Halloween, 2005

In a highly unusual turn of events, weather has impacted the Horst family in Cypress, Texas. The skies opened up and rain fell in sheets starting at about 5:00pm tonight, or about a half-an-hour before we were set to unleash the pirates upon the neighbors for a good old-fashioned ransacking.

Dawn brought over her 2 boys (JP - the older boy and Miles) who hung out with us for awhile, joining us for some Mummy-dogs and spooky juice. After pictures, the Moms grabbed their umbrellas and set out to do some trick-or-treating or else...

With All Due Respect to His Uncle Steve...

Have you ever seen a finer pirate in your entire life?

This is Braden's costume, which he wore on Friday night for the carnival at his pre-school. He tells us that he looks "boo-key" (spooky), an assessment with which all of us are inclined to agree.

Austin will also be going as a pirate, so we should have pictures of the two scurvy sea-dogs up later in the week.

Playa de Carmen es Muy Bueno!

Most of you have probably heard about our vacation to Playa de Carmen from the standpoint of narrow escapes from the Hurricane Wilma. As the above picture shows, it was not all hand-wringing over the weather.

The Sandos Gala Playacar where we stayed was a beautiful, all-inclusive resort with a number of really good restaurants and a beautiful, long stretch of beach. Our room overlooked the ocean, and our front door opened up to the courtyard with the fountain in the picture - beautiful. We explored the rock formations down the beach from our hotel, turning back at the rock with the words "nudist beach" painted on it (for obvious reasons).

The iguana is "Fred", a native who we ran across during one of our walks. (Sheila named him Fred, and I'm not exactly sure why.) We got to dress up a little for dinner, and snorkle and lay out on the beach and take naps - a real vacation.

At one point, the locals taught me how to spear fish with a sharpened bamboo pole, which I demonstrate above. I caught a 27-pound mexican grouper right after that picture was taken. Shelley was so busy helping me club the great beast into submission that we both forgot to take a picture of it before giving it to a local family for their supper.

And just for the sake of meteorological accuracy, I should note that the clouds in the picture on the bottom row are from an outer rain band of Hurricane Wilma. We didn't get any rain until the shuttle ride to the airport, but man did they get rain after we left.

Where to Begin?

Since my last post, the following has happened:

* Shelley and I went on a vacation to Playa de Carmen, and narrowly escaped the wrath of Hurricane Wilma by getting out 2 1/2 hours before they closed the airport in Cancun. We would literally still be there today (a week later) if we hadn't gotten out when we did.

* My personal computer at home was all but wiped out by a nasty virus named Trojan.Vundo, which was finally removed Tuesday night but has left my computer with a severe case of the "slows". I will be re-loading Windows XP this weekend and hoping to recover all the files which seem to be lost for now, hopefully recuperating my ability to work on my business, as well.

* Did I mention Shelley and I are both taking two antibiotics each for the dysentery we picked up in Mexico? Dysentery, according to the dictionary, is an amoebic, parasitic infection of the intestines usually transmitted by contaminated water. [Note to self - next vacation must involve an area safe from hurricanes where the primary language spoken is English and the water is safe to drink. Consider trip to St. Paul, Minnesota to see "world's largest adirondack chair".]

* The Astros won the National League pennant for the first time in their history, but tickets to the games locally were $1,000 each, pricing Austin and me out of the market. Just as well, since they lost both games in Houston while being swept by the Chicago White Sox. Disappointment reigns at my house, but we are encouraged that maybe the souvenir t-shirts and pennants will come down to a less-obscene price over the next several days.

Finally a story intended to bring a needed smile to my sister. Three weeks ago, Braden asked Shelley out of the clear blue "where'd Aunt Julie go?" Shelley told him she was at her house in Oklahoma, with Uncle Jeff, Jefferson and Jacob. Braden looked at her, puzzled, and asked "Homa-homa?" which made Shelley laugh. And because she laughed, we spent the next week having our 3-year-old run around the house repeating "Homa-homa, Homa-homa" while all of us fell about in stitches. Eventually Shelley would try to correct him - "no baby, it's OKLA-homa" - to no apparent effect.

This morning, because such things were woven into our everyday lives by Mom growing up, I was singing the lead song from the musical "Oklahoma". (Except I was doing it to torment all the groggy people milling around my house trying to get going.) Braden interrupted me from his usual spot on the bar stool at our kitchen island to say "id not Homa-homa da-ee, id Okla-homa". So it is baby - so it is...

You're in our prayers, Sis.

October, 2060

Three men and five children sit together in the media room of a comfortable home watching a Major League Baseball playoff game. The three boys range in age from 5 to 10, the two girls are 8 and 11. The two 30-something aged brothers are the fathers of these five, and the oldest gentleman is the patriarch of the entire bunch.

The game is tied through 10 innings when the youngest boy questions no one in particular how long the game will last.

His father answers "until someone is ahead at the end of an inning".

The 10-year-old, a blue-eyed wisp of a boy with an insatiable curiosity, wonders out loud "what's the longest playoff game ever"?

After a brief silence as the two middle-aged men look at each other, the tall, thin, handsome old man speaks: "18 innings - nearly 6 hours."

"Wow Grandpa - that's a long time," says the youngest daughter. Her father, well aware of the old man's tendency to embellish the truth from time to time for the sake of a good yarn, asks "how do you know that, Dad?" To which the old man, a sparkle in his sky blue eyes, responds "because I was there". All heads in the room turn to the old gentleman as he relives that beautiful fall afternoon from so long ago.

"I was your age David" he starts, nodding at the rapt 10 year old. "It looked like the Astros would lose that day for sure, as the Braves hit a grand slam off our starter in the top of the 3rd. Their starter was mowing our guys down - we could only score one run in 7 innings. In the 8th, we got the bases loaded and Lance Berkman hit a grand slam that made an already electrified crowd explode. It was the only time in playoff history 2 grand slams were hit in the same game.

Still behind by one run in the bottom of the 9th, we had two outs when our catcher hit a massive home run over left center field to tie the game and cause your great-grandfather to lift me off my feet and hold me over his head while 43,000 fans screamed and clapped in ecstacy."

"For the next 3 hours, neither team budged. Their pitchers were stingy, and ours were persistent. We used Hall of Famer Roger Clemens to pinch-HIT in the 15th inning, laying down a perfect sacrifice bunt. He then came into the game, on 2 days rest, and pitched 3 innings of inspiring relief. The presenter mentioned that game the day he went into Cooperstown."

"Then suddenly, with 1 out in the bottom of the 18th inning, a rookie, who was called up to the major leagues on my birthday that year, hit a 2-0 fastball over the left field fence and we erupted in one final, exhausted, thrilling celebration. That game clinched the National League division series for the Astros, who went on to play in the World Series that year for the first time."

By now the old man's wife has entered the room, and she sighs "Austin are you telling that story about the Astros game AGAIN?" The kids, (their spell from the story broken by their Grandmother's arrival with Rice Krispie Treats), fall out laughing as Grandpa Austin rolls his eyes at them all.

And once more, the glory of sporting achievement bridges the generations, even if just for a moment on a cool autumn afternoon...

Austin Won!

Austin found out today he was the winner of the election for Mrs. Reese's student council class representative! He was very proud, as are his parents, and he was hamming it up pretty good on the bus ride home. ("I'd like to thank everyone who helped make this possible, etc...")

Finding out this news was quite a turnaround from yesterday's talk about how he is not popular enough to win, the other candidates have more friends, etc...

Happy day for everyone here today - tomorrow the difficult work of representing his constituents begins!

His Father's Son

Thought you all might like to see a copy of the speech Austin gave today at Hamilton Elementary. [The picture is from his campaign poster last spring. Imagine it cut into the shape of a diamond with the caption 'vote for Austin - he's your ace' and you have the general idea.] He is running for student council representative from his class, and as part of his candidacy he had to give a speech to the entire 5th grade. Some of you will recall earlier that he had to give a speech last spring which did not go so well. Today's speech went great, with kids laughing at his jokes and several students and teachers giving him feedback that he had done very well.

Hi my name is Austin Horst. I am here ask for your vote as your student council representative. Here are some things that I promise to do if you vote for me:
1. I will represent Mrs. Reese’s homeroom with pride.
2. I will listen to all your ideas and suggestions and use them to make our class better.
3. I will use my skills and knowledge to help in any way that I can.
4. I promise to attend every student council meeting and be on time. I also promise to wear my hearing aids so I actually can hear what people are saying.
5. I will do everything I can to do what YOU want me to do to make our class the best.

I think that I would be good for this job because I have shown responsibility in the past. For example I wrote the letter to Mrs. Crabb explaining kickball, and I would be more than happy to stand up for class again. Whether or not you vote for me I will still do everything I can to help out in our class. I will be the type of student council representative you can look up to and not just because I am one of the tallest in the class!

We are naturally quite proud of him for "getting back up on the horse" and running for office. Combine that with the fact that Braden has learned his "A B C D's" and we're busting at the seams.

Enough's Enough Already

With all the bogus spam comments being posted on my blog, I have added something called "word verification" to the comments section. If you want to make a comment about something you've read, (which I love reading, by the way), please feel free to do so. You will be asked to confirm you are human (and not spam) by typing in a word which will display on your screen. It is very easy and very effective in stopping the bogus comments.

Because I can take Blair's quasi-legitimate comments promoting such TV product nonsense as The Clapper. In fact, I applaud his spunk.

But these other, truly ridiculous postings need to stop.