It's Hot and Steamy in Houston

It's beyond hot outside these days. We haven't really had any good rain since the end of April when we got so much everything flooded. I'd love to have some of that now.

Day before yesterday, in the afternoon, while working away in my rather warm upstairs office/studio that I share with Maxx, the electricity started going out. We had four outages that afternoon. Luckily, the computers, and the modems are all hooked up to a battery back up system, so no crises for me to work through that are work related. I turned on the news and they said we were experiencing electrical shortages because the reserves were shot throughout the area. We've been asked, city and area-wide, to restrict electrical usage between the areas of 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Seriously, we've been hotter than usual for about a month now. There is simply no place to go to keep cool. My air conditioner cannot keep up with the heat. So, during the day, it is turned up to 77-78 degrees just so it'll shut off from time to time. I keep a fan going while I'm working because my office is about 85 degrees.

We are also experiencing extremely dry conditions with a 50-year drought, which means we are on water restrictions now. My yard is burning up. some of my potted plants are already dead. I think I need to bring the living ones in the house to keep them alive.

Speaking of things coming in the house, you know it's hot when.... Seriously, I think every bug, spider, snake, frog and lizard in Texas has found its way into my house lately, looking for a cool, dark, comfy place to escape. It's so hot at all times, even at night, you don't want to go outside. In the afternoon, it's not safe to be outside.

I remember years ago, when I lived in Escondido, California. We would get the hot, dry wind off the desert, called the Santa Ana winds. Everything would get hotter than hot and the wild fires would start. I was reminded of the Santa Anas when Maxx and I went out to dinner last night and, walking from the restaurant to the car, I felt a hot wind coming from the south. I thought to myself, seriuosly? A hot wind from the south? That's where the Gulf of Mexico is and that wind is usually not hot and dry.

Something is seriously wrong, folks. Texas is experiencing a much hotter, dryer summer than normal. Yesterday our "feels like" temperature was 112 degrees. Other parts of the country are not having a summer yet at all. One friend, who lives in the northeastern part of the country, reports highs only in the 60's all summer long. Others who live in the northwest report too much rain and cool temperatures.

This may not be global warming, so how about climate change?

I saw on the Yahoo yesterday that El Nino may be making a come back next year. We'll see.

Until next time!

Peace,
Amy

Thank you, Bud. Again. God, I miss you.

Love,
Mom

Wreaths Across American Houston Project Update

From my email inbox this morning:
Amy:
I wanted to give you the heads up for the wreath project for the 2009 campaign. My name is Scott deMasi, Group Leader for the Wreaths Across America Houston project. I know that last year you had exchanged e-mails with Autumn, one of our awesome committee members. I thought I would shoot you an update as we are going strong to place the wreaths again this year. We need every bit of help we can get to raise the funds needed.

Last year we got cut short due to Hurricane Ike and the difficult economy but we still managed to place a record breaking 14,400 wreaths. That’s more than has ever been placed in the US!

This year is no different with the exception that now we need more wreaths, 55,000 in order to ensure every fallen hero gets one. Great companies like KHOU Channel 11 are doing advertising for us and then we are getting lined up with others like KBR, Silver Eagle, Sysco etc… However, as with last year the majority of our funding will come from individuals sending $15 at a time for a wreath.

What I am hoping is that you can update your blog about us and encourage those to send our project information on to their contact list and so on and so on. Any help you can offer is appreciated. I have included some information for you.

Web: www.waahouston.com
E-mail: info@waahouston.com
Phone 24/7: 281-540-9444

Sincerely,
Scott deMasi
Group Leader
Wreaths Across America Houston

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It is with heart-felt appreciation that I am supporting this group who is doing what so many of us Gold Star parents appreciate the very most, and that is remembering our loved ones who have died in service to our country. This is a nation-wide group that has picked Houston National Cemetary as one of the spots to lay their wreaths.

The above picture is of my son's grave this past Christmas holiday season when Wreaths Across America came to Houston for the first time.

Peace,
Amy

Ketchup

Or catch up. I always thought it was interesting how the two sound so much alike. And I love word plays.

Anyway, time for some catch up!

First off, Jaime, Aiden, Sean and Tina, Jaime's mother in law, made it to the base Sunday after about 15 hours or so on the road. It's supposed to be an 11 hour drive if you go straight through, but when you have a 3 year old and a newborn that is being breastfed, you stop more often. Jaime reported to the base yesterday morning to get the housing and the movers arrived yesterday with all of Mark and Jaime's stuff. She and Tina are now happily unpacking, unboxing and getting settled. Jaime reports the house is very nice and has a park across the street for the kids to play in.

I talked to Aiden for a few minutes this morning and he was a tad bit confused about the whole Gramma thing. He couldn't figure out how he could have one Gramma on the phone and another one sitting in his kitchen! I guess for a three year, that would be a mind-bending situation! He understands he has three grandpas, or Papa's, as he calls them. But I've always been his only Gramma until now. This is the first time he's ever spent any time with Mark's mom.

I spent the day with Aiden on Saturday and it was fun. Kids that age talk about whatever pops into their heads at any given moment, which can make conversations with them enlightening, interesting and frustrating, all at the same time! We spent the afternoon watching kids videos, playing and having a root beer float. Aiden tried to talk me into going to Chuck E. Cheese, but I wasn't having any of that, especially not after the last trip there when I left with very frazzled nerves! Oh, and Aiden informed me that I can't be his friend because I'm his Gramma.

When Jaime got to the house after the movers came and picked up all her possessions, she came over to the house for dinner and to hang out for a while. You can bet I didn't put little Sean down the whole time they were here, drinking in every single second I could with that precious little guy. He's a very good baby and rarely cries or fusses. But he grunts an awful lot, even in his sleep. Jaime says he's just like Mark.

Yes, I cried Saturday night when I hugged and kissed my sleeping grandsons goodbye as we put them in their car to leave. And I cried when I hugged and kissed my daughter goodbye, even though she told me it was allowed. I cry when I am happy, sad, mad or just for any other good reason that comes along that makes absolutely no sense at all. It's just what I do.

We're finally getting some rain here in Houston. We haven't really had any at all since the flooding rains we had at the end of April. My lawn and gardens are trying out and burning up. The temperatures have been record breaking for weeks on end now, it seems. I've been keeping my vegetable garden watered, but that's about it. We're under water restriction as of last week, according to the local water authority.

Maxx was threatening to do his rain dance again and I suggested we get a bunch of friends together for the rain dance, all of us nude, to scare up so rain, but it looks like we can put that off for a week. I don't know who we would scare more, the clouds or the neighbors!!

I was hoping/praying for rain, but forgot I have a leak over the fireplace. I'll take the rain any day. The leak can be fixed.

After today, maybe we can stop seeing the 24 hour, round the clock coverage of Michael Jackson and get back to the business of what's REALLY important in the world, like sleazy politicians and their affairs, Washington DC politics as usual, Sarah Palin resigning as governor of Alaska (I say there's more going on than we're being told), and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Seriously, MJ was a very talented singer/entertainer, but he really didn't have any kind of effect on my life whatsoever. Enough already, people.

Enjoy your Tuesday. I'm sure I will!

Peace,
Amy

Hello, Goodbye...

It seems I've said so many goodbyes in my life. Each time leaves me feeling so sad and so empty inside, wondering how I am going to fill that void in my life that was filled by the person I am saying goodbye to.

When I was younger, it didn't seem to matter quite so much, those goodbyes. I always thought there would be plenty of time, plenty of tomorrows...

During my lifetime, I've moved around alot. It seems I've always been a gypsy, going where the wind blows. As long as I had my family with me, all was well. Home, for me, was wherever my children were. That was all that mattered.

So many goodbyes, some tearful, some not so tearful, have been said by my lips and my heart. Always, the promise of "we'll keep in touch. I'll come see you". And, always, that was our last contact. So many dear friends I have loved and miss.

Earlier this year, I kissed my daughter, Dani, goodbye and sent her on her way to Chicago to chase her dreams. Tomorrow I will kiss my daughter, Jaime, and her two beautiful little boys goodbye and send them on their way to Kansas to wait for Mark's homecoming and to live their lives.

I am proud of my girls for being healthy and independent enough to live their own lives. They are strong, healthy, able women. I know I did my job as their mother in raising them to be this way. This is their time.

And I know, my daughters are never more than a phone call or a plane trip away. But I miss Dani and I'm going to miss Jaime and Aiden and Sean.

When I kiss and hug them goodbye tomorrow, I know it is not forever. I can send them on their way and feel a sense of pride in Jaime. When we see each other again, the boys will be bigger and stronger and meaner and I will take great joy in being their Gramma for a little while before I send them on their way again.

I need to find new people to say hello to, knowing full well that someday I'll have to say goodbye...again.

God, I hate goodbyes.

Amy

Music

I've been thinking about music lately and how it affects our lives as human beings.
There are certain songs that can take us back in time every single time we hear them, bring out strong emotion and do a whole host of other things.

For me, there are some songs that I just cannot listen to anymore because they make me cry. There are some songs that when I hear them, they don't have the same meaning anymore. There are some that make me get up off my butt and shake my booty!

A few weeks ago Maxx and I had tickets to go see Christopher Cross and America. I remember Christopher Cross but only vaguely remembered America until I heard them. It was fascinating, as we stood in the crowd under the starlit sky, to see all these people in the 40's, 50's and even 60's, men and women, out dancing and reliving their youth. I swear I could see the years drop off these people as they danced and they were young again, if only for a few brief moments.

I have always loved classic rock. I love the Rolling Stones, The Moody Blues, The Eagles, The Beatles and all of the music/groups/performers from that period of time. I love R&B and jazz. Most often I listen to New Age stuff to keep my nerves from getting totally fried.

Songs I just cannot listen to any more and you will see me headed out the door after the first few bars are songs like Eric Clapton's Tears in Heaven, Toby Keith's American Soldier and Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird.

The song whose meaning has changed the most for me is Dream Weaver. It went from being a great make out song to a song about my life. Wow.

I can't hear Another One Bites the Dust without being transported back to the summer of 1980 driving around Salt Lake City with a friend and I always smile when I hear "I Just Wanna Fly" (sorry I don't remember the real title) because I remember my daughters and their friends one warm summer night in Dallas walking down the middle of the street singing that song as loud as they could.

Today I am listening to one of my favorites, a Texas son, Stevie Ray Vaughn. Too bad he's not with us anymore, he was one of the all-time greats.

Peace,
Amy

NOTE: I forgot to mention when I was writing this earlier...

One of the most powerful performances I ever saw/heard was at Camp Casey II for Easter when Reverand Lowry was there. He had just finished giving his sermon (which was the most inspirational I had heard in a very long time and I'm not Christian!). A lovely lady and long one of my local Texas favorites, Carolyn Wonderland, took the stage as the kind Reverend was getting into his car to leave. Most of us that had been in attendance for his sermon followed him out to say goodbye and wish him well. Then Carolyn started to play. Her music and her soul-filled voice stopped us all in our tracks as she sang the gospel from her heart. We all walked back under the tent to listen -- as did the Reverend!!

For those of you who don't know who Reverend Lowry is, he was a close friend and confidant of Martin Luther King, Jr. when he was alive. An amazing man.

Memories

As we get older it seems our memories become dimmer and dimmer. Sometimes we are able to take them out of where we have them packed, deep in those dark corners of our brains, blow the dust off and look at them. But like old pictures, those old memories tend to fade and crack with time and are not the same as we thought they were.

I've had the chance, recently, to reacquiant myself with some really, really old friends from high school. Some of those friends from high school I also went to grade school with. Some of the people I forgot about, some I remember very well and have missed in my life.

A long time ago I learned to just close my mind to the memories of people and events that were important to me. I had to do that just to survive because I wasn't really allowed to have those things in my life. It was expected that I just exist, pretty much, from day to day and my only life would be what was right there in front of me. It was painful, but I learned to lock away my past and my memories, the good and the bad.

That was not a healthy thing to do. Eventually locking everything away comes back to kick you in the butt.

I felt, for a long time, that I had no past before 1980 because I was not able to have a past. My life before then was nonexistent. Some of my past and my memories were locked up tight because they were and still are very painful memories. I did not remember them until I pulled out my old journals from way back then and reread them. Those memories came flooding back over me in waves and I cried. Some came back to me through pictures and old some came back via old, dear friends that I have missed horribly.

The thing is, all these years, I have had no connection with my past, no direct line of anyone or anything that connected me with who I was then, who I am now and who I will be someday. Most people I know have friends and family they have known their whole lives. I have not had that. Most people I know at least live somewhere close to where they grew up. I've been a gypsy my whole life, wandering from place to place.

Memories -- some sweet and to be savored (thank you, Darrell), some harsh and painful, and some that are just fun when I was just me hanging out with the girls (thank you, Gloria and Lisa and Rhonda). They are a part of me. I don't want to bury them anymore. I need to be able to love and to live again and now, maybe I can.

Peace,
Amy

Veterans group with a gripe upends the Stars and Stripes

Vietnam War-era veteran Rees Lloyd holds a flipped flag in front of the VA Medical Center in West Los Angeles. The group Veterans Revolution has for years criticized the facility's oversight.

by Bob Pool

This is one battle that will probably be decided by whichever side is most "distressed" -- officials of the VA Medical Center in West Los Angeles, or a group of protesting veterans.

On Sunday, demonstrators plan to gather by the VA grounds and display an upside-down American flag "as a signal of dire distress." They contend that agency policies have placed the VA property in "extreme danger."


But if that act upsets VA officials, protesters could find themselves facing off with federal police, who view the upended banner as a sign of disrespect to Old Glory.
For 66 consecutive Sundays, a group calling itself the Veterans Revolution has demonstrated outside the Wilshire Boulevard medical facility. The group has, for many years, criticized VA oversight of the 388-acre property.

However, for the first time last Sunday, the protesters flew the Stars and Stripes upside down as part of their campaign. VA police responded with flashing red and blue lights and ordered that the flags be turned right side up or removed.

The faceoff occurred at the end of the planned protest, so veterans "removed them just as we normally do and left peacefully on our own accord," said Robert Rosebrock, one of the organizers.

"The Flag Code allows when property is in danger to display the flag upside down. It states it is a signal of dire distress to 'life or property,' " he said.

The demonstrators were on a city-owned sidewalk near Wilshire and San Vicente boulevards, outside of the VA's jurisdiction, said Rosebrock, a 67-year-old U.S. Army veteran.

But the protesters entered federal property when they attached one upside-down flag to a ceremonial gate, insists Lynn Carrier, the medical center's associate director.

Carrier said she ordered police to the scene when she drove past and noticed another motorist shaking his fist angrily at the flag display. She said VA mental health patients inside the hospital grounds might also have been sensitive to "an inappropriate display on VA property."

The gate on which one of the American flags was attached "is unquestionably federal property," said Ralph Tillman, the VA's director of asset management for Los Angeles-area facilities.

Rosebrock said most passersby honked and waved in support of last weekend's protest.

He said demonstrators may return Sunday with more upside-down flags -- and perhaps an upright lawyer.

bob.pool@latimes.com