Feral Hogs and the Jaws of Life

It's been an eventful and busy 2 weeks since I last wrote.

My good friend Bonnie's dear sister Debbie passed away this morning about 4:30. It was a "bittersweet" good-bye. She had been in Hospice for the last 2 weeks.

My friend and co-worker Russell, quit 2 weeks ago. I will sorely miss him at work but I believe his soul is greatly unburdened. I need to email him and keep in touch.

Speaking of keeping in touch, Melissa a dear friend I lost track of nearly 10 years ago found me on FaceBook! I'm eager to hear her adventures the last 10 years. We had some great times together.

Last Saturday I briefly attended a Geocaching event put on by the Central Texas Geocachers. It was a fascinating seminar on the use of GSAK. Unfortunately, this is a little past my level of non-expertise. I did meet a few very nice people.

Last Tuesday I attended a Feral Hog Workshop. It was great! I learned lots. Now I just need to know what to do after they're dead. How do you cut it up? Make pork chops? Bacon? I'm gonna need a bigger freezer!

After the workshop I was so fired up I drove around my property on the ATV and did a little target practice with my revolver. Very little because it really freaks the dogs out!

Then, I went to my second Belmont Volunteer Fire Department (BVFD) meeting. It was very exciting. A sales rep came and demonstrated a gas generated portable jaws of life and I got to try it out! It's amazing. Cuts through a vehicle like warm butter! Also, got to wear a coat and hat with protective visor! We also learned about extraction of victims from vehicles.

Back to Winter, Yea!

What a lovely Saturday morning! (to me) It's chilly and overcast, in the 50's I guess, I haven't checked, besides I don't think my thermometer is very accurate. After a week near 80 I was afraid we'd seen the last of Winter.

Wow, it's been a Wonderful week.

Monday was my birthday, I missed the alarm and woke up at the time I'm supposed to leave the house for work. I carpool with the boss and he waited an hour for me to get ready! My co-workers had brought me beautiful colorful flowers and a flashing lips pin to wear. We went to the Rockin' Tomato for lunch, a pizza buffet in Austin on S. Lamar. AWESOME pizza buffet for the same price as Gatti's.

Tuesday on my way home from work my neighbor called and asked is I was really interested in joining the volunteer fire department. He's not only a member, but come to find out he's the Training and Recruitment Officer! So, I stopped in Belmont on the way home and met him at the firestation. They were having a business meeting at 7. Kent showed me around the fire house and introduced me to some of the guys. It's really cool and exciting. I'm planning on joining!

Last week I started keeping track of what I eat and the calories therein with CalorieCounter at About.com. It seems to be a pretty good program and seeing the calories in what I'm eating has me cutting down and I lost 3.5 lbs! Yippeee! This week I finally signed up for Facebook. Wow, it really is the greatest time waster of all time! But, it put me in touch with some people from high school. Made me a little nostalgic. I hauled out all my old yearbooks last night and purused them for at least an hour. Then dug up some websites and looked up old classmates! I might even go to a reunion! Stranger things have happened.

Here are the Rodeo Pics as promised.

Rodeo Queens!

Ana & "Tim"

Double Trouble!

Let's Rodeo San Antonio with Gary Allan

Yeee-Haw! Took Friday off work and Ana & I went to San Antonio for the day and the Rodeo with Ana's friend Velia Chavez, a Realtor in San Antonio. They have been friends since she was 5 yrs. old! That is so amazing. I would love to find some friends from my past. It always suprises me I don't. Maybe I will when I sign up on Facebook. A few friends have been talking to me about it and I plan on signing up this weekend. But first we need to file the tax return!

Anyway, we had a BLAST in San Antonio. On the way down we passed a Tour Bus and Ana thought it might be Gary Allan's. Then we saw an 18-wheeler for Alan Jackson so we figured he must be playing the Rodeo the next day. We beat Velia to the meeting spot so we wasted time at The Matterss Firm. We tested out the Tempurpedic and Sleep Number beds. WOW, are they comfortable and expensive! Velia drove us around since she's the local. We went to this costume jewelry and accessory store called Serendipity Trading Co. We browsed for over an hour and each bought a few things. Ana bought me a beautiful ring for my birthday. After that we headed to Mi Tierra in Market Square for an early dinner. Right off we each ordered a jumbo Margarita. Velia is a lovely lady and we got along great! We laughed and ate and had a great time. Then we headed to the Rodeo! When we got there we we headed over to the vendors' area to shop. I found a fantastic small leather bag that I hope will fit perfect in my briefcase for only $10! We headed back to the arena and found our seats just as the opening ceremonies started. The rodeo was fun as always. They had the mutton busters and calf scramble! Then darling Gary came out and swooned us. During the show he confirmed Alan Jackson was in town for Saturday's show. After the show we walked around and stumbled on another tour bus that had to be Gary's! Ana wanted to hang and tried to get a guitar pick from the bus bouncer.

Scrap Metal and Memories

Out in the country you see where people just find a ravine or ditch out of sight and dump all their old metal junk there. My neighbors and I don't want to be like that. So, Kent pulled a trailer to my place for me to throw my junk metal on then after I'm done with it he'll move it to his place and his sister's. So, yesterday I spent the day thowing scrap metal onto a trailer to be hauled away. An old dryer, a small refridgerator, bird cage, remains of a dart board, grille to a Freightliner, muffler to a Jeep Waggonner, Coleman stove, 2 Coleman lanterns, Coleman heater, old bicycle, 2 metal cots, deer feeder, bbq grille, lawn mower, propane fryer. Some of the pieces were almost completely rusted away while some would last for years, same with the memories, most good, some not.