A New Beginnig

PThe blog editor that I used stopped working, but I finally got around to checking on another one. This is my first attempt at using this one.
The photograph is from several years ago.

Are you still there?

I’m not sure that I can post to the blog using this app. This will be a check.

Kitten Update

The kitten still stay fairly close to where they were born : on the Baker Street side porch.







Here is a shot of Little Mama and Tabby with one of the solid black kittens.







And here are the other solid black and Boots II.

It's hard to get a good shot of the kittens because they want to stay underfoot.


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Supper Time

The kittens are becoming more adventuresome, but they know when it's supper time. And I'm sure that Little Mama is relieved that they are eating solid food more and more.

I think that Tabby is Lynda's favorite, but one of the solid black kittens is a close second because she (or he) sits in Lynda's lap and patiently allows Lynda to pet her.

New Kittens

At some time earlier this summer a new cat came to our house. Since Lynda was feeding two or three other cats, the new cat joined in. It wasn't to long before Lynda decided that what she had thought was a male cat was a pregnant female. Then, a few days later (on June 10th) she didn't look pregnant anymore. A day or so later we discovered four little kittens.








Two of the kittens are solid black, one is black with some white markings, and the other is a gray tabby. They have made one visit to the vet and are healthy


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A Special Birthday

Yesterday, Lynda and I attended a special birthday party for a special lady. We first met Inez in Odessa, Texas over fifty years ago. Lynda met her first when she began teaching in 1959. She and Inez taught in adjacent rooms at John Ireland Elementary and Lynda has always said that Inez is the one who taught her how to teach.

Lynda and I left Odessa in 1969 in order for me to go to graduate school, and in fact it was at Inez's house that we spent the night after loading the truck for our move to Austin.

Through the years we have kept up and visited with Inez several times. She now lives in Austin after selling her Odessa home and moving to be near her son, Matt.

While Lynda and I were visiting Inez at Easter, she told us her sons, Steve and Matt, were planning a 90th birthday party for her. It was then that I knew we would be back to celebrate.

It's Been a While

It's hard to believe that I've let almost a year go by without writing anything on this blog.

Lynda and I made our annual bluebonnet trip to Texas a couple of weeks ago.

After visiting a few days with Carolyn in Paris, TX, we took her to Dallas and then went over to Arlington to visit Neal and Carolyn. We had a good visit and went to see Neal in a performance of "Singing in the Rain" . The production was very enjoyable.

We then went out to Christoval to visit Lynda's aunt, Frances.

After a few days in Christoval, we continued on to Austin. We stopped in


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Anneliese took the day of from work and she and a friend met us at the airport in Luxembourg. After a quick tour of the city, we drove to Aachen. On the way we had our first meal in Europe. I'm not sure what I ate, but I remember that Lynda had Steak Jenny Linn.

We spent our first night in Europe at Hotel Marx. This photo is the building across the street that I took from the hotel room. The hotel was in a similar building.




The next day, Anneliesse took us to Cologne where we picked up our VW Beetle that we had purchased through our dealer in Odessa, Texas.



We drove up the Rhine and spent some time looking around Bonn, which was the capital of West Germany. The photo is the home of the President of West Germany.













This is a photo of Anneliese and Lynda taken that day in Bonn.


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Our 1966 Summer Trip to Europe

Lynda and I spent the night with Ray and Carolyn in Denton, then they drove us to Dallas where we began our dream adventure.















At some point in the spring of 1966, Lynda received a letter from Anneliese. In the letter Anneliese mentioned that she had recently returned to her home in Aachen from a trip to Great Britian. And she proceeded to compare some of the typical traits of the British, Germans, and Americans. Lynda and Anneliese had become friends in college. Anneliese, who is German, was working on her master's degree in English and Lynda was completing her Bachelor's degree in elementary education. They had completed their college work in 1959 and after a year or so in New York Anneliese had returned to Germany and a teaching position and Lynda had secured a position teaching in Odessa, Texas. Lynda and I met and married during her first year of teaching. Anneliese and Lynda kept in touch with semiannual letters, a few cards, and Christmas gifts.

The usual situation was for Lynda to get around to answering Anneliese's letter a few months after she received it. But, in 1966 Lynda was taking a year off from her teaching career so she answered the letter fairly promptly. It seemed just a few days later that I came home to find that Lynda had received another letter from Anneliese. In her letter to Anneliese, Lynda had made some statement to the effect that she would have to reserve comparisons of British, Germsns, and Americans until we came to Europe. Well, Anneliese took that to mean that we were planning a trip and she had excitedly answered the letter asking when were we coming. When Lynda read the letter to me, we looked at each other and said "Why not go."

Lynda wrote to Anneliese and told her that we were planning to come and asked for suggestions as to dates, and the whole nine yards. This was a totally new experience for us. Annaliese advised that she would be able to travel with us if we were there during her vacation. We decided that the least expensive way for us to get to Europe would be to fly from Dallas to New York and take Icelandic Air to Luxembourg via Iceland. We also liked the idea of having a car to travel around in, so we bought a WV Beetle through our dealer in Odessa. We would pick up the VW in Cologne, Germany and leave it at Frankfurt to be shipped back to the US.

We submitted applications for a joint passport and checked with a travel agent about airline tickets to New York and Europe, then Lynda began going to the Ector County Library to do research on where to go and what to see.

After corresponding with Anneliese, we decided that we would not try to make advanced reservations. Our plan would take us to Luxembourg via Iceland. Anneliese would take a day off and meet us at the airport in Luxembourg. We would stay the night in Aachen, then pick up the WV the next day. Then after another night in Aachen, Lynda and I would take off for the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.

We drove to Denton and spent the night with Ray and Carolyn who were in graduate school at North Texas State University. They took us to Love Field in Dallas were we took an American Airline flight to New York.







This was my first time to fly and I was a bit apprehensive about getting airsickness.

Because of the airline strike (American Airline was about the only major U.S. airline not on strike) we missed our flight to Europe and had to spend 24 hours in New York for the next flight.

A Trip to Europe, 1966

I have been looking through some of our slides from our trip to Europe in the summer of 1966.

Remembering a Special Event

When we were in Brantes, France with Ray and Carolyn in 2005, Lauri flew to Marseille to join us for several days. Our friends Pierre and Simone met her at the airport and brought her to Brantes. On their way, they drove through Entrechaux and Pierre checked out a restaurant where his father had eaten some years before.



When they were with us, Pierre told us about the restaurant and said it would be a good place to eat if we had some special occasion coming up. It just so happened that Ray's birthday was the next Tuesday, so on their way back home Pierre made reservations for us. He called us to let us know and also said that he had ordered a special dessert.








At the appointed time we made our way to Entrechaux and located St. Hubert. After checking out the posted menu, we went in and were seated.










Our waitress was a young women from Germany. She told us that our friend had ordered a special dessert, but the woman who had taken the order was at the hospital with a sick child and no one else knew what the order was.











We proceeded to order our meal, then we discussed how we would tell Pierre about the mixup. We knew that he would be disappointed that his surprise had not worked out.











The meal consisted of several courses. After several minutes of enjoying the good food and wine, it was time to order dessert. We each made a choice then sat back to wait.











It only took a few minutes and then our waitress came out with a big smile and announced, "I fooled you. I knew all along". And then another waitress brought out the surprise.





















It was like a Baked Alaskan with one candle and a fireworks of some kind.

Ray's birthday would have been on April 28th.











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Anyone Ready for Spring

We are having another round of winter weather. I keep hoping that this is the last of it.













These photo were taken through the windows. When the outside temperature is 15 degrees, I try to stay inside.

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Looking for a Warm Up

This was two or three days ago when we had our last snow. We thought we may be in for some more today, but we lucked out. In fact the forecast is calling for temperatures in the 50s by the weekend.



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Some More Cold

The low temperature last night was around 24 degrees. There was enough freezing rain to decorate the trees, but not enough to cause any real damage.










The streets seem to be clear with traffic moving at a normal pace. And, the ABC school across the street is open.











I didn't venture too far out of the house when I got out of bed this morning; just stepped onto the porch to get a shot or two.



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Cold Days

We have had enough cold weather for this year. The weatherman is talking about the possibility of some snow early next week, but the temperatures are not expected to be too bad.




This shot shows the dusting of snow we got earlier this week.



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Dog Days of Summer

The weather isn't too bad right now. We have had a bit more rain than we did last year and it doesn't seem as hot. But of course I've mostly stayed inside with the air conditioning going.




I made my second trip out to our local peach orchard earlier in the week. I love the locally grown peaches and have eaten most of them as just peaches. I used the last ones to make some quick pickled peaches for Lynda.





I also made banana nut bread this afternoon before taking a nap.

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Location:Baker St,Forrest City,United States

A New Vehicle

Lynda and I now have a Honda Odyssey. We traded our 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan and now have a 2013 Odyssey (and car payments).





This is a photo of Lynda and the salesman, Larry, who sold us the Honda. You can get a glimpse of the Dodge in the background.


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A Delicious Pie

I first tasted rhubarb pie on a trip to Colorado several years ago. Lynda and I were visiting in Creede along with Ray and Carolyn. Ray and Carolyn stayed with a friend of Carolyn's. The friend, Marian, had made the pie with rhubarb she grew in her garden. Lynda and I both have remembered the taste over the years.

Tonight, thanks to our friend Cherie, we were able to have another slice of rhubarb pie.





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Tornado Time

The last few days have been filled with multitudes of storms. Lynda and I got out of bed at about 1: a.m. When the tornado sirens sounded. There was no damage close-by, but it was still a bit scary.




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Family Time in Mena

Lynda and I attended a family gathering in Mena this weekend. Eric Petree invited us along with other relatives and friends to share food and fellowship at his cabin on Rich Moutain.

Eric's grandparents, B.G. And Frances bought a place on the mountain about thirty years ago. They were living in Irving, Texas at the time, but spent as much time as possible at the mountain place. In 2007 they bought a place in Mena and made Arkansas there permanent home.

Eric who was seven when his grandparents bought the Rich Mountain place, built a cabin nearby after he grew up.



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