Summer pix

Now that I don't have to clean onion skins from every surface and crevice, I have to to makes things pretty for summer. I have been repainting some of the decorative items in the yard/ garden. I also have time to notice what is happening there.

      This simple succulent, serving as a crown for Lady Liberty, seemed to be just that, simple. I have many such plants. This plant surprised me when it showed off with a bloom stem. It resembles that of the aloe vera.

This is the Madagascar Palm. It was given to me by a Winter Texan from Kansas



                                                                   Thorny creature!






I have a collection of succulents on the east side of the house. I am amazed at how little it takes for them to survive and thrive. The crowded one remains there until I figure out a way to save the plant and the pot when I re-pot.

These two ladies were garden/ porch decor since I was in Washington. Their original paint was green and asking to be repainted. I finally decided on their new attire, flags. I went to Mood and here they are. You may have to enlarge your view to see that Miss USA has "stars" in the field of blue. The glitter of Miss Texas is obvious.

This may be the third repainting for this birdhouse. I cover the opening to keep wasps from making nests and multiplying.

GUS at 2.5 years

He likes chasing lizards and every now and then he catches one. He does not eat them. It is all about the chase. He does the same with baby possum. I once found an adult possum in the yard and he was not playing possum. He was dead. Squirrels are also  in his to-do list, but they stay outside the fenced yard and too high up to catch. He will sit and stare them as if to will them down. Ever since I have had Gus I have not had a problem with stray cats.

Family ties

Trine (Trinidad)

The last week of April, my sister, Mary, and I went to Chicago to visit an aunt, Trine. According to my family tree sofware, she is not an aunt but a 1st cousin, once removed. She and my mother were 1st cousins - their mothers were sisters. However, because they practically grew up as sisters, we call her an aunt.

Trine

Trine and Mom

Trine in working on her 92nd year. She has a mind that comes and goes. Since I last saw her she has become more frail. She is the last surviving member from the family core.

Trine used to travel to Texas every summer and spend 2 months away from the Chicago area. Since she had not been able to travel in the last two years, we decided to make the trip to spend a week with her. It was sad to know that she lives in isolation with her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. She is not part of any conversation and is rarely drawn out of her room for social interaction. While we were there, her son commented, "I haven't seen Mom this energetic in a long time." I suggested that he spend time with her.

From Trine,  I learned that although she was born in Cotulla, Texas, her father decided to pull up stakes and move the family back to Mexico. The only one happy about that move was the father. When he died, Trine and her mother Cirila, moved in with my grandmother here in Weslaco, Texas. I have a vivid image of my aunt Cirila. She taught me to get rid of the hiccups by placing a burnt match stick on my ear. She also placed citrus leaves on her temples to cure headaches. Cirila dies of tuberculosis at a state hospital. Cirila was my grandmother's (maternal) sister.

Teresa

     While we were in the Chicago area, my sister and I drove to East Chicago Indiana to visit with another 1st cousin, once removed. My father and and she were 1st cousins. Her mother and my father's mother were sisters. We had not seen Teresa in over 40 years.

   

Teresa is 77 or 78 years of age. When I interacted with her, she was already married with kids. My last contact with her may have been the year after I graduated from high school. She is psychologically scarred by how she was treated as a child. She was the scapegoat in the family and usually got the beating to boot. Today she struggles to get around because of her eyesight. She has macular degeneration and needs a strong magnifier to see a picture or read a page.

Her contribution to my family's history was identifying someone in this picture.

I had been carrying this picture with me for the last three and a half years. Every person I met, I would ask if they knew who was in the picture. I knew that the young woman on the right was Vidala, another of my father's first cousins. Teresa quickly identified the older woman as her grandmother. That means that this woman, Brigida Argueta, is my paternal great grandmother. My father's mother, Estefana, was a sister to Vidala, and daughter to Brigida. Now I am able to identify this old woman in two other pictures. A side note to Brigida, I have yet to find someone who can say anything nice about her.

When my father's mother died, at the age of 30, the three kids were quickly sent off to live with relatives. My grandfather had a new woman and she did not care for the children of the first wife. My aunt would tell of her difficult life in the house of her grandmother. My aunt was a house servant at the age of 11 or 12. There was no time for play or relaxation. There was always something to be done in the house. Brigida also scarred my aunt with the phrase, "This is not your house...." - why are you sitting, why are you not washing, etc.

Identifying this woman, added another small piece to the puzzle.

Families intermarrying

       Almost three years ago, I discovered a houseful of relatives in Monterrey, Mexico. This group of Vidaleses are 2nd cousins. My sister and I commented on how much this group resembled out family group. The only explanation was that there was family intermarriages. I knew one side of the connection, the Vidales side.

       My grandfather, Felicianao Vidales, had three brothers. One of the brothers, Andres, was the grandfather of these second cousins. I assumed that two Vidales brothers married sisters from another family, the Argueta family. Here is an example of the similarities.

Beatrice Vidales                                               Aurora Vidales                                       Veronica Vidales                                                                      

Estefana Villanueva Argueta

From left to right - my aunt, her cousin (aunt to the newly discovered Vidales, my niece (my youngest brothers daughter.) The bottom photo is my paternal grandmother. She died at the age of 30, in 1925.

Although my niece is out of this theory, the similarities between to families led me to conclude that there were brothers marrying sisters.

After my latest visit to Monterrey, and introducing the newly identified picture of my great grandmother, I am safe to say that Vidales brothers married Argueta sisters. One of those sisters was my great grandmother. Now I just need to find documentation of that fact.

My next trip to Monterrey has to be during the week to allow me to visit a records department and try to find documentation of births and deaths.

Physical attributes

It has been a long time since my last posting, and much has happened. This post will focus on the most significant events related to physical health.

TKR
    In November of 2013, I had a Total Knee Replacement of my right knee. The problems with the knee had gotten to a point of no return. Also, I was having problems with my back and there was some who thought that once I got my knee fixed that my back would get better.
    The surgeon's assessment was troublesome. He stated that the knee was so out of place and there was so much tissue build-up, he was unsure if the knee would turn out as well as he would want. That was a downer. The surgery went without incident. I went into the hospital on Monday morning ans was escorted out at 8 p.m. on Wednesday. Yes, someone was there after surgery to get me out of bed asking me to walk for them.
    The worst of it was the physical therapy afterward. A therapist came to the house three times a week. When he first arrived I could straighten my knee to 60 degrees. He wanted to get to 90 degrees as soon as possible because the longer it takes the more likely it is that scar tissue will develop and keep the knee from moving at all. I wrote to the military and offered this physical therapy technique as a way to get information from terrorists. I screamed, cursed, and called out to the saint of all joints. Nothing saved me from the excruciating pain. It did not help that when the therapist had me in a leg lock, trying to get the knee to bend, that he was humming. Every session lasted between 45 minutes and an hour. On the last visit, my knee was at 106 degrees. The ideal is 120 degrees.
     The knee continued to work well and I was pain free. On my last visit with the surgeon, he marveled at his work. He showed me x-rays of the knee before and after. I told him that I thought those images had been doctored.


MID and Complications
     As the knee healed, I started to get increased back pain. The legs might go numb and tingly. I would get the urge to go pee or poo. Sometimes the body signals were real and other times not. These symptoms would disappear when I would sit for a few minutes. When I got the urge to go at home, no big issue. When I got them at the store, I would rush to the restroom, just in case. This was not a way to live.
    On March 5, I went to the hospital to get a MicroInvasive Decompression. The plan called for an overnight stay in the hospital. Bones or bone spurs were crowding into the spinal column affecting the nerves. The procedure would snip at these and relieve the pressure on the nerves. I was promised a 1.5 inch incision and got a 4 inch incision for the same price. I went by all accounts the surgery went well. I was in the recovery room feeling no pain and I was able to pee freely. This is the key to this surgery. Once the patient can urinate, they are deemed ready to be dismissed. I did not get to my room until 2:30 p.m. That is when the problems began.

      Pain
     I started to feel the urge to urinate, but not being able to. As the urge increase, so did my pain. At times I would put out a little dribble here and there, but the pain was constant. The nursing staff told me that the pain was the irritation from the catheter during surgery. Since I had never experienced this, I bought the story. I was asked if I had pain and I would clarify that my back was pain free, but there was pain elsewhere.
     This pain continued until 8:30 the following night, more than 24 hours. Overnight I got some relief from the pain medications, it did not go away. Finally, the urologist that was asked in for a consultation came in, inserted a catheter, and in not time, I was pain free. I had more than 1200 cc initially and another 1200 the next morning. The problem was that I was in acute urine retention. There was nothing cute about it.

     High blood pressure
     Many years before I left Washington an abnormal heart beat was detected during a routine doctor's visit. Since I did not have a history of high blood pressure and I was not complaining of chest pain, it was a none issue.  Before my first knee replacement the issue of the heart beat was noticed but was not a concern. The same happened before my second knee replacement. Amid the pain from the retention, my blood pressure was very high and all of a sudden the irregular heart beat was an issue.
     A cardiologist, and Internist, and the hospital Physician Assistant were called in the consult. In two shakes, I was hooked up to heart monitoring telemetry. An Echo scan of the heart was ordered. One by one these assessment tools showed no irregularity as a cause of the high blood pressure. However, no one considered the urinary retention as a cause.

     Never Mind
     After the retention was relieved, my blood pressure began to drop. The pain disappeared and I was ready to go home. However, the only one to give the "all clear" was the cardiologist followed by my surgeon. I waited all day on Friday waiting for the word. A nurse finally called and he stated that he had already be on the floor and had written on the chart. However, he did not have the professional courtesy to come by the room to give me a summary of his findings or to suggest follow-up care. Was this a fear of admitting he was in error in missing the retention problem? Someone wrote an order for medication for high blood pressure and I got some pills, but what do I do when I run out? It reminded me of Gilda Radner's line, "Never mind!"

As I write this I am still trying to get my bladder to work on its own and hope to have that resolved in a couple of days. I am not ready to walk around with a catheter for the rest of my days. I am also not in any hurry to return to the hospital any time soon. I would like to think that I am physically stable, for now.
Before surgery I took only one prescription drug, but I left the hospital with five.

My bikini and thong wearing days are over.

Before the end of the month, I hope to be back to my one prescription drug.

     
   

The Weslaco Museum and Valentines

         In July of 2013, I started volunteering at the Weslaco Museum. At 65, I am the youngest or one of the younger volunteers. Septagenarians and octogenarians are the rule. Volunteers take on different roles, depending on their interests. Some volunteer to staff the front desk, greeting visitors, selling from the gift shop, and offering tours. Some focus on the archives room. Some are more visible at social functions, tending to preparing and serving food. My interest was in inventorying the artifacts in the attic.

        The four or five of us would meet once or twice a week and tackle as many boxes as we could. Although the job is not complete, we have gone through more than 500 boxes. The contents should reflect some of Weslaco's history, but many items are of questionable value and should be thinned out. The Museum may have served as a dumping ground for "Aunt Tilly's" dressing table contents after she passed on to her reward. Over the years items were accepted as donations without regard to their true value. While it is good to save  an old fashion meat grinder, the need for 7 of them baffles my mind. The same can be said of the innumerable ladies' hats. Needless to say, it was always fun going through and documenting the Museum's holdings.

     In December, the Museum director resigned, as did her assistant. One of the volunteers was asked to step in as Interim Director while a new director was hired. She agreed if I would help her in the task. Thinking that we would be doing this for two or three weeks, we agreed. Two months later, we were still at our posts. On March 3rd, the new director took over.

VALENTINES, FLOWERS AND YOU

      As Program coordinator, my charge was to develop/ create exhibits. The one for February was an easy concept, "Valentines' Day."  The title of the exhibit was "Valentines, Flowers, and You."  . It was to be an exhibit with a feminine/ girlie look. Valentines, ladies hats, fans, and beaded purses. All of the items for the exhibit came from what was in the attic. We had antique valentines, lose and framed. Fans came with feathers, and sparkles. The beaded purses from the 20s and 30s added sparkle to the display cases. There was no problems finding hats for the exhibit. The problem was selecting from the vast numbers.
Having never done this kind of work before, I discovered that this was a three piece puzzle: deciding  the theme, deciding which items to show, deciding how to exhibit. The theme was the easiest. Here are some pictures.

This was the display that greeted the visitors. I could have done a better job with the lettering if I had been given a budget.

The black and white beaded purse is from the 20s and the red martini glass is mine. 

I had the idea to hang hats, but I did not know how.  I also had to take care and not damage the hat.  A very fine wire, a cardboard round, and lots of time on the ladder did it.

The top shelf holds very old lacy paper valentines. The lower shelf holds items that could walk off when no one was looking.

Certainly not very romantic or related to Valentines, but I wanted to show some men's hats.

One of my fears was that I would have blank empty wall spaces. Where there is a will, there is a way.

These display cubes are deceiving. They are of glass and very heavy. So after the display is set, the case must be lowered. so as not to disturb the items.

Quilts and Texas Independence

The idea for the March exhibit was an easy one. The volunteers had mentioned it prior. They suggested an exhibit of quilts and or Texas Independence. I did not want an all quilt show because it would limit the audience. So, I combined the two ideas.

Quilts
    The Museum has about 30 quilts in storage so I knew that we would have from which to choose. Hanging the quilts was the issue. I went to a quilt show and saw what others were doing. The quilts needed to have a pocket into which a rod is inserted and then the rod is suspended from the ceiling or the wall. Not all of the Museum's quilts had pockets, so I chose those with pockets. I would up with too many of the same color palette or very boring looking ones. Ultimately I chose ten quilts to display. Here are some pictures.

The front quilt is from South Dakota and celebrates its statehood. It is from 1880s.

The quilt with the red spots is from about 1840. The others are 1920s and 1930s.

The Texas quilt is not handmade or old. I used it because of the theme and the size covered that wall perfectly.

The purple quilt is the Weslaco Anniversary quilt. To celebrate the city's 75th anniversary, several city groups got together and each panel denotes a decade or significant events.

Texas Independence

    This part of the exhibit was more difficult to realize. The Museum does not have any artifacts that could be used to tell the story. After much deliberation I decided to tell a brief story and maybe get the viewers to continue researching or reading on their own. I arranged the movable panels in a diagonal across the galley's space. This created a 24 foot wall. This arrangement took some of the volunteers aback. They had never seen this arrangement. 

     On one side of the wall were portraits of some of the key players in the battle for independence. beneath each portrait was a brief biography of the individual and his role in the fight for independence.  On the other side of the wall I displayed maps showing the changing boundaries of Texas beginning prior to 1803 and the Louisiana Purchase, after Mexican independence from Spain, after Texas independence and after the Mexican American War. There was also a display of different flags used during the fight for independence. Another panel asked, "Why Declare Independence?" This set the background for the story. A different panel was a tribute to the "Yellow Rose of Texas." I could not omit the names of those 189 who died at the Alamo. This list also identifies the person's origins.

This shows the panel dissecting the gallery space.

At the far end of the picture is the tribute to the Yellow Rose.

I sprinkled some old artifacts here and there to add some character to the exhibit. If I had had a budget, the images, biographies, and maps would have been professionally printed and mounted on foam core.

I was very happy with the outcome. The exhibit was ready for the March 1 deadline. I did not think I would be able to put it together.

Monterrey Trip - August 2013

    Registro Civil: This translates to "civil registry." It is a government office that I assume is similar to a justice of the peace. Citizens went to that office to register a birth, death, marriage. The good thing about this entity is that they were very detailed in their documentation. For example, when my grandmother died, my grandfather's brother went to report. Here is some of what was written:
"On November 17, 1925 at 10 am, Manuel Vidales, 50 years old, merchant resident of this city, reports that last night at 8 pm, at 157 Altamirano street, Estefana Vidales died. She was 30 years old and died of an internal tumor. She was the legitimate daughter of Tiburcio Villanueva (deceased) and Brigida Argueta. She leaves a widower, Feliciano, and four children Beatriz, Maria, Fidel, and Cristobal."
     So I have found similar documents about marriages, births and deaths for other folks. The account of my grandmother's death verified that I had an uncle (Fidel), up to now hearsay. It also told me that my grandmother did not die at home, because the address given was her aunt's house. I also discovered that her father had already died.

 I continue to look for family roots. The focus of this trip to Monterrey was to connect with a "cousin" that I have known forever, but that I have not seen in many, many years. He is the son of my grandmother's sister. This is the side of the family, the Villanueva family,  that remains hidden. My grandmother, Estefana, had sisters that I knew growing up and other siblings unknown to me.  As much as I have found about so many people, on the internet and using the Mormon database, the Villanueva Family has been elusive. I have not been able to find baptismal records, nor birth records, nor marriages, nor deaths.

Meeting with this cousin was productive because he was willing to share information and because he repeated family information that I will now believe as true. I have his email address and will use it regularly.

Cousins:
     This folks I recently discovered - last year. They are children of my father's cousin - our grandfathers were brothers. I visit them every time I am in Monterrey. This visit was the fist time to get them all in one house. The oldest is 82 and the youngest is 63.

In the picture below, my sister is wearing purple. The woman in pink is Maria (82). The guy on the far right is Eduardo (63) with his wife next to him. The guy in the wheel chair Roberto (77) will get a hip replaced next month. The woman in the white blouse is Conchita (70), and is the mother to the young guy in maroon (42). Only Eduardo and Conchita and son do not live in that house.

Monterrey Picture:
     What would a post about Monterrey be without pictures. The first one was a shop across the street from the hotel. I find it interesting and odd because we do not see such a sign in the USA.
     This is an opticians store and from top to bottom they sell "prescription glasses, contact lenses, artificial eyes, and apparatus for the deaf."  Next time I will go in and get an eye. Should I get a left eye or a right one???

 Old buildings:
These are from late 1800s (the yellow one) and 1901

Now a bank

Now a museum - was a government building

 I wonder if they had really tall people back then. The "french doors" to the balconey and the doors on the ground level are very tall.



Two views from the hotel window.

Grandview update

My return to Washington for a quick visit went very well. I attended graduation and saw some of my students walk past as Rad Techs, RNs, and university transfer students. I also got to visit briefly with some of my former colleagues.

The trip opened my eyes to how expensive it is in Washington. I filled my gas tank in Weslaco at $2.99, using a discount card. If I had a Safeway card my gas in WA would have been $3.85, no card price - $3.95.  My breakfast at IHOP was almost $3 more expensive in WA. I also thought that the restaurant lunch specials were high around $10.


Here are some pictures of the Grandview Campus, exterior and interior remodel, and downtown Grandview.

The Grandview downtown area was very nicely landscaped.

The Grandview Campus is being remodeled.  The entry courtyard will disappear as will the original entry walkway. The courtyard will become an entry foyer, roofed with some skylights. The space will be furnished with comfy seating. The workers were installing a temporary wall to begin taking down the exterior wall. 

The existing halls on either side of the courtyard will disappear and classrooms will exit onto the vast seating area. I asked about the potential noise levels for those classrooms.

 Where these men are standing is the line between inside the building and out - after the remodel.

The temporary wall in front of the computer labs and room 115.

The length of this hallway, from the ABE wing to the Bookstore wing, will have new flooring and be repainted.