Saturday Adventure

Rick Riordan, a San Antonio author, writes great adult mystries, but he has made it big with his young adult series. The Lightening Thief has even been made into a movie. (He said he hasn't even seen the movie because he wants to keep his on images in his head for future books). This first series is based on Greek Mythology. Riordan uses Egyptian Mythology as his new vehicle in The Red Pyramid.

I have this "book thing" going on with my oldest grandson. I taught him to read a whole book while his folks were away for a week. He was so proud to demonstrate his accomplishments when they returned. As I remember, he was barely 5. Actually, he had been read to for so long and was ready to strike out on his own; he just didn't know it. I got him The Lighting Thief for Christmas when it came out. He loved it and has read all of Riordan's young adult books several times over. I always send him newspaper clippings about anything to do with Riordan.

Naturally, I couldn't miss the author's book signing for The Red Pyramid. The store was scheduled to start giving out tickets for the 2:00 p.m. signing at 9:00 a.m. that morning. We got there 20 minutes early, and there were already 300 people in line.
Tickets were an alphabet letter in numbers of 30...30 A's, 30 B's, 30 C's,...We got a J. We walked through the store a couple of hours later, tickets were at J1. By 12:30 we saw tickets with W3. Figure it out...26 letters to the alphabet times 30 times 4 turnovers! Comers had to be in the neighborhood of 3,000.

What's so great about this? We are talking about a book signing, not a rock concert. Kids and parents all over the place. Can you guess that I am a former reading teacher? I am a happy one to see this.

For Katherine

The possibility that I have my townships mixed up does exist. We would have been coming from Wellington. We rounded a bend and saw this very picturesque and quaint township over a valley. The church popped out on the extraordinarily green hillside. (Remember, I come from Texas, and sometimes light yellow passes for green here.) We had to seek it out and photograph it. On this trip, we were fascinated with all the little churches dotting your landscape. Walt, my husband, wanted to record them and paint them all. He had recently retired and decided he was going to do watercolor. In fact, his very first watercolor was of a church in Nelson. (1st entry of 2008).

For fun, I thought I'd try to find a picture of the little church in Hamilton of which I speak. The picture posted registers inferior to the one that lives in my head. It doesn't have the lighting, color or composition of the view from afar when I rounded the bend. Lousy camera or photographer or both.

The plane was in the same sequence of photos.

Monday Drive

This picture covers a multitude of subjects. First, it shows the sea of flowers that has blanketed Texas this spring...a glorious spring for wildflowers. The bluebonnets come out first, then the other wildflowers and grasses grow taller. The season has already peaked. Secondly. the spot resides in Goliad County, where the rattlesnakes grow exceptionally large and are found is great numbers. Needless to say, I treaded with apprehension. Finally, the view resides in a cemetery.

I'm well into the genealogy of my husband's family. We set out Monday on a fact finding mission. First stop was the Goliad County Library and their archives. Then, lunch! Always one of the best parts of any excursion. Next came the courthouse. I discovered it is much easier to get into the public records than to board a plane. No waiting; no pat downs; no showing of ID's. Clerks willingly gathered materials and offered instructions and encouragement. Interesting and fun.