Headed home

Well the ASC conference championship slipped away this year as the lady Jackets were defeated today by the Louisiana College team. Our ladies played well but were outgunned. Tomorrow at 2 the deciding game will be played and then the NCAA tournament begins. It would have been fun to follow them there but alas it cannot be this year, maybe a future year they will return.

We will head home in the morning and try to stop at my son's house to visit the grandkids. We can't stay but a couple of hours and then it is on to home where Martha has jury duty starting Monday. The coming week will be a week of preparation for our spring break trip to the creek.

See you on the other side
Posted from Alexandria, Louisiana

A Snow cat.

Well I couldn't resist the temptation so here is another picture of the snow and a bit of creative art by Martha. Yesterday the snow came but today was sunny and the snow rapidly melted. Tomorrow will be even warmer before a new cold front arrives on Friday. Surely winter won't last much longer and it will be spring. The peach trees will blossom and I can plant our garden. It won't be long...

Snow again

We woke up to snow today. We had some a couple of weeks ago but this was a lot more. As of right now there is about 4" and it is still coming down. It is just the Texas weather, tomorrow it will be sunny and about 50 degrees. The university where I used to work and Martha still does, tried to have classes and work today but about 9 AM they gave up and shut down for the day. I had taken her to work today so she would not have to drive in this and then I had to go back and get her early due to the closing.

Friday we head for the Pineville LA. area for the ASC Womens Basketball tournament. We are ready for that no matter how it turns out but we would like to come back as champions one more time. It will be about an 8 hour drive but it should be fun.

Stay tuned

Golf and the news

Today was the first time I have tried to play golf in a long time and it showed. I hope to be able to play more often now and perhaps gain some amount of skill in the game. Not to be "Good" you understand, but to just not be terrible.

Two weeks of retirement have passed and I don't think I am bored yet. I haven't started looking for a job or tried to monitor whether those "new guys" are doing my old job well or not. I still have plenty to do that I haven't even started yet. Yesterday I watched and was amazed at the news media reports about the plane crash in Austin. It was quckly apparent that it was an isolated incident of an angry citizen who took his anger to extremes but they spent hours trying to make it more than it was.

Today it was Tiger and his apology. Ho-Hum, this too will pass.

I guess that is all I have to say today.

Longhorns and Basketball

I went back to school today so we could get pictures of the president presenting me with the certificate of appreciation on the occasion of my retirement. Imagine my surprise to arrive and find the president and his wife on matching Texas Longhorns. Well as it turned out they (the longhorns) were passing through and anyone who wanted to could have their picture taken on a real live Texas Longhorn. I didn't but Martha did. I won't publish her picture here but this is a picture of the longhorn she was on. We did eventually get the picture of the presentation and it will probably be published in the school paper, they like to do those things.

Elsewhere we have two more home games in basketball to wind up the regular season.  After that is the ASC championship tournament. Our women are a solid 2nd in the west and we are planning to follow them to Louisiana to watch the games. It should be an exciting time.

The weather this week is much nicer than last week so I am finally able to get outside and do some things. We are starting to prepare for spring break and a trip to the Caney Creek house to work on projects. That will be the 2nd week in March and I am ready...

So long for now...

It was (is) a snowy day...

The snow is gently falling outside but it isn't quite cold enough to stick so it melts. We are expecting an inch or so. Yesterday we drove up to Fort Worth to see some friends that are about to go to India as missionaries. Today the metroplex is having a lot of snow and they are expected to get up to 5 inches or more. I am glad we could go yesterday and not today. Tomorrow this should all move east and we should have a sunny afternoon with the temperature near 50. That will be good.

Day one (of retirement)

Today was the first official day of retirement. I woke up at 3 AM to watch the Space Shuttle launch. They departed on schedule at 3:14 AM CST and no matter how many times you watch that spectacle, it never gets old. Nasa will retire the Shuttles later this year and the US will be without a manned space vehicle for some years until the Lunar vehicles are ready in 2015 or so. I did go back to bed but was up at my regular time.

I didn't really do a lot other than replace a light bulb and try to put away some of the stuff from my office. It rained off and on through the morning and was cold and dreary. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny but then we have an arctic front coming through that will drop temperatures and may produce some snow or other winter precipitation. This has been the wettest and coldest winter I can remember since we have lived here.

Both of our basketball teams won twice on the road this past weekend and that is good. We have 4 more regular season games and then the ASC tournament. Our girls have won the ASC 3 years in a row and we are looking for #4. The tournament will be played on the campus of the east champion so we will have to travel. We aren't sure where yet but I am ready to go.

The retirement celebration last Thursday was great. I didn't really know what to expect but they did a good job of keeping the secret and I was surprised. Martha had printed several pictures and they had a couple of boards with those displayed. I had asked her to do some of the creek house and she did so we had those as well. There was a bunch of food and drink so everyone enjoyed it I think. There were several cards and a bunch of little gifts, some of which were intended to embarass, but I made it through without getting emotional. They presented me with a certificate of appreciation as well. When I arrived at the office there was a basket of goodies that had come during the party. After I got it home I discovered that it was from a former employee who left earlier in January. That was really special.

Well I guess that's all for now, stay tuned for more as the saga develops.

Celebration

Tomorrow I retire, today we celebrate. This is the day chosen for a reception so folks can come by and wish me well. I have expected it for some time and knew it was coming but I am not really ready. Oh I am ready to get on with retirement, (I think) but this will be an emotional time of goodbyes and farewells and those are difficult and I doubt that we are ever really ready for those moments. So even though it will be emotional, and I am not sure I am 'ready', today I will celebrate. Celebrate life, for God has allowed me 69 years and they have been good ones in spite of what I have done with them. Celebrate failure, for it is only through attempting and failing that we learn the hard lessons of life, God simply smiles and asks if we would like to try again. He always forgives. Celebrate success, because I have had a bit of that in my chosen career. Celebrate the future, I have no idea what it holds but I do know that it is completely in God's hands. As I open myself to His plan, He will provide all I need for the future.

Retirement is not an end in itself, but a beginning of change in ones life. Most of us are afraid of change and especially one so drastic, but I for one am excited about this change and what God may do in my future.

Stay tuned...