Saturday, April 11, 2020

A Little Bit of Springtime 2019

Springtime 2019 was one of the prettiest springs in a while with all of the flowers blooming, prom, the Titanic program at school, track season and family time.  Enjoy the sights of spring.

Spring time in Texas means Prom time.  A senior girl that flies gliders with
Taylor asked him to the 2019 prom,  The grand march is one of the highlights of the night,
especially for the parents and the community.

Taylor and several other freshmen boys were invited to the prom.  This is Taylor 
and another freshman friend Caleb French.

Elaine and Taylor made a cute couple.

As a freshman, Taylor ran the 400 and the 4 X 400 relay and made it to Regionals
in both events!

The 4 X 400 relay team of Lengefeld, Bullard, Walton and Long.


Pansies really took off in the spring but can just as quickly fade as soon as it gets hot.

Stopped by Jordan's on our way to the track meet at Jim Ned and played with the kids.

Taylor qualified in two events during the qualifying meet at Jim Ned.



Happy times as Taylor had another personal best at this meet.


Scooter, the dog, showed us around the place.

Jordan's pool area really looks good with the roses blooming.

Of course, Leighton and Remington have to show you all of their latest tricks!

Knockout roses are named appropriately.  They are knockout beautiful!

The landscape man is getting his own landscape in shape.

This live oak has grown so much in the last couple of years.

Play time in the garage......

with the grands.

Looks like a little iPad time has everyone's attention, even Scooter.

Papaw looks to have had an Easter egg injury in his  eye.


Oh look.  Monkey see, monkey do!

Can your believe that these two still love to hunt Easter eggs.  They have several
hundred plastic eggs that they fill up each year.

Toby and I hid all the eggs we could find places for and still it 
only took these two a few minutes to find them all.  We were surprised that Taylor 
still enjoying competing with Presley to see who could find the most eggs.

The dianthus were beautiful last year.


 
Also affectionately known as pinks, they are usually a reliable perennial.

Dianthus with coreopsis in the background.

While we were in Abilene, we looked up some old places like where John and Kay
first started out, just off of Sayles Blvd.

The little house on Santos where they started out when they first married.

This is one of our Munday, Texas irises that came from the old home place.


Comanche where the buffalo roam.

That's a big one there.


Even if they are all made out of metal!


Hamilton 5th graders have been learning about the Titanic in Mrs. Johnson's class
every spring for years.  All the kids dress up in period costumes for the big party.


Presley, in the green dress, and her escort make their way from the big Titanic
meal at the Methodist church to the courthouse.  We had to slip around to get in position for 
a few pictures!


Look at that pretty little girl....

in her 1900's style dress and hat!

If only we would.



And finally the coreopsis started to bloom, adding a bit of yellow to the flower bed!

And that is how the spring of 2019 went!

Sunday, April 5, 2020

A Little Cattle Working

I'm not a cowboy but I have been around cattle a lot as a part of my past profession.  But when my friend Buddy Lane invited Bev and me out to their spring cattle working, we were all in.  Now, I didn't work any cattle myself, but it was impressive to see the real deals work cattle the old cowboy way.  Buddy, his son Cody and a group of real working cowboys came together to get the spring branding, castration, and vaccinating done on a ranch just west of town.

I got to talk to Buddy's ninety plus year old Dad and meet the famous cowboy Ty Murray, nine time world champion PRCA cowboy.  In real life he is just a polite, down to earth guy that goes about his life like we all do.  We had a great meal and it was an honor to be included!

Rope em, drag em and work em.... the old, authentic way!

Our friend Buddy, in the vest, invited us to the working.

Cody getting this calf taken care of quickly!

Getting ready for the next bunch,

Ty Murray isn't just a professional cowboy in the arena, he's the real deal in person.

Will and Ace getting ready for lunch.

Talking over the morning's work and taking a break before the work begins again.


The Old Knee Finally Wore Completely Out

You know the old saying, "Getting old isn't for sissies!"  Well, that's true so I finally made the decision to man up and have my right knee replaced.  Although I would have preferred to get both done at the same time, I couldn't get it scheduled in time to recover and still get to Colorado for our annual fall trip.

We went to Baylor Scott and White for all the testing, classes, financial stuff all in one day and then had the surgery done the next week.  Everything went as planned, spent one night in the hospital and came home the next day.  I had a little bit of a rough first night after getting home but after that the recovery took a few weeks, well, months, but wasn't bad.  Kevin Cude came to the house for PT, which was the hardest part, but was the key to making this all work.  He would always call about thirty minutes before he came to remind me to take my pain medicine!  There was a reason for that I soon found out.

It's nice to not have pain in the knee and someday I'm going to have the other one done!

Getting prepped for the operation.


The hospital uses texting to let the families know how things are going!

Presley and Jennifer came to visit.  Pres brought me a special card.

I felt better after getting to change into my shorts and a T-shirt....

of course, the nerve block had not worn off at this point and I was probably
thinking that isn't any big deal!


Finally home and the work begins.  Get your hinney up and get with it son!

Look at those sexy legs!

There was a lot of bruising where the tourniquet was applied to minimize blood loss.

I spent many days and nights on the couch.  I look a little crazy out of
my eyes here (it was probably the oxycodone!) as I take the first bandage off.  By the way, it also took off some skin!


The new look....

Waiting foe these bandages to work their off.

My little nurse sidekick.

The replacement parts!

Does that say "Made in China?"  I know that kneecap is my original!