra and Warren did a little grill training with Pop-Pop. The torch is being passed and not long till I'm out to pasture. 

Of course we saw good bands in HBCU style with blasting tubas. 

A good time for all. Next year will be old #10's first Mardi Gras.

    

    

No One Is...

I try to make good, catchy photos and from the feedback I get from friends I have been lucky enough to be interesting and amusing. When out on the lake and making photos of fishing fun my wife has often questioned that if what the world needs now is another photo of her holding a catfish she has just caught. I made this photo on a Chicago street in November 2018 and I haven't published it before but it might be what the world needs now. 

I had a good civics teacher in high school and I attend a Catholic church every weekend. I might not be the most eloquent if I had to speak on the subjects but I believe in the rights allowed by the Constitution as well as the human dignity and right to life from birth to death. When I say as the sticker on a lamp post in the photo, "No One is Illegal," it's not just something I'm making up and despite the fact that failable humans are involved there is the weight of these two two proven institutions behind my thinking. 

Not everyone thinks this way and last I looked this is still allowed but noting the online discourse in local news sources I can imagine what people would publicly comment about the public posting of this sticker from almost 9 years ago. 

"Whoever put that up got off the short bus" 

:"I bet they used profanity"

"Outside paid agitator"

"there were like only three people"

"Must have been bused over from the nursing home."

"Probably don't work" 

As I stated earlier people should have the rights outlined by the Constitution which we increasingly see denied immigrants and citizens alike and all human beings should have dignity which is denied when comments like these are made about the folks we meet on the road of life. 

Another photo I made on the same trip. Interesting that Pence is gone but it's kind of looking like he might have saved the country, at least temporarily. Wonder what he thinks now? 

What do you think and who do you get it from? Is it what the world needs? 

Statement from the Bishop of Tyler. 

   

      

 

Wake Up Deadman...

 My music room is worth a blog post at least once a year. Actually I have two music rooms, one full of electric instruments (the acoustic instruments are all over the house since they are not beholden to amps, zip strips and instrument cables) and this one full of records and cds. If you count trombone and three string trance guitar as instruments there is some spill over between the two rooms.  

I spent a good bit of time in this room during the recent deep freeze cold snap picking out a sound track for our cabin fever. I don't know how many titles there are available but I tried to pick things I had not listened to any time recently or those that I might have completely forgotten about. I recently read the book by John Lomax "Confessions of a Ballad Hunter" about his adventures capturing blues, folk songs and work songs by recording the singers in whatever environment he found them. This reminded me I had a cd of Texas prison work songs from the mid 1960s called Wake up Deadman. I could not locate that cd to save my life.    

Generally I file alphabetically except for the records on the floor that are piled into the categories of swing, polka, exotic and George Jones. Since Wake up Deadman is a compilation of various singers there is a various artists cd section which would be a sensible place for it except it's not there. I dug all through the piles in likely spots but no luck. This search goes on a few days and then I decide to listen to Dylan and picking up a handful of cds from the "D" stack and there is Wake Up Deadman. Makes perfect sense, file it under "D" 

The story does not end here. As usual it's on to the next big thing. Our last time in New Orleans at Satchmo Summer Fest I bought a New Orleans Brass Band Compilation at the Jazz Museum. I know I listened to it once and I'm pretty sure it's burned to a USB drive we listen to in the cars but I can't locate it there among the thousands of songs or in the room stacks either. It's around somewhere just creatively filed and I can't recall the exact title to give clues on the location. I do remember it's multiple cds divided into old school traditional bands and newer, modern sounds. 

Wake Up Deadman, find that cd! 

  

      

This is the Part I'm Not Good At...

With a weather event predicted this weekend for East Texas it looks like we sit around the house. It's not quiet down to freezing yet so the event is still on the way and I'm not good at waiting on disaster.. 

I would imagine since the good folks around here are not used to such events and are scrambling around to buy toilet paper and closed toed shoes it's pretty crazy in town. We live like we are camping most of the time, which means doing outside things such as sitting on the porch working crossword puzzles and playing tuba we are ready as we can be for something like this. Since it has not hit that's what makes me antsy. 

I have been busy as I can be to counter that feeling this morning. There is some spitting rain but I did my exercise walk, an regimen I have adopted for this new year. There's a first world problem unfolding with the hot tub.  A service visit yesterday to fix it turned out to revel another part needed to be ordered and while that's nothing a fistful of cash won't fix it means no one gets a polar bear badge tonight. The service guy advised draining the tub to protect against freezing and also make repair easier when he returns. I do that by siphoning which takes a while so I made busy and have that process under way before the expected hard freeze. 

I plan on slow cooked ribs on the grill so there's that for later.

All that done Cathy is still sleeping so it's not tuba time yet. We wait and not just on her to wake but what the weather brings. Hopefully we don't have to leap into action too fast but action is what we do.  We camp and fish often so there is plenty of cookers, firepits, a fireplace, axes, chainsaws, propane tanks, spare gasoline, warm clothes, boots and more to address any emergency. We do have a generator and it probably won't power the whole house but it would run the freeze, fridge and probably the camper where we could snuggle up if worse came to worst which is where I do best rather than just sitting around or at least I used to. You know what they say, another year older and deeper in debt which could mean from any account. 

Next weekend is expected to be bad also. The weekend after that is a camping trip to Galveston Island State Park for (I'll be at the free parades Feb. 7th) Mardi Gras. It's important we survive this because nothing cleanses the palate like going ape crazy over plastic beads on string and I'm good at that.  

  

   

 

Another Old Guy Hobby...

 It's my hobby to take up old guy hobbies. The latest is shopping around to see how much I can reduce monthly bills for services like internet, streaming, phones and electricity. 

It started a few months ago when crews began laying fiber optic lines in the neighborhood. I had an old Consolidated landline that became a dial up internet line that eventually became a decently fast internet service but seemed to sometimes be less service than I was paying for. My phones had been Verizon service which entices you with nominally cheaper rates as technology advances and though that finally seemed as good as you could do for phones when the door to door Spectrum salesman offered savings on phones and home internet I jumped on it.  

It took several months for the dirty work, which seemed to be done by Anglo and Hispanic guys to be completed and then some kind of Russian dudes showed up to run the wiring to the house and install the modem. We look to be sitting pretty saving at least $30 a month on phones and $10 on internet. Scanning the small print there might be a slight bump in price in about two years but we will cross that bridge in due time.

Next thing was a reduction in the Netflix streaming service by agreeing to commercials which knocked another $10 off that bill. Commercials are ok. It adds time to the show meaning I get sleepy and go to bed before I binge through a whole season in one night. I have breaks to get up and go to the bathroom or dish up ice cream. I see in the financial news there is some big deal brewing with all this streaming TV business with Trump somehow being involved which means this will probably all get broken in a way I won't like so there's that.

In my work with St. Vincent de Paul a part of our charity to neighbors in need is helping with utility bills. Every person almost has a different power company and some I advise to check Texas Power to Choose for cheaper rates. I took my own advice on this and chose Gexa, a company who promises all power you consume to be generated by green sources. My last bill was $264 for a milder than normal winter month. Gexa projects $90 for a house my size. I don't quite believe that but we will see. There is some fine print that says rates might be more if you go over or under a certain kilo hour. My history shows I never go over but there are about four months a year when I'm under but for the savings I might balance out.  

A cautious estimate is I might save $100 a month on these new rates and possibly more. That would make this a better paying hobby than some of the others I currently engage in.