Christmas Eve Gift!

Ha! I win again!

Basin Brewers Kegerator Crawl

Over Halloween weekend, I went out to Midland and participated in the Basin Brewers Kegerator Crawl. They hired a van and a designated driver and hit three stops. We finished up at Gary's house about 1 am. Just to show you how old I am, I got sleepy before I got drunk. I felt sorry for Gary. He had to go to work that morning. I didn't feel sorry enough for him to go with him. I stayed at his house and took several naps. You can find some of my pictures at my brewing blog.

I'm not going to cry, I'm not going to cry. . .

Ann Gale (Holt) Turner, of Voss, passed away Thursday evening, September 10 at Hendrick Medical Center in Abilene.

Ann Gale Holt was born January 27, 1937 at the old Sealy Hospital in Santa Anna. Ann's parents were the late Claudia (Bull) Holt and Roger Holt. Ann's mother died of breast cancer when Ann was a teen-ager, at which time she and her two brothers came to live with their aunt and uncle - Welton and Audrey Holt at Gouldbusk. After having attended school at Santa Anna, Bangs, Wylie and several others - Ann graduated from Mozelle High School with the class of 1955. Ann has been very active in the planning and conduct of homecoming events for the Mozelle Schools and missed very few school activities at Panther Creek, even after her children all graduated. She then went on to graduate from the Hendrick/Hardin-Simmons School of Nursing and became an RN in 1958.

On September 28, 1958, she married Bob Turner at the Welton Holt home at Gouldbusk. Ann was an active practicing RN until retirement in 2004. She still kept her RN license active and participated in all the required continuing educational programs, even after retirement. During that time she served as Director of Nursing and taught LVN classes at the Coleman Hospital. She then worked several years as office nurse for J.D. Duke, M.D. in Coleman. Ann also worked over 20 years as school nurse at Panther Creek/Mozelle/Talpa-Centennial schools as well as over 20 years as the school nurse at the Lohn schools in McCulloch County. During this same time frame, she was also working in several nursing capacities at both Holiday Hill and Coleman Care Center (Leisure Lodge at that time) - to include consulting RN.

Ann and Bob have three grown sons - Gary of Midland - Sam and wife Mary Jo of Denton and Darrell and his wife Leslie of Dexter, New Mexico. She had seven grandchildren - Bailey, Cassidy and JoLea of Dexter, NM and Samantha, Garrett, Grant and Abigale of Denton. Her grandchildren were the apple of her eye, her only regret being that they didn't live close enough to see as often as she wished. Ann and Bob celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in 2008 - and only lacked 18 days reaching their 51st anniversary.

She has fought a long and courageous battle with cancer - the first of which began in 1990 - then with breast cancer being diagnosed early in 2004. Since that time she has been under constant treatment - radiation, chemotherapy, and even an experimental program. She became the poster girl for what a positive attitude and not giving up can do in prolonging quality life for all those who were close enough to observe. Ann, being a nurse herself, was not one to "shop for doctors" and was convinced that her Oncologist - Ralph Heaven, M.D. and the staff of doctors and nurses at Hendrick were the world's finest.

Ann is survived by her husband, Bob; her three sons and seven grandchildren, as well as her two brothers, Jerry and wife Bennie of Fredericksburg, Texas, Donn and wife Ann of Fredericksburg, Virginia, as well as numerous uncles, aunts, cousins and a host of really special friends. She was preceded in death by her mother and father, Claudia and Roger Holt, her aunt and uncle Welton and Audrey Holt, all her grandparents, and several aunts, uncles and cousins.

Ann's funeral service will be held 2:00 p.m. Sunday, September 13 at the First United Methodist Church, 500 W. Liveoak, Coleman. Burial will follow in the Voss Cemetery under the direction of Stevens Funeral Home, 400 W. Pecan, Coleman.

Family visitation will be held 6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Saturday at Stevens Funeral Home.

Memorials may be made to Hendrick Hospice, 1682 Hickory, Abilene, Texas 79601, Gouldbusk United Methodist Church, c/o Terrye Nanny, 6775 FM 1026, Gouldbusk, Texas 76845, Voss Community Center, c/o David Pate, 38 CR 340, Voss, Texas 76888; Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, attention: Donor Services, P. O. Box 650309, Dallas, Texas 75265-0309.

Sam Houston Quote

"If I could build a wall from the Red River to the Rio Grande, so high that no Indian could scale it, the white people would go crazy trying to get beyond it." - Sam Houston

My new shades

While en route to NHC 2007 in Denver, my three year old pair of Gargoyles (Classic 85s, thank you very much), broke in the center. I bought a new pair in Downtown Denver at a small, independent sunglass store. The owner told me she carries that particular style because it is popular with the police officers in the area.

A couple of weeks ago, while packing to come home from Ann & Bob's house in Voss, my Denver shades broke in the middle. As soon as I got home, I did a Google search to find the cheapest pair of Gargoyle 85s I could find. What do you think?

Mission From God 2009

Hanging a swing

On Sunday, we, and by we I mean everyone but me, hung a new swing for the boys to use.

Newest Additions to the Family

A wren made a nest on some open shelves on the back porch. Apparently, the babies are hungry.

Not This Year

I'm still trying to figure out an easy way to do bluebonnets.

Christmas Eve Snow

Majestic Waterfall

This was inspired by a painting I saw on Antique Road Show.

FDR Didn't solve the Depression, dammit!

The Obamessiah just said that people were saying that were critical of FDR's Depression plans, drawing a clear parallel between FDR and The One. The implication that Obamessiah gave was that FDR ended the depression. According to my teachers in grade school, high school and college, World War II ended the depression. Is The One suggesting that FDR ended the Great Depression?

Or is The One suggesting that he will make all US manufacturing do nothing but build things for the government. . .Awww crap! We outsourced all that. Thanks, Sam Walton, for driving corporations to move their manufacturing to China.

Happy New Year!

Well another New Year has arrived, and suddenly we're all back at work like Christmas never happened. At Gästehaus Schmidt the phones have slowed down, and we often find ourselves staring at each other. Although, the boss wants to upgrade the online reservations software, which means yet another upgrade to the web server.

Dad's back on the route, with an extra kid, and mom is still slaving away at the hospital.

Rodney and Jeanne report that the foster kids who were at the reunion got new parents and have been adopted. Relieved that that is over, they will not be taking any more foster kids, and will instead be trying to get Katie out of high school so they can have the house to themselves, since Brandon is at Texas Tech now.

Sean and Joanne stop by every few weeks to let us play with the boys. Aidan is walking now, and has the biggest dimples. Sean said he didn't know where the dimples came from, so we showed him a picture of Aunt Audrey. "That's where they're from!" he exclaimed.

We all hope everyone had a great new year and we hope to see you all soon.