Hello again, and welcome to my Photo Album. That's me up there, smiling at ya. It's not a professional picture, obviously, but it is fairly recent. I'll replace it with a better one as soon as I can.
You may notice that no other pictures have loaded. I did that on purpose so you wouldn't get bored waiting for them to load. Instead, I decided just to write a little more about various topics and let you pull up the picture if you're interested. I don't fool myself for a minute thinking that everything important to me is important to you, too. So, other than the picture of me, I'm not forcing any of them on you. If there are any you do want to see, please remember to return here using the "Back" button on your browser.
Let's begin the photo tour with the people important to me - my family. The first picture was taken in April, 1981. It was the last photo taken of the whole family, since my father passed away soon after. Sorry about the shadows, but I've tried to lighten them as much as possible. Click here to view.
Next we go to my daughter, Jean, and her husband, John. He is her second husband and a really fine guy - unlike the first one. I understand more than anyone the problems he took on when he accepted her three kids as his own - and I really admire him for his courage and insanity. Click here to view.
Now for my pride and joys - the grandkids. Michael is 10 now. The twins, Justin and Jessica, are 8. I was so proud when Jean told me she was naming her oldest son after me, and just as proud when they chose to call me "Pops", since that was how my own father was known to his grandkids. Click here to view Michael. Click here to view Justin. Click here to view Jessica.
You might be interested in my old house. I don't have a good current picture because it still needs painting after having the yellow asbestos siding removed. So visualize the same house in white with the exterior boards shiplapped horizontally. Also visualize several large trees and green grass. I'll replace this picture as soon as I can, but it may still be awhile. It's not a large house - two bedrooms and one bath - but it was large enough for my grandparents to raise three daughters there. Click here to view.
While I was still married to #3, we moved out to the Texas Hill Country for a couple of years. I was travelling at the time, so I would leave on Sunday afternoon to fly out from San Antonio and not return until Friday night. Each weekend was like a vacation, although I never knew which personality I was coming home to, Jekyll or Hyde. But it was still a great place to live. The first picture is of the mobile home that sits on 2 acres, partway up Saddle Mountain, just south of Leakey. This will give you just a hint of the beauty of that location. I lost this property in the divorce and through the evil machinations of my ex, but I still own the six acres just out of the picture to the left. If I had been able to salvage the property, I was going to have this poem painted on a sign over the driveway entrance.
"Peace and grace once ruled this place, and angels guarded the door.
Now peace is dead, and angels fled, and Grace became a wh---."
Click here to view.
The second picture is looking from the mobile home toward Saddle Mountain. I don't know what kind of shrub or tree this is, since gardening is not my specialty. In my hands, we referred to them as "Jobe's Killer Spikes", meaning the fertilizer spikes that should have caused plants to flourish. Click here to view.
Across the highway from Saddle Mountain and just a little north is the 2 acres my parents bought in the 60's and which was Mom's great love. She would go out there and spend days communing with nature and God. We all loved it. This picture is the swing tied to the big oak tree right on the river in front of her mobile home. Yes, there is water in the river - it is just crystal clear (and ice cold), being no more than 100 yards down from one of the springs that feeds it. Click here to view.
This is one of my favorite pictures of Dad. That's my son sitting in his lap. He came from my first marriage and his name was Duck. If heaven is a place of complete happiness, Duck will be waiting there for me, tail wagging, ready to endlessly chase another tennis ball and return it, ready to swim in any pool or other body of water and jump from a diving board to reach me, ready to catch frisbees in mid-flight, and ready to crap on the carpet or chew it to pieces if I dare leave him alone again. Click here to view.
And now I'd like to share some of my Mother's art work with you. The first picture is one that I only recently got back from my first ex. She kept it and other personal items of mine when she moved out of our apartment while I was off at Basic Training for the Texas Army National Guard back in 1970. I'd still like to get back my grandmother's wicker rocking chair and my Mother's pole lamp. Anyway, if you can't make it out, this was painted in 1934 when Mom was 18. Click here to view.
Here is a picture of a woman's bust done in wax. When I saw Mom experimenting with this medium, I told her that this one was mine. She agreed, surprisingly. Click here to view.
This statue was Mom's first experiment in working with wax. The original belongs to Bill. This was the only copy, until Becky had another one made in bronze from the original mold. Click here to view.
This painting was totally unknown to me until I was selecting the pieces I wanted after Mom's death. It isn't any of us, since it was painted even before Barry was born. The baby just looked so happy and bubbly!!! Click here to view.
This is the last painting that she did, and the poem she wrote to go along with it. I'm not sure when the painting was completed, but the poem was written approximately six months before she died. Click here to view the painting. Click here to view the poem.
Finally, here is a picture of me and my good friend, Jim (Chummy), during our Army days. We kept Baytown, Texas, safe from invasion one weekend per month. And yes, those are paratrooper wings on our shirts. We belonged to an airborne outfit and jumped from perfectly good planes and helicopters. I found out years later that the reason our unit was airborne qualified was that, in case Russia and East Germany invaded West Germany (back in the heyday of the Cold War, you understand), the Texas National Guard would be rushed over and dropped in, to try to slow them down for a day or two until the real army could get ready to meet the invasion. I was a speed bump. Click here to view.
I guess that's enough for now. I know you're tired and anxious to get back to the really good parts of this site, or you want to sneak off when no one is looking. If I find any other pictures that I think might interest more than one person, I'll add them in the future. Thanks for your patience.
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