My handsome boy!

Meet Martha, my handsome black cat. "Handsome?" Yes, Martha is a male cat. He didn't receive the name cruelly. Nay, I thought he was a female--until! I took him to the vet. She asked why I had chosen a female name for a male. Well, I hadn't.

I took him home and began searching for a new, more appropriate name: Marty, Marthon, Marvel, Marthie, but I did not like any of them. So, Martha he was and Martha he is today. I simply tell him what a handsome boy he is--and I'm pretty sure he's happy with that. Besides, he likes his name. "Martha, you are such a handsome boy!"

Blackberries at Shuqulak Farm

Can you see all the blackberries on this vine? Every vine is hanging with fruit. You could almost fill one bucket  at one vine--well, maybe, two or three, but my point is how loaded the vines are at Shuqulak Farms near Frierson, LA.

I picked two buckets of blackberries. On this trip I didn't even look at the blueberries. That's for another trip.

Please check google or bing for more information and map quest for your particular directions.

Man's inhumanity to his most loyal creature

 This is not a happy story. In fact, it is downright horrible. I sit here crying every time I think about this dog (who, I am sure, is long gone from this world).

It happened this way. I was on my way to an appointment when I stepped out into the carport. There, sniffing around for food, was this pitiful dog. Good grief, I have never ever seen such a starved, decimated animal before. A local television station did a story on starving horses abandoned on a farm. They looked pretty much like this dog. It is no telling when the last time he ate. He could barely stand up and actually fell several times.

 I got my neighbor to help me. He has dogs and retrieved dog food and water (I had given him cat food--that's all I had on hand). I had already called Animal Control, not thinking ahead. I waited and waited for them to show up. After two hours I called a local television station, hoping they would do a story on the dog and someone would volunteer to rescue him and give him a better life than he had lived. In fact, I felt sick thinking I was giving him up to sure death.

A reporter came by and was as appalled as I was by the looks of the dog. The dog looked part pit bull and you know what happens to pit bulls if they are picked up. I canceled Animal Control because the reporter thought he could get another animal service to pick him up, this one not committed to the destruction of an animal. But, alas, that was not to be. He did, in fact, call Animal Control which did come out at five o'clock.

Meanwhile, I called a local vet to ask for aid. I had to talk to three people before anyone would give me an answer. The office manager wanted to know who would pay for services. That was her bottom line.  I literally don't have the money to pay for such treatment. If I had, I would have plopped it down for that dog. I admit I did not thank her for her time and went on my way.

The Animal Control person, a woman, was so rude to me. "You know we don't have to come back after you cancel a pick-up," she told me in a stern, angry voice. I started sobbing and told her I was just trying to do whatever I could to save the dog. She immediately became kind and finished her job with understanding and did not hurt the dog.



                                                 I read a book, A Dog's Life, by Ann M. Martin , a book

about a stray dog who lives a miserable life and is finally adopted by an older woman who gives that dog wonderful last years. A stray dog at least has a chance at finding food. The dog who showed up at my house lived under the control of a monster who deliberately did not feed the dog, thus starving it and abusing it. Such cruelty is beyond my ability to understand, nor do I want to.

 I wanted the station to run the story so people would see it, then calls and offers of monetary help would happen,  love would pour in and this poor dog would have a happy ending.This story did not end happily. But for one day two people fed you, gave you water, petted you, and talked to you in kind voices. It's not nearly enough and words cannot convey how sorry I am.

The Alamo "remembered"

I live in a city in which many of the downtown streets are named after Alamo heroes: Travis, Crockett, Milam, and Texas, our main street. Note: just as in history, Houston is not there or here. I digress only to say I grew up with names of Alamo heroes  frequently spoken, like chants to remember long-ago heroes.

My sister and I visited the Alamo just a year ago and stood in many of the spots where blood was spilled and legends made. So it was only natural that I watch this movie when it recently played on a movie channel. John Lee Hancock's "The Alamo" is not John Wayne's version. The older version was made during the years following World War II, when inspiring myth-making was in full ascent.

This recent version is much grittier and more likely, although several reviewers gorgeously described the film as also modern myth making. I think, though, that Crockett's last filmic words were actually spoken, as I remember hearing them before, probably by one of the Alamo specialists at the time of our tour. "Here's your last chance to surrender. Turn in your arms and I promise no harm will come to you" are words out of Crockett's mouth to the huge crowd of surrounding Mexican soldiers. Note: Crockett was bound and on his knees. Another reviewer attributed Crockett's words to the journal of one of the Mexican leaders, with the knowledge that leaders keep these records of their (hopefully) heroic and historic deeds.

Billie Bob Thornton, of all actors, plays Crockett and does so with low- and high-keyed perfection. In fact, the most memorable scene occurs during the evening when the Mexican band would play its prelude to battle. Crockett takes his fiddle on the upper level of the fort in view of the Mexican soldiers and, during the playing of the battle prelude, plays a haunting melody, creating a Texian version of meaning (the movie uses "Texian" rather than Texan). It's a moment to savor.


Other notable actors include Patrick Wilson (a long-time favorite of mine after seeing him in "Phantom of the Opera"). As Travis and elected leader of the Texian side, he meets opposition from some of his own men. He is notorious for abandoning his wife and children, visiting prostitutes, and gambling. Toward the end, when a dying Bowie (played by Jason Patric), asks Travis for a dying drink, Travis responds--with tongue in cheek: "I visit prostitutes, gamble, abandon children, but I draw the line at alcohol."



(As an historical side note: There is a museum/gift shop located next door to the Alamo. On display are several versions of Jim Bowie's designs for the Bowie knife. And let me tell you--that design is incredibly horrific!!!)

The film itself is simply awesome, the story vividly retold on cellluloid for posterity. With film a viewer can hold history, a live production becomes an object of memory, with each method touching a different mental capacity. I plan to purchase the film, this version, for my own record-keeping of an event important enough a cause to name our downtown streets. "Remember the Alamo" is a battle cry for all ages and all times, its symbolic significance deeply ingrained in our national subconcious.

Blue bird living quarters

My sister-in-law and mother love watching blue birds nest in their two blue bird boxes, one in the front yard and one in the back yard. Every spring blue bird parents raise two or three sets of baby blue birds.

Recently, my brother attached a box to a beam on the back porch. Promptly, a blue bird couple moved in! They (my family) tell me that it is most unlikely for blue birds to build where humans frequent. My brother was testing the hypothesis. The photo shows the location of the house. Unfortunately, no blue birds posed for the photo, but they're there!

The quote to the right applies to my family, as well. When sparrows tried to occupy the back-yard box last year, the adults brought out the air rifle and fired shots, not at the sparrows, but around them to chase them off. The blue birds got in!

The books of Robert Cormier

I'm a big fan of Robert Cormier books--and, yes, I have favorites.  However, "favorites" might be an odd word to use concerning Cormier books. He does not write typical stories for young adult readers. In fact, his themes are always mature and his stories dark, sometimes quite dark.

Case in point: "After the First Death" is a novel about a multitude of serious themes, all carefully woven into an unforgettable novel. Do you read books and promptly forget them? But there are those you never forget. "After the First Death" is one of these. Although the publication date is 1979, terrorists of some unnamed, occupied country (Palestine?) plot the takeover of a school-bus filled with kindergarten children with ransom as their plan. I'm not sure if total explosion was part of the plan at the end.

The title refers to the death of the first victim because of candy laced with medication to make the children calm and sleep. Once that first death happens, they are in deep. The main assistant is just a young boy, 15 or so, who has been trained, along with his brother, now deceased, since childhood. Artkin takes them and trains them to be terrorists, to serve his will at his pleasure. The point of the takeover, despite ransom threatenings, is to decimate a special forces service buried deep in secrecy. The general's son is used as bait, with the general quite cognizant that his son will be tortured. The substitute bus driver, a girl who is also young, is the last key player.

People die in Cormier books or they are destroyed in some way, but I was hoping for better in this one. Cormier never plays safe or by the heart: he plays by reality and so it is in this book. This is a story that lingers....

The next book is "In the Middle of the Night." Quietly laced in the midst of the terror is a pleasing, unexpected love story. When Denny's father was just 16, he was involved in a theater fire that killed several children and maimed several others. The fire was an accident, the young boy was declared innocent, but tell that to a warped mind intent on revenge. Every year during the week of the anniversary of the fire, he receives a phone call in the middle of the night. Newspapers publish stories about the fire and Denny's father must move again. He never reacts except to forbid his son NEVER EVER answer the phone. During the anniversary week when he is 16, he answers the phone. That's when he learns his father's story. Research in the library answers further questions. However, the main problem is that he is drawn into a telephone romance with this woman, who sounds so delicious to him. Figure the math--he does and discards--no one with a voice like this can be as old as his father. Remember, she is out for revenge. That's as far as I will tell. I liked this book but not as much as the first one reviewed.