Skinner Farm

Sunday morning, we headed to Rockdale to refresh the flowers on my parents and grandparents graves and to visit with Uncle Bo & Ed, who were having their monthly work weekend at the farm. We met at the Mexican Restaurant for breakfast and then headed to the cemetery in town.

Red was Grandma's favorite color!
The little greenish ones in the center were just an accent.

Since the older flowers still looked nice, we "recycled" them and perked up Mama West's grave too.

As we were heading to the country, we stopped by the Rockdale Depot, which has been restored and looks great.  I even found a few bricks out front by donated friends of Grandma Skinner ... names like Backhaus and Noack/Perry bring back memories from spending time in Rockdale each summer.

Onward to Harmony Cemetery ...

Of course, Mom's favorite color was purple!

I'm adding in Jimmie Lee's grave for family who may want to remember the dates.  Was happy I had some extra flowers to perk up her arrangement.  Having just been in Waco, I was thinking about all the day-trips with Grandma to visit her cousin ... eating lunch at the Piccadilly Cafeteria and saving leftover bites of cornbread for her poodle named Whisper.

Spent a little time at the cabin and looking at the cows before heading back to Houston.

Seems a little out of place in a rustic cabin,
but this is one of Grandma Skinner's paintings.
It hung in her living room as long as I can remember.

Moo!

Uncle Bozo and Ed - ready to get back to work!

Baylor Bears

I'm way behind on my blogging, but hope to catch up in the coming weeks.  I'll start with the weekend!

Jerry and I had an opportunity to see the new McLane Stadium in Waco and experience the Baylor vs. TCU game.  A friend of Jerry's, who is part owner of the office building where BORO Riverway is located, is a Baylor grad and heavily involved in their business school.  David invited us to join his crew (12 person Loge Box) for "sailgating" and the game.  Pretty sweet deal!

First, let me explain "sailgating" - which is done on a boat instead of a parking lot.

When the stadium was designed, they took advantage of the nearby Brazos River and created an area next to the stadium for a few supporters to purchase dock space.  Out of only 16 spaces, David has a prime location on the end ... not sure what the investment was, but clearly it was significant.

So the boats either hang out at the dock or mill around the lake next to the stadium and watch the students, band and team walk over the bridges toward the stadium. It's very pretty and different than any other stadium I've visited.

The whole place is first class - just beautiful - and the layout with the horseshoe shape facing the scoreboard and river adds to the appeal.

By now, everyone knows about this game, which will go down in history for breaking several records. It was WILD!  TCU fans had to be crushed over the defeat, since they were in the lead the entire game.  We actually considered leaving early in the fourth quarter because the score was 41 to 58 and seemed a bit hopeless.

Keeping the faith in the fourth quarter!

Through divine intervention, I guess, Baylor "caught fire" and tied it up with just a little over a minute to go.  Amazingly, they put together another drive that got them within field goal range and - under TREMENDOUS PRESSURE - their guy made the goal for a 61 to 58 win.

The entire student section emptied onto the field - complete madness - and everyone was celebrating.  Well, except the TCU folks who left the stadium in shock.

It was a lot of fun, although we were late getting to our little hotel in Temple, where we spent the night.