Taking the back roads

Now, I like football almost as much as the next person. In my younger days, I loved going to Patriots games. And at one game, I sat in about the 5th row from the field right on the 50 yd line. Now that's watching football at its best. But, I didn't know what football mania was like till I came here and watched football with Jenia. Jenia grew up for a long while in the south. Older brother, Mario, is a graduate of LSU and Jenia spent a year or so living near the LSU campus while studying at a gourmet cooking school where she became an LSU fan tried and true. Naturally, having grown up, and later in life lived and worked in the southern states ( Georgia , Mississippi and Louisiana ), one becomes a fan of LSU… AND The Saints. Both Jenia and Kirk have worked in the New Orleans area for several years so they both have a passion for The Saints. Where the house is currently located is right on the Texas / Arkansas border. The house is in AR but most of the things we do are...

Oh the trials and tribulations of a 9-year old's hair cut. Saturday was the day for Stasia to get her hair cut from it's long, slightly below the middle of her back, to a shorter, more manageable cut. My granddaughter can so surprise me at time with her compassion and thoughts. Stasia had been letting her hair grow so that she could eventually cut it and give the cut hair to "Locks for Love." I didn't know what it was so Stasia informed me that if you let your hair grow and there is 10 inches of hair cut off, you can send it to LoL to be made into a wig for a child with cancer who has lost all their hair. The thought of a child having cancer is enough, but for that child to loose all their hair must be so totally devastating. I know how it affects adults since a dear friend of mine lost her hair with cancer but for a child it must be incredible. Well, my sweet granddaughter was trying so hard to grow her hair to contribute it to Lock for Love. Unfortunatel...

Before I receive a nasty-gram from a friend who shall remain name-less, I thought I should post at least some thing. We got our weekend plans organized last nite since Jenia knows her work schedule for the next couple of weeks. This weekend will be some house cleaning with a bit of errands - the first one being to get Stasia's hair cut. She has beautiful, long, gleaming, auburn tresses. However, that's a lot of hair for a 9-year old to take care of. Also it's been a while since she got it cut and the ends are all brittle and broken so a haircut is in order. It's always tough finding new places when you move. We don't know too many people yet, a few neighbors, but that's about all. Since our next door neighbor's daughter got her hair cut, I figured we could ask her. But auntie cut her hair so that's not an option. I guess it's the phone book and we take our chances. Sunday, which promises to be sunny and warm, will be our drive-around-and-fin...

Spoke to my daughter this morning and found out Southern California is really getting pelted with rain. Also noticed the news reports last nite and just decided I need to get info from a verifiable source, which prompted the call. I've lived in So Cal for 44 years and just recently relocated (well, almost all here) to Texarkana, AR. In all the years I've lived in Cali, there have been ups and downs with too much rain, not enough rain and then, occasionally, just the right amount. I've lived thru several El Nino storm seasons and far more LA Nina seasons. It becomes a big deal when we get lots of rain all at once. What many people don't seem to realize is that So Cal is a semi-desert. By virtue of it being classified as that kind of a temperate zone, it doesn't get that much rain, generally, and when it does it becomes a big thing. I checked into the Orange County Register via the Internet (how's that for greatness - my old hometown newspaper any time I want...

When I decided to make the move to AR, I thought I had better bring my baby with me. Now don't get all aglow, my baby is my beautiful Maine Coon cat otherwise known as Taz as in the Tasmanian Devil which he certainly can be at times. I was a bit worried since I would be bringing him into a house with two dogs and another cat. The dogs are beauties: first Gretzky, about 7 years old, a very beautiful Siberian Husky with one blue and one green eye. He is a gentle giant and will easily give you loves, if deserved, but will definitely protect my granddaughter and other household members if the occasion calls for it. In Colorado he just loved laying out in the snow... what little they usually got in the area where he lived. One time when I was in Colorado for a visit we decided to go skiing at the local area, Monarch Mountain and Kirk decided to bring Gretzky along. Talk about taking someone to his home, well Gretz just loved it. He rolled around in the snow and was most ha...

As I’ve been getting more used to the area here in Texarkana , I’ve noticed a couple of things that are significant differences for me. I’ve lived in the southern California region, specifically Huntington Beach , for 44 years. I got very used to certain things and how they worked. When you move, many things change… most of them good but occasionally some of them take some getting used to… for instance. · Traffic – for the most part it is very light around here even during early morning and after working hours. The local streets don’t have much traffic at any time… at least that I’ve encountered. The interstate, I 30, is usually pretty heavily traveled no matter what time you’re on it. Kind of reminds me of the 405, except I 30 is a 2-lane divided highway under construction – and that makes it a pain in the butt. You also have these big 18-wheelers whizzing by all the time in this narrow 2 lanes and that takes a bit of getting used to. · Newspapers ...

Our first adventure was Saturday 1/9/10 with a trip to Hot Springs, AR. Actually it was kind of a spur of the moment thing that we decided Friday night. We had a few things to take care of early in the morning and then we got on the road. We Mapquest-d and it said it would take us 1 hour and 55 minutes. In reality it only took us a little over an hour and maybe 15 minutes to get to the beginning of the town. The road itself to HS is a 2-lane divided highway that was good driving … if you don’t mind 18-wheelers whizzing by and having to pass them. Interstate 30 is the main west \ east route thru Texas and Arkansas to wherever it finally goes. And there is a lot of commercial traffic with lots of diff erent company trucks using it. I frequently made mention to Jenia that the road reminded me of many roads I’ve taken back east… lots of shrubs and trees and rolling highway. Of course, at this time of the year everything is so stark and desolate looking. In another couple of months when al...

Today seemed like a good day to forget about unpacking boxes. After all I spent most of yesterday’s morning and early afternoon unpacking the boxes in Stasia’s play room. Got all her books, toys, games and other stuff in places where she can at least access them. So I’m taking today off. Spent a couple of hours this morning on the phone with the waste management (trash pickup) people trying to find out why they didn’t bother picking up our trash and yet picked up all the neighbors’ trash. Here in the south they have 2 days a week of trash pick up, Tuesday and Friday for our route. We dutifully got the trash out on Monday nite cause we didn’t know what time they picked up… it seems it’s quite early 5:45 AM . I called yesterday and then again today and they still haven’t made it. Hopefully Friday will be our lucky day. When I mentioned to Dil, Jenia that I was surprised there were two pickup days, she mentioned that when they had lived in other parts of the south they ...

It’s cold in AR / TX. As a matter of fact it rather reminds me of my days in Boston growing up. The winters were cold and snowy there… here it’s just cold. Although this morning when we left to get Stasia enrolled in school, there was " frost on the pumpkin," the temp was only 31 degrees and there was a light frost on the truck. Ah for the “cold” days of sunny So. Cal when the temp was 55 and I felt the chill. It’s kind of dreary looking around here and that’s why it reminds me so much of Boston. The last couple of days have been quite chilly and overcast (although the sun was out yesterday a good part of the day). All the trees are bare of leaves and the shrubs and small bushes are just sticks. It will be lovely in the spring cause they get enough rain and humidity down here to make the floral and fauna pretty lush… that I’ll be looking forward to. In the neighborhood, there are several large trees – no, I have no idea why kind – but I will learn that later on. Thi...

A week or so before Christmas, I flew up to Denver to stay with my son and family in Pueblo West, CO (about 60 miles SW of the Denver International Airport) for the holidays and to stay with my granddaughter while my daughter-in-law transferred to her new job in Texarkana, AR. And this trip really did take the back roads from Pueblo West to Texarkana. We spent the better part of six days packing up the Colorado house to move to the Arkansas house. We had a short Christmas because we still had to do some packing and get all the furniture and boxes into the trailer that was to be picked up the Monday after Christmas. We spent Sunday nite at a motel and then headed out on Monday morning. The caravan included Kirk (my son) in a pickup with the 7 fish in a large cooler with heater and aerator to keep them alive and one of the dogs. The second vehicle was Jenia and Anastasia (daughter-in-law and granddaughter) with the 2 other dogs. I came up last in Kirk’s pickup with the 2 cats. The...