Posts

A Move, A Job and Lots of Men

Image
Southwestern Bell I was in the market to move.  I just wanted to get out of Dallas proper for a while.  I would start taking the kids and driving around on the weekends to see what area I could afford.  I wasn't in any hurry.  I wanted to find a place with a pool for the kids.  I thought that would be fun for them.  I could take them after work and on the weekends.  They could play in the pool, and I could sit and fry.  (tan) Before my life got easier, it became a little harder.  One evening when I pulled in the daycare, my boys came running out as fast as they could.  They were excited.  There was a dog that somebody had asked the daycare owners to see if they could find him a new home.  And they wanted to take him.  "Please, Mommie, please?"  Okay.  So now we have a dog named Buck.  Buck was a black and white Springer Spaniel.  A beautiful boy.  But he was a bad boy.  He was a Romeo, and he had impregnated someone's toy Poodle, and the owner of Buck had to pay

You've Got A Friend

Image
Friends Friendship is a wonderful thing.  We form bonds with people that we know, love, and trust.  However, after contemplating this for a few weeks now, I have admitted that there are different levels of friendship, different types of friendship, and different expectations of friendship.  There are even specific reasons for choosing the friends we have.  It's not really all that simple, I guess because it deals with people and relationships.  BAM.  People. (eye roll) When we are young, as toddlers, our friendships are probably the most honest and pure.  We see another person that attracts us.  Maybe they are playing with a toy that looks fascinating to us, or maybe they are eating something that looks yummy.  So, we crawl over to them and join them.  Maybe we speak in baby language to them, maybe we touch them, or maybe we touch the thing they have that we want.  If they are open to us, they reciprocate in some way, smiling or laughing, reaching their hand out to us, or may

Blood, Guts, Jaws And a Roach

Image
Jaws Many weekend nights Mary, myself, and my two little ones would go to a drive-in movie.  It was a way to let kids watch movies without irritating other people in a movie theater.  Same for rowdy adults and loud teens. Drive-in movies had been a part of my life since I was a little kid.  The bad thing was, as a child, you really didn't have a say so in the selection of the movie.  There weren't a lot of kid's movies back then anyway.  A few Disney animated movies, about 4 of them, that was it.  I spent many a Saturday night looking over the shoulder of the adult sitting in the front seat.  When we saw scary movies, which would frequently be the case, I would hold my hands over my eyes and peek out between my fingers.  If it was really scary, I would lay down on the floorboard and pull my pillow around my eyes and ears.   If I was lucky, I would fall asleep.   The only movie that I can remember that really scared me was The Creature From The Black Lagoon.  That liza

The Dallas Police Department; Grieve For These Blue Angels

Image
The Dallas Police Department; Grieve For These Blue Angels My association with the Dallas Police Department lasted for six years.  Through my friendship with Karl and Daniel, I knew about thirty cops.  Friends of friends.  Ride alongs and rookies.  Street cops and traffic investigators.  No detectives, just uniformed guys over three different shifts, most of them working in Dallas's terrible areas.  Some were very experienced, having twenty years on the force.  Out of all of those people, I only knew one bad cop.  And he was an absolute jerk.  He just had personality disorders and should not have been a cop. When I lived in Dallas in the early sixties, the PD had a nasty reputation.  If you think about the time period when John Kennedy was killed, those cops, associated with citizens who had mafia ties, hanging out at titty bars and disreputable places, were a dime a dozen.  Many were very abusive and would use excessive physical force at the drop of a hat.  My knowledge of t

Tears For the Black and Blue

Image
I will not be writing my normal blog for a few days out of respect for the Dallas Police Department officers' deaths in the line of duty.  As you know, portions of my blog include references to former members of the DPD. Their deaths remind me of the anxiety I would feel every time there was a police shooting incident.  My heart goes out to the families of all of the officers whose lives were needlessly taken.  It takes a special type of person to work every day, knowing that you may never return home. Sympathies also are extended to the families and friends of the two gentlemen whose lives were needlessly snuffed out in acts of overkill and violence perpetrated by cops who shouldn't have been cops.  There are always a few bad cops out there who are bullies, thugs, perverts, or psychos who escape under the radar of the hiring and selection processes who are a danger to the public.  May we find a way to weed them out. Hate begets hate. We must learn to overcome this. We mu

Rockin The Cotton Bowl

Image
Beach Boys 2015 I had a talk with France.  I told him that I was seeing someone besides him.  I assured him that it wasn't serious that I liked this other person and liked him as well.  I let him know that I wasn't interested in choosing between them.  I left it up to him.  I would still go out with him if he wanted to go out, but I would also be seeing the other person.  I did tell him that I couldn't and wouldn't be available to go out all of the time because of my kids; I wasn't just going to dump them somewhere so I could go out.  He said that he wasn't crazy about the changes and he would have to think about it.  Fine, you do that.  And then he acted like a wounded brat at work for a couple of weeks. Downtown Dallas was growing and changing.  The place where I parked my car changed to a monthly only facility and raised their price.  I had to find a new place to park.  Lucky for me, the underground parking at the new city hall had just opened up.  The

Time To Kiss Off The Kisser?

Image
Kiss Off? Wednesday morning was the pits.  Wine always gave me THE worst hangovers: throbbing head and queasy stomach.  Having to wake up at 4:30 am didn't make it any better.  I only had a couple of hours of sleep, but I would have a smile on my face later on after Tylenol and Dr. Pepper.  The previous evening had been great.  The next time a cop pulled up to me and asked me if I drink coffee, I would have to fib and say yes.  Nah, I wouldn't do that.  Daniel was a special friend, and I planned on keeping him that way.  Close, but not too close.  That was it.  That was the answer to happiness, at least for me, it was. I thought that I would like the dating scene, but I really didn't.  I was going to try and avoid it in the future.  I didn't like the hype, the awkward conversation, the pretending to like somebody that got on your nerves.  It was just a game.  The only good part was having a nice meal and maybe dancing.  But guys just seemed to think that if you we