270 miles of nuthin' & other odds-n-ends.

Last Friday was my birthday.
I was 54 years old, so was born in 1954...what does that mean?
I planted some pansies and it made me think of my Mom...she loved them.
One of my earliest memories is of she and I planting pansies in a round flowerbed in San Antonio.
I made an orange spice cake in my new oven and was pretty proud of it.
Actually I made 2 cakes.
One for us and one for the museum bake sale.
We went to the Pecos Social Lodge and ate steak and took the cake and shared it.
Had a few drinks and were home by 9 p.m.
Big Deal.

Then on Saturday we drove to Seminole, Texas to the trade days there....thus the 270 miles...round trip.
The only interesting thing worth taking a picture of was this cool clock on the town square.
Lots of red dirt, dozens and dozens and dozens of oil wells and fields of cotton.
You go East to Odessa...then north to Seminole and thru Andrews on the way.
Trade days wasn't much....I was expecting alot more antiques...it was just mostly crap.
But we DID find a booth that had the BEST homemade tamales...we got a dozen.
We came home the back way...(not on IH 20)...thru Kermit and wink and Pyote....lots of sand dunes.
I much prefer to travel West and/or South where the mountains are.

OMG!!
The radio played a song by KAJAGOOGOO the other day.
I almost fell outta chair.
First of all it's an OLD song and second of all that band is rather obscure.
Actually only Jamey will probably care or recognize this paragraph.
R-12!!!

For mi familia only: I was tempted to put a dime in my birthday cake.

Radio Hotline:
For Sale:
2 year old philly. (nice typo!)
Lost:
Shotgun.
Red and white goat with a blue collar.

I'm cold.
We got our first big front from the North today.
The wind is blowing around alot of dirt, trash and tumbleweeds.
It's going to be in the 30's tonight.

That's all.
Love the World.
Mary

OUR CATS AREN'T VERY SMART.

I don't know where Harold goes at night but he's a dirty boy.
He wears his dirt proudly....it's his Halloween mask.
And if you click on his picture...and make it big his eyes look CRAZY...like he's blind or they are marbles.
Missy sleeps on ROCKS and acts like she has a broken neck.

Speaking of Halloween....some people in town have had their Halloweenie decorations up for weeks, which is silly.
But even sillier is that some people now have their CHRISTMAS lights up already.
Jeez, just because Walmart has their Christmas trees out doesn't mean it's time to put up Christmas lights.
They just skipped Halloween altogether.
My idea is that these people are anti-witch and think Halloween is evil....and that they are big bible thumpers.
What do you surmise?

We went to the Pecos Social Lodge monthly pot luck dinner last night.
There were only about 8 other folks there besides us.
They have discontinued the Wed. night shrimp alfredo due to light turnout.
The Monday night burgers may go the same way if more people don't go.
The best attended food night is the Friday night ribeyes.
We love the Tuesday night chicken frys...but can only afford to go to the lodge once a week.

I worked yesterday...I HATE to work Saturdays.
I had 3 customers in 6 hours....booooooring.

I guess that's all the teeny news.
Love, mary

Four pictures that have nothing to do with each other.

Photo 1: The market in Vollidad, Mexico...on the mainland of the Yucatan near where our friends Trudy y Antelmo live.
Photo 2: A scorpion taken by Bobbie Guerra on her summer vacay.
Photos 3 & 4: Bobbie took these pictures last weekend. They are before and after shots of the house Dan grew up in....Hitchcock,Texas. Heartbreaking! Hurricane Ike came and went and has sort of dropped from the news but SO many people continue to suffer the effects. It's so very sad. Keep those folks in your thoughts and send good, strong karma their way.
It makes me realize how very lucky we are to have so much.
Bobbie and Dan live in Kyle and Dan's family now live in Texas City and the Houston area. We have known them forever and love them very much. They are the greatest friends to have. They took us in when our river house in San Marcos flooded in 1998.

There's a sinkhole on the museum grounds. There are alot of sinkholes all over Pecos because there are...or were underground caves. Anyways the city workers have been digging up the sinkhole to repair it etc. They have found a ton of shoe parts. Debbie thinks there used to be a cobbler shop there and they have dug up the cobbler's trash shoe pile. Wonder what else they'll find? Next Friday the 17th is the annual museum fundraising bake sale...they always sell every crumb! Goody...I get to try out my new oven!

The hummingbirds are gone.
"Blue" the parakeet is still around...it's been about a year and a half since he's been our escaped guest.

We are SO happy and proud!
We haven't had the A/C on for 4 weeks!
Our electric bill was only $138.!!!!
That's SO much better than $300 or $400 or $500.
My Mom would say I'm rude to mention dollar amounts....whatever.

We've been going to the Pecos Social Lodge about once a week...usually for Friday night ribeyes...which are GREAT!
But we've recently discovered the Tuesday night chicken fried steaks. WOW! They are huge and handmade right there in the lodge kitchen buy 2 hard workin' ladies....and served with homemade mashed potatoes and a vegetable and salad. The potatoes have a few lumps ...I like 'em like that.
I'm usually too tired from work to go there on Tuesdays.
We missed a dance (they have very few dances) on Sept. 27th...I'm STILL bummed about it. They'll be having a Halloween party and New Year's party.
The "PSL" is right by our house and a fun place to hang out.
Membership for a year is $75. per couple.

RADIO HOTLINE!
For Sale:
10 John Wayne figurines.
2 donkeys.
male llama $300.
pencil sharpeners. (huh?)
'94 Chevy Suburban with a cowboy conversion package. (what's that?)
golden retriever dog. (as opposed to a golden retriever CAT?)
mens' dress. (hahaha!!!! I'm sure it was sposed to be men's dress shoes or suit or jacket...but the typist forgot something!)
Wanted:
a floppy eared rabbit.

That's all the bloggity tonight folks!
love, mary

FLEA MARKET IN FT. DAVIS.

Set the alrm clock for 5:15 a.m. to leave by 6 to arrive by 7:30.
Market starts at 8....till 4.
Woke up at 4 a.m....couldn't go back to sleep.
Got up and the dogs wondered..."WTF"?

Driving the 75 miles there in the dark was not fun.
Luckily we only saw one deer and no other animals in the road.
Had a fast 15 min. set up and sat around watching the sun rise...see photo...and watching the other 9 vendors setting up forever.

Photo 2: Our booth with Ft. Davis in the background.
Photo 3: Geno suave.
Photo 4: A cool truck that came to the flea Market and attracted quite a few admirers.
Photo 5: Darling Little Annabelle who "runs" a junk booth while her "Mama" helps sometimes.

Well the day was pretty much a financial bust.
We sold one table and one snake.
Enough to pay for the booth fee and gas out there and home.
Nevermind...if I had not done it...I always would have wondered if my art would sell there.
There was only one other actual artist there....a lady from Ft. Stockton who paints the most amazing gourds...she wasn't selling anything either.
Good junk though.
We had alot of foot traffic early in the morning and everybody greatly admired the snakes with alot of kind and amusing comments....just no buyers.
We finally adjusted our chairs to admire the mountains and fort.
Wish we lived THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love, mary

64th. REEVES COUNTY FAIR.

Went to the Fair on Friday night for a little while...but ALAS!
My camera batteries ran out.
So I did not get pictures of the quilts, goats, sheep and booths etc.
(I took these pictures today when I went over there to get my pot.)

I did make my first journey into the world of a CAKE WALK.
A little girl advised me that skipping, dancing and jiving was encouraged. I was behind a guy in a motorized wheelchair...so did not "jive" much.
There's a big circle painted on the floor with numbers.
Ya pay a dollar and stand on any square....I chose #3.
The music starts and you walk around and around the circle...when the music stops a number is drawn out of a bag...whomever is on that number wins the cake of their choice.

I entered a painted flower pot in the Arts and Crafts division and won a blue ribbon.
I didn't even check....there probably wasn't even anyone else IN my division.
What REALLY annoyed me was that my pot was put on the floor over in a corner and nobody even SAW it.
I'd rather have had it on a table with NO blue ribbon and had folks SEE my art.
But the volunteers work really hard out there setting up and judging etc....so I didn't say anything.
But still....I was pretty disappointed.

We were sorry to miss the judging of the sheep and goats on Saturday as we were in Ft. Davis.
The kids all work really hard feeding and caring for their animals for months and then bathe them and baby them etc.
These competitions were sanctioned and very important.
It's all very cute and West Texas and cool.

Check out the excellent pumpkins grown in nearby Coyanosa.
A BLUE pumpkin...I LOVE IT!!
Actually...it looks more like a gray pumpkin....masquerading as a big, fat TICK!

Love, mary