Lady of Spain Comes to Visit

What a delightful surprise! Our Lady of Spain hits this area with a day’s announcement, and is here for only three days. We were lucky to get together for lunch.



Back in the 1990s, Assumpta came for a one-year program to teach mathematics at the same school where hubby was teaching. He and other members of the math department provided Assumpta assistance, and she has many times expressed her gratitude. She is a lovely lady.

Outside the restaurant we paused for a photo before saying, “Hasta la vista.”


The memories part for me goes back to January 1998 and a marvelous trip that my daughter and I took to parts of Europe. One of our favorite cities was Barcelona. That is the place we still want to keep going back to. Although we were very cold, we enjoyed the sights, particularly with Assumpta as our personal guide.

That is me and Assumpta on the roof level of the Gaudi Museum, and on the right, are daughter and Assumpta in the same place.

Assumpta showed us her apartment in Olot.

We were warmly greeted by her own family.

But daughter and I could not leave Barcelona without visiting the monumental church of the Holy Family, begun by Antoni Gaudi so many years ago. Hubby and I had visited Barcelona some 30 something years earlier. At that time the church was a mere shell and the laborers were skilled but their tools were "low tech" in comparison to what we observed in 1998. I would like to return to see the progress during this century.





This is one of the many, many pictures we took of the spires. Believe it or not, I actually climbed one of those spires, but did not attempt to go to the highest point allowed for tourist--but daughter did. The view from up there is breathtaking, literally.











This last picture is one that I took because I saw the box with numbers. I was thinking of hubby and daughter and how they are mathematicians. At the time I was in too much of a hurry to figure out what the numbers meant, but have since figured them out. Can you?

Signs in the Rest Rooms

 

 

The “Decency” sign was discovered in a Chinese Restaurant in Garden Grove, CA.

The “Please Flush” sign was found in a Clubhouse of a Senior Apartment Complex in Azusa, CA.

I thought they were both humorous, but those signs brought back memories (though now a little hazy) of my two European tours.

My first tour of Europe was with Hubby in the summer of 1966. We had wed June 1965, went back to teach one more year at Tascosa High School, Amarillo, TX. I was a member of an organization of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese. The organization and some University in Spain sponsored a 9-week course in Madrid. The course was optional, but we could take advantage of the charter plane. So the trip was sort of a honeymoon for us. We toured Europe on a shoestring. We were young and healthy and could walk long distances, climb stairs to the top of domes, sleep on the train, etc.

Fast forward to January 1998 and Daughter and I went to Europe for about 5 or 6 weeks. She was between finishing school and finding a job. I discovered I could not walk as far, climb as many steps, and I preferred sleeping on a clean, warm hotel bed. But the tour was a great adventure nonetheless.

On the second tour, I was also more picky on the bathroom facilities, especially those found in public places such as the train stations and restaurants. Even some of the older accommodations in Barcelona, Florence and other cities could have been brought to higher standards. Daughter and I began to joke and take notice of some of the signs found in some rest room facilities. I don’t remember specific wordings on the signs, but our lodging in Valencia, Spain was a place that had signs plastered on the bedroom walls as well as the rest room walls. Most of the signs had instructions or directions of things NOT to do. We thought the experience was very funny.


I feel very fortunate to have done that traveling--sweet memories of experiences with very dear ones.

Serving on the Grand Jury

Earlier this week I received in the mail a solicitation to apply to the Orange County Grand Jury. It came while I was out of town, so I am still trying to catch up with my mail.


I have already served the County. My first panel was the 1994-1995, an 18-month stint. That was due to the Treasurer declaring bankruptcy December 1994. We knew that the investigation would need a whole year, so the panel voted unanimously to extend the normal period of 12 months to 18 months. The outlook for the County was bleak, but we recovered somewhat.




The second Grand Jury panel was 1998-1999. That was a year of change--new district attorney, new sheriff. I still recall the sheriff addressing the panel, and informing us about his idea of having a group of community advisors. Of course we thought he was talking real community leaders, not people wanting gun permits and badges. Oh well, we have yet to see how his federal trial comes out.


The third panel was 2002-2003. The ET Committee was one of the panels on which I sat. ET stands for Environment and Transportation, but we sometimes called it the Entertainment and Travel Committee because we enjoyed each other’s company and we took a few field trips in our charge of investigation.

Below is the committee at the Seven Oaks Dam. We still get together now and then, and I think we are due for another trip soon. Where are we going next?

I have only one thing to add. You meet some of the nicest people from all over the County. Most of us are sincere altruists who believed we could make a difference for the betterment of the County.

Recovering Lost Documents and Juan de Oñate

My hard drive crashed almost a year ago. Fortunately it was an external drive, so there was some hope. We took the sick drive to a Mac doctor in the county. He was able to recover many, many thousands of documents and images.

I sighed in relief that all was not lost. There were some documents and images that could not be rescued, but I’ll never know which ones they were. When I went to the rescuer’s workroom (his garage), he gave me a quick illustration of how he had organized the saved items. Documents alone numbered in the thousands and thousands. Now all I have to do is open each one, identify what it is, give it a proper name so that I may retrieve it with ease, and organize it in folders, etc. The dates that the photos were taken or word documents created all have a November 2007, which is when he recovered the files.

So, when I get a few moments to spare, I start opening files, never knowing what I'm going to find. I confess that many of the documents could have been trashed a long time ago, but others, I am glad to have back.

Today, I ran into some extractions I had taken from Juan Antonio Esquibel’s web site. This particular Word document has to do with his lineage to his ancestor Juan de Oñate.

Last May I went on a dream-fulfilling trip to the Copper Canyon in Chihuahua. To get there I had to fly in to El Paso. At the entrance of the El Paso airport is this tremendously huge equestrian statue of Don Juan de Oñate. There was a lot of controversy before the statue was finally installed and dedicated. Maybe there still is. I can understand both sides in this controversy. Juan de Oñate was a cruel, ruthless man who killed many of the natives according to historians, and he was also a great conquistador, greatly impacting the settling of Europeans in New Mexico. I try not to judge my ancestors—and, Oñate is also one of my ancestors.

 

 

Fireworks in Mexico

Mexican Independence Day. This being a day of celebration for the Mexican population, I thought I would share a photo that was taken in Saltillo, Coahuila a couple of years ago (mas or menos). My daughter and I joined a genealogical group from San Antonio for a week of researching, sightseeing, shopping and enjoying the good company of our hosts /guides in Saltillo.

The city was also having a big celebration because it was some milestone anniversary of the founding, but, we don't really need much of an excuse to start a celebration. The main plaza was crowded shoulder to shoulder to listen to the music of about three different groups. After that came the firework display immediately in front of the Cathedral. I don't recall whether my daughter or I took this photo, but it brings good memories of good times.

Austin, here we come

I saw my dentist this morning and got a double crown? She said it was really called a splint crown. I am glad to get that over with. I will attend to the other side of the mouth next month. I am told that all this work is not that I did not take care of my teeth, it mainly has to do with age. Just think I could have skipped all of those flossings?

But the more important thing today is that we are as ready as we are going to be. I have packed everyone's suitcases, have boarding passes for all three of us, shuttle service to the airport has been confirmed, and Austin, we will get there tomorrow--tired, but happy. 

Looking forward to playing with that 7 1/2 month old sweetie!

Get Your Goat or Cabrito

Just out of high school I went to San Antonio to look for work. My dad had informed me that we did not have any money for me to go to college, since my sister was attending James Dougherty School of Nursing in Corpus Christi. I was a real green horn when it came to job searching in SA. The only skills I had were clerical, so I went through the newspaper ads and went to a few places. What I should have known was what was meant by the ads that insisted "must apply in person." I thought that if I dressed nicely, I would do OK. But I encountered the turn-down of "that position has been filled." It took only a couple of those turn downs that I learned that it was the brown color of my skin that was not wanted for the position. Though that was not the first time I had experienced discrimination, it can still really get your goat.

So back home, looking through the Robstown Record, Mom read the want ads and suggested I apply for the clerical position at the Nueces County Farm Bureau. After an interview and recommendations from my high school typing and steno teachers, the position was mine. I was to get paid bi-weekly. My first paycheck for the first two weeks, minus deductions, amounted to $90! My dad did not believe in saving money, he did believe in celebrating life's achievements, however trivial. So to celebrate my first paycheck he suggested we all go to Nuevo Laredo to a much advertised restaurant El Rincón del Viejo. The featured fare was cabrito. Now that's a goat for celebration.

Fast forward to Summer 1998. No, not the olympics, but a celebration of a different sort. I was being recognized by the town of Marín, Nuevo León for my genealogical work. My mother's side of the family is a direct ancestral line to the founder of the town, José Martínez Flores. The town is a neat, small town, with no hotels, so we stayed in Monterrey. One of the must-do things for visitors is to dine on cabrito, namely at El Rey del Cabrito. My niece (picture above) was so taken with the display of the goats that she asked if she could go to the kitchen area and have her picture taken. Now those are tasty goats.

These memories came to me because the current issue of Time Magazine (August 25, 2008) has an article in their food section on goat becoming "a rising star among American meats."  You can even see a video on slaughtering, roasting goats. I still prefer the roasted cabrito.

Sputnik to Barcelona

Just out of the University of Texas (Austin), my first job was in Amarillo, Texas, teaching Spanish at Tascosa High School. The Russians had had their success with Sputnik in the recent past--1957--and the educators were recruiting teachers with emphasis on math and science, as well as foreign language. The foreign language instructors given priority were native speakers. So I was hired as the Spanish teacher, and a native French woman was the new French teacher. The Latin teacher was a very senior lady about ready to retire.

My first year of teaching was primarily a learning experience for me. Not only did I learn grammar rules, but I learned interesting little cultural bits. One of the stories in my Spanish II class was about the architect Antoni Gaudí. At least a couple of my students were particularly interested in architecture and had heard of him. I had not. But that was one of my learning experiences.

Hubby and I toured Europe for nine weeks shortly after we were married, and Barcelona was one of our stops. I was especially looking forward to the Gaudi works, and was not disappointed. We were particularly impressed with the church La Sagrada Familia.



Then thirty years later my daughter and I went to Europe, and met up with a friend of Hubby who had taught with him in the US. It was great to have her as our guide, and we covered just about every spot in Barcelona. The picture above was taken just before we took in Gaudí's Casa Mila.

If I make it back to Europe, Barcelona is still one of my favorite stops.

The Tarahumara of Chihuahua

I had read about this wonderful train ride that originated in Chihuahua, Chihuahua probably about fifteen or twenty years ago. I knew that was a trip I had to take, but other things in my life were going on, and that trip was placed in the backburner of my mind. Even in retirement, it seems other events took precedence, but early in 2007 I decided that if I didn't do that trip, I might not get to do it at all.


Excitedly, I searched for different tours, but the safest one for me was going with Elderhostel. They cater to able, active senior citizens. So, even though it was not the cheapest one of the tours, I signed on for the Copper Canyon trip in May 2007. I was really happy with the program from the very first night at the Davis Mountain Education Center in West Texas.

The train ride was nice, the scenery impressive, but I was especially intrigued by the Tarahumara Indians. The women weave these wonderful baskets using pine tree needles. The children sell trinkets to the tourists. Many of the men still wear their native dress even though the Mexicans in town wear modern dress.

I would love to make the trip again, but would like to have hubby and son accompany me next time. There are so many places yet to see and do. Reminds me of the Jack Nicholson/Morgan Freeman movie, The Bucket List. Thankfully, neither of us have gotten the medical news that we have only a short time to live.