Connections

I am a curious person by nature and I like to ask a lot of questions.  That is one of the reasons that I put the little map on this blog.  It just interesting to see who will stumble upon this blog and read it for whatever reason.  It's interesting that I would write it...mostly about nothing but stuff that is going on in my life. 
So today I thought that I would just check and see who had stopped by....someone from Bristol, VA took a gander. 
I think that this just so interesting....I went to college (2 years) in Bristol.  I attended Virginia Intermont College. 
At that time....1973-1975 it was completely female...well, we did have a few male students but they were what we called "Day Students".  In other words they did not live on campus and they were only here during the day...unless they happened to be dating someone and then you'd see them on campus other times.  
I just find that so interesting that of all the places in the country...let alone the world....someone from a small town where I went to college....read my blog.  
Here's something else that I find really interesting....Story time...Story time.  
When my hubby and I married, we bought a sweet little older home in a tiny little town way outside of Austin, TX.   We then proceeded to buy another piece of property that we would eventually build our "dream" home on and move there.  
As time wore on...about 3 years....my husband decided that he really did not care for the piece of property that we bought...it wasn't right....it just didn't look like the place that we should be...so we should sell it and begin the search for another tract of land.  So that is what we did.    We put our land up for sale and began to look for another piece of property.  
Our land sold fairly quickly but finding our next piece of land took a bit longer.   But we finally found it and after some fairly interesting negotiations we were able to purchase it.  
I distinctly remember the first time that we drove by this particular piece of property because next door to us...out on the road....was a mailbox with the name "Blanck" on it and a soccer ball.   I had gone to school with a Mike Blanck who played soccer and I thought that it was just interesting. 
Now you have to remember that my father was in the Air Force and I attended High School in England. Small country and even smaller school...I think there were 75 students in my graduating class.  So to see the name, spelled the same way and to see the soccer ball was just too interesting to me.  After all...here we were on a small Farm to Market Road....about to look at a piece of property that we would like to buy and eventually build on and there's someone who would live "next" door to us that shared the same name as a classmate and apparently had the same passion for a game that's played more overseas than here.  Interesting....
So fast forward to about 6 months after we have bought the land.  We've been clearing brush and I have been hunting over here but we've yet to meet the "neighbors".  
I am home eating lunch after getting the mail and I sit down to read the local newspaper.  On the front page is a story about a man...a profile if you will.  
The story goes on about what a great guy he is and how much his customers missed him when he was sick.  I'm sorta just half reading this until I get to the end of the story where it tells where he lives...and I read the headline....Mike Blanck...and then I re-read the story and I start to make some connections...hmmmm....so I look at the picture again and think to myself could this be my classmate?   I mean...really.....could this in fact be someone that I went to High School with? 
So I take out the phonebook and I look them up and with trembling fingers I dial the telephone number.   Long story short....it is in fact my classmate and we are in fact..."neighbors". 
Isn't that interesting?  I certainly think that it is. 
So here's a shout out to the person who read this from Bristol.   Thanks for stopping by and I loved the two years spent in your town.   I met people there that I have been friends with to this very day. 
And I guess it's just all about the connections.....

Rain

One picture is worth a thousand words.  I have no idea who said that but I've heard it all my life.  And it is so true.
Here in drought stricken central Texas we only had a 40% percent chance of getting some much needed rain but our little hacienda managed to get our fair share.  Whoopee. 
It's by no means a drought ender but it makes us feel like the chance for more coming is possible.  We actually had a 40% chance on Sat. and Sunday but we only received the liquid gold on Saturday and Saturday night.  It's O.K....we'll take what we can get. 
So the Koi ponds are full again and the fish are very happy about the new depth of the water and the leopard frogs have come back to creek and croak as if to tell us how happy they are about the new water levels. 
It's a much welcome sight and if we'd ever get this dang high pressure system to move off this state we might just get some more.  But until that happens we'll just be happy with what we get.

Happy Birthday Mom

This is a picture of my mom as a new bride on her way to the first of many duty stations. 
Today would have been her 82nd birthday.
I would like to say that I am over the initial grief but I think that the pain of losing her will be with me until the day that I die. 
My mother and I had a complicated relationship from my teens to my late 30's.  I'm sure more than once she would have wanted to just deck me but instead she just chose to let me go my own way.  It wasn't that I was rebellious, it was more about me just wanting to be me.
I was raised a catholic but from a very early age I questioned everything about it.  My mother was a woman of faith and took her position on religion completely on faith that what she was told from the priests and nuns in her life to be fact. 
I stopped going to church when I moved away from home and into a dorm for college.  I think that I broke her heart more than once when I spoke so flippantly about her faith...the way that college kids can do.  And so in turn when I got married I chose to be married by a Justice of the Peace instead of a church wedding.  Why would I even consider a church wedding when I hadn't set foot in one in the last 6 years.  But true to her nature ...when she got her head around the idea that I wanted the simpliest of weddings...she threw herself into the process just like any other mother of the bride.
I broke her heart again when after 2 years of marriage I made the decision to have my tubes tied so that I wouldn't have to take the pill any longer and I didn't want to have children.  She just could not imagine how I wouldn't want to be a mother.  My reasons for not wanting children are really quite simple.  I'm a selfish person and I didn't want to have them.  I never enjoyed holding babies and I never enjoyed playing with dolls much and I didn't like to babysit at all.  Some people are drawn to stuff naturally but I like to say that I didn't get the gene that tells you to have a baby.  Don't get the wrong idea...I have nieces and a nephew that I adore and would do anything for but I didn't want to do it myself and I'm very happy with my life. 
The older I got the more I learned how to approach my mother with things.  She was a wonderful sounding board for problems and because of my love of cooking she often called me to ask a cooking question.  That became for me a bridge to her. 
I think that these last 10 or so years we were the closest that we'd ever been.  We talked constantly and spent more time together that we had the previous 40.  In fact  2 years ago when my husband and I took a cruise to Alaska, we asked my parents to come with us.  They did and we had a wonderful time.  I will never forget that trip and so glad that we asked them to come with us. 
So today I remember the woman who brought me into this world.  I remember her smile, and I'm struggling to remember the sound of her voice.  I miss her so much but so glad that we hadn't had a cross word to one another in a very, very long time. 
Happy 82nd Birthday Mom.  I wish that you were here so we could celebrate but I will remember you today anyway.  I love you.