We bought a new (to us) vehicle last week, a gently used 2021 Toyota 4Runner Limited still under warranty, that a friend wanted to sell. She had ended up with more vehicles than she needed. Been there, done that. It was a mutually beneficial transaction consummated without the interference of pushy car salespeople.
Buying a new ride is a slow process for My Beautiful Mystery Companion and me. We have been discussing this for at least five years, visiting dealerships, and cruising lots on Sundays when they’re closed. Our last two visits with dealerships left us both with sour tastes in our mouths....
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The “friend” request came on Facebook. For a moment, the name didn’t look familiar: Jaime Leòn Vàsquez. I get a lot of random requests from people I have no connection, which I decline. Then it hit me. Jaime! He worked for me for nearly a decade, toiling nearly every weekend at whatever house I owned at the time, in Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Longview. He was a skilled painter and handyman, familiar with cattle and fence mending, and basically did whatever needed to be done — cheerfully and efficiently. As he said, “Lo que.” Whatever.
I first met Jaime in the spring of 2000, when...
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I sowed ryegrass in the rain Monday. It was perfect timing, something that seldom occurs in our venture into hobby farming. Rain has been rare lately, but rain or not, I was determined to plant 50 pounds of seed on my day off. I had borrowed the seeder from a buddy about three months earlier. It was time to return the seeder to its gracious owner, who wants to plant some oat patches before deer season commences. Best not overstay my welcome to using his farm implement.
The clouds looked promising all morning Monday as I went to town, had coffee with a friend, voted early, mailed off a soil sample...
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I walk three miles first thing each morning, weather permitting. Since it has rarely rained the past three months, I am out the door a little after 7 each morning, trying in vain to beat the inexorable heat that only recently eased up. Lately I have been wearing a hoodie and long-legged (for me) workout pants. The weather feels even more glorious than autumn normally feels, since we had such a gruesomely hot and dry summer — as did much of the country.
My walking route does not vary. I head down the driveway and about 100 yards to the county road in front of Three Geese Farm. Directly across...
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As soon as I finished my shift at the library last Friday, I dashed home, put on my tractor clothes, and started bushhogging, after first dropping a bale of alfalfa in Pancho the Donkey’s shed. There is no grass in the pasture since the ryegrass died and the rains stopped. Alfalfa is not cheap at $38 a bale. I hope Pancho is grateful.
I mowed down the goatweed before moving over to the side pasture. A variety of coreopsis, popular know as tickseed, surrounds the pond and the drainage ditch leading to the creek -- large, bright yellow flowers that should last until the first freeze. I left...
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For the first time, I am both a teacher and a student. I guess I have always been a student in some fashion, since learning new things is one way to keep my mind sharp. This is the first time I have been enrolled in one class while teaching another. As mentioned earlier, I am pursuing a certificate in archival management from the University of North Texas. That requires a total of 15 graduate hours, all taken online, of course. This semester I am enrolled in INFO 5375 — Archival Appraisal. I will take one more course in the spring to finish.
Here is the course description: Appraisal theory...
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One of my college alma maters recently celebrated its 100th anniversary. A highlight of the celebration was the unveiling of a giant class ring that is bound to become an Instagram must-do moment for anyone connected to Stephen F. Austin State University. I have not had the opportunity to view it firsthand but am planning a trip soon to Nacogdoches, where I lived a total of 18 years in two different stints.
After graduating from high school in May of 1973, I spent a year attending night school at Kilgore College while working at the Made-Rite Bottling company during the day. The intent was to transfer...
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It’s official. Gatsby, our great rescue cavapoo, is now an American Kennel Club-certified Canine Good Citizen. This does not give him the right to vote or drive a vehicle, but our beloved pup — now 18 months old — can enter a therapy-dog program, starting in mid-October. He has completed 18 hours’ worth of lessons under Jamie, who has been instrumental in his transformation. When Gatsby began his weekly lessons in January, he cowered under my stool, refused to walk on a leash, and was afraid of everything. His early months as a puppy-mill dog, largely imprisoned in a crate, meant he did not even...
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SHREVEPORT – We stayed up way past our bedtime Thursday night.
Months ago, I bought tickets to see Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit at Shreveport Municipal Auditorium, a venerable venue just off downtown. I nearly forgot about purchasing the tickets until I heard a promo on Red River Radio a few weeks back and reminded my Beautiful Mystery Companion of our rare weeknight date. We headed east for an early dinner before the concert.
Isbell, 44, is a four-time Grammy award winner whose evocative lyrics and impeccable musicianship have drawn a legion of fans, including me. I jumped at the chance...
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Yes, I am a pirate, two hundred years too late
The cannons don't thunder, there's nothing to plunder
I'm an over-forty victim of fate
-- A Pirate Looks at Forty by Jimmy Buffett
I last saw Jimmy Buffett in concert in the mid 1990s, when I was about 40, though far from being a pirate. We both had a lot more hair back then. Buffett performed at the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion in the Woodlands, a vast planned community between Conroe and Houston. The Mitchell Pavilion is a lovely outdoor venue when it isn’t 100 degrees. It was a lovely autumn evening when we saw Buffett, a soft...
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