rakeeter.com – Page 21

Bye bye July

Finally, my efforts to make the lily pool look good have begun to pay off. By draining much of the water out every couple of weeks or so (putting it on trees) and refilling it, the clarity has improved to the point that the fish are easily visible. For the first time all three lily colors, white, pink and yellow, have had a blossom at the same time. It has been well over sixty years since I asked my long-suffering father to build the lily pool for Mother’s Day and I’m confident it has never looked better. Continue reading “Bye bye July” →

Turning 40

by rakeeter

When I turned 40, I was in patrol working deep nights. On my birthday, my long-time partner Rodney Spain, trying to help me grasp the enormity of the occasion, assured me what I called freckles on the backs of my hands were in fact age spots. The night went downhill from there. Our sergeant Carl Dorman and Rodney handcuffed me to my squad car’s push bumper on Flagpole Hill, an area frequented by the gay community and the usual assortment of unsavory characters that frequent big city parks in the wee hours. Then they drove off and left me. I like to think they stopped somewhere where they could still see me in case some ne’er-do-well happened by and was inclined to take advantage of my situation. Fortunately, I was less matronly back then and was able to contort my body so that I could reach my handcuffs key in my pocket and escape my predicament. Carl and Rodney left in Carl’s patrol car so I drove to the 7-11 we frequented, marking out when I got there.

Joyce spent 21 years on the Dallas Police Department. These are some random anecdotes from her time in uniform.

Red River 2018

by rakeeter

As the Red River Fourth of July parade shuffled by, I was sitting in my lawn chair surrounded by wife, daughters and granddaughters, all of us arrayed in our Homegrown Keeter Produce t-shirts. I was minding my own business and taking it all in when the Citizens Against Violence (CAV) float came along. It was really just a pickup with some bunting draped on it and there were several women in the bed waving to the crowd lining the route. As the float drew even with us one of the women leveled her water gun at me with gleeful malice. Continue reading “Red River 2018” →

June wrap

by rakeeter

Mickey and Mammy
Mickey and Mammy
Mickey and Mammy

I ran across the remnants of a bird nest the other day. There were a couple of cigarette butts, no doubt from the strip along the street, included in the construction. Must have been a grovite bird nest. Continue reading “June wrap” →

Rainbows

by rakeeter

Freshly trimmed junipers
Mojave sage
Rainbow

Joyce and I had a nice chat with LTC (retired) Allen West this past week. He lives in the Lake Highlands area of Dallas now and was in town to talk about the Booker T. Washington Initiative to a group of us blue-bloods at Amarillo Country Club. He was as pleasant and personable in person as he seemed when we’ve seen him on TV. Under West’s leadership, the BTWI will attempt to employ Washington’s (not the nation’s capital) belief in entrepreneurship and free enterprise as the only true path to prosperity and well-being to revitalize the spirit of the American Dream by emphasizing that all Americans can be entrepreneurs. The Texas Public Policy Foundation has an enviable track record of success with these kinds of programs and I have no doubt they will make a difference with this one. Continue reading “Rainbows” →