A Real Good Day

Today was a real good day.

GA and I went to see "White Christmas" at the Theatre Under the Stars, or TUTS, a non-profit but professional theatre. It's one of GA's favorite Christmas movies, so she has wanted to see the stage production ever since she saw it announced when we moved here. It's very nice, and at the end, they have it snow on the entire audience during the finale and final bows. As an extra blessing, the three seats directly between us and the stage were empty - no-shows. So we had a clear view of the entire show.

On the way home, I discovered that hwy 288, which is convenient to our house, makes a direct connection to Interstate 45, which goes north to Dallas. This will mean a shorter, more convenient trip to Wichita Falls when I go to visit family and friends.

We got back to the plantation just in time to swing by the amphitheater to see the living nativity, which turned out to actually be more of a Christmas pageant with live animals, as the actors moved from place to place as the Christmas story from Luke was read, and carols were sung. They had sheep, goats and a very stubborn donkey led around among the angels and heavenly host and wise men and so forth - sorry, no lobster at this production - and this little boy spent the entire performance dancing around and tossing his little shepherd hat up in the air and fetching it, and falling down and rolling in the grass. The donkey, who was constantly fighting Joseph about where he was supposed to be - you know how actors can be - decided to poop right in front of the bales of hay. And here came the little boy, tossing his hat, and rolling around in the grass... and into the donkey poop. He kept right on dancing and tossing his hat.

After the nativity, we drove to some of the wealthier neighborhoods to see how they had decorated, and many of the lights were brightly and tastefully done. One house, though, reminded me of the house in Deck the Halls: not only could you see it from space, I bet people who saw the satellite image were asking which bright spot was Houston.

Sometimes I really like living here.

Visiting grandkids

The grandkids were here visiting last week.
We had lots for them to do, and here is photographic proof.



Here is the water park here in Sienna plantation. The kids loved it, and Evyn is an otter.


Then we have the Town Center fountain in Sugar Land. Isn't this the cutest picture you ever saw? That's Zoey in the letter O of HOPE.





Here are three of my grandchildren, posing for a night photo with Wm and GA:



And here is a night time photo using existing light. Neat, huh?

4th of July

How do we celebrate the Fourth of July here in Houston?

Or more accurately, how do we celebrate the 4th here in Sienna Plantation, just outside of Houston proper?

The longer I live here, the more I like my new home. I'm not discounting Midland, mind you. I love my friends back in Midland. But this here Sienna living is growing on me.

The people here are so polite and considerate. And cool. Cool in the good sense, not in the fashionable sense. They're friendly, and nice to each other, and considerate of each other's space and dignity.

Yesterday evening, to celebrate the 4th, our HOA hosted a party of sorts on the amphitheater by the Water Park. (That's right - our HOA does more with the money they extract from us than just tell us what we can do with our own property. They use the money to do things that make life more enjoyable for those who live here. It's what taxes are supposed to be used for.) So GA and I brought our comfy little camp chairs, and set them on the hillside facing the band that was playing for our enjoyment:




They call themselves "Crisis," which is not an especially great name for a band, but they're pretty good for a three piece. They play rock, country, disco, rap (very little of that, thank God), and even some reggae. It felt kind of strange, though, to be a part of this. We were surrounded by what they would have called the "beautiful people" back in the 60's, mostly in California. They are all young, in great shape (nobody fat and ugly like me), and with perfect children, laughing and playing and running and being nice to each other. All races: whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and so forth.



You can't really see it in the picture, because the Google people shrink the fool out of these photos we upload - not that I'm complaining, since it's free.

But how do we celebrate the 4th here in Sienna? Like this.

Before we left for the picnic/festival/party/concert/fireworks display, we cooked some hot dogs. We ate them on American buns, with American chili and American mustard, and I added American jalapeños.


And for my beverage? No, I didn't drink American beer, because I hate beer. I had Dr Pepper.

Not communist Dr Pepper with communist high fructose corn syrup. This was the real thing, made with Imperial Cane Sugar, and 10 2 and 4 on the bottle.



And that's the flag in front of our house there, flying proudly above the national soft drink of Texas, in Sienna Plantation, just outside of Houston TX, in the good old US of A.

Take that, radical Muslims. Take that, Democrat and Republican parties. Take that, you LTRB politicians. Blow it out your ears.

And God bless real Dr Pepper and the USA.

Excitement

Wow.
GA just came back from her afternoon walk, and there were five (5) cop cars here in our neighborhood, all to arrest one guy. He lives across the street and about three houses down.
One car was parked at the only entrance to our circle, and nobody was allowed to drive in or out.

They drove off with him in handcuffs on one of the cars.

I don't yet know if this was a dangerous enough guy to warrant five cop cars, or if the county cops just have that little to do. I wonder if they'll have color photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, to be used as evidence against him.

I will report more on this when I find out what was going on. So come back to this blog!

*******

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Here's the deal. He had violated the terms of his probation.
He had failed to complete his community service.
That's right, probation violation. For this they sent in five cop cars, blocked the entrance to the neighborhood, made everybody go inside for their safety, and took the guy away in handcuffs.

There are two ways of looking at this. The cops here go overboard on everything, and I had better make sure my lawn is kept trimmed to specs. Or...
There is so little crime here that when something actually happens, every cop in the county wants to get in on it (a la Alice's Restaurant). I vote for the second option, and if that's the one, I am grateful that we live in a place like this, where the cops actually do something about crime.

Still no word on what his original crime was.

Oh deer

I took this photo yesterday, a short distance from my home, still in my neighborhood:



As much as I may complain about the heat and humidity and the traffic, I have to admit that in my neighborhood, there are some good reasons to live here and l like it.

Houston wildlife

There are really some fun things to see in Houston.

Yesterday morning, I was on my usual 70 minute walk along the trail provided by the Sienna Plantation HOA, and I saw four deer in the man-made valley - the valley being, of course, a flood control feature.

Here's the Homeland Security satellite image:



I'm the green X, the deer are the little green dots. It's a great view down the valley when you turn the corner on the trail - one of the few places you can look down the length instead of just into it from the sides, without leaving the trail and risking being taken down by a predator.

I also saw six white herons, but I see those almost every day. The deer were special.
But yesterday afternoon, on the way to the theatre, we saw GA's alligator again, so we went back to the house to get the camera. Here he is:


Sienna Plantation alligator (photo by wm)

Now there's something you don't see in Midland or Wichita Falls every day. And he even smiled for the camera. See how friendly everyone is down here?