~Texas Living~

I said the other night I would write about places I've lived. One

was Houston and Pasadena, Texas. The photo above is me, of course,
and Willie when we lived in Pasadena. Behind us is the house we were
buying..It wasnt very big, only 2 bedrooms but had a nice big back
yard so the house could easily have been made bigger. Willie and I met
when we both worked for a lawyer in Houston that owned motels and
apartments, He was the Maintenance Man, I ran the office at one of the
5 that the owner had. I lived there and available 24-7. It wasnt a bad

job at all...I rather enjoyed the contact with the different people that
rented rooms.. I managed at least 4 of the different places that the
lawyer owned. not at the same time of course..well yes, 2 motels were
next door kinda to each other but rented from just the one office. I
only had a few run ins with customers.. I had a knife pulled on me once
and threatened that I would be cut up if I didnt hand over the money,
he changed his mind when my dog charged with an attack command
and I pulled a 357 magnum from under the desk. Was a wild town..
those cowboys, let me tell ya ..He was drunk..and my BlackDog changed
his mind real fast when he saw that big black thing all teeth going at him.
The only other time I had a problem was from a guy that followed his
WIFE there, and he decided he was going to burn down the WHOLE
motel..and laid a trail of gasoline totally around the building, and over
the wifes' car and lit a match.

Willie and I were asleep, was middle of the night..One of my dogs,

well Brandy's puppy, LittleGirl..started to run up and down over us,

barking and up and down off the bed just going totally nuts..Willie

got up cussing the dog.and when he walked past the widow he

saw the flames down where this idiot had started the fire by setting

his wifes' car on fire.. Well ..Willie SCREAMS .. "FIRE!!" and I

grab the phone..the dogs are going nuts..and heres Willie running

down the sidewalk IN HIS UNDERWEAR,,, to go and put out that

fire.!!! He sees the guy down there with the gas can trying to run

and get in his car and escape..lol..Escape WILLIE? hahaha Silly

MAN!!! Willie grabs this guy and THROWS him up against the

burning car..and the guy catches on fire..his pants legs.. and just

at that time the fire trucks pull up..and spray the guys legs while

Willie is yelling "HE started THIS fire!!!" as he stands there in

his UNDERWEAR.. The police were called..and here we are all

standing there in not the BEST attire..the guys wife is in

HER underwear..her boyfriend is in HIS underwear too and I'M in a

night gown!!! ya... talk about a scene from a movie.. :-) lol. Well we
ended up going back down to our apartment after all calmed down
but those were the only 2 bad things I really do remember. There
was always some drunk doing stupid stuff. 4 of the rooms were
rented weekly, and some times the weekends were a tad wild.

When we left the motel industry after we got married in 71, we both

went to work for an export crating company, Willie started there

first.. I had my own sewing business going really good at the time

and had a little shop in a huge flea market type place. I went to

work where Willie did when the president of the company Willie

worked for started his own crating company and I helped to get

the office up and running for them, and did marketing, secretarial

and even the receiving of things to be packed up..Was an interesting

and very well paying job. We decided to buy our own house, the one

above. If you look closely on the right by the gate to the big back

yard you see a small white dog..thats Brandy, My BlackDog is out

there too but hes not real visible..hes back by the garage.. :-) The

end of the right side of the front porch there you can see how there

are things growing .those things are my climbing roses..you can see

the rose bed in the front yard as well.. It was a nice place.

The truck in front of the Buick Century is Willies..the RED Buick is

mine of course.. I loved that car, it was all white inside and ran like

a dream. Over on the far left you can see a huge plant growing ..my

rose bed is behind that Azalea bush there by the car.. That Gray

plant is whats called a Century Plant.. Only blooms once in a century

so I was told..never bloomed while i was there so its possible..You

can see the long leaves..along each side are thorns.. and on the very

tip of each of those long leaves is a long needle looking thing . I

would say at LEAST 2 inches long. They say these grow in the desert,

and the Indians used to cut off the needles on the ends and use them

to sew with. To be safe.. people cut those needles off the ends if they

had kids or animals that could fall into those long sharp needles. they

could do some serious damage.. Well when you carefully cut those

off and pull slowly..there will be LONG threads attached to that needle.

The Indians would use these to sew with..using each thread as they

needed to make their clothing or shoes or what ever, and they were

quite sturdy threads attached.. I didnt believe it at first , but when we

cut off the tips.. it was true..LONG threads hung from them ... :-)

You can see it again in this photo over on the left. Dont look at fat me.

I put this here to show you my roses.. I believe that red was called a

Martha Washington.. There were others there as well just not as tall

as this red Martha was.. My favorite is the yellow Peace... Way down

the street you can see on the left a blue car and a truck parked in

the yard..thats where our closest friends lived, Kathy and Jerry, sadly

both are dead and gone now..and were so young. Sad story ...

We left and sold this place in 1983 when we moved up to Indiana to

live by my sister and brother. Willie and I moved out to that lake house

I showed you the other nite. I look at this house, the one in Indiana and

both would be so easy for me to live in..one floor and only 1 short step

to get into and both would work with this chair . I would prefer to have

the lake house back.. Texas was ok..was very good to me, but ..I was

glad to move back up North so to speak.. I missed the 4 seasons. in

Texas there are only 2 rain and HOT... I like the spring , even the

winters, but then Im really from the GREAT NORTH WOODS. I'll take

you on a tour of up there one of these days.. if you like the outdoors..

well .. You will LOVE it up there...GOD's Country I call it...

Speaking of calling :-) I think I hear my fridge yellin that I need a snack.

and a soda...so I might better check it out..cant rile the neighbors

with a screaming fridge now can I ? I hope everyone had a good 4th

of July.. I did have a burger today.. with the sauteed onions I love..and

I really enjoyed it..I made it my self..even made a bit of potato salad and

me and the boys kinda had a little picnic of our own. Last night was

a very BAD night. I have never been that scared. I logged off here,

and turned my television on..and heard the HORRIBLE words " TAKE
COVER A TORNADO HAS BEEN SPOTTED" and it said was only 5

miles from my town.. I tried to SLOWLy go into the bathroom .. If I had

hurried..the boys would not follow . I grabbed a flashlight and acted like

I was playing and they followed me in there. I sat by the door with it
open a crack to be able to hear the tv and wait for the power to go out.
It never did. THANK GOD. It said this morning 3 tornados were seen

last nite only MILES from me. I HAVE NEVER, but 2 other times, been

that scared. I guess this ticker is still doing good although last nite I do

believe it did skip a few beats. :-)

Well Im not afraid of my kitchen so thats where Im headed, and of
course we will have our own little 4th of July parade, the boys will
follow me so its hi ho, hi ho, off to the kitchen we go. Nitey Nite :-)

Y'all have a good one now Y'hear? luv ya and Thanks!! :-)

ALways, Lois****

May God Bless you today,

I'm so honored to call you friend,

I pray the Lord will keep you safe,

Until I write again...