HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

SANDING,DEMOLISHING and BURGERS.

After Gene swore he was done sanding hte floor he just couldn't stand it. He was not satisfied and has been hand sanding the whole thing. Looking good yes? We have decided to put oil on the floor when it is done. That's what the museum uses and I like their floors. Gene finally broke down and bought his own pair of knee pads.

It's the Dairy Mart! This place has been here for at least 50 years. In the 60's the guy that owned it then used to let little kids eat whatever they wanted for 25 cents. I have a small book written by this guy.

I watched a man from the city tear down a house a block from us on the corner....looked like he was enjoying himself hugely....boys and their toys...AND he got paid for it. It was the one that the local S.W.A.T. team used for practise. There are alot of other houses in town in much worse shape than that one. Wow...look at all the dirt...glad we don't live next door...the house would've been covered inside and out.

It's been cool here....we had ice on the birdbath this week. It's been 40's at night and 80's during the day. I put my flannel sheets on the bed...Ahhhhhhh. Unfortunately our parakeet "Blue" that had been at our feeders and in the yard for about 3 months is gone. Guess he either died or migrated south. I miss him.

WHERE ARE MY GLASSES? I lost my most recent pair somewhere in this big house. I havn't found them and misplaced them about 3 weeks ago. SHIT! Glad I have an older pair to wear. Crap....they cost over $300.

Tonight is Halloween....at least here it is. Some doofus city official decided that since they don't want carnivals and trick or treating to interfere with a school night that everything will take place tonight...a Saturday. How stupid. They did it like that last year too. I have no costume...but the yard is decorated. Last year we only had about 15 trick or treaters.

Yesterday was the annual bake sale to benefit the museum. There were sweets all over the saloon...they made over $1,000.
I made fudge.

More B.S. about Gene's job:
He SAYS he's not worried and can't decide if he should apply for the P.E. position in Crockett. That's a 9 hour drive each way. It is a town of about 7,000....gee, that's smaller than Pecos. So, how come they have an H.E.B. AND a SUPERWALMART? If they close his prison it won't be until at least the spring and by then the job in Crockett will be long gone. And all the other 278 employees at his place will be scrambling for jobs here. If he got hired at one of the 2 prisons here in Pecos it would be for half what he makes now....that's even IF they had any teaching jobs open that he qualifies for. Guards only make about $8. an hour....I'd HATE to see him resort to that. The prison where he works now is sort of dividied into 2 camps. One insists that the place will close and the other camp thinks not. I don't know if we'd be able to sell our house...although the housing market is in good shape right now due to a boom in the oil fields. All of this is so frustrating! And just when I was getting serious about buying a stove...now maybe I shouldn't.

I planted 2 amaryllis bulbs the other day. I HAVE to do this every year when they appear in the store. My Mother just LOVED growing them each year. It IS fun. My parents have been on my mind alot the last week or so.

The full moon was GEORGEOUS this week. It was so big and bright. It lit up the whole yard.

Gee, there are 12 garage sales in town today...folks out here sure have alot of yard sales. Let's tune into the radio hotline:
FOR SALE:
Morgan horse 14.2 hands high. weighs 99 lbs. (I just LOVE those typos! That horse is a little undernourished wouldn't you say?)
Pile of bricks.
Baby jumparoo. (what is that?)
2 horses-$500. for both. (they must not be much for that price.)
WANTED:
leghold coyote traps. (ew. people out here are so barbaric and old fashioned.)
someone to fly a dog to Houston for eye surgery.( that's 'ol Ruth the dog and cat rescuer.)
Blue Healer.( again...gotta love the typos.)
LOST:
wooden spider decoration.
pumpkins taken from yard.( yeah, good luck on getting those back...kids don't have much to do here so they steal stuff out of folks' yards.)
GIVE:
chihuahua/coyote pups. (that's wierd one.)

This is long enough.
Thanks fer blogging kids!
Love, Mary

BLOODY HELL, WE'RE GETTING NERVOUS!

Things are NOT looking so good for the West Texas State School again. There was talk of closing the facility about 7 months ago (where Gene teaches) when some awful multiple sexual abuse charges were brought against 2 high ranking employees.

The day we left for vacation last week there was a bomb scare and during that....it was found that the superintendent and some other bozo high up employee couldn't be located for a few hours. They were supposed to be at the prison and evidently were not. They are on leave with no pay...duh.

Now today....Gene came home and told me that a female emplyoee was caught last night in a sexual act with an inmate.

And it has also come to light that a file cabinet full of letters that were supposed to be for the inmates were never distributed. WHY would some idiot keep the mail from these kids?
There's a guy who works out there who is leaving in 2 weeks or so...he is very fond of calling the newspapers out there a couple of times a week.

Here's my take on the situation:
It's due to a dozen or so good for nothing-don't give a damn about the school or their jobs idiots that are causing the prison to get such a bad rap and all 278 employees will end up paying the price.
I'm worried they're going to shut it down.
AND I also believe that all the other TYC facilities in Texas probably have the same kind of shit going on...why are we being singled out?
It's such a shame because Gene is a good teacher and enjoys his work there.

I'm bummed.

Gene could probably get hired on at one of the 2 prisons here in Pecos...but it would be about half the pay that he makes now.
If it happens...I guess he'll shop around (like before) while he draws some sorry ass unemployment that won't cover our monthly bills.
Last time around he sent out about 50 applications to prisons AND public schools and got 2 phone calls and one interview.

UPDATE: HE IS GOING TO APPLY FOR A P.E. POSITION IN CROCKETT TEXAS. He has a buddy who has worked there for 13 years.

Love, mary

WEDNESDAY NEWS and the tail end of Cozumel holiday.

I JUST ADDED SOME TEXT TO THE PICTURES OF PREVIOUS POST...so go see please.

1. Jamey and Gene at Coconuts on the east side. It has a huge palapa and a wonderful view...also a rooster, 2 dogs and a big cage of doves.
2. Gene at the east side rasta bar....whatever...the whole family makes fun of this ancient t-shirt of his...we just stopped here to take this photo mostly.
3. Jamey on the Tucan day sail.
4. Toby on the Tucan...hoping for fish!
5. This is a sea fan that Toby found on the shore of the private beach that we visited on our day sail. We NEVER take anything out of the water...leave bubbles and take just memories.
6. The family at Alicia's B&B.
7. Caribe Blu hotel from the street side. An ocean view for $80. a night.
8. I love this picture...Alicia and Chuco didn't seem to get it...or just didn't think it was cute I guess. It's their dog looking thru the hole in the wall to see what kind of evil strangers lurk on the street side.
9. Capt. Toby on the Tucan.
10. Jamey and Toby at Coconuts.

So, what do you think of our vacation pictures? Even though the island is now a far cry of the Cozumel we first visited in 1989 we still love it very much!
Thanks fer blogging folks!

Love, mary

COZUMEL OCT. 2007

1. A lizard at Alicia's B&B makes friends with Toby...er...his pants...er...you know.
2. Caribe Blu hotel.
3. A guy and his workday on a palapa...he could look Jamey/Toby's bathroom window on the 3rd floor of the hotel if he wanted to.
4. The east side of Cozumel. We rented a jeep for one day and drove all the way around la isla.
5. Toby and his big barracuda. Since he couldn't go into the water due to ear problems it was understood if we hooked a fish it was HIS fish....he LOVED bringing it in and was so excited and proud. He caught a small barracuda also. The crew on the Tucan cut up some filets from the small fish for him to take with him.
6. This a beautiful "Dio de Los Muertos" doll that was at a stor in the airport. She was about $275. of beautiful.
7.I love this older picture of Alicia's dogs. She only has one now...the other passed on.

LA PLAYA!

We leave in the morning for central texas...drop off the dogs in Kyle and then go to San Marcos and spend the night at Toby's.
Will have to get up around 4a.m. cos our flight out of Austin is at 7:30....but we'll be on the beach by about noon!
Jamey will arrive an hour or two later.
We are taking a day sail on this trimaran in the photo.
I'm feeling a bit stressed....jeez wally...i'm SUCH a worrier!

RADIO HOTLINE:
For Sale:
16 church pews. (i want one or two.)
2 tickets to texas tech and A&M game. $75. each.
Fresh hay. (do they sell stale hay?)

Adios.
love, mary

WE WON!!! REEVES COUNTY FAIR:

So....the fair was fun I guess...very small and rather cheesy...but something to do.
We were excited to win some ribbons even though there was hardly any competition...(in the arts & crafts division.) We wondered why the snake on the right didn't get a ribbon as we thought it was the best one out of the three. Well, turns out that they ran out of blue ribbons and the snake pictured on the right got a blue ribbon...1st place....they'll mail it to us.
Then I had entered a polymer clay covered ball point pen at the last minute...I was filling out my entry form with it and a little old lady who seemed to be in charge asked about it and I told her how I make them and she urged me to enter it...the pen won a blue ribbon also! It is not pictured because they didn't display it cos they knew someone would steal it...heh...it was the "unseen" winner.

There were alot of very nice quilts again this year and excellent crochet work. The quilt pictured with the green trim features pictures of a teeny town about 16 miles west of here called Toyah.
There's always a couple of big tables to birdhouses that kids make.
The photography was really good.
We bought a very rich chocolate cake from the baked goods table. Gene said" "well....there's a small piece missing." The lady told him that was because they hadda take a bit to judge the darn thing ya know.
I took a picture of "the guys"....AKA my dates for the evening.
That's (left to right) George, Alonzo, Gareth (hte english dude) and Senor Geno in the hat...he's already dreaming of Cozumel...WE LEAVE ON FRIDAY!!!

But we'll leave Pecos on Thursday to drive over to Kyle/ San Marcos to drop off the dogs and meet up with Toby.
Our flight leaves Austin @ 7:30 a.m. Fri. and we gotta go to Houston and then down south to Mexico.
We'll arrive on the island about noon and Jamey will be there an hour or two later. YAY!!! YAY!!!!

Our cat Harold is finally recovering from a HUGE abscess that he got his side after a fight with a nasty, diseased, black, stray cat. I had to rush him to the vet in Monhans 45 miles away because the vet here was out on ranch calls all last week. He spent the night, had surgery and cost me alot of money. Poor Harry...he lost ALOT of weight in 5 days. This lump was at least 3 or 4" wide and wouldn't burst and he had a high fever and quit eating and drinking....MY BABY!!

That's about all the teeny-weeny news from west texas today.
Thanks fer blogging kids!!
Love, mary

GOOFY FRIDAY NEWS.

My Jack Bean vine...SHE BLOOMS! I grew this from seeds that Sib gave me. Ya know I'm partial to purple.

It's supposed to be in the 50's sunday, monday and tuesday night....YAY!! AAaaahhhhhhh. I can't wait to put the flannel sheets on my bed!! Gotta wait a awhile.

UGH!!! Ya know I guess I'm resigned to Halloween decorations in the damn STORE really early.....but some folks here put their halloween decorations out in their yard BEFORE Oct. 1st.....what does that mean? Are there special spirits living there?

It has been soooo nice NOT to go to work the last 3 days! I've been working hard in the home. Gene proclaimed that he is done...Waaaaayyyy done sanding the floor...so now my job is to clean up. Lots of vacuuming of walls and floors and wiping down moldings and doors etc. We are planning to put a kind of lemon oil on the floor...it's what the museum uses...and I want our floor to look like theirs.

RADIO HOTLINE:
For Sale:
22 caliber gun, 22 caliber rifle, 9 mm pistol. $750. takes all. (yikes I'm scared...maybe WE should buy them so that no one else can heave them.)
Wanted:
Stevie Nicks CD. (yeah, WE ARE THE 80's!!!)
Green chiles.

I guess we might be going to the county fair tonight...for sure tomorrow.
Tonight is the pork rib and brisket cook off.
Will report "tamale".

love, mary