January 2024

 Well, it's been a long while since I've written.  I'm going to try really hard to write at least once a month.  I really want to try to be more regular.

We're just back from a long 4 day weekend in Galveston.  We had no plans, just a place to stay.  Ended up riding a tandem bike all over the island.  It was a good way to spend time together ....we stopped when we wanted, we found places to eat, to experience and rest.  One of our favorite shows on HGTV is Restoring Galveston.  We love the old houses found on the island, so we kind of took our time to find the houses from the show.  We were pretty successful.  It was a good trip and we came back rested.

Another goal for the year is to spend time visiting with folks.  By the second day in January I had already contacted two friends who had moved from Houston last year.  My goal is to keep up with these folks more than just a text once a month.  Let's see if I can make it happen.

I've had a lot of divine appointments this year - some are people I hadn't seen in a long time.  Today in the grocery store as I reached for a rack of ribs, another person reached in - she was a former parent of a GT student.  They spoke Chinese when they first enrolled in Rummel Creek. The kids were brilliant, but weren't making it into the GT program.  I wrote a petition explaining how they had to translate to Chinese and then back into English - and then they were in.  You wonder, are they really gifted - Joanna is now at Johns Hopkins working on a PHD in neurological surgery.  She had just left to go back to school to complete a few trials for surgery.  Frank, a little younger is now at CalTech working on his PHD in Physics.  Yeah - I think they are a little GT.  Mom had not changed, once I realized who she was, she was just as she had been when a volunteer at RCE - It's been at least 15 years since they were at Rummel Creek.  Caught up on a few more of the kiddos they were grouped with - Davis Palmie - he too is still in school.  That group of boys was a challenge - anything I shared, they already knew it and usually had mastered.  They pushed my buttons and my knowledge - but my did they have fun learning.  I can only wish for other students to love learning as much as those boys did.  About the time they were graduating from undergraduate programs - they dropped by the library - it was so good to see that they had all excelled, all gone to different colleges, but had remained good friends.  Everyone should have good friends like that to help push you along.  I hope those boys know how much I enjoyed working with them.  For years I kept up with some of them on a regular basis...even attending their Eagle Scout Ceremony.  As I move through year 2 of retirement - it's good to know that some of the students going through RCE have excelled and gone the extra mile.

Well, I've rambled enough for today.  Hopefully by the end of the week, I'll pick up a new post....Just a way to keep my thoughts all in one place.