A blur of a month

One month ago yesterday I was at Dallas/Fort Worth airport heading to New York to visit my grandparents when I found out my grandfather had passed on. I spent nearly a week in New York to be with my grandma and other family that had come to New York.

About two weeks later, Nick came to Brownsville to visit and help me come to terms with my grandpa's death.

This month feels like it went by in the blink of an eye, but at the same time it feels like it went on forever.

...when in Texas...

More on the weather...

The heat finally broke and hopefully we're fairly done with hurricane season (knock on wood). So the museum is in the greatness of Halloween season. The Stillman house is all decorated for the season and it's wonderful...Victorian mourning rituals are rather interesting, but I don't really feel like I can enjoy it as much this year.

At least I've got my costume figured out for Halloween-it's rather cute I think. I'm doing a mix of my belly dance costuming and going out this year as a tribal style fox. That is something I truly am looking forward to doing-especially with historical happy hour at the museum Halloween weekend.

...when in Texas...

returning to the rain forest..

So my previous post was about my grandfather. I get home from New York yesterday to Rhi, 'welcome back, we may be prepping for another hurricane by the end of the week'...yep, another one. This will be big storm number 3 if Hurricane Karl hits us in any shape or form. I'm not looking forward to this but I asked for it.

What this means for everyone: unless you hear me yelling to run for higher ground, assume I'm doing my job and plastic wrapping the Stillman House again.

...when in Texas...

not a vacation

For those out in internet land, my grandfather died last week.  So here's the obituary and his info. He had a lot of stories and a great sense of humor.

John D. Dresser Loving husband, father, grandfather 

CANANDAIGUA - 

John D. Dresser, age 78, of Holiday Harbour, died on Thursday, Sept. 9, 2010. at F.F. Thompson Hospital. He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Betsy Dresser; two children, Jill (Robert) Moore and Mark (Debra) Dresser; four grandchildren, Kate, Sarah, Brian and Daniel; two sisters, Marilyn (Stewart) Turner and Janice (Richard) Sills; brother, James (Mary Jane) Dresser; sister-in-law, Marilyn Dresser; and many nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his brother, William Dresser. Mr. Dresser was a U.S. Army veteran of the Korean War. He was a volunteer at the VA Medical Center and Sonnenberg Gardens. Mr. Dresser retired in 1998, after 23 years as the owner and operator of Trail Break Motor Inn in Fairport. There will be no calling hours. Services are private. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Sands Cancer Center, 360 Parrish St., Canandaigua, NY 14424. Arrangements are by the Johnson-Kennedy Funeral Home Inc., Canandaigua. Condolences may be offered at www.JohnsonKennedy.com

climate control...

South Texas is hot...and humid. For the last week or so I go to work, it rains for about 20-30 min (sometimes I get a little wet) and then it's beautiful for the next several hours before the clouds roll in and maybe we get more rain. I live in a bloody tropical rain forest!

This is more or less comical for me considering I spent three years of maybe getting to see a, uno, single good storm per year when not in North America. Now I've got an abundance of rain, not necessarily storms, but rain.

At least it's warm.

...when in Texas...

the end of the road...

On a field trip to South Padre Island, we decided to see if we could find the end of the road...well, here it is! The end of the road!

...when in Texas...

throwback to July...

o k, this is a very real throwback to July. Right after Hurricane Alex THIS is what Rhi and I were facing at Wal-Mart. I was not joking when I said some shelves were completely empty. I was truly amused but also it was a little post-apocalyptic in a sense.  Very wild.

...when in Texas....