Off to Carlsbad

I leave on Saturday to fly to Carlsbad. Val will follow in about a week. I'm just about packed and ready to go. It will be good to see Craig and his family.  Kathie was in a bad car accident and broke her leg and ankle in multiple places requiring surgery initially to stabilize things and then will require additional operations to make the ankle functional. The car was totaled and all the airbags deployed. She is lucky to be alive and we are all thankful for that.


Today was Stephen's graduation downtown Houston. This is a milestone. He is the oldest grandchild of all the Nies brothers (tied with Will, Boyd's grandson). Stephen has attended Stephen F. Austin high school, a good public school in Fort Bend County west of Houston. His HS class is about 600 students and the diversity of the class is quite amazing. I have heard that his high school is one of the most diverse in the country. As an example, Stephen went to senior prom last week with six other "kids" and he was a minority of one. The others were all the other colors. It is a reflection of what is happening nationwide, but here it is accentuated.  I think it is great.


I'm going to post a few pictures taken of my condo from across the lake and also to show a neat sculpture that we got at the local street art festival "the bayou city art festival" that is held twice a year in Houston. It is a wind sculpture and the slightest breeze will send it spinning. It is up on the top terrace and is quite mesmerizing. 


I will continue to post occasionally since several people have said that they appreciate it and it is an efficient way to communicate.

These are the condos. Mine is the second from the near end

This is the condo 

Fourth Floor Terrace with sculpture

Here it is on a SS curving base

Still Doing OK

When I wake up in the morning (or more often than not in the middle of the night) I always wonder whether the back pain that radiates to the left buttock will return that day.  So far it hasn't. I am not pain free, but the really awful pain has not returned.  I'm hoping that the steroid has calmed the inflammation and that the cycle has been broken. So if I'm lucky, maybe I can have a summer free of that pain.


I'm starting to think about getting out to Carlsbad. I will be flying out this year on June 2nd. I'm looking forward to being there and spending time with Craig and his family. Val will be coming later in June and spending most of the summer, but she has to come back at least once. We have several things planned for the summer.  Joel and Judy Bedford are celebrating their 50th anniversary a the end of June. They are having the party in Saratoga, Wyoming. So we are planning to fly to Denver and rent a car to drive to Saratoga. Afterword we plan to go to Grand Teton and Yellowstone parks for a few days. We were unable to find any lodging in Yellowstone and will be staying at the Jackson Lake Lodge in Grand Teton and make day trips up to Yellowstone. Val has never been up there and I haven't been to Yellowstone since the fire.


I'm also hoping to take Christopher up to tour Stanford this June. I would like him to apply and continue a family tradition. My mother, Boyd, and I went there.  I don't think legacy helps much, but it can't hurt. 


Toward the end of July there is a Board of Directors meeting for Lexicon Phamaceuticals, a company based in the Houston area. I am on the board and the July meeting will be held in Princeton, NJ where Lexicon has an office. I'm hoping that I can extend that into a trip to NYC for a few days--still tentative.


And then in August I would like to take Val up to Seattle to see my special friends Len and Alansa, my brother-in-law Jimmy and Teresa, and possibly get up to Vancouver to see my friends, Karen and Bob Rangno, whom I haven't seen forever. No real plans yet and we'll need to coordinate with friends, but I hope it happens.


So a busy summer. I've been debating whether to keep writing this blog, but I do hear from folk that they look at it once in a while, and I feel more comfortable with this than Facebook that I haven't figured out and not sure I want to. So I guess I will continue my infrequent notes.

Two years

Yesterday was exactly two years after Sally's death. It has gotten easier to handle the loss, but on the actual day, it was still hard. I try to remember all the many years of good things and to not dwell on the last few days or weeks in April/May, 2010.  Lorrie and Craig share my feelings, but I think that we are all doing pretty well.


Val and I went up to Austin last weekend to see some of her friends.  It is a fun city to visit--maybe the best in Texas.  Their motto is "keep Austin weird".  And it is--in some ways.  Just before leaving, I noticed a dent in the tailgate of our SUV and I can't figure out what happened.  I think it may have been damaged in the hotel garage somehow.  Anyway, the car is now in the shop being healed.


Speaking of healing, my back is still improved.  In the past two weeks since the epidural steroid injection, there has been some return of back pain on the left, but the bad "nerve" pain radiating into the left buttock has not returned. So I am still pleased and hope that it will remain as is for a while.  I am not doing anything that might bother it, but I do use the recumbent bike and take some walks on our lake.  Spring is clearly here with newborn ducks in the lake.

You Talkin to Me?