A few days ago I stopped for lunch in a small town cafe and saw that the daily special was goulash.  I sat there thinking about a meat concoction heavily pepper with paprika and served with some type of noodle or maybe a mashed potato pile.  I took the plunge. 

I was surprised when the waitress came out toting a bread bowl full of a mixture of hamburger meat, onions, elbow macaroni covered with some type of tomato sauce.  The bread bowl was made in house and looked good.  However, the mixture enclosed in the bowl was what we called slumgullion.  Different names for the same thing, I guess.  I mentioned to the waitress that I thought the cook either spent some time in the army or in prison.  She looked at me oddly and said she didnt know which.  It was good but I had mixed feelings about eating the macaroni and the bread bowl.  A perfect combination if you dont care how many carbs you are putting in your body. (the temple). 

We were all raised in a time when carbs werent considered when dinner, supper or whatever your family called a meal was put on the table.  You could easily end up with 2 starches and a loaf of bread in the same meal.  You could see mashed potatoes, pinto beans and gravy over biscuits.  You ate these combinations because they tasted good.  Carbs, no prob.  Now, the good Lord designed us and I hate to second guess him, but, he could have made some minor adjustments that would have helped us all.  He put taste buds in our mouths to help us taste sweet, bitter, salty, etc.  He enabled us to taste, lemon, cherry, sweet and  bitter all in the same piece of cheesecake.  He could have simply added 2 more rows of taste buds that would have made everything that was bad for us taste like doo doo.  How simple could that have been?  Nope, he decided to put us to the test every day for the length of our life.  He knew that mac and cheese was gonna taste like heaven.  He suspected that the icing on birthday cake was going to taste so good that people would be tempted to drag their finger thru the stuff and then try to smooth it out so no one would notice.  People notice because you can never erase your fingerprints in the icing.  He was absolutely certain that a brownie was gonna taste better than a piece of celery.  For sure.

Well, so far I have failed the test.  I have not been strong.  I have let my taste buds rule.  I like celery and radishes but would eradicate them with agent orange in favor of a piece of custard pie.  When I get to the pearly gates and St Peter starts reading off my many missteps, I guess I am just going to have to set there and listen.  I will have no excuse other than the good Lord made me do it.

GC

I write some about family values and have been asked to explain my definition of such a term.  Not sure I am intellegent or good enough writer to explain but I will take a stab at it.

Family values are not numbered like the 10 commandments.  Family values dont necessarily refer to a typical family made up of father, mother, kids and family pet. Family values are a feeling.  A feeling of belonging.  A feeling of caring and being cared for. Asians seem to have family values in that they care for their elderly.  They respect their elders.  Their elders are a part of the family.  I always loved and respected my grandparents in the same manner as my parents.  My wife and I attempted to teach our children that their grandparents were and are very important to them.  The maternal side of my family has held an annual reunion in Ft. Davis, Tx each year since 1962. I hope it never stops but know at some time it will.  I hate to think that but do believe my generation of cousins, etc will be the last to hold it together.

I also feel that I have a family of “forever friends”.  These are the people I was raised and went to school with.  We have been apart for many years and during our reunions over the last few years you could feel that we never really grew apart.  Oh, we moved to places all over the country but in minutes you could tell that hearts did not move.  We loved each other, cared for each other and wished each other the best.  We were exhibiting my definition of family values. During my pleading and begging  in trying to get one of our class members to come to one of the reunions she told me that since she had not ever come back to Pecos during her life she felt that many had forgotten her or werent interested in seeing her.  She came and before she left to go back home she told me how much she appreciated me showing her that I and all her classmates did care.   I guess this is what you call the family of man.

Not sure that this is a very good answer to “what is meant by family values”, especially since many of our modern families are less than traditional, but I think deep down, we all have “family values”.  We care.

Gary H Cowan

Some days you wake up and ask, what the hell is going on?  These days are becoming more frequent.  Why would a person plant bombs at the finish line of a marathon race?  Why would anyone go to an elementary school and kill multiple persons?  If these acts were being perpetrated by someone from a foreign country that is in an ideological war with the USA, then you can maybe understand, but it usually turns out to be someone from within our community.  How did things get so skewed that the action they have taken seems to be the only action available to them?  I dont have an answer to that.

I am sitting here this morning, in my office, and watching the media pundits go on about gun control.  Most of those who are doing the talking are people who I doubt have ever been to a gun show.  Everyone I have ever been to requires background checks in order to purchase a gun. They say a gun can be purchased from an individual without such a check.  That is correct.  How is a gun control law going to prevent that.  If the bad guys want to buy a gun, then they can buy one from an individual who is not a licensed fire arm dealer and the government is none the wiser.  Passing a law will not change that.  I dont mind them checking me, as I have nothing to hide.  I want to buy a gun, I buy a gun.  Not to be used to kill my fellow man, mostly just to own.  It is more of an act of collecting than anything else.

The blast in Boston should show everyone that the problem is not guns.  The explosives showered the people on the street with nails, bb’s and ball bearings.  They appear to have been placed inside a $ 19.99 pressure cooker, which can be purchased at your local grocery store. How do we legislate against the use of such items, by our fellow man, as equipment of destruction.  We cant.

The problem is really a lot more basic than loose gun control.  We have gotten away from core values.  We have undermined the family in America.  These are not things that you and I dont already know.  I am not telling you something you dont know in your heart.  How do we recover what we once had?  I am not sure we can in the short term.  I think we have to try.  We have to look at ourselves and see what we can do to support the family unit.  We have to start being nice to each other.  We have to start treating all people in a manner that we would like to be treated.  Does that sound biblical?   It should.  That is another one of our problems.

I could go on.  I guess I am just sad about how things are going in our country.  I remember when I would not have thought about carrying a fiream in my auto.  I cant imagine not doing that now.  I dont plan on ever using it. but.

Gary

I have had a relationship with a family of squirrels for a while now.  I planted a pecan tree in my front yard and have never gotten a single pecan for personal use.  The squirrels have been successful in eating them all.  I have recently begun feeding them corn on the cob, which they apparently like immensely.  I have treated them well.

Yesterday, I walked out the front of the house and heard a noise from the eaves of the house.  I eventually identified the noise as an animal trying to gnaw its way out of my roof.  It had cleared a small hole in the facia board and was simply enlarging its escape route.  After a couple of shots fired at the animal he stopped his actions temporarily.  Today my first duty was to buy a live trap.  I have it baited in the attic above the garage and have a snare set over the squirrel’s normal entry hole in my roof.  The war is on.

He could have had a good life, with regular corn drops, if he had only kept his gnawing to the cob of corn that was being set out.  NOOOO, he had to start doing a bit of home remodeling.  I can only assume that he was unaware of the castle doctrine that governs killing intruders in to your home.  The castle doctine, which is Texas law, allows you to kill intruders in your home (castle).  I am withing my rights to stop this intrusion.

I have looked up several recipes for squirrel stew, fricasse, and other ways to eat squirrel.  I am not only going to kill him and his family, including any cousins, but I am going to eat them also.  Squirrel stew with a nice brown gravy, over some light as a feather biscuits, with a nice chianti, and I am good to go. 

I will report regularly as to the number of varmints I remove from the attiack and crawl space in my home.  And, if that little Korean guy keeps up his actions, well I may have to make a road trip. 

Chuy the exterminator

Friends and family.  We had a great anniversary weekend in the lovely city of galveston.  I would recommend a trip there if you havent been in years.   We would like to thank each of you who sent well wishes. There is much to do, or they have benches along the main shopping streets so you dont have to move for hours.  I particularly like watching people.  I like to play a little game while watching people.  I wonder in my mind, 1st.  Does the person I am looking at actually own a mirror?  Do they use it regularly?  Is it one of those wicked witch mirrors like in snow white?  Does their damned mirror lie to them on a regular basis or just on occasion?  Now if you are a 20 something young person, weighing in at about 245lbs and your are wearing a mini-skirt, a t-shirt with more holes than a cheese grater, then I propose that when you asked your mirror who is the farest in the land, well that damned thing told you a lie.  And it does not help that you have the seven dwarfs tatooed on your calves.  Being a bit plump myself, I can attest to the fact that you have to take extra precautions to keep from looking like 6 lbs of sausage in a two lb sack.  It is not hard to do that.  Now, 2nd.  paisley shirts do not go with plaid bermuda shorts.  In fact, paisley shirts dont go with anything.  They can be used in a stage production but should not be used for public viewing.  Match your clothing.  If you have on a brown shirt, try to wear some shade of brown pants, and brown socks and shoes.  A nice brown belt also looks good.  Do not dress like a pirate unless you are being paid to be a pirate or you plan on actually hijacking a boat.  If you are dressed like a pirate and carry a fake gun down the street I want you to know that I am carrying a real gun.  My gun is not a blunderbuss, mine carries 17 shots and a spare clip.  I am also usually carrying a very large knife somewhere on my person.  Pirating just isnt the business that it used to be.  We saw a number of pirates while in Galveston.

My friend Mike and I spent several hours parked on a bench in front of the ole fashioned candy store/soda fountain.  The owners had a giant stuffed poo bear on a bench and sat beside him.  I told everybody that walked by that the bear and I had pretty well eaten all the stock in the store.  Some people seemed genuinely upset, others advised me that they could understand and patted me on the head.  We had a good time.

We ate some really good food.  We stopped for lunch at a soul food cafe.  They had some to die for collard greens and some delisc. blackeye peas.  Mike told the lady behind the cafeteria counter that he only wanted one porkchop.  She bluntly informed him that the porkchop dinner carried two porkchops and that was what he was gonna eat.  He ate both of them.  We had a good time despite the obvious ethnic difference that existed between the four of us and the rest of the diners.

Again, thank all of your for your kind wishes.  We are gonna try for a couple of more decades of marriage.  We pretty well have it down pat and dont expect any difficulties now that we have the children raised, the bills all paid , etc.

GC

Tomorrow is mine and Dorothy’s 50th wedding anniversary.  That is a pretty nice accomplishment for two people who no one gave a chance of lasting anywhere near that length of time.  Goes to show you that concensus of opinions are not always what happens or what should happen. 

We, like most of you, had good and some trying times.  Happily the good far exceeded the ones that were less than good.  We made it because we loved each other and cared for our families and our friends. 

We are going to Galveston today for a bit of a respite from me working on tax returns and hopefully have some good meals, look at many shops and finger a vast amount of merchandise.  I imagine we will se more than one art gallery, jewelry store or whatever else they have there that will attract tourists.  I can only hope that Galveston is a forward thinking city that provides a number of benches for husbands who would rather watch people than products.  Maybe there is a bench right in front of the Victoria Secrets store.  Hey, I been married 50 years, if that doesnt allow you a look, then I should have joined the army.  Had I joined the military instead of getting married, after 50 years I would have probably been a retired general.  If you work for a corporation for 50 years they give you a lapel pin or a gold watch.  I will be happy with a card.

I wont take pictures of the anniversary night if ya’ll dont mind cause I am sure we will be asleep by 10pm and as usual wake up around 5am.  I am taking a bit of work so I will have something to do from 5 until the time the stores open.

G