Sandy Toes Diary

Bit by the theater bug - #20

2006-02-15T16:37:27Z

Dear Friends and Family,
If there are still a few of you out there wondering what happened to that crazy friend who moved to Texas, continue reading. Let me give you a quick re-cap. We sold our condo in Port A and moved to a new home in CC....and dealt with the evacuation of Port A due to Hurricane Rita. Good friends visited, and old and new friends helped me celebrate my 55th birthday. But my time was really consumed by one thing.
I had been captured by the theater and its powerful creative attraction. In the past year, my life has literally been consumed by theater. Doug and I became involved in establishing a new theater in Aransas Pass, Texas, called the Rialto Actors Theater, just last spring.

]]> This whirlwind year began when we were visited by a director/thespian friend Trish Sugarek, who explained with great excitement how she had an opportunity to start a new theater. After a martini-filled planning session we agreed to throw out our sanity and pledged alliance to our new theater and a manic artistic director. Without air conditioning, Doug and our rag-tag crew dubbed the RATPAK built the stage at the low end of a water and trash filled old movie theater. It was the original movie theater of the town, and had been standing abandoned for about twenty years. The recent owner purchased it and turned the front into art galleries and wanted a theater troupe for the back. (The walls still leak like a sieve when it rains.)
We opened with "Artichoke" on October 7th. I was the set designer and painted the 20X12 foot barn, my first real painting. (I attached a picture of the set.) View image

For Halloween weekend I directed and produced "Tales In the Dark", a set of four different ghost stories told in different areas of the "dark" theater. Then we went right into rehearsal for "Cooking With Gus", where I designed the set, painted the zany city-scape (painting over the barn) and also played Carmen. (see photos)View image

. I really enjoyed playing Carmen, a drunk gypsy who gets hypnotized into acting like a chicken and Zsa Zsa Gabor. She was like a little part of me that got to have the volume turned up a thousand times. After my first night jitters I was hooked. It was so much fun. Every performance it was my personal challenge to give them the wildest ride. The energy you get from the laughter and applause is addictive. I was told by so many people that I stole the show. Boy, that stuff can go to your head!
Last week I attended the gala opening of "Scent of Magnolia", which I merely contributed my sewing talents to by helping to create five evening gowns. Should I say I am consumed with theater or has theater consumed me? All I know is I love the theater. The whole experience of creating an ethereal art is both energizing and draining. And crazy. I think now that I would like to take acting lessons and perhaps set design classes, because I think I have found something I really am good at. What to do? We have a community college here in Corpus Christi that has a reputation for a good theater department. It is probably a dumb idea to pursue a career in acting at my age (55) and with my physicality, but what the hay....its fun to dream.
So finally I get a break, and I am taking a trip to Cleveland, March 1st to 22nd, to visit old friends and places, and to get some needed rest. I hope this "down time" will help me seek God's will for my life and decide what I want to do next. Ironically, I once thought that as I got older, that life would slow down and get easier, but it is just the opposite. Every day brings new opportunities and challenges. I have much yet to try and realize and experience, and I keep unearthing talents I didn't know I had. But the days seem to have less hours, and the calender pages fly off in a blur.
Love, Janis

safely home

2005-09-24T19:30:50Z

Dear Friends and Family,
Well, I just experienced my first evacuation, and it was a couple of crazy days. It was most stressful on Wednesday when the electronic sign over the bridge and the bull-horned voice from the patrol car announced, "Mandatory evacuation". That really put my stomach in knots. The police said we had to be out by noon on Thursday. Doug climbed around on the roof, dripping with sweat to install hurricane shutters and I packed up files and photos and my computer into the truck. By Wednesday evening we were exhausted and decided to leave in the morning. The two and a half hour drive up 37 to San Antonio was not too bad, just a lot like holiday traffic. We stayed with friends Trisha and John at their San Antonio house, enjoying their pool and watching the news constantly for two days to see where the hurricane was headed. Friday night was our hurricane party, where the game was every time they mentioned Katrina, showed the Houston traffic, or got an opinion from an expert, you had to take a drink. We got pickled pretty fast. By saturday morning we realized that we had dodged the bullet and could head back home, and I took Doug to the airport to fly back to CA, then headed back home to Port A. Upon returning, I drove around our very empty town to see everything boarded up and to check on what was open, then went home to my dark townhouse because all the windows are covered. Thanks to all of you for your concern and prayers. I am tired but very thankful that the storm missed Port Aransas this time. Love to all, Janis

the storm about me

2005-09-21T18:33:56Z

It was a great 18 month adventure, and if you didn't visited us in Port A, you won't now. We have just sold our house and have to out by Oct 20th. Of course if the place gets blown off the map we will be really going out with a bang. I'm afraid this island will look very different when we return on Monday. We have found another house we are making an offer on today in the berbs of Corpus Christi. Let's hope this works out. Whew. We are staying with friends in San Antonio, and when we get this place buttoned up and all our most precious belongings in the truck, we will leave. Probably late tonight. More later.

Katrina's aftermath

2005-09-03T18:31:38Z

Dear Friends and Family,

In my latest correspondence just before hurricane Katrina hit, I begged you for prayers, sensing, but not fully knowing, the magnitude of the disaster that was about to unfold. I cannot watch TV, or pick up the paper or log on to the Internet, without seeing so many disturbing pictures that make my heart break. New Orleans will never be the same. Thank God to all of you who were willing to stop a moment and pray for others, for the storm did turn slightly to the east, and there have been storm victims who have said, that only through the grace of God they survived the wrath of this storm. Just know that your one little prayer held someone’s head above the floodwaters.

I am overwhelmed with emotions, as I watch the reality of witnessing in my lifetime the worst disaster in our nations history, and subsequently, how people and our country are responding, both the good and bad. Yes, the bad is horror in its purest form, but the good is just as tear jerking. It is easy to say that this is God's judgement, but the Bible also says "judge not, lest you be judged". So I ask you all, if you have any ways or means, to give to the Red Cross at www.redcross.org. I don’t understand fully why I am living here on the gulf coast at this time, and why I am here to have these “once in a lifetime experiences”. Perhaps being on the gulf coast makes me understand more acutely, but whatever the reason, please help these suffering people if you can.

And the hurricane season is not yet over….

Janis

Katrina

2005-08-28T18:24:58Z

Dear Friends And Family,
Thankfully, we are safe from this one, but some have phoned to see if we are feeling the effects of Katrina, so I have attached a few pictures we just took down by the beach. The waves are pretty big and breaking quite far up on the shore, but not up to the dunes like the Ivan waves did. I have also attached a few picture of me and Molly getting ready to do some truckin in our new F150.
Most importantly, our God is an awesome God, and only He has the power to calm the waters and still the wind. Please pray that this category 5 hurricane will weaken drastically before making landfall. Please lift up your prayers continuously tonight for the safety of all the people in Katrina's path. By this time tomorrow, they are predicting a dooms day scenario in New Orleans. Pray for those souls that because of this storm, will seek and find God's face.
Janis

]]> View beachwalking
View beachtime
View my new truck
View molly likes truck

Issue 19

2005-08-08T16:00:00Z

It is hot here.
It is hot there,
It is hot everywhere,
But I don�t care.
Dear Friends and Family,
July we flew�off�to northern climes, hoping to escape the oppressive Gulf of Mexico heat. For months I had dreamed of�a cabin in the�woods next to a mountain stream, and the�cool,�fresh Canadian summer air. It was not to be found. In fact, I am happy to be home�again in Port A where the weather at least�is normal.
First, we went to Lake Tahoe, to attend a writer�s workshop in Squaw Valley. Arriving two days early to survey the area, we stayed at an adorable B&B. I learned Doug hates adorable. You can read my review by going to www.tripadvisor.com and search for Cottage Inn, Tahoe, CA. I recommend adding this place to your list of must-see vacation spots; it is a lovely cabin-in-the-tall-pines experience. Lake Tahoe, called the Lake of the Sky, is spectacular for its natural mountain beauty and the blueness of its water.� I�m glad we arrived early to explore, because once we got into the workshop, I never saw the outside world again.
Aspiring writers of varying talent came together to sit at the feet of James Frey and learn how to write good, I mean well. It was a very intense week. We began at 9 am, only broke for lunch and dinner and continued to 10pm every day. We learned how to critique each other�s stories, what heroes do and don�t do, and when to ask, �Is your hero at maximum capacity?�
We were high in the mountains, 6000 feet above sea level, where it is supposedly so cool you need a jacket in the evenings. Houses are not equipped with air-conditioning; ours didn�t even have screens on the sliding doors.� Yet that week, my jacket never made it out of the suitcase. We found ourselves in the midst of a heat wave. It was almost 100 degrees every day.
Doug and I enjoyed a week of sweating, cooking, (we traded my fee in exchange for doing the meals) more sweating, and having our writing ripped apart, (I use too many adverbs). The high point was the Friday night sex scene contest. Mine was the hottest, judging by all the squirming and giggling, and everybody couldn�t believe I wrote it. A box of chocolates was the prize, which was torn into and eaten by all with gusto.
Early Saturday morning we left Reno for Montreal, and the very mention of the word Canada sounded cool and refreshing. To my chagrin, not even by going to another country could I avoid the heat wave. Unusually high humidity made it even more uncomfortable then Tahoe. Delta lost our luggage, our hotel room was stuffy and by midnight I was yearning for good-old Texas, where at least our air-conditioning worked.
The next morning our bags were delivered and we were moved to a cooler room at the Queen Elizabeth, a very lah-de-dah hotel. John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their �Sleep-in-for-Peace� on the 17th floor here. Doug had to work a booth at a Retinal show, but we did have time together to enjoy seeing the highlights of the city from a tour bus, taking a romantic late-night walk, speaking French, and eating at very chi-chi restaurants.
Meanwhile, hurricane Emily was taking aim at Brownsville, and we were relived to arrive home to Corpus to find everything hadn�t blown away. I needed two weeks of rest to recover from my two week �vacation�. Whew, I am swearing off traveling for a while.
Back in home port, I find myself getting involved in a new theater in Aransas Pass, the Rialto Actors Theater. Our friend Trish, a playwright and director, came to us full of enthusiasm about her new theater she is starting as Artistic Director, and since we both love the theater, we couldn�t help but get involved. Now it seems we are founding members. Doug is the idea man, and also the chief carpenter, and we have put in a couple long weekends with Trish and her husband and a few volunteers, and the stage is almost complete. I will be stage designer/director/actor. I auditioned for and landed the part of Carmen, a drunk, Jewish, gypsy who gets hypnotized into acting like a chicken (the whole life cycle) and Zsa Zsa Gabor, and has a food fight (spaghetti) with Gus the chef (played by Doug Johnson). This could be fun. The play opens January 6th.
Our home has not sold as yet, although our realtor assures us that we will have a sale in a few weeks. Meanwhile, we have started negotiations on a�very retro 1950s house that Doug and I think has a lot of potential, �if we can get it cheap. It is on a big corner lot in Corpus, just over the causeway, about 1/3 of a mile from the bay, and a block away from a golf course. We have looked at what feels like a hundred homes, new, old, big, small, country, city, expensive and cheap. I hope this is the right one.
Oh by the way, if anyone has a cure for heel spurs, let me know. I have been limping around for about two months now and it is really painful. I figure it is God�s way of telling me to lose weight. When I was walking the dog, a guy drove by and yelled �Fat Ass� from his pick-up truck. I assumed that was God, too. So, I have joined the new health club that opened up in June about one mile from my house.� I have my own personal trainer and have lost almost 10 pounds.
And for the last bit of news, I traded in my PT Cruiser for a new, 2005 Ford, F-150 crew-cab, bright red, PICK-EM-UP TRUCK! Finally, I have reached redneck nirvana, and am a real Texan. Doug still has the Merc, had the whole dang frame replaced; expects to get 300,000 miles or so out of it. He feels cool because now he has cop suspension.
Hey, three months summed up and I�m done! Now I have to start re-writing my novel. Have a great summer! Love, Janis

Issue 18

2005-05-02T16:00:00Z

Dear Friends and Family,
I have felt the collective squeeze of all my friends wondering when the next Sandy Toes would appear. Indeed, I have been remiss, so faithfully to all my �fans� I will try to recount my latest escapades. Look here at the calendar; it has been over a year since we started this adventure in writing. Ah me, I recall when my writings were weekly events to help me keep my sanity, and now I am so lazy I can barely get one out in two months.
I became involved with the Port Aransas Community Theater again as assistant director/stage manager/ set designer. The name of the show is �Coming Apart� and is a romantic comedy with a cast of four. We open on May 12 for nine shows. Last week two actresses had to back out and now the show is literally �coming apart� as we try to get two new people up to speed in less than two weeks. I am feeling very much like a rat on a sinking ship.
On Easter Sunday Doug and I both came to the conclusion that we wanted to move closer to our church. We put our townhouse up for sale and have found a house for sale we love on Padre Island, 15 miles down the road from here. Now we will wait upon the Lord. If He wants us to move, a buyer will come. So far, we have not had much activity, although it is the slow season.
Yes, it is the quiet season in Port A and my favorite time of year. It was a beautiful spring, with lots of wild flowers and gardens in bloom. Warm days where we could open the doors and let the breeze blow through the house.
Memorial Day weekend the tourists will descend and again it will be like living in the middle of Disney World. That is another reason why we want to move to a house in a quiet neighborhood. Spring Break only lasted a week in March but we live at ground zero. All night long the college kids cruised up and down the streets with the stereos booming to rattle the windows. When Molly and I stood outside the front door we could hear the sounds of beer cans bouncing off the pavement and cheers coming from the beach every time a girl pulled up her top. There were traffic accidents and tie-ups, stabbings and shootings. The boardwalk railings where I cross to the beach were dismantled for firewood. A lovely way to treat paradise.
My latest �I can�t believe I did this� adventure happened last thursday when Doug and I went on an eight-hour deep-sea fishing trip. When we arrived, the nice man behind the counter said the ride would be a bit rough, about six foot seas. I decided this was an experience I wanted to say I had accomplished, so fool-heartedly, I turned down Doug�s offer to go back home. The trip out was two hours of saying the Lords Prayer while remembering vividly scenes from the movie �Perfect Storm�, and then we finally anchored off an oilrig to fish. One couple was terribly seasick and I was merely shaking in fear. Creeping out on to the deck and bracing my feet against the railing, I became a fisherman. I hadn�t got sick from the roller coaster ride out but the amount of gore involved with fishing made me very queasy. First, there was a lot of stabbing fish through their eyes, like to put them on stringers and to bait the hooks. Other people caught sharks and ling (about 3 foot fish) that the crew dragged in overboard with spears, and blood was everywhere as they subdued them (the fish!). We came home wet and covered in fish guts but with about 20 pounds of red snapper and a triggerfish Doug caught. And the next day I said, �that was fun, lets do it again!�
So if you come out to visit us, know that I�ll be playing captain Ahab. Love, Janis

Issue 17

2005-03-03T16:00:00Z

Sandy Toes Diary 17
"These are the days of miracles and wonders..." Paul Simon.
Dear Friends and Family,
The snow that fell here on Christmas Eve was called a miracle. It thrilled and brought joy to so many Texans. The tsunami that struck the next day left so much tragedy in its wake. It made people wonder how God could let that happen. The longer I live the more I am amazed at the powerful force that existence is.
An interesting effect of our miracle snow was the fact that it killed all the Tilapia fish in our pond. Within a few days we had hundreds of dead fish floating on our little lake. Our neighbor, Norm, put on his waders and started the daunting task of scooping them out by the trash bag full but then the local pelicans came to save the day. To them it was a free sushi bar, and to us, it was an opportunity to watch pelican life up close and personal. We had nine very fat pelicans eating and sleeping, day and night, for about a week right under our noses, which saved our noses. They gulped down (literally) every one of those big, dead fish. (See pelican pictures). I found it fascinating and also a little unappetizing.
The day after Christmas our good friend Cathy came from Cleveland to visit for two weeks. Even though she cheers for snow storms and is a big fan of cold weather, (plans to move to Alaska some day), she was able to enjoy our 70 degree days and took many walks on the beach and collected her share of seashells. She wove some tiny shells into a necklace for me, which I just love to wear. For future reference, this is basically how we entertain people: we give you a bucket and send you to the beach. That�s really all there is to do here. Ask the Palmers, who sat in our garage and waved at people driving by for entertainment. But people always seem to look pretty relaxed by the end of their stay. (See happy cathy picture).
The play, �Cheatin�, that Doug and I were involved in ended January 22 after 12 fabulous shows that were sold out. The critics raved and the cast had a good time. Of course in this town, the farting man from the Moulin Rouge would be sold out also. I have attached some photos so you can see what you missed.
After the play ended I sat down and shoveled through my file box full of statements and receipts in order to get my QuickBooks program reconciled for the year so we could do our taxes. This is the current side order of �big dead fish� on my plate, which I have almost finished chocking down. Ugh. (Again, see pelican pictures)
To keep things interesting I decided to visit the beauty shop and I am now officially a blond (see photo), and yes, blonds do have more fun. No blond jokes pleeeeze!
For those of you who are following our budding writing careers, take heart, there will be more installments of chapters in both books, but probably not until after July. We are signed up to attend a weeklong writing workshop in a desolate cabin in Utah to hopefully improve and wrap up our novels. I am already rewriting like crazy as I learn more from every chapter I am reading of �How To Write A Damn Good Novel�.
Here's a holiday you don't celebrate in Cleveland. Yesterday, March 2, was Texas�s Independence Day. On that day in 1836 they declared their independence from Mexico and became a separate country, the Republic of Texas. Texas was a separate country before being annexed to the United States almost ten years later.
Bet you didn�t know that.
Construction has been booming in Port A and we are smack dab in the middle of it. I swear they save the loudest jobs for five in the morning. We are watching two major building projects taking shape. One is a souvenir shop going in next door to us. The good thing is that we won�t have far to walk to get our postcards and t-shirts. Behind us we are watching an amazingly speedy assemblage of a Days Inn. The good thing there is if you don�t like staying with us (Doug does get a little smelly), you can always move out and shlep your luggage down the road to the motel.
Molly is whining and desperately wants to go for her daily trip to the beach to shove her nose in the latest flotsam and jetsam that has washed up with the tide. Speaking of desperate, I have become a rabid fan of �Boston Legal�. �What�s my name? Denny Crane!� Love it? If so, let me hear from you.
All my best, and Doug�s best too,
Janis

Issue 16

2004-12-12T16:00:00Z

�How in the world do people in the south get into a Christmas mood without snow?� I asked the cashier on this beautiful day in Port A. I awoke and looked anxiously outside for the first snowflakes (always hoping for a white Christmas), but instead, the sun sparkled brightly through my window. I strung Christmas lights from my gutters in perfect 70-degree weather. I listened to Christmas carols all day long while wearing shorts and flip-flops. My living room looks like a Christmas store exploded in it, and yet, it does not seem like Christmas. While chatting at the store, the cashier, who has lived in the south all her life, assured me that people do get in the Christmas spirit without snow. �But what about all those songs about Frosty, Jack Frost, sleigh rides and winter wonderlands, how can you relate?� I asked. �Just fine�, she said, �we use our imagination.� I am still mystified. I think there is a message here somewhere, like, Christmas is in your heart, not in your ski parka.|
Anyway, she then invited me to watch the lighted boat parade, explaining that it would get me in the spirit. Children and parents clim aboard lit-up boats and cruise around the marina singing carols. Okay. I went down to the marina dock and while waiting for the parade I gazed at a great blue heron posed on a pylon, silhouetted in the sunset. I recalled the last parade I attended was the lighted horse drawn carriages Christmas parade, and remembered how bitterly cold it was that night in Public Square. What a contrast! After the sun went down the boats came out all lit up and were amazing in their Christmas decorations. I had only worn a light jacket and after an hour, realized I was quite chilled. No Jack Frost nips, but I did leave for my car and joyously cranked up my heater for the first time. That felt more like the season.
Doug and I have recently become involved with the Port Aransas Community Theater. I suggested that Doug should try out for a part in the up coming show and the next thing I knew I am the assistant director and stage manager and prop mistress and set designer. It is a great ensemble of seven actors, from professional to amateur, and Doug is playing the part of Teddy Joe, the husband who gets cheated on. Now if you have ever wanted to see Doug act in his underwear (and I really feel sorry for you if you have) then come visit Port A in January when the play �Cheatin� will be running from January 5th to the 22nd. Twelve shows and we expect them to be sold out!
I am going to go to the beach now to write my Christmas cards. Hoboy, that�s not going to feel normal either. But it is a beautiful day, so what else can I do? To my northern friends, I hope you appreciate the snow and make a snowman for me, and to all, have a wonderful, peaceful holiday season.
All my love, Janis

Issue 15

2004-10-23T16:00:00Z

�The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives.� Psalm 37:23
Dear Friends and Family,
It is good to be back at the ranch in Texas. The sun is shinning and it is still summer here, and this is one reason why I am glad to be �home� in Port A: the trip to Cleveland cured my homesickness! God provided perfect fall weather for the first week or so of our visit, and I enjoyed watching the leaves change and all the beautiful Ohio fall landscapes. (See lame photos attached.) But as usual in Cleveland, good weather is rare. It inevitably turned cold, rainy and dreary, and something we�d forgotten about happened to us: we just wanted to crawl into bed at 8pm and put the covers over our heads. We couldn�t wait to get back to blue skies and sunshine and warmth.
It appears distance does not have an effect on true friendship. I was hanging out, jazzercising, eating, and just doing dumb stuff with my friends like I had never left. It was great. To all my friends in Cleveland, thanks for spending time with us. It was really appreciated and I feel very loved.
My trip to Cleveland was an odd package of sensations and emotions. From the moment we arrived and hustled down the familiar dingy corridors of Cleveland Hopkins Airport to get our luggage it felt like an out of body experience. I recalled how many times those halls used to mean the end of the journey, the last leg of coming home. We would always be so tired but have just enough energy left to gather up our suitcases, find our car, and head home with a sigh of relief to our little haven, our little dog, and flop into our familiar bed. But this time there was no sigh of relief. In fact, although familiar it all seemed different, as if the perspective was off. Everything in Cleveland held that sensation of being a diorama of my life. It was a nostalgic and contemplative journey that made me wonder, �where is home?�
I am without a doubt a product of Cleveland; its dust is in my bones. My grandparents and parents are buried in its dirt. As I trekked up and down the old streets of Cleveland and reacquainted myself with many favorite landmarks, I noticed how worn away the town looks from generations of souls calling this place home. I felt the collective pressure of a city full of people living out there lives here. I wondered at how tenuously we live on this planet. When we are born we are dispensed into this world like a gumball, and where we land is where we call home. I think Cleveland will always be home in the sense that it is where I grew up and lived for over half my life, but home is more than that. Home is where we spend our time. Where we spend our time eating and resting. Where we spend our time with people we love. Home can be wherever we create that restorative, safe, and private place.
I feel at home now in my little townhouse by the ocean. I believe God has directed our steps to Port Aransas and I feel safe and at home in His hands.
May God bless you and give you much time to live and love.
Your Friend,
Janis

Issue 14

2004-09-27T16:00:00Z

Dear Friends and Family,
If you haven�t checked our web-site lately, you owe it to yourself to take a look. We now have the deck cam working and updating every 30 seconds! You might be lucky enough to catch a shot of me in action feeding the fish or watering the plants. Also added is a link to the pier cam so you can see what the ocean is doing by the Horace Caldwell Pier. You might see some surfer dudes. Cowabunga man!
We just said goodbye to our first guests, Joan and Phil, who went home well tanned, well fed, and totally relaxed. It was fun showing them the island and going on shopping expeditions. After Labor Day, the stores and restaurants here are open when ever they feel like being open, so it was an adventure in shopping. Hey, it�s the island way of life here. And once you show them the beach, the Marine Science Institute, the Birding Center, and take them on a ferry ride, that�s it. But they amused themselves mostly by taking walks on the beach and seeing what gifts the ocean was giving up that day. Phil found a pair of sunglasses and Joan brought home buckets of seashells and pink barnacles. We never did have to resort to giving them crayons and paper bags to play with. See attached photo of the happy couple.
I am looking forward to our trip to Cleveland next week and getting excited about seeing all our old friends. I love autumn and hope the leaves will be turning and the weather will be fallish because the weather here is still very much like summer�hot! No hurricane threats so far, thank God.
In honor of the change of season I have attached a copy of my essay, �Portrait of Autumn� for your edification. I wrote it last year in my English class at Tri-C and it is one of my favorites, hope you like it.
Love, Janis
EXTENDED BODY:
Portrait of Autumn
�Winter is an etching, spring a water color, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all.�-Stanley Horowitz
I am in love with autumn. Autumn is my flamboyant, fleeting lover. Mellow, mature, yet madly passionate, he teases me every year with subtle signs of his return. Even before the autumnal equinox, I sense him coming, as all about me nature is deftly getting ready for his revisit. I catch sight of the geese overhead, honking and heading south in their V formations, and watch the fidgety squirrels hoarding their nuts. I notice how the sunlight slants differently through the windows and the days become shorter. The skies wear a deeper blue, the clouds don a darker gray, and the sunset slips into a honey toned glow. Then colorful heaps of leaves begin to collect in the corners at my front door, like greeting cards and love letters from autumn.
Autumn is sensuous. I love the chilly �sweater weather,� wearing soft flannel shirts and floppy wool socks and spending cozy evening hours cuddled by a fire. I�m crazy about the smells of autumn: the nutty tang of the woods, a hint of leaves burning, and pungent tree-ripened fruit at roadside stands. I love the tastes of autumn: steamy clam bakes, simmering soups, spicy chili, and hot apple cider. I love gazing at a bright-orange harvest moon, the crunchy walks, and the crispness in the air. Most of all, I love the delirious profusion of falling leaves. Wind tossed and irrepressible, across roads and lawns they tumble and scamper like overexcited children let out for recess.
The season is a festival for leaves. First the sumacs put on their lipstick red flush and the Virginia creeper vines adorn the trees with wine-colored garlands. Then the maples don their red autumn uniforms and stand like noble sentries along the streets. After the maples� brilliant display the oaks take center stage dressed in their swirling splendor of gold and crimson. Every day is one exuberant exclamation of bright yellows and oranges, deep reds and purple, celebrating the glory of creation.
But autumn is also the end of summer. There is a look of resignation to the garden and a sharp smell of surrender in the air. Once sturdy plants are now hunched over, pale and weak, offering their final fruits, and saying their farewells. �It was a marvelous party, darling, a stunning summer, we must do it again next year. Oh, is that a bit of gray I see on your crown? Yes, it does make you look distinguished.� As it is a finale, it is also a time for reflection.
So while I marveled at the glorious autumn splendor, I began to wonder what makes leaves change colors and found this explanation from The World Book. �In late summer and early fall, a disk of cells slowly grows near the leaf�s stem, gradually blocking the flow of water to the leaf. At the same time, chlorophyll begins to break down. As this happens, other vibrant colors previously hidden in the leaf are revealed.� This simple definition deepened my love for autumn.
In autumn�s portrait I catch a glimpse of the progress of my own life. Richer hues held unseen within the green leaves of summer are gradually revealed by autumn�s bittersweet embrace. Despite hints of the harshness of the winter to come and the realization that summer days are a wistful memory, autumn is a wonderfully vivid and beautiful season of maturity. Amidst that beauty I find myself in the autumn of my years, gradually revealing a variety of amazing qualities that were once hidden and unknown, and adding new colors to the mosaic of my life.

Hurricane Ivan Special

2004-09-15T16:00:00Z

Hello Friends and Family,
This is a short "special edition" to get you some pictures I just took on the beach. We are feeling the wrath of Ivan's surf. The waves are 12-15 ft and coming up all the way to the dunes. They closed the beach road to traffic, but one gal drove around the barrier and got her car stuck deep in the sand and it is now filled with water and ruined I'm sure. Some crazy guys have a chain and think they are gong to pull it out. I was amazed by how powerful these waves can be. The next high tide is going to be at 4am and they are predicting the waves to be into the dunes. This whole area is on a flood alert. I hope we are going to be high and dry by tomorrow afternoon, but who knows. Please say a little prayer for us and for all those in the path of this horrible storm.
Love, Janis

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Issue 13

2004-08-26T16:00:00Z

Dear Friends and Family,
August 16th was B-day: back-to-school day and thus deliverance from the throngs of family vacationers. The tourists dispersed as quickly as they arrived, leaving in their wake the blissful calm we came to love about the island. Once again, we can venture to town, the ferry or the beach with a laid-back island attitude. The month is winding down. And it looks like I�m going to survive August. Thank you Lord!
Earlier in August we took a mini-vacation to Philadelphia. It was necessary to get me someplace cool as the dog days of summer, with their heat and humidity, were making me suicidal. The weather in Philly was perfect. We stayed at the Latham Hotel in the center of town and walked to everything. We visited Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. We had dim sum in China Town. We strolled the oldest residential street in America and took a bus tour of Valley Forge. I felt 12 years old again.
Then God was good to us once more. When we arrived home the jet stream dropped a once-every-25-years �cold wave� down into Texas and gave us beautiful 70 degree weather and low humidity for almost a week; just enough to remind us why we moved here. The Corpus weather folks say that the first cold wave usually comes in the middle of September, steering away many tropical storms. At this moment we have no hurricanes heading for us and I hope we can say that again in September.
We did watch carefully hurricane Charlie�s path, and on Wednesday called my sister in Fort Myers to advise her to fill up her bathtub with water and turn up the fridge, but they have lived in Florida long enough to become complacent. On Friday, the eye of the storm missed them by 150 miles, still giving them a good dose of the hurricane�s fury. The path of devastation left behind seems staggering, but thankfully Rosemary and Bob rode it through unscathed. Now she agrees that hurricanes are nothing to be complacent about. We plan to put up our storm shutters and leave for San Antonio if anything bigger than a Category I comes this way.
I�ve included some typical tourist pictures of Philly and some bird pictures. Yup, bird pictures. Well, when they land right on your deck you must take a picture, right? Hope you like them. God bless, and live each day to the fullest.
Love,
Janis

Issue 12

2004-07-28T16:00:00Z

Dear Friends and Family,
If people cruise by your home yelling, �Waaaahoo!� then summer is in high gear. Many schools start back in August, so loads of families are taking their vacations in July, and the Gulf shore is their destination for a crazy, lazy, hazy, week of summer fun. Living at ground zero of vacationville has its drawbacks. In my aerobics class the gals were complaining about how they couldn�t go shopping on Sunday because the traffic is so bad. Duh. We just moved here and we figured out fast you don�t go anywhere on the weekends. I get a kick out of watching the tourists take their pictures in front of everything �island� and feel a bit smug about being a �local�. I also gladly give directions to the myriad of cars that pull over whilst I am puttering in the front yard or garage. The thing that saddens me is the copious amount of litter the tourist�s thoughtlessly leave behind on the roads and beach. I hope our town has a plan for cleaning up this trash.
The weather is sooooo summertime. How many words for hot can you think of? Well the weatherman earns his pay with these astute predictions. Lets look at today�s "Corpus Christi Caller Times" for our weekly forecast. Lets see, Wednesday: hot and humid. Thursday: hot and sticky. Friday: sauna like. Saturday: sweltering. Sunday: Baking hot. Wow, in Cleveland we never got baking hot or sweltering. Sounds like I should do my baking on Sunday. Being on the island by the ocean we do get a few degrees cooler with the constant ocean breeze. In fact, we go to the beach just before sundown and it is rather pleasant. At the beach Doug is practicing flying his training kite. He is training for kite surfing, which I will again agree to watch so I can dial 911 and tell the Coast Guard exactly where to start looking.
New things: I started swimming daily at our beautiful community pool. It is a good workout and you don�t sweat. I also go to a morning step class (7:30am!!) about twice a week where I really sweat. We recently got Molly a doggy life jacket to see if she would venture out into the deeper surf with us. Nope. She must know about the law of the ocean; it is a giant food chain. There are things in the ocean that will sting you (jelly fish and sting rays) and eat you (sharks), no questions asked. We go heedlessly in to play in the rolling waves, but Molly prudently stays close to shore. Doug now has a WaterRower. This is a rowing machine that uses water for resistance and makes sounds like one is rowing. Boy, now he is he really going to get buff. It looked like he got a good workout just pulling it the stairs and putting it together. Doug got the weather station working again. He had to reconstruct all systems after a major meltdown on two computers. Therefore, the Deck Cam is off the air until next week or never, according to our technical staff. So that�s about it until next time.
Stay cool and Bar-be-cue, Yours Truly, JanisTITLE: Issue 12

Issue 11

2004-07-11T16:00:00Z

Dear Friends and Family,
A picture is worth a thousand words. I have attached some recent shots of us doing our thing. We went to a great gourmet restaurant in Rockport and took our picture there. Doug pulled the seat out of his car because it was broken so we joked about using an orange crate for a seat...he looks ready to drive to an Amway meeting. Fourth of July evening we sat on lawn chairs outside our garage and had drinks, listened to the crickets, watched the town fireworks and got bit up by mosquitos, a perfect summer night. We just bought Molly a doggy life preserver so she can go swimming with us at the beach. We also just got a kite for Doug. So we are off to the beach for some fun.
That's all for this week, It's summer, have fun..
Janis

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