Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, 2018

Balloon Fiesta comes to my neighborhood. That's the tail end of my Prius under my carport. Close, huh. October, 2018.

Sly foxes, guineas, and good neighbors

I love the saying about not sending the fox to guard the henhouse. There seems to be a lot of that going on, although that has been true, always. The idiom about the sly fox and the hens goes back at least to the late 1500s.

Guineas roosting at Los Poblanos,
in the North Valley of Albuquerque

Our dear neighbor in Texas, Jake Goodson, had laying hens. And as much as he tried to have a flock of guineas (technically called a “confusion”, the term for a bunch of guineas), he had little to no success. I think guineas are pretty, and I love the way they scatter and chatter when a vehicle pulls into the yard, that is, if they run loose in yard, like they do in so many country places. Some would say that guineas behave like a bunch of idiots. In an attempt to protect his guineas, Jake would put them in a “secure” coop at night, which turned out not to be so secure. Varmints dug under the bottom of the pen, and so the story goes.

Jake was a friend and in some ways like an older brother to us all though the 1980s until our mother’s death in 2007. About that time Jake started having memory challenges, which ultimately took him to Alzheimer’s care a few years ago. Jake, whose Christian name was James Henry Goodson, went to his own reward a few weeks ago. Thoughts of him, his guineas, the fox in the henhouse, and so much more, are precious. Rest in Peace James Henry Goodson (October 5, 1929-January 13, 2019).

Thoughts on a cold-blooded snake

I guess I've heard the expression “mean as a snake” all my life, although I honestly can’t remember anyone in particular using it. Maybe it was in the works of southern writers, like Faulkner. He liked saying things like, “Them that’s going, get in the g**damn wagon, them that ain’t, get out of the g**damn way.”  (spoken by Boon Hogganbeck in "The Bear”).

Cottonmouth, Agkistrodon piscivorus is a venomous snake,
a species of pit viper, found in the southeastern United States. 

I imagine some would have described Boon as mean as a snake. I’m trying to “hear” in my mind’s eye the expression being used by my daddy or mother or grandmothers. They were all brought up as Texan southerners in the early part of the 20th century. Both of my grandfathers had died before I was born in 1943. In searching the Internet for an explanation of the origin of this expression, I haven’t found anything that satisfies my need to know. Other adjectives applied to snakes include cold-blooded (which they are), low-lying (which they are), slithering (which they do). Cold to the touch. I don’t care to handle snakes, although they don’t “make my skin crawl”. Now rats, that’s another story. You dirty rat! Snakes do eat rats. I call that justice.

Roots

I missed the last family reunion with these folks. The trip to Nazareth was just too far, and I’ve gotten old and lost interest in traveling long distances. In truth, I was never really close to this branch of my family.

Photo from jesus story dot net

My roots are European—a thorough mix of cultures. And then throw in the whole matter of being born from a line of people, some of whom sailed from England to settle in the Virginia Colony in the middle 1600s, making their way to North Carolina, then Alabama, and finally to east Texas over a 200-year period. Others who followed the route of the French Acadians through Nova Scotia and down to Louisiana. And yet others who sailed to Galveston to settle around Houston, Texas, just before and right at the close of the American Civil War that redefined our great land, paving the way for further greatness. I haven’t lost sight of that one teacher who grew up in Nazareth, however. He taught us so much, and is still teaching. The problem, though, so many who claim to be his followers are mis-using his words, indeed ignoring his words. They have departed from his ways.

*>My DNA statistics from ancestry dot com<*

New Mexico colcha embroidery

The tradition of colcha embroidery developed in northern New Mexico as early as the late 1500s. Although it's applications was practical in the early days, such as embellishment on bed covers (colcha is Spanish for blanket), the revival of colcha in the 1930s has resulted in its practice as an art form. Frances Varos Graves, from Arroyo Seco, New Mexico, and later Carson (NM), is considered a pioneer in the revival of colcha art.

The pieces by Graves pictured here are examples of one of her favorite subjects, the Catholic Saints: St. Joseph tending sheep. Mary, traditionally referred to as “Our Lady of the Roses,” is depicted, along with animals, birds, morning glories and other flowers.

La Lomita Chapel, Mission TX, 1899

A simple, beautiful celebration of human devotion.

Photos: courtesy of Texas Historical Commission

Truth or dare

Someone sent me one of those forwarded pieces, which, of course, ends by challenging the reader to forward the same piece. A test of some sort: conservative vs. liberal, black or white, sense of humor or lack, Christian or no (God forbid). Others with a similar neurotic and pointless purpose make their rounds on a regular basis. Some of these are actually rather harmless. Stats from sources like Forbes and the Washington Post indicate that most people who forward do so without even reading (certainly without reading thoroughly) what they’re forwarding. They just catch the key words that cause them to pump their fists in righteousness. Oh, that sense of righteousness, Hallelujah! One of the biggest faults with a lot of the information that travels this way on social media is that the information is non-information. It’s false, or faulty, or twisted. It’s not something I want to put my name on. It doesn’t take much effort to use the Internet for one of its greatest strengths: research. We’re cautioned to not take everything we see on the Internet at face value. At the same time, it’s fairly simple to find plenty of supporting evidence for the verity or lack of truth and accuracy for any information making its way around. The creator gave us a brain, hopefully to use for the betterment of this universe we inhabit. It’s such a waste not to use it for good. Forward this if you agree, I dare you. OMG, no, don’t forward this. I’m just blowing off steam. Or am I.