Game Day

We woke up on game day to a cloud cover sky.  My husband was very kind and let me hang out in the hotel all morning to rest.  My hip had been hurting a lot.  I wanted to save it for the big event.  He took the car for a drive to get out and about for a little while.

I am glad I took a heavier jacket.  When we made it to the stadium, the weather was a tad bit chilly.  We went early to check out all the tailgating going on in the parking lot.  Yep, we hung out for a good two and a half hours outside the stadium.  After our first fifteen minutes, we were invited by Mike and John to join them.  They were the best of Texas hospitality.  I finally tasted some amazing Boudin.  We had some in New Orleans a few years back that I didn't like at all.  Looking back, I think the sausage was made out of seafood.  This was made of pork, rice, and all the good seasoning.  Excellent.

I saw some fun stuff.  I always love the band.

I was excited to see some old school represented.  I didn't take pictures of the people wearing the Oiler gear, but I loved the combination of new and old with this trailer.

The vehicles that represent the military climate I loved!!!

The stadium was nice.  I will say that I still think Denver is my favorite.  I loved the energy before the game.  Unfortunately, Houston had their starters sit out much of the game so the energy dwindled.  In fact, the stadium wasn't all that full.  I enjoy the games where both teams hit it hard and the crowd goes wild.  Still I loved being there.  I loved spending quality time with my husband.  If I lived in a NFL city, I would have tickets.  So much fun.

Hyde was one of my boys on the 49ers.

I loved the hat until it got in the way.

Houston Museum of Natrual Science

For me, the best part of living in a big city would be the museums.  Okay, I would also love the prospect of zoos as well.  These are my favorite places to visit on my travels.  Even in our small state, I love to go to our museum in Bozeman to see the cool traveling displays that we are so fortunate to visit the state.  And our tiny zoo in Billings, I love to go for walks there when I have time.  So, when we travel, we try to make time for going to museums and such.  In Houston, we made it to the museum but unfortunately not to the zoo.  This just means we need to go back someday.

Now, I have to admit that I do get tired of dinosaurs.  With my aching hip, I wasn't excited to go to Houston's Natural History Museum.  I thought I would go to a section, wander a bit, and sit while Jerry took in the sights.  I was so excited when we walked into one of their traveling displays.  The Gerd Dreher, Life in Stone exhibit took my breath away.  My artist date started right there.  I only took pictures of my favorites.  But, I know they will show up in a novel one day.  In fact, I know exactly which series that I will have an artist like Gerd show up.  I am pretty excited.  Though he is the one showcased, his family is five generations strong doing this work.  Amazing.  Out of curiosity, I went out on the internet to see about buying a piece.  Nope, I am not rich.  Maybe someday.

Next we wondered through the space stuff.  I loved the wheel of the rover.  Jerry loved this section.  I was hurting.  We took a break and watched a planetarium show about black holes.  I enjoyed the rest.  However, with the five miles of walking on a bad hip the day before, I was getting done with the museum.  I found a comfy bench and watched people as Jerry delighting in walking around the dinosaur section.

My bench sat across from a Jurassic tree exhibit.  Another artist date type experience.  I snapped a few pictures and will work this somehow into a different series I have in mind in a few years.  I would love a table made of this wood.  Beautiful.

As we thought about leaving, we stumbled across and Egyptian exhibit.  I love them as well.  Jerry was so gracious and offered for us to just leave, but he loves this stuff.  I told him to enjoy as I made my way through and we would meet at the end.  He followed me, so I stopped at a few of the benches.  Someday, I would love to do a study of Ancient Egyptian History and then go to a bunch of museums.  They were a fascinating people.  All in all, the day was a delight.  I would have loved to go to the zoo, but I was unfortunately done for the day.

Moody Gardens

I drag my husband to planetariums and aquariums everywhere we travel.  I love them.  So, the Moody Gardens was a must during our stay in Galveston.  For some reason, my phone was draining power in Galveston, so I didn't get many pictures.  I relied on Jerry do to most of the picture taking.  Here is what we did get.

He loved the penguins.  I enjoyed them as well, but my hip hurt.  Actually, it hurt a lot.  Since I had been through a lot of aquariums, I didn't stop much unless it was to rest.  I also didn't take many pictures.  But here are a few of the penguins.  I have to say this is the best habitat I have seen for them.

I loved the planetarium.  Inside, they had a ton of birds, a couple of sloths, and two monkeys.  I wished I had my real camera for this part of the trip.  The birds were fantastic and beautiful.  My phone was going to go dead, so I was pretty disappointed about the pictures.  I saw a six foot fish.  Jerry wasn't with me, so I didn't get the picture.  If I go back to Galveston, I will go when the kids are in school and spend a ton more time there.  The place is fantastic!

For the past few years, the gardens fly a bunch of sculptures into town to work on Ice Land.  They also bring in a huge tent and 2,000,000 pounds of ice.  Yes, the zeros are correct.  Two million.  They gave us a parka to wear.  I froze because I wore sandals.  Opps.  I loved the displays.  I wanted to take a ton of pictures.  Darn!  There was the Eifel Tower, the Great Wall of China, and so many beautiful sculptures.  Here are just a few.  And of course, I did buy a souvenir for the Christmas tree.  A beautiful bird ornament.

We ended our stay going to the Pier.  Basically it was a carnival.  We goofed around playing air hockey and a motorcycle game.  All in all, Galveston was a fun little stay.

Part 1: Oh, Galveston

Many years ago, I learned about Galveston.  As a kid, I remember learning of the storms that swept over the gulf coast town.  I remember the song by Glen Campbell.  Before bucket lists were the thing, I wanted to see the Gulf of Mexico and go to Galveston.

Earlier in the fall, Jerry and I decided too much time had passed since we had gone to a football game together.  Madelle was planning to stay with her brother in Belgrade over most of the Christmas break, so we decided to go for a trip.  After looking at the schedule, we decided to take in a game in Houston.

No, neither of our teams were playing the Texans.  When I retired from the military, I told my husband I thought it would be fun for us to watch a game at every stadium.  I knew that while we were still raising kids and he was still working, the task wouldn't happen anytime soon.  I still don't see us getting aggressive with my retirement challenge, but this year we wanted to tick off one more stadium.  The 9ers were playing in Seattle.  We have been to that stadium, so it didn't work.  The Steelers were playing Baltimore in Baltimore.  No go.  We will go to Baltimore when it isn't a rival game.  Besides, I wanted to go somewhere warm.  This is why we went to a Houston, Tennessee game.

While we were planning, I looked at the map and saw that Galveston was only an hour drive from Houston.  I told Jerry we should drive over for a day.  He instead book us a room for a two night stay.  He is so awesome.  My bucket list item is now marked off!

I enjoyed Galveston.  Someday, I may go back.  I didn't get to walk the beach every morning.  With my bad hip, I saved most of my walking for tourist sites.  Someday, I may go back to the area.  But I did get a little beach time.  Friday morning after breakfast, I put my toes in the water.  We walked a short distance picking up little seashells.  The difference with this beach that I have never experienced anywhere else was the amount of broken shells.  With every step we took, we heard the crunch of them breaking further.  I felt like we walked on glass.  I was amazed.

I almost forgot.  Jerry has this horrible trait where when he goes to Texas bad weather follows him.  I took this picture when we pulled into the hotel.

I took this picture as soon as I got into the room.

Writing Update

Over the weekend, I conquered publishing my fourth book for the writing challenge.  I cried, threw a fit, but eventually I prevailed.  I came to the conclusion that I need to learn InDesign better.  Of course, I am not sure when I am to learn the program that I use to make book covers.  I will look into that in May.  But I did prevail and my book can be found on Amazon in both paperback and electronic versions.

I also wanted to get a good three to five thousand words written.  That, unfortunately, didn't happen.  With the problems with the book on Saturday morning, I ended up grumbling and only writing 1,500 words.  Horrible.  I did have fun working on a crocheted blanket.  I also watched parts of the football games, Anne With an E, and Star War movies.

Yesterday, I did even worse on the words.  I wrote 300.  My hip and the pews at church do not get along.  I was in so much pain during Mass that I came home and crashed.  Really, this is no excuse.  All I did was sit around watching football and sewed.  I could have easily been writing.  Oh, well.  Now the holidays are truly over.  I am determined to hit my goal of five to eight thousand words this week.  Today will be tough because I have to count at the church and get some shopping done.  Today's goal is a solid 1,000 words and tomorrow is 2,000 for the rest of the week or there about.  Hum, doing the math, that would be 11,000 words.  I don't know that I will get that much done, but I will give it a try.  Crossing my fingers.

Happy New Year and Decade

Wow, coming off of a seven day vacation of no writing whatsoever and traveling to Texas, I am exhausted.  Even with my bad hip, I was able to run around Galveston and Houston exploring all sorts of things and wishing I could explore more.  I will share the trip later this week and into the month.  Needless to say, I am struggling with writing this first day of the decade.

I just finished reading last year's first post of the year.  Wow, I failed in a lot of my goals.  I succeeded in other areas.  And then, the train derailed and I went to places I never expected in my writing.  I published three shorter books and have two more books ready to edit and publish.  I wrote a quarter of a million fiction words.  Outstanding.

So, what are my goals for 2020 and the decade?  I have to be honest.  I can't see past the hip surgery that is looming in the distance in March.  I still have two novels to write and publish by the fifth of May.  With the rehab and such to go with the writing, I can't even comprehend what I will be doing in April let alone later in the year.  Besides, I am still feeling a bit burned out from last year's pace.

Of course, I have written down goals, but they are vague.  For the next four months, I need to write 80,000 words for the challenge.  That is the only "must do" or should I say goal I am going to work on in haste.  Everything else will come in time.  Sure, I will do artist dates, dream of gardening, try to clean house, and write fiction, but I am going to let it be more of a spontaneous, low key event.

I will say that each year I have a word or idea I meditate on throughout the year.  Last year, I worked with joy.  I hate to give the word up because my mindset has been so upbeat and positive.  With my hip, I have decided to work with the word health.  Again, the idea is vague.  I want to be walking again which I hope to do with Leo and without pain starting as soon as the doctor says I can.  I want to hike.  I want to walk the parks in the area and in other places too.  I miss walking daily.

As the wind blows over the yellow sleeping lawn outside my writing window towards the lawns of my neighbors, I feel my thoughts skimming over the tops.  My head feels fuzzy.  I think I need another nap.  Goodness.  I hope the fuzzy head isn't a sign of what my coming year will look like.  Oh my.  Happy 2020!!!