Pull Tight

Physalis alkekengi - Chinese lantern plant - flower of the day at our house

All children, except one, grow up. Peter Pan Opening words As Nancy and I were leaving the supermarket today she asked "Since my recent birthday, was I now too old to ride shopping carts through the parking lot?"   The answer is an unequivocal  no .  Next time you see an old guy with graying hair and beard coasting through the supermarket parking lot on the back of a cart full of groceries, put one foot on your cart and give a hard push with the other foot.  And, coast over to just say to hi or even better, challenge me to race.

 Received this piece of art from my daughter as a birthday present.

Some of you might not identify this if you came across it just south of downtown Hico.  Others will recognize it as an old loading chute for loading or unloading livestock into or out of trucks.  To me it is a time machine back to the  1950s. Drove past this recently and was immediately 8 years old again.  Every Wednesday in the 50s and into the 60s this chute was where livestock were loaded or unloaded for the auction that day.  There were dozens of adjoining pens and a barn.   The barn was set up with a pen (auction ring) for herding livestock in one gate and out another.  There was a raised semi enclosed area for an auctioner on one side of the ring and about 3 rows of bleachers on the other side for the buyers and sellers. On sale day when had stock to be sold, my dad and sometimes my grandfather would load up a few head of calves into a two wheel trailer or the back of a the pick up truck which had cattle frames. At this time many of the ...

Praying Mantis having a snack. Some sort of small flies there to dine also.

To all who are needing or wanting to take off a few extra pounds, you might want to try cancer.   It seems to work pretty well for getting off a few pounds.  I'm down 8-10 pounds without too much effort.

With my diagnosis and beginning of radiation therapy, a mostly vegetarian diet was begun along with more frequent trips to the gym.  While I am losing weight, it is not at the rate anticipated.  Many mornings on my way home from treatment a stop is made for a snack.  Wonder if the slower than anticipated weight loss could be due to the fact that I am greeted by first name at Panera Bread and la Madeline?