South Texas Fishing

Radio is still taking a beating here. Because of my limited capability, I find myself dodging the radio.

We have been doing some fishing, however, mostly in the Laguna Madre, Spanish for Mother Lagoon. A friend from Mannford, Jim, and his wife, Sue, are down here from Mannford and Jim brought his boat. According to Jim, who reads incessantly, the Laguna Madre is one of the most prolific fisheries in the United States. Jim, Luther Potts, and I have taken three fishing trips.

On our first trip out, we anchored on the edge of a channel and caught a bunch of whitings, or southern kingfish. These are somewhat reminiscent of sand bass in that they are very prolific, there is no limit on them, and they are very good to eat. We were fishing with frozen squid and shrimp and the whiting would only hit the squid, not the shrimp. I did find out that whiting have very sharp little teeth deep down in their throats - don't stick your fingers down there.

On our second trip out, the wind was blowing too hard to go out into the Laguna Madre so we went to Arroyo City and put the boat in there. It was about a seven mile run to the mouth of the arroyo so we made it. When we got out there, the waves were much too high to stay so we came back in and fished the arroyo. We caught nothing but "hard head" catfish, which I've been assured are absolutely no good to eat! Finally we gave up and, on the way back up the arroyo to the dock, I caught a glimpse of something in the water as we went by. In fact, we almost ran over it with the boat! I yelled at Jim to turn around because I thought we had almost hit a swimming deer. When we turned around and went back, we found a mangy, scraggly coyote desperately trying to get across the arroyo! That was our big excitement for the day.

The third time out, we decided to try the jettys out at Boca Chita. Again, the wind was howling but we were able to get into a sheltered spot. Our bad luck continued as each of us caught one small whiting and I caught a ray. Discretion being the wise choice, I cut the line to avoid the ray's barbed tail!

Jim and Sue have to return to Oklahoma this week so I think our fishing trips are over. We sure had a lot of fun, though, and I WILL bring a fishing rod next year!

Radio Withdrawal

We have been in South Texas for about two weeks now and I'm really having radio withdrawal problems! Perhaps I should say that I'm having OMISS withdrawal problems, since that is really what I miss.

I have the Buddipole up on the motorhome but it really is only good for 20 meters and up. 40, 80, and 160 are very difficult to work on it and these are the bands which have the evening OMISS nets. The 20 meter net, which I can work pretty good with the Buddipole, is at 1830z, 12:30 p.m. here but it seems like we are always doing something during the day.

I'm already looking forward to seeing Dan and Dorinda in March - we are gonna meet them in Mobile for a long weekend. Then hopefully, we can meet Rachel and Mike and the grandkids on the way home somewhere. Grandma could get her grandkids fix that way!

South Texas Weather

We arrived in the Valley the day before yesterday and the weather is gorgeous! Our trip down was uneventful except for filling this motorhome up with gasoline! I find myself just kind of holding my breath to see how much it takes.

We are actually located in La Feria, Texas, a small town between Harlingen and McAllen. If you aren't familiar with this part of the World, it's called "the Valley" because it is part of the Rio Grande River valley. There is no scenery here to speak of except that South Padre Island and the Gulf of Mexico is about 30 miles away. Since we are only about 10 miles from the Mexican border, a lot of the "Winter Texans" go over there to shop and sightsee. We used to but, because of the drug wars, don't any more.

Yesterday I got my HF antenna up and it works fine on 20 meters. I think that's probably the only band I'll work while we are here. The antenna is a Buddipole and I have it mounted on a painter's pole about 16' high. I'd like to have it higher, of course, but it ain't gonna happen!

Back to the weather, it was about 75 degrees yesterday and supposed to be near 80 today. I can live with that.

Photographs

Well, I've embarked on a task which everyone tries, I guess. We have boxes and boxes of photos, most of which are literally thrown into a box with no organization or notes.

These photos have been accumulated from my mother, my wife's mother, and many other sources. I knew I was in trouble when I looked at a picture which had been in my mother's collection and the notes on the back were in my grandmother's handwriting! She had obviously acquired them when grandmother died and added them to her stash.

So, we have established some rules. First, if the quality of the photograph is bad, it goes in the trash. Second, if neither Louise nor I know the people in the picture, it goes in the trash. Third, if it is the sixteenth copy of the same photo that we've run across, it goes in the trash. I should point out that the only exception to this rule would be photographs which might have some historical significance. I haven't thrown away any tintypes! Of course, I haven't run across many of these either.

If a picture makes it past these strenuous guidelines, it then gets scanned and filed on the computer. My children are NOT going to inherit a box of old photos, only a hard drive filled with stuff they probably are not interested in! At least there will be a bit of organization to it - plus they can get rid of it by hitting the "delete" key.

I figure I'm probably 10% of the way into this project. I'll probably get sidelined and it will never get finished. Oh well, as my brother is fond of saying, "It is what it is". I always thought Milt was a profound person.

Habitat for Humanity Truck

The other day I wrote about the Habitat for Humanity truck and commented that I would post a picture of it when I got it done. Well, thank goodness, it is done and here is the picture. I don't think I want to take on any more that complicated!

South Texas

We are getting ready for our annual trek to South Texas, aka "The Valley", aka the Rio Grande Valley. We will stay there as long as it it cold in Oklahoma!

The Valley is an interesting place. It has absolutely no scenery, only mild temperatures. Typically, the temps in the Valley are about 30° warmer than in the Tulsa area. If its 30° here, it will be 60° there, enough reason to travel that way.

Some observations: the place is full of OLD PEOPLE! When you go into a restaurant or bar, everyone in there except the wait staff is over 65. Since old people are notoriously bad tippers, I would hate to have a job like that in South Texas.

In the Valley, you are very close to Mexico, usually 10 miles or less. Louise and I used to make frequent trips across the border to shop and watch the other old people shopping. In the past couple of years, however, we have decided that Mexico might be a bit more hazardous than we like. When you cross the border in Progreso (near Harlingen), the first thing you see is a soldier with a machine gun in an armored personnel carrier. It doesn't give you warm, fuzzy feeling.

You are, however, close to the beach. South Padre Island is only about 30 miles away and we do make several trips to the Island every year to sight see and eat at the restaurants there.

We are going to be staying in our new (to us) motorhome this year. It will be a bit different but should be a lot of fun. We'll let you know in future posts.

The Sign Job From Hell

Well, its not really that bad but it has been a challenge!

When Dan and I had the UPS Store in Sapulpa, we decided to augment our sales by getting into the cut vinyl sign business. We did that for a couple of years until we sold the store. The new owner didn't want the sign equipment so I brought it home and put it in a spare bedroom. For the past several years, I have "piddled around" with it, doing signs for friends and for charities and non-profit entities.

A couple of years ago, a friend in Stillwater, Gordon Sloggett, asked me to do the signs for a trailer for Habitat for Humanity. Gordon was active in that organization (and still is) and I was happy to do the job. A couple of months ago, I got a call from the woman who runs the Stillwater ReStore project and she asked me if I would do a delivery truck for them. ReStore is a kind of "thrift shop" for building materials and other items and is a part of Habitat for Humanity.

At any rate, I agreed to do the signs for the truck and it turned out to be a much bigger job than I had envisioned! I had done about four fire trucks in the past but they were nothing compared to this one. Louise has been helping me and we worked both days last weekend installing vinyl. We still have a few pieces to do but we found out yesterday that the truck has broken down and is in the shop! Now I don't know when we'll get it finished.

When it is done (if I'm not totally sick of it), I'll post a picture.