Why?

Why would someone come into our country, purchase several guns and lots of ammo, and proceed to kill 33 people? It doesn't make any sense.

We have these anomalies periodically in this country, but it never makes any sense. I remember when the shooter went on his spree in Killeen at the Luby's. I know people who, to this day, will not sit with their backs to the door wherever they are. And they weren't even there!

I believe in a well armed citizenry. After the Killeen incident, Texas made it easier to purchase hand guns and implemented the concealed-carry license, which allows one to carry a handgun on their person without having to declare it. I heard on the radio this morning from Dennis Prager's substitute host that the crime rate in Texas has decreased slightly since those measures were implemented. Most criminals think twice about attacking someone here because he may get shot. The criminals don't know who is carrying guns, so they don't take the chance (when they have any sense about them).

If places like the liberal universities and liberal local and state governments allowed people to legally carry guns, crimes like Killeen and Virginia Tech would certainly have fewer people dead. I know it sounds trite to repeat the phrase "when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns," but there is a certain truth to it that any rational mind should be able to grasp. What will it take to allow citizens to protect themselves against such attrocities?

From the wild, wild west...thanks for letting me vent.

Getting Ready for Fiesta!

Today we sang our Easter cantata at church. It was quite a production. We had a few extra people singing that are either friends of the director or one of his HS students. In addition to being our church choir director, he teaches choir full-time at one of the local high schools. In addition, we had a full miniature orchestra with HS school students and friends of the director. We sang it twice in addition to a three hour rehearsal yesterday.

It was a pretty amazing experience to sing in a group with an orchestra recounting the path that Christ walked on his journey to the cross.


In other news, I'm fine after the bus accident. I was sore for about two days and after a couple of full doses of ibuprofen, I got over that. I already got a letter in the mail from the bus company asking for my statement about the accident. That was in Friday's mail. They're pretty darn fast!

As you may know, I've been making paper flowers to decorate our support carts for the upcoming Fiesta parade my son's high school band will be marching in. As part of chaperoning for the event and walking along in the parade, the chaperones are creating Fiesta hats. I started on mine this evening. Here's what I started with:

One of the mom's ordered these for about $3 apiece. Couldn't pass that up! I started adding flowers in the primary scheme of our school's colors and then started going a little crazy. I hope the giant glue dots I used for the main flowers hang in there for at least a week! Here's what it looks like so far:





















The big wad of ribbon on the left side are curling ribbon streamers that will hang down the back. There's almost 75 yards of streamers on the back. And I still have to curl each one of them...sigh. Why do I do this to myself? I ran out of the little white flowers on the brim, so I'll have to make another trip to Hobby Lobby for some more, oh darn! (That's supposed to be dripping with sarcasm :-).

Have a great day and thanks for reading!

What do you get when a Sephia tries to take on a city bus?

Quite a mess. I went to work today and I'm not any more sore than I was when I went to bed last night. Only difference is I haven't had any ibuprofen today. Oops!

I went to a luncheon today for a former manager from a different company that I left three years ago. He was the best manager I ever had. This gathering was for people who worked for him in the capacity that I worked under him. It was like a reunion and it was really good to catch up with people I haven't seen since I left.

Much of stuff I heard today made me sooooo glad that I don't work there any more. When a company goes from being a focused, family-oriented, service organization to a bottom-line driven conglomeration, things change a lot and they're not always for the better. My stress level is way lower than my former co-workers. At least I don't have to worry about being laid off any time soon.

Tonight is choir practice. We're rehearsing for our Easter Cantata on Sunday. It should be a really good one. There's nothing better than singing praises to God!

I got run over by a bus. No wait...

I had an interesting trip home from work this evening. I ride the bus from the suburbs to downtown and back several times a week. I know, that's not unusual for about 80% of the world, but in Texas, everyone drives their own car. What with gas prices and all, I figured for $25 a month, all I have to do is ride the bus once a week to pay for it, so why not?

I took an earlier bus after work today just so I'd have a little more time at home after working out when I got off the bus, but that wasn't to be. Halfway home our bus got rear-ended by a Kia Sephia! Totalled the car. I was sitting in a sideways facing seat at the back and I could feel it when I got up to walk off the bus. Sort of like a sideways whiplash. They sent a replacement bus and I was planning to go ahead and work out, but as I stood there waiting, my side was getting more uncomfortable. I ended up going straight home to the ibuprofen. I think I'm going to be sore tomorrow.

When I get my cell phone/PDA/camera out of the car, I'll post a picture of a Kia trying to take on a 40-passenger city bus.

And I'm still making flowers. I've moved on from crepe paper to tissue paper for a little while. I'm using whole sheets of tissue paper and the flowers are coming out about a foot and a half across! Ha!

What am I working now?

What am I working on now? I'm probably going to have to put scrapbooking on hold for a few weeks while we're getting ready for Fiesta. This is the biggest party in San Antonio. It always happens around the week that contains San Jacinto Day. This was after the Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution and it's what the Texians remembered at San Jacinto.

Fiesta lasts for 10 days and pretty much shuts down the city the whole time. There are three major parades: The River Parade, the Battle of Flowers Parade, and the Fiesta Flambeau Parade. The River Parade is just what it sounds like. They decorate river barges and floats and drive down the river through downtown. The Battle of Flowers Parade is on the second Friday of Fiesta and is one of the oldest continuous parades around. Our son's high school band, pep groups, and student council are in the parade this year, along with most of the other high schools in our district. The Flambeau parade takes place on the following Saturday night. Yes, it's a night parade. All of the floats and participants are lit up somehow.

As a band parent, I'm lucky enough to get to march in the parade in support of the band. We're allowed to have one golf cart per group, so we're decorating two golf carts, one for the band, one for the spirit groups. I'm currently making the paper flowers for them. Thsi is going to take forever! And I still have to decorate my hat! Oh I hope I don't run out of time.

How this for a schedule: Friday afternoon dentist to get my replacment crown, then immediately to concessions for 4 hours. Saturday: at the middle school where the spring BBQ fundraiser is at 5:30AM to start prepping, 9:00 AM rehearsal for the Easter Cantata till noon, then going to work from 10PM till hopefully not past midnight, but could go until 2AM. Sunday: two services (8:30 and 11:00) performing the Easter Cantata. I think I"m going to be exhausted by Sunday afternoon!

Wish me luck!

And now Easter is over

This Easter season has been almost as hectic as Christmas was, without the presents, though. It's actually not quite over, yet because our choir cantata is on the 15th, the week after Easter. We worked so hard on all of the Easter Sunday music that I'm a little concerned about the cantata music. We haven't worked on it that much.

We did have a family congregation at my aunt's house in Boerne, about 1/2 an hour away. Both sons were there, yeah! I was reading my last post and probably need to update the status of DS1. Not only has he quit his job at the sports company, he got the go ahead from his grandfather yesterday to go ahead with securing the space and the name for his new company. Grandpa's backing him in this venture.

DS1, I found out yesterday, may be uninvited to attend the University next semester. He's concerned about his grades. My prediction: He's going to get kicked out of school and spend his time building his business. At this point I think that may be a better route. Not every successful business person finishes college. And for me, if he doesn't finish college, but is successful otherwise, I can't ask for more. His grandfather didn't finish college and look who is DS's primary investor.

We've had a very busy spring band season with Winter Drumline and Concert and Sight Reading contest AND a parade coming up in three weeks. I'm proud to announce that DS2's concert band earned straight one's from every judge in concert and sight reading. That means they earned another sweepstakes (they had ones at marching contest in the fall). The school has been open five years and they still have the original band director. He's won sweepstakes every year at this school. Wow!

Back at Work

Well, it's time for the post-holiday ramp up. I've been at work for almost three hours now and haven't done anything useful. Things on my to do list today:

• Work on project documentation
• Check the new systems from the weekend
• Work on the switch documentation
• Whatever else comes along

School hasn't started back, yet, so I've got one at home, younger DS. Older DS has decided to quit his job at the sports company. I don't know what he's going to do for money. He recited to me last evening how much money he has and how much he needs to keep up his truck payments, but what he fails to realize is that he spends money on a lot of things other than his truck, like food, DVD's, movies, etc. I guess my retirement is getting postponed further now, since I'm still supporting the kid.