Gypsy Cowgirl Thinks...

Same Place, This Year

2006-08-01T19:21:00.000-07:00

Viva Luckenbach!

2006-04-22T20:27:00.000-07:00

There's a place I know where we all go,
A little way down the road,
It ain't far from here,
we like to sit and drink beer,
Play dominoes and tell jokes.
We've been stopping by since 49,
Ain't nothing fancy,
just kids and ranches and
Clean white shirts and jeans!

Lots of smiling faces,
little children running around,
Everybody's somebody in an old hill country town!
Dirt daubers humming,
see the stickle burrs on your sock,
Sure signs you spent some time
in beautiful Luckenbach!
Well, let me tell you now all about the town. . .
How it came to be. . .
In the 1800's they came in buggies
To meet and trade and buy feed.
They built the blacksmith's shop,
then later on
They added the cotton gin. . .
But the old dance hall and general store's
Where it all begins and ends!

Lots of smiling faces,
little children running around
Everybody's somebody in an old hill country town
Dirt daubers humming,
see the stickle burrs on your sock
Sure signs you spent some time
in beautiful Luckenbach! In the 50's people moved to cities,
Leaving it all behind
Luckenbach closed down for good,
It just fell on a harder time
One day Hondo, driving by,
Wished he had a beer
So he bought the place and he opened it up
That's reason we're all here
Lots of smiling faces,
little children running around,
Everybody's somebody in an old hill country town!
Dirt daubers humming,
see the stickle burrs on your sock,
Sure signs you spent some time
in beautiful Luckenbach!

Insert Clever Title Here

2006-04-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

More pictures--one last sheep, and a couple of flower's. Ever try to take a picture of a poppy when the wind is blowing and the light is low? Just try to accomplish that shutter speed. We had to up the ISO to get it done, but I like the picture. My goddaughter took the hibiscus picture.

More Hill Country

2006-04-09T22:48:00.000-07:00

I actually found a font called "script of sheep" to use in my scrapbook with these. It doesn't look like sheep, but I had to use it. You would think these girls had never seen an animal before. If anyone is feeling bad for them, they have horses, cows, cats, dogs and other animals I sure I'm forgetting.

The Chair

2006-04-08T23:32:00.000-07:00

Well, excuse me,
but I think you’ve got my chair.
No, that one’s not taken, I don’t mind
If you sit here, I’ll be glad to share.
Here are a couple of shots that we took while in the Hill Country. I've actually got two pages of them....

A great photo

2006-04-03T23:21:00.000-07:00

I don't like to publish people on my blog...but this one is a little to great to not put up.... The twilight in the background makes it.

Will it work

2006-04-03T20:40:00.000-07:00

Dave's complaining about the drum roll guy...I'm back from my second trip to the Hill Country, and starting to work the pictures. Last time I tried, this didn't work......so drum roll please....
Artistic direction for this photo was provided by my goddaughter. Notice the spider web...

Not the Hill Country

2006-03-27T20:35:00.000-08:00

Although, I did have a fabulous time on my vacation. I'm working on my photobooks, and thought I would post this photo....Okay, it won't upload, but I will figure it out soon and upload some more pictures.

What I like about Texas

2006-02-08T22:33:00.000-08:00

You ask me what I like about Texas
It's the big timber roundneck Nacadoches
It's driving El Camino Real into San Antone
It's the Riverwalk and Mi Tierra
Dancing to the Cotton-eyed Joe
It's stories of the Menger Hotel and the Alamo!
(You remember the Alamo!)
It's another burrito, it's a cold Lone Star in my hand!
It's a quarter for the jukebox, boys,
Play some songs by your favorite Austin Texas band!

Five more weeks, and I will be going to the hill country twice--once with my best friend to celebrate our birthday's, and once for the annual pilgrimage for Jerry Jeff Walker's birthday. I can't wait. I'm taking my goddaughter to the Menger Hotel Bar, even if she is a little young for that--and Dick's Last Resort. I'm going to take a ton of pictures and not work for an entire week. I think I'm even going to take my bike.

Monahans Sandhills

2006-02-05T22:38:00.000-08:00

A couple of weekends ago, I went out to the Monahans Sandhills State Park to watch the sunset. It wasn't a good sunset by West Texas Standards, but I did take some photos. Wanna bet there's a picture of a windmill?

Guess Where

2006-01-17T22:27:00.000-08:00

Okay, I don't have any thrilling thoughts. I don't even have a fabulous photo, but it is not bad. So, who has been here? If ya'll can't figure it out, I'll give you a clue that Dave can google.

Ringling, Ringling

2006-01-11T20:21:00.000-08:00

Okay, this is a clue of sorts.... I took these pictures one day when I got off the main roads to take a picture of a deserted building. So, where was it...?
Ringling, Ringling
Slippin' away
Only forty people, livin' there today
Streets are dusty and the bank has been torn down
It's a dyin' little town

Sunsets and Varmits

2006-01-08T23:10:00.000-08:00

Sunset is an angel weeping
Holding out a bloody sword
No matter how I squint I cannot
Make out what it's pointing toward

I got these great shots while taking a tour around Goodnight Contry near the Palo Duro Canyon. You know me and windmills!
I couldn't pass this one up. Now where I come from, we shot our share of varmits, but this Texas thing of displaying them on the fence is new to me. This particular ranch was so big there was no fence for miles, so these mesquite's pinch-hit for the fence.

Cadillac Ranch

2006-01-07T22:41:00.000-08:00

The Cadillac Ranch, located along the tatters of historic Route 66, was built in 1974, brainchild of Stanley Marsh 3, the helium millionaire who owns the dusty wheat field where it stands. Marsh and The Ant Farm, a San Francisco art collective, assembled used Cadillacs representing the "Golden Age" of American Automobiles (1949 through 1963). The ten graffiti-covered cars are half-buried, nose-down, facing west "at the same angle as the Cheops' pyramids." I love reading the graffitti. It is the billboard for those crossing the country on I-40.
Now we call it the cadillac ranch
They're parking cars in the old feed patch
There's a bar in the barn and the place stays packed
'Til the cows come home at cadillac ranch

Art or Junk

2006-01-04T22:41:00.000-08:00

These photo's raise the eternal question...is it Art or Junk?
So, anybody know where it is?

Where in the world?

2006-01-03T22:59:00.000-08:00

I've always liked this photo. I know what city it was taken in and the general vicinity it was taken, but I don't remember exactly what the building was.

Guess with as much detail as you like.

Nothin' Much

2006-01-02T20:59:00.000-08:00

I've got a few more pictures to post. This first one is outside a bar in Tijuana, Mexico. Not sure why they needed a neon sign for that information, but there it was.

This is one of the San Diego Zoo pictures that I just found. I got to wondering where my panda pictures were--I had to stand in line to see them, so I knew I took pictures.The mystery photo was a cotton bale--Heather was essentially correct with the cotton boll. I caught these modules before they got tarped.I haven't had time to work on these photo's yet, but I took this at the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, TX the day after Christmas.

Semi-Mystery

2005-12-29T21:01:00.000-08:00

Well, if you've been following along, this won't be a mystery. Anyway, for Christmas I got upgraded to dual monitors--I had to find an adapter, but got it working today. I finally downloaded my pictures, so I'll start posting them again. It is lovely to work on large pictures with tools that I can see.

California Dreamin

2005-12-21T23:29:00.000-08:00

All the leaves are brown And the sky is gray
I've been for a walk
On a winter's day I'd be safe and warm
If I was in L.A. (Lets make that San Antonio... in the summer)California dreaming
I haven't lost my mind and I'm not really California Dreaming, but with the first day of winter my mind turns to surviving until I see the first daffodils and I know that spring is arriving!

Rockabilly Blues

2005-12-16T22:51:00.000-08:00

The rhythm keeps me living
But have you heard the news
There's a sad song singer coming
With the rockabilly blues

We went to lunch and then to see "Walk the Line" to celebrate my upcoming birthday. I do love skipping work to see a movie. Of course, I was there at 6:30 this morning, so I didn't skip much work. It was a great movie, great story, and of course, I love the man in black. It did however put me in mind of the depression era that he came out of. The first picture is of one of my great grandmothers walking the milk cow in front of the soddy that they lived in in North Dakota.

The second picture is one I took a few years ago of the Williams family homestead in Toyah Texas. Wonderful lighting on this one.

It's hard to keep on singing
When you're lonesome to the bone
10,000 happy people but I'm San Antone alone
One night stands and the man demands
That I get up and go
I'm Odessa desperate
And San Angelo low

Long Time Gone

2005-12-13T20:42:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in forever. I took some pictures of cotton modules, but I haven't downloaded them yet, so here are a couple more San Diego photos. I have a bit of computer burnout between work and finishing two photobooks in record time, so I've been working on quilts instead.

I never picked cotton

2005-11-27T21:22:00.000-08:00

But we had the biggest cotton crop ever here in West Texas. This photo is of some cotton that the twins accidently killed and had to re-plant. I took it in September.
The fall foliage in Ruidoso was beautiful.

License to Chill

2005-11-22T19:28:00.000-08:00

A license to chill
And I believe I will
Let the rat race run roll around
In the sun until
Trouble turns funny and songs get sung

Really, it has been a great week. Thanks to Heather for the new template. All I did was color the graphic, the rest is her work. Anyway, here are some more zoo pictures.

Changes Coming

2005-11-16T21:37:00.000-08:00

This is my second try at these photos, but it is as big as I can get them...the giraffe is for Heather, who we are all sending best wishes for a red-letter day tomorrow.

Heather and I are collaborating on a new banner that we may put up. I did the coloring and she is doing all of the work. Kind of reminds me of elemetery school.

More Pictures

2005-11-08T20:26:00.000-08:00

I haven't been able to figure out what drives how big pictures show up on my blog. I actually sized all of these pictures really small for the DVD cover (I have to keep them organized) and they came out just as large as the rest of my larger pictures, so I'm a bit stumped. Anyway, here are some more. They are probably not the best pictures I took, but the first ones I sized for the internet.

Pretty funny that Jamie made the zoo in Phoenix...

San Diego

2005-11-07T22:08:00.000-08:00

I survived the trip to San Diego. I couldn't get a flight until 5 pm yesterday, so I went to the San Diego Zoo and Balboa park. I don't know what any of these animals are, but here are the pictures.

Buffalo Wallow

2005-11-01T22:17:00.000-08:00

Here is my favorite photo from the Heart Walk that was a couple of weekends ago. It is a worthy cause, and always a fun walk. This year it was held at Buffalo Wallow, which is a local park. Locals say Buffalo Waller.

Love and Marriage

2005-10-31T21:41:00.000-08:00

Buckingham Fountain is the fountain in the opening credits of "Married with Children." Now Married with Children is not really my picture of an ideal family show, or marriage at all, but in Chicago, Buckingham Fountain seems to be the place to take wedding pictures. I did a little covert shooting--there were about five wedding parties there taking pictures. This is my favorite.

Caught Up

2005-10-30T23:47:00.000-08:00

I've got all my pictures into photobooks! So now I'm going to play with my photoblog template when I have time, which won't be this week...I have a business trip to San Diego from Wednsday until Sunday.

Here is a shot of Lake Michigan.

Me and Snake will watch your place...

2005-10-25T23:32:00.000-07:00

So long Boss, knock 'em dead,
don't worry 'bout a thing
Wish that we could come along,
we'd love to hear you sing
The limo's here, your bags are packed,
the list is by the phone,
Me and Snake will watch your place
and treat it like our own

I seem to be posting pictures of creatures I am not necessarily fond of, but they are cool pictures. This verse of "Gypsies in the Palace" seems particularly good tonight because I've hired a yard man. He told me for a set (reasonable) price he would take care of my yard and "treat it like my own." That caused me a few raised eyebrows (I was definately thinking about gypsies in the palace), but three weeks later, I love him. He took down the back gate and sawed off a few inches so I could open it without hitting the ground.

Anyway, the picture is a little disconnected, but this was a friendly creature, so I'll post it.

Spider John

2005-10-21T20:42:00.000-07:00

But here I sit ol' Spider John,
The robber man

Long, tall and handsome
Yes, ol' Spider John with the loaded hand
Taking ransom

The work retreat is over--it's been in the making for two months. We got canceled last month after I had done all the work of getting ready because of the hurricane. So, after the Heart Walk early tomorrow morning I am headed for Ruidoso for four days. It is supposed to be 63/35 there, and I am actually looking forward to that. However, that is the absolute low end of my tolerance for cold weather.

I finished my photobook for the summer last night and uploaded it to blogger. Heather has me playing with a photoblog template, which I want to get up. I'm having trouble getting the pictures the size that I want them. Heather and I are quite scary on the computer. Well, I was scary before I met her--I would mess with things I had no understanding of, but her husband is a programmer (which makes us both experts by association), so we encourage each other to mess with things. Actually Heather is quite good, as evidenced by her new template on her blog. Maybe it is because we have scientific minds and like to experiment with things.

I took this picture on the ranch tour that we went on before I went to Indiana/Illinois. I was so happy to have a photo that went with one of my favorite Jimmy Buffett tunes.

That is all my story
Been these thirty years since I took to the road
Find my precious jewel one
If you see my Lily, won't you give her my regards
Tell her ol' Spider got tangled

In the black web that he spun

It's October!

2005-10-19T18:58:00.000-07:00

I love the spring and the fall. The last two weeks have been beautiful here. I've been busy working, so I haven't posted. Heather is sick of the last picture, so here is a new one. Actually an old one of the Albequerque Balloon Fiesta a couple of years ago. It is held the first two weekends of October every year, so it seems appropriate.

Boats to Build

2005-10-10T21:12:00.000-07:00

Big Dave is pretty close to correct when he thinks it is a flying saucer. This sight was about like seeing a flying saucer when you consider how far we were from any significant body of water.

West Texas Mystery

2005-10-09T00:02:00.000-07:00

The weekend before I went to Illinois and Indiana, Monty and I went on a tour of historic west texas ranches. It was really awesome, and I took a couple of mystery shots. The only clue I'm going to give here is that this object shouldn't be on the high plains of West Texas.
Guess away.

Recovery

2005-10-05T21:19:00.000-07:00

I'm not anwhere near being organized after being away from home for eight days, but I'm starting to look at my pictures. I did get some great pictures. As always, I like to have some flower shots. I took this at my retired boss's sister-in-law's house in Indiana. My old boss is a great guy (a visionary but not one who dwells in details), and we had a great visit. He turned out to be my great-aunt's third cousin. Small world.
I know that I will post many pictures from the covert funeral photo op. This is definately a mix of past and present. Of course this was taken through the car window, so it could have been better, but I have no real desire to be shunned. This wasn't covert--I figured they were at the funeral. I love the silo's--they are the windmills of Indiana. This shot was well exposed and composed, other than those pesky power lines.
Another through the window picture. I suspect that these two were Amish, although I can't see if the man had a beard from the picture. If not, they are very conservative old-order Mennonites.

Many, many more pictures to come, although I am sure progress will be slow. My Publisher has a discount through Oct. 31, so I am trying to get some picture book together. If anybody wants to give it a whirl and wants the coupon code, let me know.

Fairy Tales

2005-10-01T21:05:00.000-07:00

Fairy Tales begin with, "Once Upon a Time."

Texas Fairy Tales begin with, "You SOB's ain't gonna believe this shit..."

I took these photo's while staking out my grandfathers cousin's funeral. I figure to be shunned or at least incarcerated for taking the photo's, but it was irresistible.

Off Again

2005-09-22T22:15:00.000-07:00

For some reason, it is refusing to upload photos to my blog these days. I'm not sure why.

I'm off on a picture taking adventure--first in West Texas and then in Indiana and Chicago. Hopefully I will be able to post pictures by the time I get back.

Not a Medical Mystery

2005-09-15T21:01:00.000-07:00

I played hookey from work today. I worked in the yard all day, and I've figured a couple of things out. Having a pool is a lot of work, and kind of a pain. However, when working in the yard, it is awesome--when it gets hot, you can just jump in. When you get itchy, you can jump in. I know though, that I will be fighting acorns for the next two months, so I'm not looking forward to that.
I'm working on a digital scrapbook, so here's a mystery photo.
That one should be pretty easy. This looks a lot bluer here than in photoshop.

Mystery solved

2005-09-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

Here is a look at the heart lung bypass machine. I was actually photographing the pumper (perfusionist), but this is a machine that fascinates me.

Another Medical Mystery

2005-09-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

Another medical device...
Any guesses?

Digital Scrapbooking

2005-09-10T20:34:00.000-07:00

I've been reading BigDave's Blog http://bigdaveblogger.blogspot.com/ and I got to thinking about my own scrapbooking history. Like Big Dave, I scrapbooked for years before it was popular. Like Dave, the current scrapbooking craze caught me completely unaware. I would spend hours looking for the right acid free papers and glues, cropping down pictures and decorating my pages.

Last summer I found photobooks at ofoto.com. It was pretty cool, but I couldn't design the whole page the way I wanted. Then, earlier this year, I found MyPublisher.com. It is the coolest thing ever. You put together a book, and they publish it in an 8.5 x 11 hardbound book and send it to you. I don't bother with their templates, I just make a scrapbook page in Photoshop, and put the whole page into my publisher under the just photo's option. The pages end up looking like this:

This is from when I went to visit Lynn in California.

Poppies from my California Trip.

The day we went to see the President, who fell getting off the stage.

A Southwest Themed Page.

They charge a buck 49 a page, and I don't even print photo's anymore, just make a book. It's awesome.

The picture I didn't take...

2005-09-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

On CNN.com this morning, there was a picture of the Mexican army rolling across the border at Laredo...Bringing water cleaning plants, portable kitchens to feed 7,000 people, and other supplies. They were headed to San Antonio.

Do you think they'll take back the Alamo?

On a more serious note, I think it is great to see countries working in co-operation with each other.

I wish I had taken that picture!

Todd Snider

2005-09-06T23:15:00.000-07:00

I still find it a little strange that I am a Todd Snider fan. My music tastes are pretty constricted--Jimmy Buffett, Texas Country and Folk (sometimes found in the Americana section), and country (as long as it is not too trite). Then I have a few other singers that I like that really make no sense. Todd Snider is a grunge rocker?? (is it really rock?) from the northwest (originally Portland, I think). I first heard him at Jerry Jeff Walker's birthday party about ten years ago and he sang a song about the devil's backbone. My all time favorite Todd Snider is his song about D.B. Cooper. This is another favorite Todd Snider tune, and a picture of him singing it at the 2005 birthday bash.
You know just the other morning
I was hanging around in my house
I had that new book with pictures of Madonna naked
I was checkin' it out
Just then a friend of mine came through the door
Said she never pegged me for a scumbag before
She said she didn't ever want to see me any more
And I still don't know why

I think I'm am alright guy, I think I'm am alright guy
I just want to live until I've gotta die
I know I ain't perfect, but God knows I try
I think I'm an alright guy, I think I'm alright

Quick Post

2005-08-29T21:03:00.000-07:00

I had company all weekend, so I haven't done anything on the blog. I'm busy making a quilt these days, so I haven't really done anything on the computer.
I took this picture on New Years Day at Cedar Lake, Texas. It is a dry/salt lake on the llano estacado. It is also a major oil field.

Medical Photo Blogging

2005-08-25T18:50:00.000-07:00

I'm entering a phase here....

This is an important medical device. Any takers?

What I do

2005-08-23T21:39:00.000-07:00

I really do have a cool job, although at times it can be tedious, frustrating, overwhelming and impossible to accomplish.

This is the task that I was assigned to do at work today.

What is is? Heather is not allowed to guess, she knew what I was doing.

LA Freeway

2005-08-22T21:07:00.000-07:00

Pack up all your dishes.
Make note of all good wishes.
Say goodbye to the landlord for me.
That son of a bitch has always bored me.
Throw out them LA papers
And that moldy box of vanilla wafers.
Adios to all this concrete.
Gonna get me some dirt road back street

I'm a small town kid. The town I grew up in had a population of just over 1,200 people. I went off to college in central California in a town of about 36,000 people, which was huge for me.
When I became a nurse, I had a real taste for trauma and excitement, so I gravitated to the big city. As a traveling nurse, I continued to go to big cities and big hospitals. I started living in Texas...but still in big cities, when I realized that I wanted to get to work in the morning without driving through traffic. So, after a couple of detours, I moved to the biggest small town in Texas...close to my favorite place on the earth.

If I can just get off of this LA freeway
Without getting killed or caught
I'll be down the road in a cloud of smoke
to some land I ain't bought
(more Guy Clark)

A little Guy Clark...

2005-08-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

Well the bus pulled away
In a roaring black cloud
I stood in the road Honey
I hollered right out loud
Hey Darlin' I love ya
Hey bus driver whoa
But you can't stop a woman who is out of control

In my family, we tend to live lives with a low drama quotient. Adventure, danger and excitement we embrace, but drama for the sake of drama is pretty much avoided. We were taught to pretty much manage our emotions, make decisions and move on with out worrying over them. The Latin root for the word decisions has to do with knives and "cutting away," because when you make a decision, you cut away your other choices. Pretty profound, but I'm quoting the math doctor here, so I take no credit. "Let's do something, even if its wrong" was a frequent saying in my childhood. Net result is when emotions get out of control, we just don't get it. As Spock would say, "it's not logical."

Now Ramblin' Jack Elliot said:
I got these lines in my face
tryin' to straighten out the wrinkles in my life...

Once, quite a few years ago we went to Jerry Jeff Walker's birthday party in Austin, and Ramblin Jack Elliot was the featured guest. And ramble he did, for about forty-five minutes straight. My brother, the mountain climber, musician, cowboy, programmer turned math doctor, was with us, and we had a great time staying at the Driskill. This is particular picture was in his cowboy/musician days.Stayin' up all night in the Driskill Hotel
Ramblin' Jack and Mahan was cowboyed all to hell
the room smelled like bulls the words sound like songs
now there's a pair to draw to boys
I would not steer you wrong
Great shot of Rosalie in honor of what would have been her forty-first birthday.

Homegrown Tomatoes

2005-08-20T10:49:00.000-07:00

I won't even try to say it better than Guy Clark did...
Homegrown tomatoes, Homegrown tomatoes,
What’d life be without Homegrown Tomatoes,
There’s only two things that money can’t buy:
And that's True love and homegrown tomatoes.
There’s nothin’ in the world that I like better
Than Bacon, lettuce and home grown tomatoes
Up in the morning and out in the garden
Pick you a ripe one, don’t get a hard ‘un.
Plant ‘em in the springtime eat ‘em in the summer,
All winter without ‘em’s a culinary bummer.
I forget all about the sweatin and the diggin
Every time I go out and pick me a big’un.

You can go out and eat’em that’s for sure,
But there’s nothin a home grown tomato won’t cure
You can put em in a salad, put em in a stew
You can make your own, your very own tomato juice
You can eat em with eggs, you can eat em with gravy
You can eat em with beans, pinto or navy
Put em on the side, put em on the middle
Home grown tomatoes on a hot cake griddle

If I could change this life I lead,
You could call me Johnny Tomato Seed
I know what this country needs,
It’s home grown tomatoes in every yard you see
When I die don’t bury me
In a box in a cold dark cemetery
Out in the garden would be much better
Where I could be pushin up those home grown tomatoes.

Stories we could Tell

2005-08-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

Talkin' to myself again
wonderin' if this traveling is good
Is they're something else a doin
'We'd be doin' if we could

This post is for my cousin Jamie...a couple of characters here that you will recognize. The bad part about becoming a photo blogger is that I am no longer required really to write anything, which is actually okay with me a lot of the time. My photos tonight won't really mean anything to anybody but Jamie, so this one is for you.

We all only hope to look this good when we are 97. Grandma is still a princess--she's got the whole clan waiting on her hand and foot. Still alert, living alone. She broke her arm and had to spend a couple of weeks in rehab this summer right before her 98th birthday. She gets a little confused, but for 98, I would only aspire to do so well. She's not nearly as tall as she was when I was a kid. I think she was 5'10" and I'm 5'11", but she admits with the osteoporosis, "I just stoop a little bit every now and then, it's too hard to stand up straight." interestingly enough us big Scandinavian/German women are far less prone to get osteoporosis, because we have more bone mass...But when you are ninety something, if you don't have it something is weird.

And then, these two reprobates...The other guy is my dad's best friend from high school. His name is Milo, and he's the only person besides my friend Sam that has come to visit me in West Texas. Milo is a lot like me...takes off traveling when the urge strikes and has done it his whole life. About twenty years ago, he called dad because he was thinking about marrying his girlfriend. They had been dating for nine years and Milo was forty something at the time. Dad told him to just wait until he "got the other foot in the grave." Dad acts older than Grandma most of the time. My mother is getting to be a better sport with age, and my dad is getting to be a worse sport. He has worn out his frame and is arthritic. He finally sold his colts, so maybe giving up breaking horses will improve his temperament. I figure at 73, he is only about 33 years late on giving up bucking horses.

And of course, these characters are near and dear to Jamie. Bruce is a hoot, and Carol is just a lovely woman. I think Bruce has finally played enough golf to get bored with it, and is thinking about coming out of retirement. The lighting was wrong for this picture, but it wasn't about photography.
All the stories we could tell
If it all blows up and goes to hell
I wish that we could sit upon the bed in some hotel
And listen to the stories we could tell

Hannibal

2005-08-17T22:54:00.000-07:00

So long Boss, knock 'em dead, don't worry 'bout a thing. Wish that we could come along, we'd love to hear you sing. The limo's here, your bags are packed, the list is by the phone. Me and Snake will watch your place and treat it like our own

I'm sure this is what Huck and Tom would have said if someone would have asked them to housesit, and I'm sure that with Huck and Tom housesitting, it would have ended up just like the song.

The Tom Sawyer Huck Finn Statue.
Riverboat Tour
The Twain House in Hannibal.

We're gypsies in the palace, there ain't no wrong or right

We're gypsies in the palace, and we're going wild tonight.

The Arch

2005-08-16T20:00:00.000-07:00

The main goal of going to St. Louis is to take pictures of the Arch. Here are a few shots...

Captain and the Kid

2005-08-15T11:26:00.000-07:00

We'd go sailing back on barkentines
and talk of things he did,
tomorrow just a day away for
the Captain and the Kid

Camp DeBoise is where Lewis and Clark wintered in 1804 for 155 days before setting out on their expedition.

The actual camp is now believed to be under the Mississippi. This re-creation is at Lewis and Clark Interpretive site no. 1.

They spent the winter building boats to go up the river. This type of keelboat was the main boat in the expedition.

Many tons of supplies had to be stored on the boat, so every inch of space was used. Each portion of the deck had panels that could be lifted up to reveal supplies below.

These two guys were the park rangers. The older fellow (Captain) knew Lewis and Clark history fronwards and backwards. The kid was just having a great time learning the stories....

The journey took two years, four months and 10 days. It was the moon shot of that time.

Holiday...St. Louis

2005-08-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Take a holiday, you need a holiday
Grab a pack and hit the trail
Take a sail and wind up in some moonlit bay

St. Louis/ Missouri was great. Turns out Missouri was next to Illinois, not Mississippi, like I thought. Some traveler I am! I came back with four gigabytes of pictures. Obviously, I haven't even had a chance to look at all of them, but I will begin posting them. Obviously, there have to be a few arch pictures. To be fair, I have a full gigabyte of arch pictures. I took this one from the Steamboat tour on the Mississippi.

Saturday evening it started raining cats and dogs, so I ducked into the St. Louis Union Station. I got through the doors and saw this rained-out wedding party. I inconspicuously shot this picture, which I really like. The floor was lit up, and it made the picture magic.

St. Louis

2005-08-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

I'm having a blast--spent this afternoon doing the Arch. I watched the Lewis and Clark movie on the big screen. Tomorrow I'm off to Hannibal. I hate the laptop, so this post will be short. I'm using the laptop to get my pictures bured to CD, but it is horribly slow to edit pictures...so I will just post this one.

Off to See the Lizard

2005-08-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

I'm heading out to St. Louis for the weekend. Here are a couple of shots from last weekend.

These are at Dorothy Faye's "cabin" in Ruidoso, N.M. She's had the mountain moved to make her yard just perfect. Purple coneflower...one of my favorites.
Rudibeckia...another favorite.

Off to see the lizard
Off to see the lizard
Deja deja deja vu,
believe itAnd it will come true

Tin Cup Chalice

2005-08-09T21:22:00.000-07:00

With a tin cup for a chalice
Fill it up with good red wine,
And I'm-a chewin' on a honeysuckle vine.

We had rain in Texas this winter. When spring came, the flowers popped up all over the landscape. Now, in West Texas, it can be a stretch to call it landscape--it is flat, dry and generally there isn't much to look at. This year however, to quote one West Texas Rancher, "We got more wildflowers than the hill country."

I could have straightened the horizon, but this picture was taken down the side of what Texans call a "hill".

Here are a couple of Tahoka Daisy's.

Beach House on the Moon

2005-08-08T20:27:00.000-07:00

I saw him through my telescope,
On a cloudless night in June,
As he rested between voyages
At his beach house on the moon

I got all excited today thinking that the space shuttle was going to land at White Sands. I was planning on calling in to work and driving six hours to White Sands, just to see it land. Unfortunately, NASA isn't cooperating and telling where it will land, so I am going to miss the opportunity to see the shuttle land.

Space is just too cool.

This photo is a classic West Texas scene--the valley irrigation system, and the sandhills cranes winging their way back to their winter lodging.

Holiday

2005-08-07T18:13:00.000-07:00

Is it a fever or depression, anger or aggression
What's the remedy?
We're not talking rocket science
The answer to your question's
Very plain to see
You need a holiday, take a holiday

I'm going to St. Louis this weekend, just to take pictures. In the meantime, here is a look at Chicago...

My favorite of the hummingbird pictures.

A place where you can go to really go to get away from it all...The Gage Hotel in Marathon, TX. No cell phone signal, no phone in the room, just peace a quiet.

And finally a scene with the promise of adventure in D'Hanis, TX

Becoming a Prolific Blogger

2005-08-04T23:11:00.000-07:00

Another souvenier of my trip around the sun. This photo was taken at the Chinati foundation in Marfa, TX. It is called, "Monument to the Last Horse," and is a Claes Oldenberg piece.

Pictures

2005-08-04T20:27:00.000-07:00

I've learned to post pictures, so ya'll will just have to put up with me. This sunset was at my friend Barbara's house last week.

This cemetary is a merchant marine cemetary about a thousand miles from an ocean in New Mexico.

A windmill...one of my favorite subjects...

And finally...White Sands, New Mexico

Happiness Guaranteed...

2005-08-04T18:25:00.000-07:00

Stuff that works, stuff that holds up
The kind of stuff you don’t hang on the wall
Stuff that’s real, stuff you feel
The kind of stuff you reach for when you fall

On TV last night I saw a commercial that said, "Happiness Guaranteed." Apparently, if you buy lenscrafters glasses, you will be happy.

Can glasses really make you that happy? I guess my vision isn't that bad.

Anybody know who the song quote is?

Kinky for Governor

2005-07-27T20:00:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to quote Jimmy, so don't fall over.

I'm here to say, since Kay Bailey Hutchinson, isn't going to fun for governor in Texas, I've decided to support the Kinkster for governor. Actually, I'm kind of glad that Sweetness (Kay Bailey) didn't run, because, somewhere deep into our cups at Jerry Jeff's birthday party last year I promised Kinky that I would be his West Texas campaign chairman.

Consider these campaign promises:

What if we dropped all sports funding out of education and turned that responsibility over to the corporate section--we'd solve the education funding problem right there.

In education, I won't appoint anyone who hasn't seen the inside of a classroom. I say, "Leave no teacher behind."

I'm for the little fellers, not the Rockerfellers.

Freidman's just another word for nothin left to loose.

I can't screw it up worse than it already is.

WWWRD--What would Will Rogers do?

As the first Jewish governor, I'll reduce the speed limit to 54.95.

How hard can it be?

http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/

Kinky Friedman for governor...why the hell not!

Just the way that is used to be

2005-07-27T19:38:00.000-07:00

But then it's flat-top, dirty bop, copin' a feel'
grubbin on the living room floor;
They send you off to college
to try to gain a little knowledge,
But all you want to do is learn how to score.
Yeah, but now I'm gettin' old, don't wear underwear,
I don't go to church, and I don't cut my hair;
But I can goto movies and see it all there,

I do love Jimmy Buffett songs...even if the whole song doesn't exactly fit, there are always a few lines that resonate and hit the nail on the head.

This pretty much describes the crowd and attitude of my college days--right down to the reference to my friend John who used to hitch up his jeans and announce that he was "al fresco", which he would then explain meant that he wasn't wearing underwear. If that wasn't too much information, he would add that he wasn't wearing socks. Not wearing socks doesn't seem like much of a problem until you consider that he was wearing cowboy boots.

I went and saw "Wedding Crashers" which was pretty much the perfect summer movie...didn't make me think, made me laugh, and wasn't too "junior high."

I think that most American's are resting pretty comfortably this summer...fretting over who will be the next supreme court justice, the heat wave, the incoming hurricaines. I guarante you that if terrorists can bomb buses and subways in London, someone out there is planning an attack in the US. Probably not a bus or subway (after all we all drive cars to maximize our energy usage and keep the price of oil up), but thousands of people show up for football games, basketaball games and county fairs. I personally doubt that they would set off a bomb in West Texas---but that is the assumption that we are all working under.

That's my schitzophrenic post for tonight. And I'm not even going to check that I spelled schitzophrenic right.

But I can goto movies and see it all there,
Just the way that it use to be.

On Paper

2005-07-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

If I could tell half of the stories
The funny way most things begin
Figure ways to disguise all the half truths and lies
Find the heart of my song with the point of a pen
Simple words can be come clever phrases
And chapters could turn into books
Yes if I could just get it on paper

I am loosing steam on the blogging--and a little impatient that my friend who gave me my handle hasn't yet read my blog...so I sent a link to my friend who I have been teasing about her blog, and like the good girl that she is, she read it immediately. But...my "wicked" friend is not off the hook, and I am sending her another link.

Speaking of Wicked, we read the book for the book club. It was entertaining, and I read it quickly, which means I liked it. I still think that the entire first section of the book was extraneous to the plot. I do however, really enjoy reading books that are connected to stories that we all know and love.

Right now most of my spare computer time has been spent getting my photo's in order, a task that is becoming almost up-to-date. I am at least working in the year 2005. I intend to learn how to set up a website so that I can post my pictures. I will probably finish just in time to come home with a few more gigs of pictures from Missouri. Slowly but surely, I am getting it all down on paper...

But it's harder than it ever looks.

Migration

2005-07-16T22:09:00.000-07:00

Look'in back at my background
tryin' tofigure out how I ever got here.
Some things are still a mystery to me
While others are much to clear.

My brother called me this evening completely excited about something he found on the internet. This is the same brother that told me about four years ago that after programming for five years, you learn everything you could possibly want to know about computers--and proceeded to get his PhD in math.

So, the Addition Doctor is just over the moon about these things he found...he is moving to the southwest and looking for a house to by. In this process, he found maps.google.com, and then earth.google.com. He made me go there immediately. At maps.google.com you can look at satellite maps and satellite topograpic pictures virtually anywhere in the world. At earth.google.com you can download a little program that allows you to fly through the countryside.

So, I spent the evening flying though the ranch where I grew up, visiting my best friends house, looking at my house (where you can tell that trees cover half my pool), checking out the ranch that my gentleman friend is thinking about buying, and having some pretty good flashbacks to my childhood.

I grew up on an 18,000 acre ranch in Northern California. Ranching is not usually what you think of when you think about Northern California, but it was a real ranch, and we lived pretty western--more western than most ranchers, even by Texas standards. Flying on the satellite tour over the ranch brought back a lot of memories.

There was a hairpin turn on the dirt road to our house. On that turn I learned the exact point to hit the brakes and fishtail 180 degrees. It is a feat that I can still accomplish to this day.

One summer we built a "log" cabin out of railroad ties. We called it the "line shack." It was about thirteeen miles from the ranch house and gave us a place to stay when we were too far from the house to get home before dark. It was top-of-the line fancy for a line shack. It had a wood stove, two bunk beds, and a single. A tiny table to eat at. We also had to build an outhouse, which was not a house, but a plywood box over a hole in the ground. To make it nicer, we did install a real toilet seat. We even ran water from a spring onto a sink on the porch, so that we had "running" water. You couldn't turn it off, it ran all the time. All the supplies had to be kept in metal lockers, because the occasional bear would break into the cabin. It is still there....

The ranch was made up of a bunch of old homesteads. My favorite was the Bowman place--it had the best orchard--excellent apples. I shot my first wild hog in the Bowman orchard, and it was good eating. Nowdays, there is a new "house" just down the hill from the Bowman place. I heard in my hometown that dope growers from north of my hometown bought the land, and constructed what looked like a house, but was really a greenhouse. It was the largest dope bust in the history of the county.

The addition Doctor and I used to work the roundups together. My sister would always go with my dad, so, the doctor and I were left to round up the area's around Steep Gulch. We would hit all the berry patches, then round up some steers. The we would head down the mountain at breakneck pace in a massive steer stampede (we were late because we spent too much time looking for berries and frequenting the deserted orchards). Plus, we just liked to make it a little western.

It was a pretty cool trip down memory lane, and I didn't have to spend three days on horseback to do it...it just makes me sad to see such a grand unpopulated place getting populated.

I'm just livin' in the sunshine,
Stay contented most of the time.
Yeah, list'nin to Murphy, Walker and Willie,
Sing me their Texas rhymes.

Twenty seven years of beer

2005-07-13T19:28:00.000-07:00

And across from the bar there's a pile of beer cans
Been there twenty-seven years
Imagine all the heart aches and tears
In twenty-seven years of beer

It is only the middle of the week, and beer already sounds good. Although, as I've gotten old, I wouldn't even think of drinking beer in the middle of the week--I wouldn't get anything done, and I have a ton of things to do.

It finally rained! I don't know how much--I was still at work. But when I came home tonight I didn't have to water--there were big puddles everywhere.

I am on a "too much work and not enough play" mode. It is of course budget time, harvest time, and all of the busy times at work. So, today I booked a ticket to St. Louis, Missouri, for no other reason than I have never been to Missouri before. I had a $400 voucher from last summer when I agreed to get bumped off of a flight. I am going mid-August. I know nothing about Missouri, except that Hannibal Missouri is Mark Twain's birthplace. So, why the hell not!

I don't have a count of how many states I still have to visit, but the list is getting shorter. I chose between Michigan, Missouri, Missippi and Maine...the M's were appealing to me. I did think about New Orleans, but I don't think that the weather would be very nice in August.

So, at last I have a plan for a vacation. I will be studying up on what to see and do. I will take a picture of the arch.

As busy as I have been at work, it has been pretty fun--lots of challenges.

Only forty people livin' there today.

Travelin' Girl

2005-07-10T18:25:00.000-07:00

As a dreamer of dreams and a travelin' man,
I have chalked up many a mile.

I chalked up more miles today. We went to the mountains in New Mexico, where it was hot, but not nearly as hot as West Texas. It was a great weekend.

About halfway to the mountains, on a little road in the middle of nowhere, the sun started going down. I pulled over to take pictures...and got a picture of the sun outlined in coral in a bank of blue clouds.

Drinking coffee on the patio, I realized that the hummingbirds came to a feeder just off the patio. I moved it slightly so that I didn't have to shoot through the porch and took hummingbird picutres.

I can now add Jicarrea, New Mexico to the list of places I've been. I'm pretty sure I misspelled that.

I came home on the backroads. Texans amaze me--if there is one curve in the road, they can't drive more than 55. It took about twenty miles to get past all of them, then I flew accross the desert in a rainstorm. I love the smell of rain and greasewood!

So, tomorrow, it is back to work...and I have a lot of work to do. They moved up our section meeting a week, so I have a bunch of stuff to get ready for Tuesday night.

Read dozens of books about heroes and crooks,
And I've learned much from both of their styles.

Permanent Reminder

2005-07-05T21:50:00.000-07:00

Permanent reminder of a temporary feeling
Amnesic episodes that never go away.
It's no complex momento, it's no subtle revealing.

I'm not going to tell you what my real name is. Gypsy Cowgirl fits me just fine. Lets just say that my name is a staid, plain 1950's name. My father picked it out. My father used to be pretty creative and fun (he's getting grouchy as he gets old), and it has always amazed me that he picked out such a boring name.

When I was six years old I wanted to change my name to Susan. Now that's an exciting name. I'm not saying I had good taste, I'm just saying that I wanted to be Susan. I complained enough about my name that my mother told me how I came to have my name.

My dad was working days as an x-ray tech and ranching in the evenings. He took pictures of a little girl with some kind of leukemia that had my name, and decided that I should be named after her.

I was born on the first day of winter in a blizzard in Montana. It was the type of blizzard where my dad dropped my mom off at the hospital three days before I was due. I arrived only a few hours late--the first day of winter. My mom decided my name should be Winter. (It was 1965, and this is the only thing my mother has ever told me that indicates that she was even alive in the 1960's). Winter wouldn't have been too bad--in California in the 70's I went to school with brothers named Forest, Harvest and Timber. There was River, Tree, and a few other names that weren't really names. As Winter I would have fit right in.

Anyway, when she informed my father of the name, some conflict ensued. My father has always felt that a name should be a real name. Thus, I got my boring 1950's name.

Either way, it is a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling, and it wasn't even my feeling!

Just a permanent reminder of a temporary feeling.

Coconut Telegraph

2005-06-30T21:35:00.000-07:00

It's humpday on the island
And the lines have all gone dead

Not really my favorite quote, and it is not even Wednesday, but my telephone line did go dead today, so I thought it was appropriate.

I spent all day in a 12-Lead EKG class. I needed the CEU's. The speaker was really good and easy to understand, but it was probably the material that I know the best. Working in EP for five years ensured that I am good at 12 Lead EKG.

Unfortunately, sitting in class all day precluded learning any new gossip, and getting any work done. Tomorrow is Friday, and I have to do three days work--Friday's, today's, and yesterdays. I didn't get anything done yesterday because too many people kept coming to my office to gossip. Yesterday was a good day--I love gossip.

So, I am going to bed early. I had to be at the class at 8:00--which is incredibly early for me. I hope I never have to get a real job--I'll have to go back to night shift.

All the juicy news is history
I guess everything's been said

Fruitcakes

2005-06-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

Fruitcakes in the kitchen
Fruitcakes on the street
Struttin' naked through the cross walk
In the middle of the week

I spoke too soon...Tom Cruise did do something nutty today. He expressed the opinion that "we are not alone in the universe." This was listed on every news media--near the top of the headlines. Right up there with the Presidents speech.

I guess the sharks didn't come through for the media today. So, they make Tom Cruise out to be some kind of a fruitcake because he entertains the concept that with the size of the universe we might not be the only life out there.

Then they list that he likes to talk about Scientology, criticized Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants for post partum depression, and called psychiatry "pseduo-science."

I'm no fan of Tom Cruise. In fact, I think he is pretty much a fruitcake. However, think about it for a moment. All religious people like to talk about their religion. They wouldn't bother with it if they didn't feel passionate about it. That he would comment on taking anti-depressants for post-partum depression is pretty stupid (does anybody out there remember Andrea Yates?) and psychiatry is a pretty tricky science.

But there just might be life out there...just because Tom Cruise is mostly a nut doesn't mean everything that comes out of his mouth is insane. I just thing right now, the media is circling him like sharks, and he would be better off if he kept his mouth shut.

Welder Girl makes some pretty good points in her comments--"People must only want to hear about the gruesome gory things. Even though I feel the president's message would have been just as painful."

I have to confess--I didn't listen to the presidents message. I KNEW it would be painful.

Half baked cookies in the oven
Half baked people on the bus
There's a little bit of fruitcake left in everyone of us

Fins

2005-06-28T21:57:00.000-07:00

Can't you feel 'em circlin' (closin'in) honey?
Can't you feel 'em swimmin' around?
You got fins to the left, fins to the right,
and your the only bait in town.

I read all the shark attack stories this morning. I read somewhere that there are an average of 48 shark attacks in Florida every year. Last year there were only 30, probably because of the hurricanes.

It must be a slow news week, because the shark attacks are getting pretty big coverage. I don't remember hearing about 30 shark attacks last year. I suspect that the media only feeds us the more sensational stories. Tornado's are graded from level 1 to level 5, with a 5 being the worst. If they graded shark attacks like that, then they could cover only the level 5 shark attacks...but no, they cover them based on how much or little other news there is on an given day.

I guess Tom Cruise didn't do anything silly today. Or maybe they just decided to give him a break. One thing about it, putting the President's message up against shark attacks in our present society...which one do you think most people paid attention to?

One of my good friend's husband is currently deployed in Iraq. He is in one of the outlying areas (I can't remember where, and couldn't spell it if I did). He is building schools. Real schools, with different classrooms for different ages, a principals office and a teachers lounge. I know that most soldiers in Iraq aren't building schools, but when you hear this man's story it makes you feel pretty good about what he is doing. The people are very grateful, and think it will make a difference for their country.

They don't cover that in the media. After all, in our country, what we have to worry about is suicide bombers and shark attacks. I'm not minimalizing shark attacks...I just think the media is covering the bloodiest, most sensational stories, whatever they are.

Better watch out for those sharks.

You got fins to the left, fins to the right,
and your the only girl in town.

Hokey Pokey

2005-06-27T18:58:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's all too simple
For our brains to figure it out

I installed the new motherboard. I instructed it to contact the mother ship. It did not. I took it into a spaceport to be checked out by a mechanic. He said that it must be a faulty motherboard.

I installed the old motherboard. Told it to contact the mother ship. It did. I then tried extensively to crash the whole thing, but cannot make it crash. Maybe the Hokey Pokey is what it is all about, because I sure don't understand why the old one works and the new one doesn't. In the meanwhile, I'm back to computing.

Remember, I started this blog because I told my friend that IF I had a blog, it would be a secret blog--I wouldn't want people I know reading it. I dreamed last night that my friend found my blog. It upset me so much that I woke up. I don't know why it would upset me, because I have written nothing here that she would find upsetting. It is just more fun to do it on the sly.

I have however decided that the girl who described me as a "Gypsy Cowgirl" should get to read this blog. Really, I haven't decided, but I am seriously thinking about letting her read it.

The supreme court rulings today almost made me pull out the lyrics to "Fruitcakes," but I am still saving it for something that really makes me want to rant.

I read today that a couple was killed by a bear in their campground in Alaska. They had a weapon that was unfired. I can't imagine that one of them didn't think to fire the weapon in that circumstance.

Now I will continue to try to crash my computer. It should be fun.

What if the hokey pokey
Is all it really is about?

Calypso Poet Shortage

2005-06-25T19:04:00.000-07:00

We had plenty of doctors
We had plenty of lawyers
We had people to make us things
We had people to sell us those things
We didn't have enough room for those things
We build lots of self storage
Calypso poet shortage

I'm not a poet, never have been. I wrote a limerick once--it was hilarious...all about nursing school. It made reference to the professor who got her nose pierced while I was in school. Every one laughed as they read it--and she went and grabbed it out of a student's hand. Then read it aloud, laughing hardest at the reference to her.

I would however, like to be a calypso poet. I don't know what a calypso poet is, but I want to be one. If you study the quote, it is easy to imagine boring stuffy lawyers and doctors in their tastefully neutral suits. It is easy to imagine the day to day grind that we all go through, accumulating things that we don't need.

Then boom...calyspo poet! It brings up all kinds of images--the islands, the sun, the water, bright colors, music. I want to be a calypso poet.

Dateline is about the "DaVinci Code." I stayed up all night reading the book the other day. It was good, but I don't think I've lost my mind over it--but I read it in one sitting.

My significant other came through on his way back from looking at ranches last night...I took him home (70 miles) today. His realtor had an earache, so I suggested candeling his ear. We did it this afternoon. It was great fun. But still not the same as being a calypso poet.

Calypso poet shortage

You got to bend...

2005-06-23T19:57:00.000-07:00

You got to bend a little one way or the other
You got to leave your mind open to discover

I'm a little stirred up about the whole land grab thing and the Supreme Court. The whole idea seems fundamentally un-American. Now add to this equation that I just had a less than cordial exchange of words with the lady down the street--someone I know from life, not just the neighborhood--and it is almost enough to really put me on a roll.

I have to admit, the lady down the street I've never liked. She is basically a nasty person, and I've always known that, but I tried to be nice. I guess that I don't have to make any particular pretense of being nice anymore, and really, that is okay with me. She has to live with herself (and she is chronically unhappy about something), and I don't have to have anything to do with her. So enough with her.

On to the land grab. My first instinct is to have all kinds of fits--protest, have a sit in at the Supreme Court, file some kind of paperwork to take the land under the Supreme Court in some kind of emminent domain scheme, you know, generally raise hell.

However, what will be more effective, is just not to ever spend a dime in that shopping mall or with those companies that locate on that land. It is somewhere back east, so I guess I wasn't going to spend any money there anyway. I still want to know what companies go in there, so I can make sure I don't spend any money on them here in Texas.

I want to fight with Rick Perry also...no funding for the schools this year (but my school taxes are higher than ever)--what an idiot. I'll definately spend a little energey making sure that he doesn't get re-elected.

I got my new motherboard today. I am going to insist on being first assistant in the installation. I love doing that stuff. I might just read the directions and do it myself. Should I read the directions before I do it, or after? My daddy taught me, "when all else fails, read the directions."

Seems I've been fightin' it all along
You got to bend a little no matter which side you're on
Or soon you'll be gone

She Went to Texas

2005-06-20T20:28:00.000-07:00

But the warm Summer breezes
The French wines and cheeses
Put his ambition at bay

I love the summertime. It seems like I struggle through every winter, just hoping to survive...and I always do. About February, I start to have hope.

I plant something. Usually it is way too early, but I plant it anyway...I have hope. Now it is full fledged summertime, and I am busy every night chasing endless weeds that invade my flowerbeds. Any day now I will get sick of weeding and start a project, which will last the rest of the summer.

I know exactly when and why I moved to Texas. I got a letter from the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles--here in Texas it is the DPS--Department of Public Safety) that informed me that my next certificate for driving in excess of the speed limit would be my last. Up until that time I had considered those certificates some kind of a prize, but that day I realized that they were tickets and the State of California meant business.

I was working a gig in Texas when I got the letter. So, I looked for the DMV. They didn't have one, and I learned about the DPS. I went down, walked in, gave them my California drivers license, took a test, took a picture, and came out a Texan. The really great part was that Texas didn't share information about driving awards with California, so my record was wiped clean. And it took about twenty minutes. In California it took twenty minutes to find a parking space, a few hours to get the whole thing done.

Obviously, I wasn't really ambitious in the traditional sense, or the basis of my decision to become a Texan wouldn't have been my long history of driving awards. But I was ambitious in my own way. I wanted to wander around endlessly seeing things and taking pictures.

Texas agreed with me in some fundamental way. It wasn't the water that is for sure--crappiest water in the States as near as I can tell. Not even the food--I still think barbeque should be tri-tip, and enchiladas should have olives on them. But something about the spirit of the place, the wide open sky agreed with me.

I started spending more time in Texas than California. It was subtle at first--I wouldn't return to California until it got to be more than a hundred degrees in Texas. Then I would only return to California between gigs. I still went to other states, but I was spending more and more time in Texas.

One day, I decided to get a real job, so I did. I quit my job and followed a Jimmy tour across the Southwest, and then I got a real job. That real job led to another real job, that job led to a bunch of other jobs (they called them promotions) and ten years later here I am.

And, amazingly, I like it! All my belongings fit in the back of a Jeep when I came to west Texas. The first advancement required a trailer. The second took two trips with the trailer. The last move took too many trips to count. I've had the same Mennonite family moving me every time, and they have definately noticed the difference. It is a good thing their kids have grown from toddlers to teenagers, or they might not be able to get the job done.

The only thing I miss is taking a month off in the summertime to wander around with my camera. Being a "real" person, not a gypsy anymore, I can't just arrange my life around social occasions. So, all too often my time off is spent with family and friend obligations. I used to do all those things, but then I took my time to wander around all by myself.

So, this summer my resolution is to take a vacation and do what I want. I don't know exactly what that is yet, I'm thinking on it. I may drop by to visit my grandmother who is old and won't live much longer, but basically I am going wandering.

I just have to pick the dates....

And Summers and Winters
Scattered like splinters
And four or five years slipped away.

Last Mango in Paris

2005-06-19T20:55:00.000-07:00

I ate the last mango in Paris
Took the last plane out of Saigon

The mangos were gorgeous in the grocery store yesterday, so I bought some. I ate some of them, and today I made a mango pie. It is okay...I think that I like the plain mango's better. Maybe I should have been eating them in Paris.

I did chores today--it really wasn't very exciting. Some friends came over this afternoon and went swimming. Jake and I threw the football back and forth in the water. It was good exercise anyway.

I went over to a friends house and got a new plant that I planted in the back yard. Hopefully it will live.

I have no deep thoughts tonight...

Took the first fast boat to China
And Jimmy there's still so much to be done

Brahma Fear

2005-06-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

I'd like to ride the rodeo
But I've got Brahma fear

I have to concur with Jimmy on this one...I have always loved cows, but I've got a Brahma fear. Not too many other things that I'm scared of. (Heights, maybe). We used to try to ride anything we could catch, but we left the Brahma/Brahma looking cattle alone. We were hell on wheels with the milk cow and the milk cow's calves.

So, considering my total lack of fear, I continue to work on my computer like I am a Grade A computer technician. I added more memory (better than my motherboard can handle), and it works. Now I don't know if I should take it back or not. I'm verifying that with my computer expert before I proceed with the scrub of the hard drive.

I had to get up at six am on a Saturday to go to Juneteenth to do a health fair. I always dread going to those things, but they are always fun. I had one old lady with hypertension, and asked her if she had a doctor she could talk to about her blood pressure. She said, well, she only had a gynecologist. I asked her how old she was...fifty. I asked her if she was planning on having a lot more babies. She laughed really hard, and asked if I thought she should get a real doctor. I told her yes.

I'm looking forward to scrubbing the hard drive tomorrow. If I disappear from the blogging world, it will be apparent that I blew things up.

So I'll just stick to airplanes
Gently pop my ears

Souvenirs of my trip around the sun

2005-06-17T19:02:00.000-07:00

No you never see it comin’
Always wind up wonderin’ where it went
Only time will tell if it was time well spent

My computer is working again...not quite right, but a vast improvement. I'm burning backup CD's of all the important stuff while I write this post. I may scrub the hard drive yet!

Actually, what I'm burning is DVD's. I have a lot of souveniers from my trips around the sun---I have a lot of pictures of places I've been, things I've done.

I got to see Jimmy at the Bowl in Santa Barbara a couple of times--I wanted to go this year but decided to be responsible. One time my friend Carol and I made it from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara for a concert in 71 minutes. I think it is a ninety-mile trip, with multiple curves and towns to get through. It was a fabulous time and we were fortunate not to be jailed for excess speed and reckless driving. I was driving because Carol had already gotten one ticket that day while driving from Modesto to San Luis Obispo for the concert. It speaks to how well I liked Carol that I didn't just leave for the concert without her.

I got on Soutwest from West Texas one Friday afternoon to go to Vegas for a show. Every person getting on the flight was wearing their "flowerdy" shirt in anticipation of the show. When the plane boarded, the pilot welcomed all the Parrotheads--I guess that much was obvious. I went to the concet by myself, but by the time I arrived in Vegas I had plenty of local Parrothead friends.

I have a jar of seashells that I picked up when I went to West Palm Beach. My godsons take them out and look at them sometimes.

My bedroom is decorated with colorful masks that I have acquired on trips to Old Mexico. (Out here in west Texas we feel the need to clarify between old Mexico, and New Mexico, a state that Texans feel they own--"if God hadn't wanted us to ski, he wouldn't have given us New Mexico").

I have a lot of rocks and old rusty things that I have picked up here and there. I have plants that I've harvested off of old homesteads and my old house. Most of my furniture is rescued from somewhere. I have some T-shirts from various trips.

My new commercial hanging pot rack was replaced with a meat freezer tray that I rescued from the Old Redwood Bar in Laytonville, California when they tore it down.

My attitude toward souveniers is pretty unique. Most of the articles that I have were in some way rescued and re-used. The rest of my souveniers are the photos that hang on my walls that document my trip around the sun.

It’s another revelation
Celebrating what I should have done
With these souvenirs of my trip around the sun

I have found me a home

2005-06-16T20:53:00.000-07:00

My old red bike Gets me around
To the bars and the beaches of my town
And there aren't many reasons I would leave.

My bike is green...but it is definately old. I got it from a seventy-five year old lady. I live a little far from town for it to really get me around town, but it does get me around my neighborhood. I like to ride down to the cemetary and see what is going on. You wouldn't think that there is much going on in a cemetary, but if you observe carefully there is a lot that goes on in the cemetary. There are plenty of bars in my town, but no beaches. If you feel the urge to ride your bike to the bar, let me advise you that riding your bike to the bar is an extremely bad idea. I've taken care of a lot of people who got hit on their way home from the bar. It is never good.

Good news on the computer front...the CPU is fine, the motherboard is fine. Air is not circulating through the case...so I'm getting a new case. The technician that I talked to today was utterly charming. He told me immediately that my new power supply was "cute" and that he had already been online to find one like it for his computer (I knew right away that he was a genius--it is an awesome power supply--chrome and modular). Then he told me what computer games to play online. I told him to throw in a few extra fans if the computer needed it. So, my home computer is getting a body transplant. My work computer survived the brain transplant (their was some doubt for awhile), and is working good, except for a few bugs (probably nosicomial infection).

I had to go to work at seven...yuck. I did get to come home for awhile and take a nap in the pool. Then I had to go back for another meeting at seven in the evening. It was a real humdinger. Some fiesty people in that meeting. Then I went with the other managers and ate dinner--a little decompression.

I love the town that I live in...especially in the summertime. The people are great, there is no traffic, and the weather is wonderful. Tomorrow it is supposed to be 104--should be a great day for swimming! I've lived a lot of places, but this is truly home.

Grapefruit, Juicy Fruit...

2005-06-15T21:14:00.000-07:00

Chew a little Juicy Fruit, it's good for your soul.

That's the theme song for today, because I'm low on Juicy Fruit in my car. I have a new pack in the house, I just have to remember to get it to my car. I haven't been to the grocery store to buy groceries in about two weeks. It is great for the budget, but dinner tonight lacked meat of any kind. I hate a dinner that doesn't include meat!

Maybe this blog is about my slow sink into Alzheimers. I freak out about that all the time. I am always worrying about things I might forget--and I have a good memory most of the time. I just get extremely annoyed everytime I forget anything.

I have even more flowers blooming. I still wonder what they are. I planted more flowers tonight--cosmos, zinna's and sweet alyssm. It is late to be planting, but they should do okay if I keep enough water on them.

Wednsday night is pool night--I have to backwash and rinse. The chlorine gas guys come on Thursday, and I can't backwash for 48 hous after it gets gassed. The gas guy's work for a company called Motley's Bail Bonding. Go figure that out.

The maid came today. I love coming home after she's been here. My house always smells so good--and I don't get an allergic reaction since she switched to simple green. I think she thinks that I am easy to clean up after. I always have to pick up before she comes.

Vampires, Mummies and the Holy Ghost

2005-06-14T21:59:00.000-07:00

Looked in my laptop what did I see
A flashing message said today therapy...
Vampires, mummies and the holy ghost
These are the things that terrify me the most.

Back at the laptop again. My home computer is now in the hospital. I think it took some ecstasy--it is overheating like crazy. It has to be the motherboard, the CPU or poor case design. The technician that signed it in didn't really look smart enough to fix it, but I have high hopes. My computer at work is still undergoing a brain transplant. It has been in surgery now for over five days, so I'm not looking for a very good outcome.

Micheal Jackson is a child molestor. It is eating away at him from the inside. However, to successfully try him, they will have to try the stupid adults that leave their children alone with him. I think he and the mother deserve to go to jail. Who in their right mind would leave a child alone with him? Why didn't they get him on the alcohol charges? I had faith in the people of Santa Maria, and I am very disappointed that the California virus has gotten as far as Santa Maria.

I got a questionaire for federal district court jury duty. I'm sure if I ever manage to get picked for a jury, it will be something boring. I keep trying.

I worked today, and it was a blur of charts. I was reading at lightening speed. Overall, very boring--but I get paid well to be there.

I just want my computer fixed so that I can look at my pictures from the weekend. I work to support my camera habit.

I'm turning off the waterfall, the tourists can go home

2005-06-13T20:54:00.000-07:00

Feel its time to travel, time to write a poem...
Answers are the easy part, questions raise the doubt.

Spent the weekend in tourist mode... rode down at least one new road. We went to Ruidoso, and the weather was hot during the day and cool at night, which was just lovely.

I have a Ruidoso routine. I sleep late, then I get up and drink coffee with Bailey's on the patio and read whatever I can get my hands on. This weekend, it was magazines. After a late lunch at the Bistro, we headed out to go over the back road to Lincoln. The desert was in bloom, and I got several pictures of the cholla blooming. I also got some pictures in Lincoln--not a whole photo essay, but the Torreon and the Doctors house.
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The next morning I had my coffee early so that we could make the Sunday Brunch at the Inn of the Mountain Gods. It was a champagne brunch, so the day was off to a nice start. The we traveled back roads from Tularosa through LaLuz canyon and the national forest, coming out just below Cloudcroft. We made our way five thousand feet down to the basin and went to White Sands National Monument. It was hot, but impressive...I wish I would have taken my tripod, but managed to take a lot of pictures anyway.

Then we backtracked to Tularosa and picked up cold beer and made our way to Three Rivers Petroglyphs. As always, it was hot, dry, and impressive. I managed to fill up a 1GB compact flash card and two 256MB cards with pictures. Actually, La Luz canyon was the only place I hadn't been before, and I didn't take any pictures there. The other places I have lots of pictures of, but none digital. Then it was back to Ruidoso for a late dinner at Phil's Pasta Cafe.

Today it was time to turn off the waterfall and I came home. My computer is still messed up (the CPU is blazing hot), so I can't download and look at my pictures yet.

Trust your intuitition

2005-06-09T17:49:00.000-07:00

You've got to learn to trust your intuition,
Forget that blind ambition...

My intution is telling me that my computer is completely screwed up. It has been crashing on a regular basis. I've been going through the motions of troubleshooting and not having much luck, really. Tonight I installed a new power source. Took a little thinking, and I got it installed okay. Booted the computer up just fine...everything looked perfect. Went into Photoshop, which is where I've been having trouble, and bam...the damn thing crashed and rebooted itself.

On the first re-boot, it looked like the standard crash. Forty minutes later, it won't even boot to the windows screen. So, my intutition is telling me that this is beyond my abilities. However, figuring out how to conncect my spare laptop to the internet to check e-mail and pay bills is not beyond my capability. So here I am. I just hate typing on a laptop.

The real indignity is that my computer at work was undergoing heart surgery--getting a new hard drive, because it had some kind of an error on it. So, I really didn't get any work done at work either, and had to type on a laptop.

There is a tornado warning tonight--I love storms, so I'm rather excited. Unfortunately if I get a great picture, I can't download it to my computer. And, in my mind, I had a good day.

Looking back at my hard luck days

2005-06-08T19:47:00.000-07:00

Looking back at my hard luck days
I really do have to laugh
Workin in a dive for twenty six dollars
Spendin it all on draft...

The thing is, those hard luck days are some of my funnest memories. I had a chevette that didn't lock, had a big dent in it and sounded like a rocket ship when I put it into gear. I paid three hundred and fifty dollars for that car and drove it for six years.

My roommate had a rotweiller that she paid five hundred dollars for. My chevette was a hell of a lot smarter than that damn dog.

I might be having a mid-life crisis--I feel so damn responsible! Needing an oil change used to be a financial crisis. Now I'm just too lazy to bother--like right now my inspection tag has been expired for like, a year. I figured it out three months ago, and I intend to rectify the situation at any moment! I guess the rebel is still alive and well somewhere!

I couldn't afford a parking sticker in college, so I just parked in the faculty parking lot right in front of the ag building. I did it every day for a year. The last week of school the meter maid caught on and gave me a couple of tickets. It was still less than a parking sticker. Now my rebellions are not getting a new inspection sticker, or wearing scrubs to work when I know business attire is expected. At least the spirit is willing.

I have some flowers getting ready to bloom and I have no idea what they are. Really, it is very exciting, but I am worried that they will bloom this weekend while I am hanging out at the cabin in New Mexico, and I will miss the blooms. I planted a bunch of perennial flowers, and forgot to keep the box so that I might figure out what the flowers are.

My job is largely computer related, and I often spend six or more hours at the computer every day. Today, I signed in to the computer at four-thirty--and I had a five-thirty meeting. My meeting however, was fun. I got to pick a team to work on a project to save lives (seriously, IHI's 100,000 lives project). Anyway, for my team I picked every strong, vocal, contentious personality that had anything to do with cardiac care that I could think of. And, amazingly, my meeting wasn't a bunch of people nicely agreeing with each other. It was real people pointing out problems, arguing, but all trying to reach solutions. Pretty damn cool.

I think that I'm still a hard luck hero, but it requires some concentration to keep that state of mind!

Take Another Road...

2005-06-07T19:13:00.000-07:00

Take another road to a hiding place
Disappear without a trace
Take another road in another time

That is the song running through my head today. I'm not looking for a hiding place, or looking to disappear, I just like the idea of taking another road.

I've spent lots of time driving around the states--mostly the western states. Over time I developed a strange habit. No matter what the starting place for a trip was, or where the ending was supposed to be, I felt compelled to always take another road. I keep an atlas, and whenever I drive a stretch of road, I highlight it in the atlas. Once a road has been highlighted, I try not to travel down that same stretch again.

It is not that I have anything against going down the same road, it is more the idea that there are still roads that I haven't been down yet. There are certainly roads that I could travel over and over (and a few that I have been over a lot--like the back road from Phoenix to Tucson during the cactus bloom and the River Road at the Big Bend), but I am entranced by what I might find on a road I haven't been on yet. Like the time I went way off track to make sure that I didn't go on any already traveled roads to Montana. I had a couple of goals; I wanted to go to Mt. Rushmore as an adult, and to go to Ringling (the Jimmy thing kicking in).

It ended up taking about a week to get to western Montana (my end destination), when it should have taken three days. However, I ended up in Sturgis for the motorcycle rally, found Devils Tower in Wyoming, quite by accident, and saw ancient and amazing things along the way.

FYI, if you ever wander into Ringling as a total stranger, the first question that they will ask you at the bar/cafe/post office (all in one building) is, "you must be a Buffett fan." And, yes they have Jimmy on the Jukebox.

Make the whole day one big afternoon

2005-06-05T13:53:00.000-07:00

Or, better still make the whole week one big weekend. Wouldn't it be great if we worked two days and were off for five instead of the other way around?
I got up this morning, read the newspaper and then watched "Dazed and Confused." It was an apt title--the entire movie was pretty much dazed and confused. Stoner movies are generally pretty depressing, because most stoners are pretty boring. An exception would be the stoner character in the movie, "The Perfect Score." Now that stoner was interesting. Or the class stoner of all time--Spicoli in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." In life, I remember one stoner/druggie who was interesting--a guy from college, Jeff. He did drugs constantly and was always coming up with truly creative things. The highlight for me of his drug experience was when he revealed that he would dream in animation, and that in the dream he was also animated. That was almost enough to get me on drugs. The problem with drugs is that most people do them looking to be more creative, funnier, more social than they actually are. Unfortunaely most of us aren't that creative, funny or social, so drug induced lowering of inhibitions really doesn't help out much with a flat personality. However for the altered person they can't correctly guage people's reactions to them and they feel like they have somehow been improved--an error on their part.
I've made the prescribed calls to family, took a nap in the pool and am getting ready to work on a boring presentation for work.
Matthew McConaghey (?sp) is fun to watch, boring movie and all. That languid, lazy southern drawl always puts me in a good mood. Plus, he's not hard to look at. He is one of those guys who actually looks better now that he is a little bald.

I read that they found an insurgent bunker in Iraq that was the size of nine football fields. They are not sure if it was Saddam Husseins, or if the insurgents built it. I'm glad that I live in a part of the world where we don't feel the need to do too many things underground.

Maybe twenty four hours, maybe sixty good years, it's really not that long a stay

2005-06-04T21:24:00.000-07:00

Okay, okay, I thought I'd set up a blog. The entertaining thing is, I had to try about ten different names to get one that wasn't in use. I'll have to do some research on who has "gypsy cowgirl." I used that because one of my friends used it to describe me once, and it was very appropriate. After spending all that energy to get a name, I lost my train of thought, which isn't all that unusual.

Keeping in mind that I could be spinning around in circles for as few as twenty four hours (or less) or another sixty years (to paraphrase the venerable Jimmy Buffett--yes I tried variations of Parrothead) I spent today playing in the pool. I did a load of laundry, went swimming. Mowed the lawn, took a nap in the pool. Cooked dinner for friends, cooled off in the pool. Since my day was so incredibly productive I didn't have a whole lot of time to solve the mysteries of the universe and I am left with one pressing question.

Does SPF 45 sunscreen cause anyone else's face to burn? I think that it might burn worse than a sunburn. Can something that burns that bad possibly be good for you?

Looks like it was two questions. Actually, I'm sure that I have lots more questions than that, but that is what I am pondering right now.