Janice Williams Loves Austin

March 4, 2010

The U.S. Census

Filed under: At home, Genealogy — Janice @ 11:21 am

There have been a lot of ads and a lot of controversy this year about the 2010 Census.  As a genealogist, I absolutely LOVE the census and hope that 100 years from now someone is looking at the Travis County census and saying, “Yes, there they are again, Janice and Mark were still in the same home as they were in the 2000 census.”

I doubt that most people have vivid memories of censuses they have participated in, but I do. In 1970, our neighbor across the street, Ruth Dudley, worked for the census as a census taker. She had a big plastic briefcase/pouch with a red, white, and blue panel on the side that said U.S. Census (or something). She had pencils with U.S. Census on them and sheets of rub-on white dots for some purpose. I remember these things most vividly because when she was through working for the census, she gave all these fun things to me!! She was a great neighbor. She did cut off the red, white, and blue “official” part so I couldn’t impersonate a census taker, but I still had a cool briefcase and all the fun things inside. I don’t remember Mother and Daddy actually participating in the census, but I wonder, too, about future generations losing our family when they see us in Randall County, Texas, in 1960 and find Mom and Dad in Randall County, Texas, 1980. I know how these genealogy things work and who is  going to think to look in El Paso County, Colorado, in the 1970 census! Of course, as much as the Internet and computers have made it easier to check other census, I hope they find us. And maybe when they see that Daddy worked for Colorado Interstate Gas Company they can make the assumption that we moved there because of work.

I look at old census and consider these things and make assumptions all the time. The census now is available online to most anybody. I have to have my library card to get to the source that has it, but it might be available in other ways, too. Before, you would have to go strain your eyes over microfilm at the library and possibly request a roll of film from another library to be sent just so you could look… often in vain… for a missing relative.

One thing that has not gotten any easier is reading the writing on the old census. It is amazing to look at the old pages and see the writing there. Some is ornate and intricate and perfect and I have no idea how they managed to keep that same penmanship line after line after line (and page after page). Others are just about as sloppy as my handwriting is today and very difficult to read. And sometimes it is just the condition of the paper and the years that make it hard to read.

Some of the old census only had the name of the head of the household. Later they put the family members’ names and their relationship to the head of the household. They also recorded where the family members were born and where their parents were born (great for studying migration or getting clues about why your family came from somewhere). Education, marital status, age, land ownership, occupation. As the census become more complex, each page gives you a better picture of ancestors and also their neighbors and community.

In 1980 I was living in an apartment in Amarillo in Potter County and a census taker actually came and talked to me. In 1990 I was in Dallas County, but by then I think I was just filling in a form and mailing it. Same for 2000 after we had moved to Travis County.

You may not know that the government only opens the census up for general use 70 years after it is taken. So at some point this year, I will have access to the 1940 census, which is exciting to me. The 1930 census was still taken by hand and handwritten. I expect the same for 1940 .

It is hard to fathom how a census was taken– even when communities were small and easier to manage. I wouldn’t even want the task of going up and down my block and trying to make contact with everyone and get this important information. But imagine going down EVERY block. There were huge cities in this country by the time the censuses began to be taken. I don’t know how they even began to coordinate a census and then how they pulled ALL those pieces of paper together. Sadly, some of those huge stores of papers have been destroyed in courthouse fires and many of the South’s records were lost during the Civil War. Hopefully, new censuses will have documentation backed up in multiple ways and a giant power outage won’t destroy it all.

Here’s just the tiniest bit of the 1900  Comanche County, Texas, census. Edward L. Hallford was my great-grandfather and Henrietta my great-grandmother and Arla E. who was a mere 6 months old at the time, was my Papa Hallford. I love this page of the census because it is easy to see they lived next to James Hallford (the top line), Ed’s brother, and not far below are Henrietta’s parents and other Cunninghams from her family. Interesting to see, too, the other people that became their relatives when Papa married Mamma, but were just neighbors at this time. I love to look down the list of occupations. On this page, every head of the household except one was a farmer (including Ed Hallford). The exception was a Cunningham that was a clergyman. And Ed’s sister, who also lived just down the road with herparents (my great-great-grandparents), taught music. Even my great-great-great-grandmother, who was 88 and had come to Texas in 1842 in a group of wagons from Missouri, lived down the road and is on this page. In fact, only 2 family names on this page are not related to me in some way. One is a hired hand and the other, Dobbs it looks like, may be related to me and I just don’t know how.

There is no way of knowing what information the census will give to genealogists in the future. By then there may be time travel and they will just come back and meet us, who knows. FaceBook records from last year will still be floating in space and my family members can take note that I posted a status of  ”going to Dallas for the weekend” in 2009. But for genealogists, though they aren’t 100% accurate, they are a source that is exactly from the time and given by the person themselves. It doesn’t get any better than that for a genealogist. I hope you answer your census and it benefits someone down the line in a way you can never fathom.

One thing we do know… there will continue to be censuses in the United States every 10 years as long as there is a United States–it’s part of our constitution. Currently, the Census Bureau is doing more than that, surveying people every 6 months in more intensive interviews with more questions, but the census you’ll soon be receiving apparently is only 10 questions long… not much bigger than the very first on in 1790.

March 2, 2010

A Sad Goodbye

Filed under: At home — Janice @ 12:14 am

I’m back after a sick weekend. I can call myself lucky that I got sick on the weekend, I guess. Sick days are a luxury I can’t afford. As much as they say, “Don’t go to work if you are sick!” they aren’t the one giving up 20% of a week’s salary. That’s one of the downsides of not having a job with benefits. Of course, whenever I’ve had jobs with benefits I rarely was able to take advantage of sick days anyway. I remember in my last year at the station being absolutely unable to talk or work and having to go to work because there was no one else to do it. I don’t know what they are doing these days when there is half (or less) the manpower that they had then.

I’ve been wanting to write about some of the gardening I did last weekend. I finally got a dead cactus cut down and sent off to the landfill. It broke my heart to say goodbye to that one. My plants can become just as much my pet as my animals can be (okay, not quite, the cactus doesn’t curl up and my feet night after night).

This tall pillar cactus had been with us since the summer we moved to Austin. It was a Home Depot $10 special with two cacti about a foot to 18 inches tall. At some point we transplanted it into a big pot and put it by the front door. Year after year that thing grew and grew. It was so big there was nothing to do about it in the winter except hope it survived.

The most amazing thing about it was the blooms this cactus could put out. It was several years before we knew it would even make a bloom. And no small bloom.  Monster, saucer-sized blooms that only bloomed at night! We would see them coming, but we’d have to make sure and go out and see them while they were on display. Fortunately for us, we usually were coming home in the nighttime and got to admire them. They were only there for one night only and then they withered and died. One year I remember we counted 17 blooms through the summer. There were times I thought it was near death just because of the abundance of flowers. Plants tend to “push” a bloom and be extra prolific as they are dying as an evolutionary thing. But this cactus kept on going. Here it is, blooming, in about 2004:

You can see where it has a chunk missing. That was from a hailstorm we couldn’t protect it from. It continued to thrive after that. Last summer, with the terrible drought and the unbelievable heat, the cactus did not look good. I was afraid then that it was dying. With the hard freezes we had this winter, it did finally succumb. It was easily 8 feet tall, I think. It took a LOT of effort to remove it from the big pot (without destroying a great pot) and getting it into pieces small enough to get into the trash.

I do not have a green thumb like some in my family, but sometimes I look around and am in awe of the plants that we do have that have continued to thrive and grow and keep us company. Another trip to the Home Depot is in order to get another $10 special cactus and see where it might be in another 10 years.

February 24, 2010

A Rare Austin Snow

Filed under: At home, Austin, Food — Janice @ 2:13 am

I wouldn’t be much of a historian if I didn’t document that today was the day Austin got snow. Probably the most I’ve ever seen in Austin. Despite the dire warnings yesterday, I didn’t really expect that the forecast is true. After you’ve heard dozens of forecasts of dire weather pass by without a blip, you get jaded to the prospect. But this morning, it truly did start snowing. I think the north part of Travis County got a lot more than we did on the far south side, but it was definitely snow. At first it was more rain than snow, though there was a white covering on some of my newly cleaned garden. But later in the morning, big fluffy flakes fell and gave everything a nice white coating. I was able to write MH + JW on the hood of my car in the snow.

The temperatures remained above freezing so driving to work was no problem, just wet. It really was almost a winter wonderland and such a different set of vistas! I passed a nicely wooded area along MoPac and the big oaks had snow in the crooks of the big dark branches, making them stand out in sharp contrast. Looking across the housetops when I would top an overpass, the houses were all covered in white and just gave a completely different look to the view than I usually see–not even noticing those houses. And as I approached the big bridge over the greenbelt, off to the west are houses way up on the hills overlooking the lake/river. Where you almost can’t see those houses normally because of the surrounding trees, now they were snow covered and it looked like a mountain village I had never seen before. Really a change.

When I came out of work, there was still snow on my car and at home there was still snow on an outdoor table. I suppose it will last until tomorrow since the temps were dropping below freezing.

I have enjoyed this little glimpse of winter, especially since it wasn’t bitterly cold or windy. It was very pleasant this evening as I walked to my car. What I do think is funny is how many things cancelled because of the “weather.” The Broken Spoke accordion night was cancelled and the Spoke was shuttered. I drove up north for a genealogy group meeting only to find a note on the door that it was cancelled. Of course, for that group I can understand. It is a big group of elderly people that don’t need to be walking across a parking lot that could get slick after the meeting. And as for the accordion players, maybe that was a public service to keep that rowdy bunch away from each other where they just foment revolution.

Mark and I stayed in, lit a fire, ate fried chicken and I popped an experimental apple pie into the oven and called the experiment a success. It was experimental because I’ve never frozen a homemade pie before. I made two pies for Valentine’s and froze this one before I cooked it. It came out pretty good, so I’ll do that again. Dinner, pie, and American Idol in front of the fire. We should have snow more often.

February 22, 2010

Success

Filed under: At home — Janice @ 2:37 am

I was feeling all flush with success a little earlier. I managed to update my main website and update it for the first time in over a year. I am happy I remembered how to do it. I know it is simple and may even look goofy on the browser you use, but it is different, it has a picture and links, and no misspellings. Oh, please, I hope it doesn’t have misspellings.

Having done that, I got cocky. I came here to the blog. At the top it says, “Hey, you should upgrade to Wordpress 2.12″ or something. Okay, no problem. I click the link. “Oh wait, it tells me now, before you upgrade, you really should back up your blog and your database.” Okay, I didn’t even know I had a database. I click the link. Now it starts in on 20 pages of instructions of add-ons and plug-ins and administrator privileges and warnings and subdirectories. Geez. One step forward and two steps back. No backups created.

And the way things have been going lately. I could lose it all. For Christmas we got a new TV. Not a fancy huge one, but a nicer, newer bigger one than the one we had before. We’ve had it 6 or 7 weeks and we turned it on last night and it wouldn’t stay on. It starts and then dies before ever getting to a picture. Mark called the warranty center in India and after explaining the warranty to THEM he has a repairman coming to the house on Wednesday. It is nice that they come to the house, but it sure would have been nice if they had come last night.

With no TV to watch, what do you do? Well, you go check Facebook and look for entertainment on the Internet. I was happily doing just that when my whole computer went blue screen and gave all sorts of warnings. I restarted, and it did restart, but now I am leery every moment that it is all going to disappear and I’ll lose stuff. Yes, I backup, but I’m never sure I’ve got it all.

With no TV tonight (and no typing for the doctors this weekend, which seems to never happen) I had time to finally work on the website. Who knows what I might accomplish in the next 70 hours until the repairman comes. Don’t get your hopes up, Mark is bringing home the old TV tomorrow. He had taken it up to work to his Drummer’s Lounge, but I knew I would suffer withdrawal without American Idol.

February 17, 2010

Availability

Filed under: At home, Family — Janice @ 12:45 pm

I’m pondering availability tonight as I consider a new cell phone. I was driving into the bank ATM when my phone rang in my pocket. As I scrambled to get it out, it stopped ringing, but it didn’t seem that I had answered it. Then I realized that the buttons on it didn’t seem to be functioning. I turned it off and on and it immediately called my friend Denise, who is speed dial #5. I left her a message, though I hadn’t meant to call at all, but couldn’t stop it, and tried again. Yes, it dialed her once more so I shut it off and drove toward home without a phone.

Once home where I could study it, it appears that the faceplate has jammed the #5 button down, but I couldn’t make it free itself. I began considering a new phone.

But I also considered what life would be like without a cell phone. How nice it would be to never be jarred awake by a cell phone. Never to have it interrupt my work or dinner or my drive.

I remember an old joke about an old timer who gets an old crank telephone installed in his home, the last in his neighborhood to have one. One night some family members were at his home and the phone rang. He continued talking and ignored the phone. Finally someone said, Aren’t you going to answer your phone? No, said the old timer, I got it for MY convenience, not for theirs.

That is how I feel. But it seems like anyone under 65 these days (with the notable exception of ME) loves being available 24 hours a day to all their friends. They get on Facebook and gmail and Yahoo and any other service available and open up that icon that says “Available for chat.” I really don’t know what it is like in their world. I have only opened that floodgate a time or two and regretted it immensely. As soon as you put that red flag out, someone will pop up with “Hey, what’s going on?” You banter back and forth about nothing. The delay between messages is as irritating as the delay on an overseas long distance call. Finally there is absolutely nothing to say, but there is no good way to wrap up the conversation. “Okay, let me go back to mindlessly surfing the web… that’s more fun than chatting with you.”  Once I learned that those Chat signals can be turned off, I have never turned them on again. I sometimes even hesitate to send and email or post something on Facebook because that seems to be a signal, “Hey, I’m home at my computer and free for you to call and talk to me!”

I blame my upbringing and my parents for my antisocial attitudes. No, not Daddy, I guess, because Daddy was very social and really enjoyed company and visiting. So that leaves it on Mom. And she will fully acknowledge that I got this from her and she is still as antisocial as she ever was. She currently lives in a retirement apartment community where they can take their meals in a dining room. She has lived there 3 year and never eaten in the dining room once. Okay, that’s a joke, she eats there all the time, but anytime she can have the opportunity to just have cereal or soup in her room or have her meals sent up (they do that if you are sick and need that), she does.

When we lived on the farm, we had a half-mile road from our house to the main road. Frequently we would see a car coming up the road and be forewarned that someone was coming. And we always had good dogs that would give us some warning about a car approaching, too. We were at the end of the road, the only house, so if anyone came up that road they were either lost, coming to visit us, or thieves. I remember Fuller Brush salesmen coming to the door and knocking and knocking and Mom, Mackie, and I standing quietly in the center of the house, away from all windows, barely daring to breathe, until he drove away again.

And it wasn’t just salesmen. I remember hiding behind the bed when people we knew were visiting one time. I think Daddy even visited with them out by the barn or garage and we all just stayed inside, hoping they wouldn’t need to come in the house and discover we were home.

Even when I was in high school, I didn’t become too much more social. Sure, once I had a car, I went into town and hung out with friends more, but having been trained like I had, I still enjoyed coming home from school and just being home and alone for hours. I found plenty to entertain myself (even before there was an Internet).

***

I wrote that all last week when the phone broke. I did replace it pretty quickly, but still with one that receives calls and texts, but doesn’t pull in email or TV or games or anything else to keep my eyes glued to the screen while others are talking, music is being performed, or while I’m driving. I think I would like some of that to be available to me, but not enough to risk that feeling of intrusion I get when I hear a doorbell, a knock, or a phone ring. Yes, I know this is a phobic reaction and one that likely should be dealt with and overcome, but since I don’t cry or scream or even hide behind the bed anymore, I am fine.

This post will need to have a guest rebuttal from my sister. She hid behind the bed and was just as antisocial as Mother and I were as she grew up, but somehow she has become the techno-queen and she Blackberrys (yes, I just made that noun a verb) and chats and uses the phone to actually call people.

February 15, 2010

Valentine’s Day 2010

Filed under: At home, Austin, Food — Janice @ 10:16 am

On Valentine’s Day, I was sore with my husband. No, not sore AT him. We were sore together from hiking. Hiking was probably the last thing I expected to do on our day together, but we did and it was fabulous. Mark planned our Sunday together. We had already decided that just a little road trip around the area would be fun, no matter where it took us, but he planned it a lot further.

We started the day at Hamilton Pool, west of Austin toward Llano and the Hill Country. In our 10 years of being in Austin and hearing about it from the start, we had never been there before. I don’t have any pictures to post just yet, but after looking at some online, I don’t know that pictures can ever do it justice and show how large it is.

Hamilton Pool was formed when an underground river created a large cavern underground and then the surface caved in, leaving a big box canyon with a 50-foot waterfall. Mark had read online that it was a quarter-mile hike down to the pool so we wore appropriate shoes.

A quarter-mile sounds like a pretty easy little trek, even if it was described as a “hike.” But, man, hike it was! The first part of it is like descending a natural staircase with each step varying from 6 to 18 inches. There was a little bit of finding footing on rocks, too. Then, the trail gets more complicated. Slippery, muddy, wet rocks, steps, boulders continue on down to the pool. Then, a true staircase is built into the canyon wall, but even its metal steps were extra deep, not normal step length, and they, too, were wet, muddy, and slippery. We’ve also left the sun’s beams after we dropped below the canyon wall and it has gotten much chillier than the close-to-70 degree temperatures on the flatland above.

The pool is in sight now and it is a deep, mysterious green. I just read on line that it is 28 feet deep. And it isn’t all that wide so it is very dangerous. I know there have been drownings there since we’ve lived here. The creek is so high that the normal route from our hiking path to the “beach” by the pool is closed and we have to hike completely around the pool, under the overhang, to access the beach.

This part of the hike reminded me of Carlsbad Caverns because of the carved out overhang and the stalactites that were forming even today. Looking up to the ceiling, water was dripping through the rock and creating icicles of stone. We circled the dome/pool and I was so surprised to see where the path got VERY narrow at the back. The collapsed rocks formed the left side of the trail and the wall of the cavern formed the right. To get through the tightest part, we had to turn sideways, lean over (hands on the collapsed rocks), and scooch our way through the gap. On the way back, we estimated that it was less than 18 inches. And there are no “you must be THIS skinny” signs at the beginning of the hike. Fortunately, we wedged our girth through it and were able to go on around to the beach and enjoy the sunshine again.

As we circled this cavern and squeezed through the gap, we were behind the amazing 50-foot waterfall. Spray was going everywhere and making everything wet and chilly. We pondered that that probably feels wonderful in the heat of the summer, but also expect that in the heat of the summer, that waterfall hardly exists.

Mark took more pictures from the beach and we did some people watching. There were about 35 people down there so it was very pleasant. Little children were throwing rocks into the pool. A very young couple were laying out a fabulous picnic for themselves. A bigger family sat around rocks and drank beer and laughed.

We turned back and again climbed rocks up to the trail around the cave, stuffed ourselves through the tiniest of gaps under the waterfall, climbed the slippery metal steps and headed up the trail. I was huffing and puffing well before we got to the tall natural steps that eventually took us up to the parking lot. We could feel our muscles protesting about the whole experience.

Oddly, I feel fine today and am not sore. Yes, we need to do that about every other day in order to not huff and puff so.

With muddy shoes and pant legs and hands, we moved on to the second part of our day. We were driving through some beautiful hill country, totally off the usual paths, and cutting through amazing ranch land where the road is narrow, windy, and cows slowed the process as they wandered across the road. At one point we saw a HUGE longhorn bull with a black and white coat. He was a beauty and was trotting straight toward us. There was fence there so we had no worries. And he was probably not trotting toward us as much as he was trotting away from some people that were in his pasture near a house.

When we left Austin it was bright and sunny and I had mentioned that the forecast called for some clouds. With the temperatures in the high 60s,  it was a great “spring” day in February to be outside. As we crossed this ranch land, the skies were now full of clouds and Mark thought it might even rain on us. It had that feeling. I began to notice the trees whipping and the flags in front of majestic ranch houses standing at full attention.

Our next destination was a big old house that is a gift shop and cactus store. We stopped there last summer on our way home from the Cunningham reunion and bought some beautiful things. Some of those beautiful things were destroyed by the freeze last month, so I was back for more. We got out of the car and realized just how cold it had gotten. The thermometer showed it had dropped over 20 degrees since we had been at Hamilton Pool. It was COLD.

We shopped the gift shop and braved the cold again to get out to the greenhouse and found another plant like I bought last summer. I had posted a picture of it then. It was a plant my grandmother used to grow. The one I had in the summer was full and lush. This one looks like it had its share of cold weather, too, but wasn’t frozen solid, at least. I’m sure it will get lush and full when spring really is here (if I keep it off the porch until spring really is here).

Mark’s well laid out plan had us going to Opie’s BBQ next on the trip. I talked him into going to R.O. Outpost. I had heard they had amazing chicken fried steaks. My error was that Mark is conscientious and had made his plan with great attention to detail. My plan was “hey, let’s do this!” We got to R.O.’s and it was closed. Opie’s was now far behind us. So we forged on, back toward Austin, and considered going home and eating a sandwich. As we got back into “city” at 620 and 71, I saw the Springhill Catfish Restaurant. Mark had never eaten at it and I had never eaten at this one, so we stopped and stuffed ourselves on catfish, oysters, shrimp, and hushpuppies. It was delicious.

Stuffed, happy, and COLD, we rushed on home, turned up the heater and had a good Sunday nap. We both agreed it was probably the best Valentine’s Day we had ever had. Of course, it’s hard to have a perfect Valentine’s Day without the perfect Valentine, and I am especially grateful that somehow Mark managed to find me in this big world.

February 8, 2010

Superbowl XCIV

Filed under: At home — Janice @ 1:23 am

I made up that number for the Superbowl. For some reason I think it is 44, but that can’t be right because I’m sure there were already Superbowls in the early 1960s. Doesn’t matter.

What matters is the Saints won! That is exciting stuff. I was quite please for them. I was pleased, first, to watch a Superbowl with two teams that I really do like and care about. I don’t get to see too many Indianapolis Colts games here and don’t pay too much attention since they are AFC, but I love Peyton Manning and think he is a great actor/comedian/spokesperson/individual/and, oh yes, quarterback. And I love the Saints for many things, but just their underdog status is enough to make me root for them.

But I was also excited to see a whole Superbowl game that was close until the very end, both teams were truly GOOD and made almost no mistakes, and there were no bad calls (well, except the one that got reviewed and changed) and there were no mean plays or things that cast a bad light on the game. It was just really really good football. Mark was exclaiming about Manning’s speed and accuracy. He was raving over a drive the Saints made that pushed them down the field to a touchdown. I told him the only reason he was raving so is that he has gotten too used to watching the Cowboys over these past few years when they don’t play like pros. These guys today were professionals.

My favorite moment was after the game when Drew Brees had his little baby boy in his arms. I was thrilled they had hearing protection on that kids ears, first. So many parents drag their children along to much-too-loud events and don’t realize the damage they can do. But it was Drew wiping tears and just talking to his baby and telling him what was happening that was so sweet and touching.

Commercials didn’t seem to be so great this year. We rewound a couple of them that really made us laugh. Betty White playing football was really funny. Many just had us saying, “Really?”

January 26, 2010

Free Time

Filed under: At home — Janice @ 2:15 am

I sure would like to know what free time is like. I know I fritter away tons of time, but I hate when an evening that looks “wide open” is over before I get to really do the things I want to do. Yes, I know I need priorities.

Tonight I had one report to type. I sent Mark off to TC’s. My allergies are keeping me home. I ate some dinner after he left and watched the evening news. I started typing the LONG report. I took a break and answered emails. I created a group on Facebook that I had promised I would create (a support group for spasmodic dysphonia). I kept thinking, when I’m done with this report I’m going to just turn on whatever late night show is on and pick up all the things in this office that the kitten has pushed to the floor. I go back to the report and type some more. I take another break because this report is truly long and boring. Another email another search on the internet for some non-word my doctor has used. Back to the report. Finally, I am through. The report is done, saved, filed, emailed. And it is after 1 a.m. I truly thought I would get the office clean(er) and go put the kitchen to rights and still be able to go to bed early.

Obviously, I am delusional.

But I am going to go to bed before Mark gets home or I’ll be up until 4 a.m. and I know that would just about do me in with the way I’m feeling. So Nyquil, here I come.

January 25, 2010

Super Bowl Thoughts

Filed under: At home — Janice @ 1:22 am

The season is almost over. But this afternoon of football seemed so extraordinarily LONG that I almost had a wistful desire that football WOULD be over. I know! Heresy! Right?

[I'm going to write a whole blog post one day about how I hate this new trend of "I know! Right?" that seems to be the current response to any statement one agrees with]

But I am incredibly happy that the New Orleans Saints are in the Superbowl for the first time. I have been a Saints fan for many years. I enjoyed the Saints fans that were around me one time when I got to see them play against the Cowboys. I enjoyed seeing them walking around the city and toward the SuperDome when we were in New Orleans leaving for our cruise a few years ago. And I have lots and lots of friends that either live in the south Louisiana area or that is their home. My friend Denise if from Vinton, Louisiana, and she bleeds black and gold, if that is an expression they use for their team.

I am also a fan of the Saints because of Drew Brees. Being an Austin star football player, I am excited to see him doing well in his career and leading his team through this almost undefeated season and to the Superbowl.

And, of course, after Katrina, what American didn’t have a deep respect for the support the people of New Orleans gave their team, even when their team didn’t have a place to play. I realized these players have loads of money and they weren’t devastated by Katrina, but I still admire their support for their city and the hope they inspired.

I have had an allergy attack today so even watching football was not a particularly fun thing to do. At one point I almost paused the game and took a nap, but I persevered. I do a lot of time-shifting with football… pausing the game or recording it and then I’m able to fast forward through all the commercials and nonsense and really get right to the game. I did that for the Colts and Jets today, pausing the game while I completed work and started catching up to it when they were fully 45 minutes into the game. That worked okay for a game that I was not so fully invested in. Though I stopped the Saints game at points to go move laundry or check the food on the stove, I mostly stayed in real time and felt the excitement of not knowing what was coming next and also knowing that no one else IN THE WORLD knew what was coming next. That is the fun thing about football.

Mark made it home from work during the fourth quarter, too, which makes it more fun to share a game. Mark even grudgingly admitted he likes ol’ Brett Favre even if he hates the way he pronounces his name. I like ol’ Brett Favre, too, and I admire the fact that he kept on playing even though he is an old man and was hurt. I hope he does truly retire now and enjoy his “senior” years. He will be a great commentator and I’m looking forward to that.

I am pleased the Colts are in the SuperBowl, too. Is there anyone that doesn’t like Payton Manning? I can see that you might want their team to lose (like I will in two weeks) but is there anyone that doesn’t like the guy? I even quit fast forwarding when I see his commercials on TV and, boy, weren’t there plenty today? I’m interested to see if there will be new ones during the SuperBowl.

I think my favorite thing today, besides the victories, was Jordin Sparks singing the National Anthem and that beautiful eagle flying around the stadium in Indianapolis! Did you see that? I have never seen that done before and it was awe-inspiring. I get sappy with the Anthem and the huge flag out on the field and the military and the game, but then the eagle sent me over the edge. She did a great job on the Anthem, too. No flourishes, no changing the tune, no drawing attention to herself. She gets an A+ for her singing and decorum. I’ll give Kris Allen, the current American Idol, an A for his performance. He changed the tune a little and he isn’t nearly as dynamic as she is, but he could hit the notes and that was pretty amazing as well. But no eagle. BUT— don’t you love it when they show Sean Payton and Drew Brees and other Saints players and they were singing along? Not just standing respectfully, not just holding their hand over their hearts, but singing along. I think the Vikings coach might have been singing along, but barely. I’ll still give him a check mark for it.

The weekend has gone all too fast, but a great finale for it, that’s for sure.

January 11, 2010

Happy New Year?

Filed under: At home, Family, Writing — Janice @ 11:58 am

Good honk, it’s the 11th of January and I haven’t even put in a new entry to say Happy New Year? Where have I been? What have I been doing? Did I even think about making a resolution about updating this blog?

Eager readers want to know.

I have been in a blur of football for the past two weeks, that is all that is for sure.

So sad to watch Colt McCoy get hurt and for the University of Texas to not win the BCS National Championship game. But I think we all went away with the feeling that at least they didn’t suck. They didn’t screw up. They weren’t lousy. Their defense was incredible and the offense was only shaky because of the sudden change in quarterback. Some glitches, a few lost balls, and, voila, we lose a game. But now we have high hopes for September and Garrett Gilbert.

My mom has been in town for a week and that has been great fun. I drove up and got her in Waco on Monday, meeting up with her, my sister, my nephews, and one nephew’s sweet girlfriend. We had a great chicken fried steak lunch at George’s and then Mom and I came home. We watched most of the bowl games and four pro games, too. We went out to see Mark’s band (Little Elmore Reed) at Central Market. Mom is easy company. We work and do our thing and are in and out and she takes care of the cats, monitors the weather, puts dishes and clothes away after they are cleaned, and just makes our life easier.

My sister drove down from Dallas yesterday and spent the night with us and we had fun eating dinner at the County Line. I got to show off one of my workplaces to them, too. Today, they left for Dallas.

Mom has gone home. Mark is leaving town on Wednesday. I don’t know why I feel like, in my mind, that things might slow down because I’m home alone most of the week. Nothing of the sort is going to happen. I’m already starting the week off with lots of transcription for the doctors. It was a wild and wooly weekend typing constantly–or at least it felt like that. Lots of reports really needed to go out ASAP so the doctor was dictating at his house and I was typing at my house. I expect more of the same this week.

My duties at all of my jobs also seem to be increasing. That is great news on many fronts. Financially, I expect an increase in 2010 even if I don’t get a better or different job. The downside is that there are just so many hours in a day. I did this in 2002 when I was unemployed, too. You can’t turn down another part-time job when you aren’t making a real living, but then you end up with several part-time jobs that you really like and it becomes a little bit unmanageable. Right now, it is still under control, I would say. We’ll see what I say tomorrow (or in February when I get around to updating this blog).

Thanks for checking back to see if I am writing and for the notes urging me to write something. I love doing it and I write many more in my head than ever see the light of day. I spend hours at a keyboard at the office each day, hours more typing at home each night. Yes, I email and Facebook to a degree, and then I find myself shutting it down and back in another room in the house before I remember I meant to blog. The netbook really was supposed to help solve that dilemma. So instead of making a resolution about blogging regularly or even more often, I will resolve to SOMETIMES blog from the netbook and get more comfortable finding this darn update screen to blog on from it, and maybe that will encourage me to blog from the patio (when it is above 50 again) and from quaint coffeeshops and beer joints that we all know I frequent regularly.

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