All the way from Arizon, Ray & Becky dropped in. We went to the Top Water Grill in San Leon, and then cruised the Texas City Dike. 🙂
Joey, Holly, and Ivy, and 2 dogs, 3 ferrets, lots of chickens and some fish
2
Jun
All the way from Arizon, Ray & Becky dropped in. We went to the Top Water Grill in San Leon, and then cruised the Texas City Dike. 🙂
4
Apr
It’s been a few months since I’ve updated this blog. So I’m just gonna do a summary here. Life has been 4 months of extremes – disruptions, endurance, recovery, and the same old mind-numbing quarantine madness.
The most significant event, though, was the BIG FREEZE in February. It rarely ever snows in Houston. Hardly ever drops below 32 degrees (although, once in awhile it actually does). But on February 10th, the temps drops into the teens and 20’s and stayed there for days. Even worse, the electricity went off. So no more heat.
The house got super cold that night. Temperatures inside the house bottomed out at 38 degrees. We were all freezing and huddled up under layers of blankets and clothing.
Then no water. Pipes were frozen. Holly and Ivy escaped to Jane’s house and ended up staying 2 nights. Meanwhile, I stayed behind with Jose to take care of the animals.
Fortunately, the electricity came back on, and temperatures rose slightly above freezing for the afternoon. So it was a little more comfortable. However – SPLOOOSH! The main water pipe outside of the house burst wide open. Jose and I spent all day fixing it. Not fun.
Within an couple of hours, though, of getting water into the house, ANOTHER pipe burst and water began pouring down through the fixtures in the bathroom! So we fixed that leak (very difficult). Then another pipe burst! And another! Altogether, 6 pipes had frozen and burst. Eventually, I discovered the spill above the bathroom was bad enough to damage the ceiling. I was 2 rooms away when I heard a big WHUMP…. and went to go see what that noise was… and sure enough, the bathroom ceiling had fallen in.
Pipes and ceiling weren’t the only casualties of the Big Freeze. Several of our plants died. Both the orange tree and Meyer lemon tree bit the dust. The big fig tree in the front yard also never recovered. The giant plantain tree in the back yard was totally massacred. Our neighbor’s avocado tree which dropped delicious fruit over into our yard each year also didn’t survive.
Well, life moved on. Other stuff that has occurred since then….
Late one night I was awakened by a huge WHOOOMP and then SMASH! It was a car that had went airborne over the railroad tracks and then smashed into a fence and telephone pole on the other side of the street. This was just half-a-block away from us. The driver survived and escaped before police arrived. Someone picked him (or her) up and sped away…. leaving the car and disaster there for someone else to deal with! I don’t know the final result, but here is the aftermath the next day….
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Got the Vax! Not that I’m thrilled about it. I’m definitely among the skeptics of the ‘science’ (fiction?) behind it all. But thanks, Trump, for making this happen. I must say, the whole process seemed creepily dystopian… waiting in line, mindlessly herded along like cattle to a slaughter…. put on a train to be taken to showers…. But I got the shot, and then quickly began to feel sick. I continued to have mild flu-like symptoms for the next 48 hours. Not fun.
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Our chicken supply has gradually dwindled over the past couple of years. Some have died naturally. Or maybe because of heat. Others have disappeared… presumably eaten by something (not us!). We went from 29 down to about 19. So, Holly decided to go get a new batch of chicks.
28
Dec
Santa brought me a nice robe and pair of socks very early Christmas morning! It was the breezy, open-in-the-back kind that hospitals give you when you go to the ER.
I spent most of December 24th and Christmas morning at Hermann Memorial Hospital because my old Kidney Stone. The pain started showing up on Wednesday and gradually got worse by Thursday (24th) morning. Around 1 p.m. I finally decided to go to the ER and see if I could get some pain meds. After a CAT scan and blood tests, the doctor said this kidney stone was too big to pass so I’d have to have surgery. What?!
So I get a fun ride in an Ambulance to another Methodist Hospital (610 & Ella) and spend a night of misery in a hospital room (no visitors due to Covid19). Surgery which was scheduled at 8:30 a.m. on Christmas morning, but I was awake at 5 a.m. and trying on this new robe…
All went well. They put me out for about 1 hour even though it literally only seemed like 2 or 3 seconds to me. I woke up to some blood and pain, but fixed up (for now) and ready to check out of the hospital. I must say, the staff at the hospital did a GREAT job throughout my entire ordeal. Everyone was very attentive and jovial and seemed to be happy to be there. I thanked them for working on Christmas eve and morning.
Holly comes to pick me up, and back to the house we go for some Christmas dinner. Jane comes over as well, and the ladies cook up a 13 lb. turkey and lots of stuff(ing) to go with it. We also opened our presents and enjoy eating by an open-fire outside in the back yard (great weather today with temps at 70 and blue skies on Christmas day!). I didn’t take many pictures because, frankly, I was exhausted from this Kidney Stone ordeal and a bit loopy on pain meds.
It was certainly a different Christmas experience this year…. for me, anyway. One I’ll certainly never forgot.
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Update 12/31/2020:
Okay, they sent me home with some medications and an appointment to return Dec. 31st So I did. Surgery happened on a rainy new year’s eve about noon. They prepped me and laid me on a bed and gave me anesthesia … that’s all that I remember.
Woke up without kidney stones! Oh, thank God!
What a fitting ending to such a weird year that is 2020. I spent both Christmas eve and day in the hospital, as well as New Year’s eve.
30
Nov
Covid19 has screwed everything up, including family get-togethers for the holidays. But regardless of the ‘science’ and ‘experts’ and the ignorant fear-infested liberal Democrat warnings to stay home and NOT associate with your disease infested dirty family, we decided to head north to Arkansas and enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner. I was actually content to just stay home, but Ivy and Holly said let’s go! So we did.
We invited Jane Sommer, my mother-in-law, to go with us… and she said yes! So four of us (Holly, Ivy, Jane, and me) spent 10 hours driving to northern Arkansas. We took the scenic route up Hwy 7 from Hot Springs (spent the night there) to Harrison, and then on to Branson. Our objective was to get to a condominium in Branson, and then spend an afternoon at my brother’s house eating some Turkey. I had never been to his new house before, so it was a new experience. It was also different without Mom there (she was usually the Thanksgiving center-person). But, still, it was a nice visit and lots of good food. Thank you, Landus, for hosting this event!
We stayed in Branson and enjoyed a really nice condominium for our stay. One night, I asked Ivy and Jane if they wanted to go to Silver Dollar City. Ivy said NOOO (I think mainly because there were no other cousins to go with), but much to my surprise, Jane said YES! So Jane and I went to one of America’s top theme parks. We walked around for 4 hours. She enjoyed the parades and lights and shows, while I enjoyed the rollercoasters.
I really wanted to try out the new spinning coaster “Time Travel”, and I have to say it did NOT disappoint. Wow, it is intense!
Silver Dollar City is GREAT and just keeps getting better. Their Christmas season is the best time of year to go, in my opinion. ZILLIONS of lights everywhere (6 million, I’m told). It is incredibly festive. Here’s a video… this is NOT MY VIDEO, but they attended SDC just 3 weeks before us, and it is a really good overview of Christmas at SDC. Go if you get the chance!
It was a very nice evening! I even rode 2 rides with Jane! She rode a tea-cup spinner type ride, and the classic dark-ride “Fire in the Hole”.
On our way back, we went through Little Rock and Texarkana, and finally spent the night in Marshall, Texas. Ivy and I went for a swim in the pool and then kicked back and watched a movie on HBO. Then we enjoyed the continental breakfast the next morning. It was a nice stay in the otherwise not-so-interesting Marshall, Texas. Finally, got back home and unspooled. Just in time for Holly to start her new job…
Btw, I took the Covid19 test on December 1st (two days after returning to Houston) and it was negative. Sorry, all of you crazy fear-driven Democrats! We didn’t catch a deadly disease as you predicted (hoped).
4
Oct
On October 3rd, Sawyer Yards had their bi-annual Art Crawl, although this time they called it a Walk for some reason. Lots of interesting art to gawk at, as well as meet the artists. These are just a few examples…
3
Oct
Scored some free tickets! Off to RenFest we go…
It’s opening weekend with social-distancing rules in place, and mask-wearing mandatory.
8
Sep
My curiosity about Hunter Biden began around 2015 or so while Joe Biden was still VP, and I began to hear rumors of rich-boy Hunter Biden’s appearance in Arkansas …. of all places, near my home town! What on Earth is he doing there??
At the same time, oddly enough, some of my liberal in-laws began posting in 2016 slurs against Trump’s children on Facebook… a trendy cool thing to do at the time… and referring to his sons as ‘douchebags’.
The contrast of ignoring (for 8 years) of a spoiled whoring prick like Hunter Biden, but then calling good people like Trump’s kids as ‘douchebags’ really piqued my natural psycho-analyst interest. What the $%#&? That seems blatantly backward. Also, as the Trump era rolled on, comedy show, like SNL began routinely mocking Trump’s kids…. while not a single mockery of the former VP’s scumbag son Hunter Biden who continued to screw up almost on a weekly basis. Seriously…. I mean, Don Jr, Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany, or Barron …. is there anything to condemn them with? Drug addictions? Corruption? Jail time? Bastard children? Sleaze? Lies? Using Daddy’s name?
Nope. Not a thing. By all accounts, they’re each good kids raised by a good dad.
But Hunter Biden… omg. Prince Hunter Biden…. where do we even begin?
Just a few of the sleazy things rich, white, liberal, frat-boy piece of shit has gotten away with because of Daddy’s name and money…
These are just a few of the things that Hunter Biden has done. LOTS more exist if you want to google and dig around in the sleaze. But, for now, you should know this d-bag may soon very well be the nation’s First Son. Prince Hunter Biden. God help us.
If that wasn’t enough, Hunter actually dropped off his laptop to get some repairs…. completely stoned out of his mind, apparently… and handed over tons of photos and incriminating emails. The photos show him in doing crack, having sex (some with an underage girl – a family member, believe it or not – which are not shown here), and taking photos of his bits as well as a gang-bang in Hollywood. More importantly, some of his email to his dad reveal that Joe Biden DID HAVE PREVIOUS INFORMATION ABOUT CORRUPT BUSINESS DEALS BEING DEALT WITH HIS SON IN THE URKRAINE AND CHINA. This is something Uncle Joe has denied (repeatedly…an impeachable offense).
In the meantime, these are just a few of his photos….which, at the worst, show just how much of a privileged straight-white-male douchebag this POS really is. Most of the pics and videos are too X-rated to post here. Note that Democrats and liberal media have COMPLETELY dismissed and COMPLTELY CENSORED all of this information as irrelevant. Even though these pics were taken at a time when Prince Hunter was supposedly over his drug addiction, and while he was at the height of receiving millions of dollars in income from the Ukraine.
Liberal media has spun this as a ‘smear campaign’ and even claimed it is a Hunter Biden ‘lookalike’. But it is quite clear from the video (tattoos, voice recognition, etc) that it is Biden and he in at least one sexual encounter with an underage teenage girl (a family member of his). …………………………………………….
Finally, a documentary has come out exposing all of the douchebaggery of Joe Biden’s son and so much more. Does it matter, Hunter’s bad behavior? Yes, of course, it does. It says a lot about Joe Biden and his tolerance for corruption and favoritism. But far worse…as this documentary displays… it is the Joe and Hunter Biden’s romance and connections with the rising new evil in the world – Socialist/Communist China – that is utterly horrifying. It means millions upon millions of innocent people will die… just like they always do when socialists take control.
41 minute video well worth watching.
UPDATE: (nov 17/2020) I cannot express how sick I feel right now. Literally I want to vomit. Now this douchebag – who has literally made millions off of Daddy’s connections with China already – is literally going to be our nation’s PRINCE.
UPDATE: (12/14) The liberal media is having no choice but to report Hunter Biden’s skanky behavior as the FBI revealed that they’ve been investigating him since 2018. He has over $400,000 in income from the Urkrain and never paid any tax on it. It is also becoming clear that liberal media completely buried (lied) about this story until AFTER daddy’s election. What scum, these people! https://nypost.com/2020/12/10/how-media-covered-up-the-hunter-biden-story-until-after-the-election/
27
Jul
You’ve probably heard of the “Florida Man Birthday Challenge”, right? It is where you simply type ‘florida man’ and your birthday into Google and see what crazy headline pops up.
Mine has some doozies…
July 27, 2017 – Florida Man Robs Bank Then Gets Naked and Throws Money https://www.fox61.com/article/news/local/outreach/awareness-months/florida-man-robs-bank-then-gets-naked-and-throws-money/520-e7bddee1-a100-4e65-b4f6-9743c0ec9d51
July 27, 2018 – Florida Man Caught Trying to Steal Ice Cream Truck (is that George Michael?!?) https://www.fox10tv.com/news/florida-man-caught-trying-to-steal-ice-cream-truck/article_2f69c997-1135-59c1-8eea-a16a97b1365f.html
July 27, 2019 – Florida Man Gets Bitten By Shark But Goes To A Bar Instead of Hospital https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/florida/os-ne-florida-surfer-shark-attack-heads-to-bar-20190729-haetzduaebefllqfs7vz4plenq-story.html
July 27, 2019 – Florida Man Nearly Killed in Freak Lawn Furniture Accident. https://www.wwnytv.com/2019/07/27/florida-man-nearly-killed-freak-lawn-furniture-accident/
27
Jul
This quarantine has been difficult on Ivy. The isolation has been difficult. But, at least, for her 12th birthday she rounded up her friend Hanley and they (thanks to the diligent work and effort of Holly) spent the entire day doing fun stuff – rollerskating, arcade,… and indoor skydiving.
Indoor skydiving? Whaaaaat?
High flying at 2:17
4
Jul
Okay, so quarantine happened, AND this blog got hacked. So for about 3 months, I haven’t posted anything. But I certainly took pictures of events and stuff. I’m putting all of that here in one post. There were LOTS of boring days, a few fun moments, and plenty of various things in between.
It isn’t necessarily in this order, but these are most of the events…
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The Air Conditioner went out! Oh, lord. Why do these things die when it is so hot. It was too hot to stay in the house, so Holly and Ivy went to Grandma Jane’s house one night, while I ended up camping in the yard with Jose. 😀 It took about 1 week and $1,200 to get the AC fixed.
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Holly had a birthday. The big 5 0. We celebrated as any self-respecting Texas would do by eating huge chunks of beef. Coronavirus had the restaurant (Taste of Texas) at 50% capacity, so Sam Houston, Stephen Austin, and several other state celebrities were stationed at nearby tables keeping a careful eye out for social-distancing violaters.
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Father’s Day came and went, but not without a trip to the Melting Pot 🙂
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Our neighbor’s house caught on fire and burnt to the ground! I was awakened about 4 a.m. by flashing lights, sirens, and Jose sending me text messages saying a fire was 1 block away (2 houses away). I don’t really know the whole story… we were told that someone deliberately threw gasoline into the house. I only know that I frequently heard people fighting and shouting from this house.
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Ray and Becky come to Houston for a visit! We eat food at Cafe Brussels. Good stuff! So good that we ate there twice.
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I gave away my big red cock. It was a beautiful cock. Regal and proud. But it was just too big. And noisy. Actually we gave away 2 big red cocks. We raised them both from eggs. We didn’t know they were roosters, of course, until they started crowing. And then trying to mate everything in sight. They were both very beautiful animals. Surprisingly, they didn’t fight with each other at all. At first, it was a novelty hearing them crow each morning, but then it got old. So Holly put the word out that she was tired of cocks and wanted to get rid of them the first taker. So that’s what we did.
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Jose and I went fishing. We tried a charter boat again, but also visited the Texas City Dike. I like the Dike quite a bit… but it was FULL of people. Omg! 5 miles long and barely a single place to park or fish. It’s probably not that way every day. We didn’t catch much, but still I enjoyed it. We spent the night. I slept in the truck (enjoyed that, actually! Even though the music and party sounds continued until about 3 a.m.). Jose fished ALL NIGHT. He fell asleep in the truck on the way home the next morning.