Week of June 7th

Sunday

I have decided to attempt to use the week day to make a disciplined effort to write something each day. If I do not, I will talk myself out of doing something with the computer. Today got off to a good start since the LSU Tigers defeated Rice in the baseball super regional held here. Things are always better if the Tigers win. We also had a subdivision meeting yesterday afternoon and Anita made sure that we went. I have a tendency to attempt to avoid that kind of thing now, but that avoidance is not a good thing for me or us. It makes our word much too narrow and that is to be avoided. I must continue to reach beyond my comfort boundaries so that I don’t just end up in my cave avoiding much of the world. This is also why I must write each day or I’ll just sit here avoiding.

The church service went fine, but my digital recorder decided to throw a technological revolt and not allow me to hear all of my meditation notes. Anita and I had to deal with the caller announcer also deciding to get cranky. We read the manual three times in order to remove some names that we seldom hear from and did exactly what the manual said to do and it erased all fifty of the stored numbers. So, I am starting out all over with that little chore, but they say practice makes perfect. It is now after 4 PM and we are planning a veggie supper. I will make a few phone calls and then see what I want to start on later. I might even feel like tackling some emails and giving that some practice.

Monday
We got off to a good early start with some good coffee. After I woke up, I went into the exercise room and did 45 minutes on the elliptical trainer. That always seems to help get my day off well if I will just do it every morning. After that we went to a 10 AM appointment that my attorney wanted us to do. That was over by eleven so we went to a Greek place and had a good shawarma salad. It was good for me to handle myself in that situation and I find that I am getting better with it each time. I made it without falling down or having my radar cane hit anyone. It was good for us to handle that well and we did. Then we went to the acupuncture doctor and had the usual treatment aimed at waking up the optic nerves. We go twice a week for an hour each time. So far not much is happening. But we still hope and pray that eventually something will. We were home by 3 PM and finished the day doing the regular things. All in all it was a good day and I did some things that stretched me a bit in a positive way.

Tuesday (and no tequila)
After coffee this morning, I did an hour on the exercise machine and Anita went to her drawing group from 9 AM – 1 PM. The Scotties and I were on our own and we did fine. I had a number of calls and some work to do on the reading robot. I also learned that today was the thirty-fifth wedding anniversary of Phil and Jimmie Oliver. I did that wedding for them then and am now back again to help them celebrate. We will plan something together and hope that we all continue to live, learn and love. Here’s to them! I also had a counseling appointment this afternoon and I am doing more and more of that. I still am working out how to live in this world and still find a way to give meaning to us and to others. I must always be open to know that today, no matter what is going on is the only today that I will have and if I choose to mess it up with a lousy attitude, then it will be just that, a lousy day. So, it has been a good day and I will end it now by listening to my mystery book on tape and see if I can scare myself to sleep. I will do this again tomorrow.

Wednesday (the forty-eighth!)
Today got off to a good start. It is our forty-eighth wedding anniversary and it has been quite a good time together. We went to get the crown put on one of my old teeth and then we went to get our anniversary dinner. The first date we had was to go get two barbecue chopped beef poboys at Jays barbecue while at LSU. The old place is gone, but his daughter is still running the same barbecue place in a new location We thought about the good times we have had and are glad for them. We have hit some unexpected hard times now, but life does that to everyone.  We will get through this time and go on as we are in the process of doing now. We had a very good time celebrating very good times together.

Thursday
All we had to do this morning was sermon work and get ready for my acupuncture treatment. Then we were back here just getting through another hot June day. We made it!

Friday
I had a counseling appointment today and while I was doing that Anita took the two Scotties to be clipped and bathed. She and Dorian worked on them and she just got back home. I hear that they are quite pretty again and now we are going to have lunch. I will do some more work this afternoon and maybe have something worth writing about. This is good practice for me and I do find that it is getting a little better each time I make myself sit down and use the keyboard. That is the only way to get it better…. practice, practice, practice. I have already done some of my exercise for today and I will do more later this afternoon.

 The house was very quiet with the Scotties gone and I realized that I have come to depend on then to keep me informed about what is going on outside. We have a glass storm door that allows them to see both out front and out back plus they have a Scottie door to the back yard. They can thus come and go as they see fit. They are watchers and being terriers they are vocal and territorial. They have a UPS bark, a FedEx bark, a postman bark, a loose dog bark, and I can really tell when they are warning me that some big bad boogie man is out there and I should be doing something about it. I tell them that house protection is now up to them and not to count on me. That is all right with them. They will fly around and really raise a racket in voicing their disapproval about any situation they define as spurious. It is really fun to have them so active in the house and backyard. They find a way to keep things stirred up in a positive way. They are also talented at begging for food at any meal time. You can hear nothing from them until a meal or snack is present and here they come. I feed two Scotties and myself. Anita lets me do it because we have fun doing it. I know that I should avoid doing this, but it allows me to have a little extra Scottie fun. I am going to stop now and work on the meditation for Sunday. I hope to come back to this later and practice more. Thanks for allowing me to do this. 

I was reading Texas by James Michener and it ought to be required reading for what is now happening to that state and all the states. In the book, the point is made that the original Mexico included California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The westward expansion of the US took those lands from Mexico. This has been a continuing source of anger with Mexico. The book reveals that Mexico is taking those lands back now through the bedroom, without firing a shot or engaging in a single battle. The birthrate in Mexican families is four to six children. So the most rapidly growing segment is the Hispanic group in the above named states plus those of Louisiana and Arkansas. 

In Houston this week Wal-Mart opened a new super store with the primary store language Spanish and a new Maas Club to go along with it. Maas means more in Spanish. So Wal-Mart is making a significant marketing move by doing what they have done just this week. Los Angeles is the second largest Mexican population other than Mexico City. San Diego, San Antonio, Houston and Austin are not far behind. This will continue to happen all over the country and the pros say there is nothing but time until major patterns in our cultural makeup take place. I learned much from reading this book again and I recommend it to you.