Abilene and Taylor County History Website

Well, one small step for man ... one giant leap for mankind. OK, so maybe its not quite that big of a deal. But, I wanted to let you know I FINALLY have a working version of the Abilene Texas history website going.

Go to http://www.abilenetexashistory.com/ to see what I have and please feel free to comment. It is a work in progress so your comments will help make the site better.

Dave

A Special Day for Jon-Jon

It has been a special day for Jon-Jon. To begin the day, the much anticipated doughnuts from AM Donuts were delivered and consumed with much enjoyment. I had promised the boys some doughnuts during the holidays and finally fell to the pressure. While consuming his third or fourth doughnut, Jonathan began feeling around the inside of his mouth for some foreign object that he initially thought was a piece of doughnut. After further inspection, he determined that it was a tooth from the lower, front side of his mouth. His first lost tooth and an the first visit from the tooth fairy.

Jonathan's excitement was palatable. He couldn't wait to show the grandparents. He called Granny and away we went to show the object d'art, the now emancipated tooth and talked about the visit from the tooth fairy. Well, once Granny was done, we were off to show Mahmaw and Pahpaw the tooth.

On the way to Mahmaw and Pahpaw's house, Jonathan began asking me how one learns to drive. I explained the idea of a driver's education instructor and how they help you learn to drive. After gaining a full understanding of the intracacies of learning to drive, Jonathan summarized my life as follows:

"Dad, first you learned to drive.
Then you met this pretty girl.
That was Mommy.
Then you got married.
So, you learned to drive before you got married."

I sure thought my life had been more complicated than that. Leave it to your kid to distill is down to a few basic facts.

Jon-Jon and I came back to the house. The next part of this story shows just what a good heart this little kid has. Before putting his tooth under the pillow in anticipation of money, glorious money ($2 is the going rate these days), Jonanthan got a out a piece of paper and penciled in the note below:

It never ceases to amaze me how often he thinks of others and giving back. Needless to say, the Tooth Fairy has quite a challenge tonight: getting a tooth in a plastic bag, eight quarters and a note out from under the pillow of a sleeping, little boy, write a "thank you" response on the note and get it back under the pillow with the appropriate amount of compensation, all without waking him up! Wish the Tooth Fairy, "Good Luck."

Its getting close to the end of the day. For some strange reason, Karen and I thought having two more boys over to spend the night would be a good idea. Like most normal people in the world, it took us about 30 minutes to realize how wrong we were! Be that as it may, there are five boys up in the loft watching Pokemon movies. I can't wait for 11PM to come around so I can send them to bed.

Fencing and Pokemon

Another day of hanging out the with Karen and the guys. Well, mostly the guys. Jonanthan and I spent a good part of the day putting the posts in for a new section of fence.

The fence posts are incredibly level and straight. One small problem is the big mesquite tree in the corner of the fence. I didn't account for the size of the tree and will have to do some "interesting" fencing to get around it.

The boys were patient while I put all this together. Karen helped by keeping the level on the posts while I concreted the posts in. Karen left early in the afternoon to work at the Christian Service Center. Her experiences there alone would make for an interesting blog ... much more interesting than this one, I suspect. As I said, the boys were patient all day so I finally quit working around 3PM and took the boys to Walmart and Game Stop so they could spend their Christmas money. I spent mine too. Jason and Jonathan bought Pokemon and Yu Gi Ho cards at Walmart and I bought a new wireless router for the computers were have here in the house. This Macbook Pro was not working well on the wireless router I had. It was too old and an off brand so it would render pages slowly at times. This new router is fast and keeps the connection.

After Walmart, I took the boys to Game Stop. Jonathan bought two new games for his GameBoy Color. Jason and Josh bought games for their GameBoy Advanced SP. We called Karen at this point and met her at LosArcos for dinner. The enchiladas and the chicken strips flowed like wine. We had a good time just eating and talking and laughing.

After dinner, we came home and the boys played their GameBoy's as can be attested to by the following video.



Karen made a really good Apple Pie. I ate and the world was good!

That's it for today.

Christmas Day 12-25-2006

We had a great day! The picture below summarizes the day for us. The boys received from Santa Claus a football uniform each. Jonathan also got a new bike. Guess he figured it would be fun to put the two together! So, here he is, peddling away on the driveway in about 32 degree weather.




The other boys got some gifts they were thrilled with. Jason got a Red Ryder BB Gun. All the boys had a good time shooting at the fence. Joshua got a Nintendo Gameboy Advanced SP. For those of you without little boys or girls and are not familiar with the latest kid-focused technology, that is a handheld game player. Josh has played with it most of the day.

Karen got a few gifts I think she enjoyed. One was a book on how to do eBay. She has been making stone jewelry (that's probably a terrible way to say that) for the past several weeks and wants to sell some on eBay. She also has a new stereo. She has been without one for awhile and now has a way to play and enjoy her music.

Karen and the boys got me a DVD series on the history of the Alamo (one of my favorite subjects) and a book I am looking forward to reading.

We spent quite a bit of the day at Karen's parents house exchanging gifts and eating.

Now we are home and are happy to be here. Its great to spend Christmas with family and friends but it is also enjoyable to be home with Karen and the guys. We are up in the loft right now. The boys are watching one of their new movies, Pirates of the Carribean II, while I, of course, type this blog.

We hope all of you have had a wonderful Christmas and that you are right now sitting in your favorite chair, comfy clothes on, doing something you enjoy.

Christmas Eve

An evening at mom and dad's church. Off to Granny's house for pizza and presents. The pictures tell the story better than my words...

Did I mention that my sister from Florida was here last week and that I didn't get to spend much time with her?

Merry Christmas to all ...

Christmas Holiday 12-23-2006

A fairly uneventful day today. The only thing of consequence we did today was we went out tonight, had a little dinner at Chilis and then drove around town looking at Christmas lights.

The Christmas lights at Hardin-Simmons University was quite pretty.

After hitting the usual suspects (Amarillo Street, the house on Sayles with all the dolls, and Fairway Oaks) we ended up at the Abilene State School and Christmas Lane. This attraction is getting more and more popular each year. This year there were cars both ways waiting their turn to get in.

We went inside the theater and saw a great train set and took this picture of the boys in front of the Grinch.

Looks like the boys are getting a little less interested in the annual drive around. That's probably normal for boys their ages.

After Christmas Lane, we came home. Jon-Jon and I walked around the block and looked at some more houses. We skipped down the street and gave Jon-Jon a piggy-back ride. After we got back home, the neighbors, who we saw walking around the neighborhood caroling at different houses, came to our house and sang a very nice song to us.

So, here we sit in the loft. I'm typing this stuff in the computer and the boys are watching Home Alone 3, a movie that I think jumped the shark in the second episode.

More tomorrow.

P.S. The Macbook Pro still rocks. Love having it to work and play on.

Christmas Holiday 12-22-06

Started Christmas vacation yesterday. Unfortunately, I have been sick most of the time. Just a cold but what a bummer of a way to start a Christmas vacation. Even though feeling a little under the weather, Karen and I managed to get out yesterday for a few hours, do some last minute Christmas shopping and have a lunch together. The lunch was nothing special but its always nice to spend a few minutes with your wife, stuffing your face and talking about whatever comes to mind.

I had an appointment with my doctor yesterday to see how things are progressing with my cholesterol. The news was very encouraging. My LDL levels went from 220 to 126 with just one month's treatment with an statin (or however you say that). Those kinds of numbers are terrific for me. When I have seen my LDL levels up to 280, having them at 120-something is like a miracle.

I came home, got a call from work to go there and pick up my new laptop computer. It is an Apple Macbook Pro.
A very nice box ... so far. Yep, its what I am using to type this blog. Hopefully, it will help me in my work and in some of my extra-curriculur computer activites ... that is making a podcast for Abilene Texas History.

OK, I have to make the shamful plug. If you want to hear one of the most exciting and informative history podcast, get onto iTunes and search for the Abilene Texas History Podcast.
The easiest thing to do is to search for Abilene on iTunes, go to Podcasts and you will see it there. If you don't want or like to use iTunes, go to the following address: http://abilenetexashistory.typepad.com. You can read the brief introduction for each podcast and listen to the audio file. If you want to subscribe and receive future podcasts, there is a subscribe button on the page. You will need a feed reader to plug the information into ... again like iTunes for your desktop. If all else fails, go to htp://www.abilenetexashistory.com. There you will find links to the podcast as well as the full text for each episode. This website is new so bare with me while I put more content on the site.

Well, back to vacation ...

My boys and I sat around last night and watched The Scrooge movie with Alstair Sims
and then watched Hidalgo. We all fell asleep upstairs in the loft.

Now for the 22nd. A pretty quiet day all-in-all. We mostly sat around. Karen fed me soup and tea to help get me over this cold. The boys watched The Mighty Ducks movie and then spent a good part of the afternoon playing hockey in the garage. Its great to watch a 6, 7 and 9 year old live out their sports fantasies. Yes, we have a couple of moments where we have to referee because they all get mad at each other but most of the time they get along well.

I spent most of the day playing on my new Macbook Pro. I also watched an American Christmas Carol with Henry Winkler.
I have always liked him as an actor. He does such good work with each part he takes on. Very believeable as the Scrooge character and I like the way the movie dealt with the decline of the relationship between him and his beloved. Actually more believeable than the Dickens version.

On to a little more padcasting tonight, another movie and then off to bed. Hopefully, I'll feel better tomorrow.

Will the revelations ever stop?

As you can see from this blog, I have three boys I am raising. This is good. What is not so good is my attitude and responses to them, because of them, in spite of them, etc. We had another soccer game this weekend and things could not have gone more poorly. At least as far as I was concerned ...

Jonathan would not play at all ... again.

Joshua played one quarter and wanted to quit because he was hot.

I was mad at them both because isn't it obvious that doing things like sports will turn them into real boys and men? Isn't that what they are supposed to be doing? I was so mad I even started arguing with my beautiful wife, Karen.

After some relfection and a little distance from the blessed event, there was nothing wrong with what they did. They are just kids. Its OK if they get hot and want to quit. Its OK if they don't play at all. Any problems here are with me and not them.

So, what's the revelation? I don't know if it's society, bad brain cells or what, but I do feel the need to be angry less often with my beautiful children and just let them be kids. I guess I had always figured that by the time I got be the age that I am that I would have had it ALL figured out. Maybe the revelation is that you never figure it ALL out and maybe that is the blessing God gives to us. Maybe the struggle is really what this is all about. It reminds me of the over-used phrase, "It's the journey not the destination."

Just needed to share the obvious.

A New Addition to the ACU Campus - Jacobs' Dream

A new addition can be seen on the campus of Abilene Christian University. Jacob's Dream is a beautiful presentation in stone based on the Biblical story of the dream that Jacob had about his ascent to heaven by way of a ladder.




The 40 foot sculpture is best viewed from multiple angles as there are a number of hidden treasures within the art work, such as the view of a cross if you stand in a specific location. The sculpture also contains a baptismal pool.

http://www.acu.edu/events/news/archives2006/060911_jacobs_dream.html.

September 9, 2006

Spent the day at the soccer complex


Josh and Jon-Jon are playing for the Green Dragons.

Joshua played three quarters of the game and was very tired at the end.

It was a little too much for Jon-Jon.

Later that evening, we went to see the newly dedicated Jacob's Dream sculpture at Abilene Christian University. "A very beautiful and inspiring site," according to Karen. I couldn't agree more.

To find out more on the Jacob's Dream sculture, read the following article.

http://www.acu.edu/events/news/archives2006/060908_jacobs_dream.html

Air Force Band of the West

Here is Jon-Jon enjoying his coke and popcorn waiting for a concert of the Air Force Band of the West.

ForTheGibsons

ForTheGibsons

Star Party at the McDonald Observatory

We spent this evening at the McDonald Observatory in the Davis Mountains. At somewhere around 8000 ft., it gets a little chilly when the sun goes down. We are sitting here waiting to hear the presentation portion of the Star Party.

We got to view some objects through the telescopes at the observatory. We saw M57, M11 and Jupiter with three of its moons.


M57, which is the gaseous remnants of a sun much like our own was interesting.








M11, which is a star cluster was quite clear.












An amazing feat since it is 6000 light years from earth. Jupiter was cool because of the bands (2 black bands) but the three viewable moons was more impressive to me. I also learned that the great red eye or storm is starting to run itself out. But not to worry: a new storm on the planet is taking its place.



What I did not know was that our atmosphere does not allow one to view objects like Jupiter in color. The view through was all in black and white.

One of the most interesting events was the arrival of a meteor during the Star Party. The night suddenly lit up as though it was early evening. We all looked at the direction of the light and saw a meteor in its last stages of burning up. While I have seen a number of meteors in the sky, this is the first time I have seen a meteor at the end of its life less than 100 feet off the ground. The meteor sounded something like a very fast car approaching. The staff of the observatory told us the these types of encounters are fairly common and that the larger meteors sound like a freight train approaching.

All in all, it was a good night and a good visit to the observatory. I think the boys enjoyed it. Jason seemed mesmerized by the size of the universe. Jon-Jon seemed overwhelmed with everything. Josh liked the hot chocolate. Karen was thrilled to look at Jupiter. The whole reminded of when and why I used to dable in astronomy when I was younger. It is a fascinating discipline.

I would recommend a visit to the McDonald observatory if you are ever in the Fort Davis area. The observatory is quite impressive and the staff do a wonderful job.

Jason Searching for Rocks

One of the things we always enjoy doing on our trips is looking for rocks that are "cool" looking. Today's cache includes several pieces of calicite, limestone, crystal and the "hot dog" rock that Joshua found. This rock has the shape of a hot dog in a bun.

Jason found a few rocks to add to his collection on this trip in a river bed like the one in this picture or in one of the rock stores in the area. Josh and Jon-Jon both found some rocks for their collections which tend to focus on more aesthetic qualities such as how much they look like a hot dog.

I suspect we will come home with 40 or 50 pounds of rocks from this. While most of our finds will have little to no real value to the rest of the world, these rocks help us remember the places we went and the fun we had.

Big Bend National Park - Day 3

Crossing the Rio Grande - Yep, we were actually in Mexico but don't tell the Border Patrol















The hike into Santa Elena Canyon is surprising tropical. The Rio Grande provides the much needed moisture to the canyon and allows for some great shade at the opening to the canyon.

















This is the view as you enter into Santa Elena Canyon .


















After the short trip (approx 30 minutes) into the canyon, a much needed break was taken along the river running through the canyon.

















A view back to the Rio Grande once you are inside Santa Elena Canyon


















A brief stop in Castolon after leaving the canyon allowed us to grab some snacks, drinks and visit the house where a friend of mine at work was raised as an infant while her parents ran a general store out of this building.

















After a long day on the road, we were finally back at the cottage for a much needed rest and a break from the heat of the desert floor.



















End of Day 3.

Big Bend National Park - Day 2

After a good night of rest, we set out on the Window Trail at the park, not realizing how long of a trek it would be. Fortunately for us, we had done some research prior to our trip and brought good, wide-brimmed hats and lots of water. So, we set off on the Window Trail, a 5.6 mile hike. You can see our destination, the Window, in the background.

The Window trail is great but the last mile is rough. After such a long, tiring trek, the last mile is uphill and really takes it out of you. We did make it but all of us were very tired at the end of the trip.

The view through the Window into the Chihuahan desert was spectacular but a little scary when you realized how wasy it would be to fall over the side of the mountain.



















After the long hike, we retreated to our cabin and attempted to interact with the deer that frequented the cottage area. About as close as we could get was five feet but the boys loved being this close to an animal.


















Much to our enjoyment, the second day ended with another beautiful sunset over the Chihuahan desert that was viewable through the Window in the Chisos Mountain Basin.
















End of day 2.

Big Bend National Park - Day 1

Our Summer journey began at the entrance to Big Bend National Park. Upon arriving at the park, we stopped to take the obligatory picture at the front gate and then proceed to Fossil Rim. Since we arrived at the park at 4PM, it was extremely hot. Needless to say, the heat made our visit to Fossil Rim dramatically shorter as no sane person would have the desire to stand around in heat like that trying to look for the locations for fossils that are over a mile away.

Once we arrived in the Chisos Mountain Basin, the beauty of Big Bend was apparent.
The temperature was around 80 degrees and the trees, flowers, mountains, and wildlife provided a pleasant backdrop for our stay.

After dinner in the restaurant, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset and getting to know the other "campers" at Chisos Mountain Lodge.

End of Day 1.

Our Summer Vacation

We are about to go on vacation to Big Bend and Ft. Davis, Texas. We will be hiking, swimming, horseback riding, rock digging, star gazing, and basically have a good time relaxing and playing with the kids. As we discover interesting places, people and things, I will be posting them on this web site.

David