S/V Wand'rin Star: January 2023

Final Quarter 2022

Well, to tell the truth I have been consumed in Jazz/Blues Guitar land and have put off blog writing, I am currently working on a cover tune from Stevie Ray Vaughn's Lenny, I am nearing completion but decided to find my way back to completing the Blog for 2022 while I listen to future tunes that might find their way to Elvira.

October, November, and December served up some interesting challenges and brought our family closer than its been in a long time. They are worth noting here as the solution is not a hard one and can be a guide to others as they navigate everyday life. The solution is love and family.

Austin, Now ATX

This newly remodeled home was previously The Montessori House of Children for so many years under the direction of my sister Ginger Logan.

A typical remodel/rebuild and refreshing since it maintained, in part, the original character of the neighborhood instead of a complete demolition.

That is Pilot Knob in the background as seen from a terminal at the Austin International Airport, an old extinct volcano.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_Knob_(Austin,_Texas)

Our second Grandaughter Liv making some very astute observations of the town we once knew as Austin.

There are still a few remaining but disappearing breaths of Austin.

A new neighbor in our neighborhood who lived in Bali for some time is bringing his Bali experience to Windsor Park

Another completed teardown, rebuild in Windsor Park, seems they really favor corner lots for the $1 Millon plus.

The Sounders struggled after winning the Concacaf Championship, so we were all in for the Verde!

Barley remember the couple of days we got over an inch of rain at the end of 2022.

Noticed a couple of books while we were at Terry Town Pharmacy getting our flu vaccine, I learned about the Cedar Choppers from Howard Davis who farmed the land we lived on for 9 years near Webberville TX, about 12 miles East of Austin.

Joe Nick Graduated from Arlington Heights HS with me in 1969, He defined a large part of Austin

The Admirals ancestry research brings us to the Texas State Archives, so we decide to make a day of it and visit the Capital and Downtown ATX along congress Avenue.

The Bakery no longer serves food but you can still buy Austin memborabilia

These boys are not ready to give up their confederate icons on the Texas State Capitol grounds.

Trouble Shooting Car Repair

Our 40 something nephew was on his way from work just after 10pm and a intoxicated middle age man with no drivers license and no insurance made a left turn in front of him. Fortunately our nephew was driving a Toyota 4 Runner and the damage was light considering the impact. However his front drivers side headlight was smashed. Since he worked the evening shift he needed working headlights. The Admiral and I called around for a headlight assembly. The Toyota parts dealer said there were not any available anywhere in the US, and did not know when new shipment would be available. However he said "and I'm not supposed to tell you this but you can get them through third party auto supplies like O'Reilly's. So we called the neighborhood O'Reilly's up and he said yes they had three in their warehouse and he could have one here in two days. Nephew brought his car over and even though we were able to replace his turn signal light and bend some metal around back in place, the bumper had been pushed up and there was no way to install the headlight assembly. We needed a little help. I called an old friend that I had not seen in at least 20 years who was a professional body repair man.

I found LeRoys 'address and drove the short distance to his home about 2 mile away. They were not home so I left a note for him to give me a call. Fun to reconnect with old friends! LeRoy and Lila gave us a call and we caught up on kids, grandkids and the fact we needed a body repair guy to fix the 4 Runner just good enough to get him back on the road for night driving. LeRoy was of course retired but he gave us some leads. There are lots of body shops along North Lamar and the Admiral and I went on the hunt. We needed a local mom and pop shop. All of the major chain type of body shops will not fix a car partially due to lability. We stopped at several until we found the GUY! There is still some of old Austin remaining after all.

Tucked in on the side of this Car Audio shop is the man we needed. He did an excellent job for very reasonable $$$

https://youtu.be/dBN86y30Ufc

Fort Worth with Big Dave

It was time to visit Big Dave in Ft. Worth, the Admirals 90 yr old dad.

It is always about a three hour drive from ATX so we look forward to a walk to stretch out a bit, It was a late fall everywhere in Texas plus there is always some interesting yard art around.

The best Fall Colors this part of Texas could muster.

Next day we headed down for the Admiral to continue her genealogy journey at the Tarrant County Archives in downtown Ft. Worth. This is her Pearson side grandfather who was a First Lieutenant in the Army Air Force

This is how they navigated their open cockpit bi-planes with a cloth fold up topographical map.

We decided that it would be nice to visit the Ft Worth Gardens on the South edge of Downtown Ft. Worth, while down there and take a walk down Main Street to see how things have changed.

First for us to learn about Hell's Half Acre, but since then we watched the TV series 1823 and we learned a bit more.

Most of the water Gardens were without water I guess due to winter maintenance.

Sad, all of these trees are dead as a door nail, from the 2021 winter storm.

There are a few new highrise buildings downtown but really nothing compared to ATX, Dallas or especially Seattle.

We saw Elvis here with Lynns mom back in the 80's, her mom was so excited she bought us all tickets very close to Elvis.

Looking North down Main Street from the Convention Center

I got this image from the internet, It is of Sunset Square,

a new to us addition to Downtown.

See: https://youtu.be/a99gAszEQPg

Haltom's Jewelry, where we picked out and bought the Admirals engagement ring together.

All Texans know this story

Kennedy visited Ft. Worth the Day before he was Shot in Dallas, the first time for us to see this plaza dedicated to him.

I took this picture the time before we were up there, the new JD's Hamburger joint was being built with outdoor sitting and a stage for bands, and Big Dave was very curious since he lived near and owned some property just across the street.

JD's Now Open and Big Dave was ready to try one, We arrive right at 4pm when they opened.

https://jdshamburgers.com/

We were not sure but we had already looked at the menus online and picked out our burger

I got the Mighty Fine:

DOT & JOHNNY MACK | $12.99

avocado and pico de gallo

MThe best burger I have had in the last five years!

LIV at

Our Second Granddaughter performed in the 2022 Round Top Festival Institute presentation of the Nutcracker

see: https://festivalhill.org/

The Theatre is really incredible and attracts so many events to this small town events center.

Mueller Walks

Walking every day keeps the blood flowing among other things, we walk daily somewhere.

Mueller is a 5 minute drive and has a nice park and lake, it is built where the Old Austin Mueller Airport used to be, just 10 minutes from Downtown really. It it the first comprehensive planned community in Austin where supposedly you can live work and play all in walking distance.

Water is always a nice addition to a walk.

Yard Project

A neighbor set out this wheel barrow, and I just happened to need one. It had a flat tire so I bought a patch kit, but it did not need a patch, it just needed some debris cleaned out from around the bead and the tire was just fine. I had a Yard project where the wheel barrow would come in handy. As the Texas draught is putting a premium on watering grass. My Plan to remove a 4' wide strip of grass 85' long and replace with rocks was going to relieve a bit of that need to water so much grass.

I got a good start on the project and removed at least thirty linear feet of grass but then the rains hit, so I got delayed and then the next time I dug up some grass I had a sore neck. The Admiral suggested I might want to get some help to complete the project, I thought about it and decided she was right, I have had some past back issues and at age 70+ I don't want to risk it. Anyway help is on the way

This Purple sage has never bloomed so much, They say when the purple sage begins to bloom, rain is on the way.

A Family Member has Cancer

Our Nephew confided in us that he had a sore on his tongue. We talked to him about some remedies for mouth sores but we told him to go see a Doctor, if there was an infection he might require a prescription to fix it. About ten days later he went to see a doctor which gave him an antibiotic since there was an infection but he also referred him to a specialist since he had a concern there was more to it. Nephew does the right thing and goes to the specialist that removes a biopsy and just a few days later the report comes back positive for tongue cancer. The doctors explain to him it was caught early and he should have a full recovery but it would require extensive oral surgery and a possible three week hospital stay. And possible radiation therapy for several weeks after that.

We began to circle the family wagons tightly around him. He asked the Admiral to be his Health Advocate for the duration of his care. Smart Move! The nuclear and extended family were called into service by the Admiral. A duty schedule was assembled with around the clock support and the family members began signing up for there scheduled time. a break came when a early slot opened up for the surgery. All of a sudden we were in hyper drive as the surgery was all of a sudden in just a few days.

I Accompanied Nephew to his pre-surgery Radiology appointment. A different kind of waiting room Decor.

The Nephews Dad takes off time from his teaching to accompany him to and through surgery. The Surgery took a little longer but the doctors were very positive that everything looked good.

The next 10 days would be spent in the ICU. Family were by his side constantly throughout.

View from the Hospital Parking Garage With the State Capitol on the right and the Moody Center Concert Venue in the center Foreground.

The Moody Center

Nephew had The fastest recovery, everyone was amazed at how fast he bounced back

I am sharing my Nephews experience with cancer since I am sure that being surrounded by all of his family and the love they brought front and center every day made the difference between a not so good experience and an incredible experience where everyone felt the loving care brought about a fast recovery, he was discharged directly from the ICU, no three weeks in the hospital needed. We continued daily support even after his return home. He was discharged from speech therapy a month early, No radiation or radiology required. He is cancer free. Think about that for awhile.

Other Goings On

I was trying to complete a tune I was working on and my pointer finger stopped working, it would not push the stings down so I put some tape on it, that got me by for the through the next day, I haven't needed it since?