At Large 1040 days


I cannot understand where the time is going. It cannot be over a week since my last entry. The pecan I was turning for a baseball bat for Case cracked while I was turning it. The cracking is caused by the different rates of moisture leaving across the grain as opposed with the grain. I super glued the cracks and hung the roughly formed bat to hang and dry in the shed. I then mounted a piece of Sycamore cut from the crotch of a tree at the Laviolette's home in Santa Fe. I shaped the blank into my favorite form, recurved at the top, but left it with thick walls and base so it could warp while drying and leave enough wood to turn back into round.

Tuesday I shut down my computer and locked up all my tools and shed and packed prior to going to Austin to work on a servant team for a women's "Walk to Emmaus". I rode Greyhound to Austin and back to Houston for $39.25. When I drove to Winedale April 26 to see a "Midsummer Night's Dream" the gasoline cost $55. Going to Austin there were only 4 other passengers. One was a woman dressed for a party. She looked like "she had been rode hard and put up wet" many times. She told the driver she never misses a chance to party. She said her husband never partied and only worked and died at 48. My Son-in-law picked me up from the bus station and took me out to their home. The grandkids in Austin are growing so fast I need to install a video cam so that I can watch them grow. Our senior grand daughter turned 14 on May 3. Fourteen! I remember coaching her mother in softball when she was 14. I hope our daughter makes it through her daughters' teenage years without going mad. I brought a recorded audio birthday card from "Gammie" and a Mesquite slab candle holder for her birthday present. I spent the night with them and my daughter took me out to Springhill Restaurant outside Austin for lunch with the Servant team for walk #1435.

This was a Women's Walk to Emmaus. I felt I got so much from my Walk that I needed to give some back. I worked like a sled dog from Wednesday night to Sunday night. And paid for the privilege of working so hard. I met a remarkable woman on the Servant team. Linda Broddeck taught me so much about organizing snack food for such a function. I think that if I ever do this again I will be more valuable. After the end of the Walk Sunday afternoon Son-in-law took me back to their house. I was so tired and my hips and back hurt so badly that I ate a light dinner with them and went to bed at about 9pm. Daughter took me to the bus Monday morning and I arrived in Houston at about 3 pm. My wife gathered me up and brought me home. I spent the remainder of the day in a small daze waiting for bed. My bed has never felt so good. Today I have done a few small tasks around "shattered manor". I did process some pictures of wild flowers I found at Spicewood during my service on the team. One is a milkweed.

Look closely at one of the petal clusters on the lower left. There is a tiny bug that pollinates the plant. Click the picture for a larger view.

I am cutting this short so I can go to bed early and watch the rest of the Astros ball game.



Junior grandson is so desperate to earn money for a cell phone that I promised him all money from sales of the wind chimes from now on belong to him. Please buy all you can. Not for me but for a future MLB shortstop.

The Navy found they had too many officers and decided to offer an early retirement bonus. They promised any officer who volunteered for retirement a bonus of $1,000 for every inch measured in a straight line between any two points on his body.The officer got to choose what those two points would be.

The first officer who accepted asked that he be measured from the top of his head to the tip of his toes. He was measured at six feet and walked out with a bonus of $72,000.

The second officer who accepted was a little smarter and asked to be measured from the tip of his outstretched hands to his toes. He walked out with $96,000.

The third one was a non-commissioned officer, a grizzly old Chief who, when asked where he would like to be measured replied, "From the tip of my weenie to my testicles."

It was suggested by the pension man that he might want to reconsider; explaining about the nice big checks the previous two officers had received. But the old Chief insisted and they decided to go along with him providing the measurement was taken by a medical officer. The medical officer arrived and instructed the Chief to "drop 'em," which he did. The medical officer placed the tape measure on the tip of the Chief's weenie and began to work back.

"Dear Lord!" he suddenly exclaimed, "Where are your testicles?" The old Chief calmly replied, "Vietnam. "

 

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