Busy Days!

The past weekend went by in a flash! On Saturday and Sunday I helped with a Story Circle Writing From Life workshop. It was a wonderful experience with about 20 participants exploring "the women we were," "the women we are," and "the women we hope to be." We also learned more about writing Legacy Statements or Ethical Wills. Some recommended sites for more about writing Legacy Statements can be found at http://www.ethicalwill.com/examples.html and http://www.yourethicalwill.com/.

Sunday evening we had a neighborhood gathering and birthday party for one of our neighbors. It was a beautiful evening and we had wonderful potluck food and a great time visiting. On the left is a picture of the "birthday boy" with a marvelous cake that his daughter and wife made for him!

We tried for a group neighborhood picture and it was interesting and challenging as we tried to get that many people still and paying attention at the same time.

And, finally, our big buck came in for a bit of food this morning. He was very rude because he used those horns to run off all the females who were also heading in for a late meal. The ladies did not argue with him much, except Bossy Mama, and she got poked in the side. She only tried to eat with him once and then moved on.

THANKFUL THURSDAY

We have a wonderful neighbor who is turning, well, a bit older soon, and I wanted to write this tribute to him as a birthday present. We are very thankful that he and his family moved into our neighborhood several years ago. I know I have written about our neighborhood several times before, but today I am thankful for Patrick!

Patrick first came into our lives when he bought the house catty-corner across from ours and prepared to remodel it. He was very friendly and on a mission to meet all the neighbors. I suspect he met everyone the first day or two and knew the story of half of us by the end of the first week because Patrick is a “story gatherer.”

Patrick and his family moved into their newly remodeled house on Christmas Eve and we welcomed them into our neighborhood. Little did we know that Patrick would be instrumental in drawing our whole neighborhood closer together. Most of us had lived here for many, many years. We all knew each other but did not socialize much. We waved at each other and said hello when we passed on the street, but had little contact other than that. Patrick set out to correct that situation. Every Saturday morning Patrick was out in his front yard greeting neighbors, checking on everyone, visiting, working on his yard, and borrowing tools and help wherever he could. By doing this, he pulled all the neighbors together.

The Patrick we have come to know and love is full of fun! He bought a pedicab to take his daughter and her friends for rides, but the neighbors just love it when he picks them up for a ride. In the picture here he is taking the neighbor’s children and grandchildren for a late afternoon ride last summer. When I had my hip surgery, he devised a way to get me into the thing and took me on my first outing—a ride to visit the neighbors around the neighborhood.


New neighbors have moved into the neighborhood since Patrick and his family moved in, and, with Patrick leading the way, we have welcomed them and involved them in our gatherings. We have quickly gained new friends this way.

The first Christmas after Patrick and his family moved in, Patrick invited everyone to their house for a neighborhood Christmas party. It was a pot luck affair and we learned that our neighbors cooked wonderful specialties. We visited and got to know each other better that year and it has become an annual event. But Patrick did not stop there. He bought a large cowboy cooker that he uses to entice us out on cold winter nights to sit around the fire and share goodies, a glass of wine or cup of coffee, and discuss whatever world or neighborhood problems that need to be solved. In the summer we sit around the cowboy cooker (without the fire) and continue our problem-solving sessions.

As a result of Patrick’s efforts, our neighborhood has become very unified. We know each other much better, we know what is going on in each other’s lives, and we provide help and support where needed. Since the arrival of Patrick we have helped each other out in illnesses and surgeries. Our neighborhood has celebrated birthdays and holidays together. We have shared successes and worries. We watch each other’s homes when someone is away and we are so much closer to our neighbors now that we have Patrick to pull us together on a regular basis. Thank you, Patrick Fries, for standing out in your front yard each weekend and checking out the neighborhood—and gathering our stories!

Thankful Thursday

I am so thankful for the wonderful neighborhood that we live in today. We have lived here since we only had two children, added two more, watched them grow up and now have grandchildren come to visit. Some of our neighbors were here when we moved in and some are new--younger couples with young children of their own. It is nice to see children in the neighborhood again.

I am thankful for our neighborhood because of the close bond between the neighbors on our cul de sac. One of our neighbors was recently diagnosed with breast cancer and everyone has rallied around her in such a wonderful way. We have all visited back and forth with her and last Sunday afternoon one of the neighbors called to say she was having an outdoor cookout and invited us to come. Each of us brought a dish, the host grilled chicken and sausages and made homemade ice cream and we all sat around and supported our neighbor who is soon heading off to M.D. Anderson for evaluation and treatment. Here are some pictures of the fun we shared in the
"hood" that evening.
We visited, added support and visited some more.







The children played games on the Wii and in the pool. And we all ate and visited some more.











And we had one last picture of the "women of the 'hood' " before everyone left. It was a fun evening and wonderful support for a member of the neighborhood who needs that caring kind of support at this time!

THANKFUL THURSDAY

I am so thankful for our many blessings today! We were awakened this morning about 12:30 a.m. with an awful banging on our roof. It was a storm coming through with rain, high winds and hail. We jumped out of bed and ran to look outside--probably not the brightest thing to do--and saw the wind whipping the trees in our front yard and twisting them. As I stood looking out our living room window, one of our large trees broke off about midway and twisted to the ground leaving several huge branches hanging upside down. The storm passed quickly but our yard was strewn with millions of leaves and several large branches in addition to the one broken tree.

This morning at daylight all of our neighborhood was out surveying the damage. Each yard was carpeted with leaves and many, many branches were down. One neighbor had a tree broken off similar to ours, but it landed square in the middle of her new SUV. Another neighbor had a car window broken out by a falling branch. Several houses had large branches on their roofs and one neighbor thought the corner of his house was damaged by a falling branch

As the morning progressed we listened to the sound of chain saws as people began to clear and clean their way out of the mess. We were leaving town, so we left our mess behind knowing that our clean up would be delayed a bit because we are going to take care of Son #4's little one for several days. We are there now and have had a delightful evening with her. She is almost two and talking up a storm! She could tell us what she wanted and where things were. She was VERY definite about her bedtime--she did not want to go, but only fussed about 2-3 minutes and then was out like a light! Whew!

I am so grateful that the storm only damaged a few trees and left us and our house relatively unharmed. I sat up much of the night thinking about how bad it could have been in light of the spring storms across the country and giving thanks that we were safe! And I am also grateful for the chance to enjoy being with Miss Ella Bella for a few days.

Wildlife Excitement

One evening this past week we had some wildlife excitement. Our neighbor across the street called me and asked me to come listen to the strange animal sound in her garage. She thought it sounded like a rattlesnake. I went into the garage and heard the sound, but thought it was too loud for a rattlesnake and might sound more like a possum or raccoon trapped in there. I went to get my husband, who was raised in the country, to help us out with whatever was making that strange, rattling, sound. He came with his flashlight and listened with us. He immediately said it was a baby screech owl. Wow!

We knew it was possible that it was a baby screech owl because another neighbor had bought two owl houses and put them up a couple of years ago. She told us that male and female owls do not live together but need two houses. We had determined earlier that the across-the-street neighbor had a female Winston Churchowl and three owlets in their house. Unfortunately, the baby owlets had already fallen out of the nest a couple of times and she had put them back. She was very worried because a couple of neighborhood cats were eagerly awaiting a dinner of baby owlet!

When we located the source of the sound in the garage and shined a flashlight into the corner, we saw the fluffy, round baby owlet making his pathetic little screech and hunkered down on his huge feet. Our neighbor, with thick gloves, lifted him (or her??) into a box and took him back into her yard where her husband climbed her tall ladder and, once again, put him back into the owl house. All the time we were in the backyard accomplishing this task the mother owl was frantically flying back and forth just over our heads.

The across-the-street neighbor left on a trip the next day and assigned us the job of looking out for her baby owlets. I went over and looked around the yard for signs of baby owlets. I looked up at the owl house and thought I saw the mother standing guard on the "porch" of the owl house. I ran home, grabbed my camera, and got this picture! The ornithologist from whom the houses were purchased says this is one of the babies! He said, "the photo is a nestling -- notice the thin horizontal barring (not vertical like on the adult)."

This wildlife adventure is one of the things that makes this such an interesting neighborhood!

UNIQUE NEIGHBORHOOD

We have a neighborhood consisting of about 20 houses on two cul de sacs. Some of the houses have been inhabited for 40 years or more by the same families and some houses have new families with young children to liven up the neighborhood once again. One of the wonderful things about living here is that we all tend to look after one another and share our interests, talents, and problems. It is like having an extended family all around us.

Last night one of the neighbors invited us to gather in his backyard around a cozy fire in his "cowboy cooker" for a "Welcome Spring" evening. We discussed neighborhood events and activities, upcoming elections, and laughed and visited for several hours. It is a wonderful neighborhood and we are very fortunate to be part of such a special place.

SIDEWALK MEMORIES

The sidewalks that I remember best are the ones in my neighborhood when I was growing up in the Texas Panhandle. Those sidewalks surrounded our whole block except for the space in front of Billy Bob Caldwell’s house down the hill towards the dry creek. I am not sure why their sidewalk was missing, but their house was set way back on their lot and they used their front yard as a parking lot for a number of old cars. There always seemed to be men there taking parts out of those cars or putting things into strange places under the raised hoods.

The rest of our block had sidewalks that we children used mainly for roller skating. The concrete sidewalks were installed in squares. The squares were probably originally flat on the ground. However, huge elm trees that grew along the curbs in most yards sent out bulky roots along the surface of the ground and those roots caused the squares of sidewalk to tilt at various angles. Some squares were even cracked into two or more pieces. This interesting phenomenon made roller skating quite an adventure. The tilts and humps of the sidewalk caused us to become skilled at navigating the ups and downs and the bumps and dips that we encountered as we sped around the block until we came to Billy Bob’s front yard. We could not skate in the dirt for fear of clogging up our ball bearing wheels, so we turned around at Billy Bob’s and went the other direction around the block, jumping the curb at the gravel alley and gingerly walking our skates across that rocky surface.

Roller skating was a favorite after school activity. I remember dashing home to change clothes, donning my stiff-as-a board blue jeans that chaffed between the legs by the end of the afternoon, strapping on my skates with leather ankle straps and tightening the front toe grips until the soles of my brown, scuffed oxfords curled up a bit. I then proudly put my skate key on a string around my neck. The skate key was a very important part of the whole roller skating activity. The skate key (seen in the middle of the picture above) kept wheels on tight and secured the nut on the bottom of the skate that allowed it to be lengthened or shortened. It also tightened the metal toe grips on the front of the skate. Everything had to be secure to keep the skates on the shoe.

I suspect that we became as skilled on our roller skates as the skate boarding youngsters I see today—jumping curbs, going down steps, and facing a variety of uneven surfaces.

Thankful Thursday...

Today I am thankful for our wonderful neighborhood. We have lived in the same neighborhood for many years and, until recently, we were considered "the new kids on our block." However, in the past few years new people have moved in and have quickly blended into the scene. We have neighborhood gatherings; visits with shared meals, snacks, glasses of wine; help always available; and friendly smiles and waves as we go about our business. I feel very safe in our neighborhood and know that I have friends in each house. I am so thankful to be living here!

No, Not Looking for Santa Claus...

My sweet husband heard that our neighbor's damper had fallen out of their chimney and down into their fireplace. He knows how much they enjoy their fireplace in the winter, so he went over to look at the damage and repeated a phrase that we in the family know well: "no problem" to fix it! The work took a couple of days with only a few bumps along the way and my husband was heard to utter another well know phrase around here: "these things take time!" After cutting new pieces of metal, numerous trips to the hardware store, visits with a neighbor known for his welding skills, lots of muttering, and some advice from the women watching and taking pictures, my husband is happy to report that the damper is now back in the proper place and working as well as it did before. It's a good thing, too, because it is getting chilly out there this evening! I am proud of my sweet husband who uses his talents and skills to help those around us!