I have been remiss in posting new events for Streams.......but I have a very, very good reason.
Sometimes wonderful events happen in our lives that we never could have predicted or forseen. One of those has happened to me. Her name is Julie. I could never have imagined that someone could enter my life that would have this great an effect on me or the way that my life will be altered. For now, I will say only that Julie is the most kind and true soul mate that I could have hoped for and it's indeed a blessing that I do not deserve. For a beautiful photograph of a beautiful person go to: Julie.Com

Days ensue since the last entry.......... I have been busy, too busy with web affairs, trying to convert more websites into CSS format. It's so much more versatile and once one design is up, much easier to change. Just drag the text box to a new location using, of course, my handy dandy CSS software, "Layout Master". Here's a sample of plain jane boxes, a site I'm going to use to put Mirror Project movies up Movie.Com There is a movie there now.......done as a sample and for my web friend Mia who resides near Darmstadt Germany.
Now Darmstadt is another subject entirely. Darmstadt is where my Grandmother's family came from, Darmstadt is where my partner and friend Del was born.......and now I know Mia from Darmstadt.......what's up here??

Once again, Streams has suffered due to busy-ness and business. Monkey business and web business. I am so busy working on redoing some of my websites and a new one for an advertising agency that I don't have time to do my duty to my own personal journal. But I did accompany my Mother out for the "Mother's Day Event". Which is pretty much the same as every other Sunday ...going out to eat. Now I do love my Mother and appreciate her, and am grateful that both she and my dad are still with us and in fact live only 4 blocks from me. But.......sometimes my Mother drives me crazy with her preconceived ideas on how life is supposed to be. This has been growing for oh let's say the last several decades. And it has gotten worse, because everyone in the family has "tiptoed" around her knowing that disagreeing would not be the thing to do for family harmony. So, since no one has ever said anything, this has only made her think that her ideas are right since no one disagrees.
Oh, my sister has tried to disagree, which resulted in my Mom and Sis barely speaking for several years. My brother doesn't have to worry about disagreeing since he rarely visits and just puts up with it for several days and then is gone again. Leaving me 4 blocks from the scene of the action to put up with it. Well, I hereby go on record as saying "I'm mad as Hell and I'm not going to take it anymore".......probably or not.

Life has been uneventful in Stream Land. Though I suppose uneventful is better than eventful, if the events are bad, sad, or life threatening. Sometimes we just get up, do our duty and carry on. But as one gets older, one gets the feeling that one might be missing something. But, from past experience, most everyone's life is rather like being in a war. Long periods of normality, daily routine and boredom interrupted by periods of intense activity, fright, delight and change.
For those of you who have forgotten what I look, like well here I am in real fake digital color at: Pedro in Fake Digital Color.Com

Well after having a 70% chance of rain and storms this Sunday evening we got the grand total of.....none. Pitiful......just pitiful. We can always use the rain. Maybe tomorrow.
In some interesting news I had a nice long phone conversation tonight with Benny Enriquez, who the the First Sergeant of my Army infantry unit. His grand-daughter in Hawaii found my name on an old Army Message post from almost 4 years ago. She was kind enough to forward Benny's number in Arizona. I hadn't talked to Benny in 30 years......but human voices are funny. Once I heard him speak it was like I was standing before him all those years ago.......

Once again I apologize for being remiss in my Streams entry duties. But, I've been otherwise web engaged, working on several website projects for people. Most notably being The Lerwick Family.Com a site of mammoth proportions on which I am just starting and have reconfigured into CSS from plain HTML. You understand. Plus....I have scanned approximately 75 photos of the famed Lerwick family all the way from Norway to Wyoming. It will be a thing of beauty in several years when it is finished. I have just begun.
In addition I feel it is my duty to the world to add reflective images to The Mirror Project including my latest The Trophy Head, I know you understand.

Well, is it hot enough for ya? Well, it's stinkin' hot enough for me, 93° today and probably 100° tomorrow, which will make it one of the earliest 100° days on record. This after a fall in which the heat in this house wasn't even turned on until late Oct. What's up here? Well it's called Global Warming and in spite of what our beloved Presidential administration says it is a reality. And if we don't do something quick, in 5-7 years we're all going to be burning in the hellfires of Perdition! By my calculations 10 years from now the average temperature is going to be close to 150° in August. But don't believe me and don't waste more of your valuable time reading my diatribe, you go to Global Warming.Org and find out for yourself.......if you don't melt first.

I have been otherwise engaged and very busy the last several days with projects that take me away from Streams. My work with The Mirror Project has had me on the digital road looking for that perfect reflective image. And in addition, I have downloaded a new software package making my life in CSS [Cascading Style Sheets] web design more fluent and easy. Being a genius of some degree I was able to master this in one intense day.
Now I am back on the Streams schedule. But I did take timeout last night to hobnob with one of America's true heroes, Gen. Chuck Yeager. Chuck is in town to speak at the CAF and we had a reception to honor Chuck and his WWII wingman Bud Anderson, a great test pilot in his own right. See Pedro and Chuck at: Chuck and Pedro.Com

Life, you can't live with it, you can't live without it. Not much text for today's Streams, more of a visual exerience today. I have been preparing some of my work to be published on the world famous photo website The Mirror Project. This is one of the most important artistic endevours currently available to the reflective photographer. Go to The Mirror Project and in the search feature type in the secret code word "Wallace" to view my works.......numbers 6004 and 6005.

Well I believe that I have almost all of my Spring flowers in....and hopefully they'll survive the summer.They're getting a good start with the warm and humid weather we've been having. Today it was planting more caladiums and finally some peppers and tomatoes. And I acquired some Yarrow which I knew little about. It's an herb, that purportedly will cure most anything that ails one, including high blood pressure. And....it grows like a weed, so I shall have lots of curative power available. Perhaps I'll go into the Yarrow illness curing business.

Ho hum......another day in life. Humid, that's what it's been, and although I moved from Dallas to get away from humidity I must say that sometimes in Midland Texas it is welcome. It certainly helps the yard, trees, flowers and other botanical friends. When the flower beds and lawn are watered, they stay moist. The greeness is noticeable. Now if the stinkin' live oak leaves would stop falling, life would be neigh on perfect in the ecological department.
And speaking of photography......here's a guy who drove from New York to San Francisco and who took a photo every single stinkin' mile. Automatically of course. See all 3300 plus images at: Guy Who Took A Stinkin' Picture Every Mile.Com

Well, today was Thursday, much like many other Thursdays. Sleep deficit still not made up. Mowed the lawn today and for the first time in many months I got "green grass" instead of residual dead brown grass.....a milestone. But perhaps the most exciting part of the day was reading about a 50 year old bird that has flown, they think, not having been with the bird all 50 years....in excess of 5 million miles. Now I'm proud of that bird, 5 million miles is a long way in my book! Probably your's too. Read about the 5 million mile 50 year old bird at: 5 Million Mile 50 Year Old Bird.Com

I am here to report that I am tired.......just bone tired. The old Army "humpin' the boonies" kinda' tired. Where you could fall down in 100° heat on rocks and be asleep in 3 seconds. My sleep deficit is at an all time high after having had not enough sleep for weeks. I didn't journey to slumberland the last two nights until after 1 A.M. and both nights woke up at around 2 A.M. with dreams being the cause. Not bad dreams or nightmares.......just dreams. I think that since consciously trying to get up and write these down, my inner self wakes me up to do so. Then last night I thought that I heard the dog roaming around at about 4 A.M. he wasn't but I was up again. Not to mention that I've been sleeping with the doors in my bedroom open to the outside, an enjoybable experience, but the thousands of grackles in the large pine tree tend to make very strange grackling noises which sound very much like banchee's wailing. Grackles are very strange....quiet for what seems to be hours and then one starts his grackling and all the rest join in, then quiet again. All dead in the middle of the night. What the hell are they thinking? But anyway it has all worn me out. I feel I really need to go spend time with the Benedictine Monks in Pecos NM. Read about them at: The Restful Benedictines.Com
But I have much to do today, so I'm going to force myself into action [something I'm good at....the Army training] and head out. But, I promise myself that tonight I'm going to bed early.....perhaps 11:30 P.M.. I promise.
I'll send you an email at 1 A.M. to tell you how it worked out.

My what a pleasant surprise! We had us a nice little $5 rain storm. I say $5 storm because that's how much it saved me, in watering fees tonight. Some lightning and thunder, enough to dissuade the Big Gold Dog from walking too far, but not a terrible storm. However I had just completed blowing yet more oak leaves and pecan tree fluff when the storm hit. In the front this was peachy because the SW wind blew the botanical debris over into the neighbors yard, but on the patio the same wind filled the Mexican tile once again with fluff. So, being a normal person I went out after the wind had subsided and hosed the patio off in the rain. Wouldn't you? Of course you would......if you were obsessive/compulsive about leaf cleanliness.
And now the storm has passed, the air is cleansed, the lawn is watered and the Big Gold Dog is in the bathtub.....all is well!

OK, I admit it, I'm compulsive about yard work. I feel like if I'm not out there during this beautiful weather something is amiss. Today I was simply going to plant 12 more Salvia in the bed abutting the patio. But then......I thought, well maybe I'd better turn that bed over while I'm at it. And then having the shovel out, I reasoned that I might as well turn the other herb garden bed. And while turning the beds I notice that some of my fern-like plants had dead material on them so I needed to remove that. And while removing dead material from the fern-like plants I saw excess leaves under a hedge......you get the point. I spent 3 hours on these chores when I had planned just to chill out on a Sunday afternoon.
but I did get a good start on this years tan. It's hot out...well hot for the not quite mid part of April. Hot, but sure is making the grass green up on the quick!! And my you should see my patio area. With no wind today it's just gorgeous. For 12 hours or so until the wind comes again.

Blow and mow, that's the order of the day. But first thing this morning the Big Gold Dog and I went on our usual walk. As we were trundling down Bedford Dr. a voice came from a house on the walk. The voice said, "hey". It was our friend Liz, which is the Dogs favorite house. He will not pass Liz's house without going to the front door and sitting like the RCA Victor dog, with his head cocked listening for sounds of life. He just likes Liz's house. Perhaps that's because when we are invited in, Tres gets a bird encounter of the 1st kind. Liz has a Cockatil, which she claims has 49 words in his vocabularly. The vocabulary words I have heard the bird say are.......0.
Well we stayed for coffee, and Tres had his usual bowl of water provided by the gracious hostess and off we went.....home to blow leaves and mow the lawn. It was quite exciting and now I feel guilty because I'm thru and there is still daylight out.

Well today was a day like any other day. Get up put on clothes and go to the office. But like most days I wish I didn't have to shower and decide what to wear. Life was much easier while living outdoors in the Army. Number one, you didn't really have to take your clothes off to go to sleep. And most of the time it wasn't advisable to take your clothes off. Usually one had to get up suddenly while sleeping on the ground. So, even if you did take some of your clothes off, you still didn't have to decide what to wear on arising. The choice was lying right there next to you. A green ensemble. No fuss, no muss, put on your jungle fatigue shirt and ! Voila ! you were dressed and ready to go. Boil up some coffee in an old "C" ration can and ! Voila ! there's breakfast. It was all so easy.
But I did the civilized thing......I did take a shower and put on regular clothes and go to the office. Where, much to my surprise I did all the accounting on my wells, which is very tedious and makes me prone to procrastination. I did this acounting virtually the day I received the data on the wells. Glad to have that over for the month.
Thanks for listening, and as a reward here's a groovy web experience.... LedPants.com

Lawn and Garden Report: Things are starting to look up on the gardening scene! The grass now has more green than stale used brown and in important news, the nastertiums are shooting their little seed heads up out of the ground. I know you are as excited as I am. More geraniums are in the pots on the patio [Shocking Red] and I remembered that I had put salvia [again Shocking Red] in late last year and it did well in the semi-shaded areas...so more this year. Now that the sun is out again and temperatures are warm, the purple wisteria is starting to send out vines that are already one foot up the wire espalier I constructed for their use. Hopefully by the end of summer they will have started to reach their intended goal........the top of the patio Trellis!
I can't wait until morning to see how all the new additions are doing!

Work Report: Well here it is 8:45 and I have just finished one of the most odious and disgusting tasks there is. I did my biannual master bathroom drain unclogging. For those not use to W. Texas drains.....they clog often. It's the calcite in the water. It forms plaque that traps everything and then turns into a cement like substance. Just like a bad heart. Now the plaque is really only around the drain. When one gets further back into the drain, their is a mung-like substance that looks strangely like petroleum and I suppose given another couple million years, might very well become petroleum. None-the-less it is a job that stagnates my mind and makes me wish I was married. This sounds like a job a woman would really enjoy or maybe a slave or an indentured servant.
Now the disgusting drain cleaning came after blowing the driveway and then the upper terrace free of leaves with the atomic powered blower/sucker. Oh yes, and then chasing the dog clear down the to the duck pond a long block away. He's discovered that he doesn't like the blower/sucker either.....reminds him of thunder. And people wonder what I do with my free time. Well after vacuuming now, I hope to catch at least a half an hour of Andy of Mayberry. If I'm lucky........

The Midnight report covering Monday and the first nine [9] minutes of of Tuesday. Monday was OK, but these nine [9] minutes of Tuesday are a drag. A very uneventful day, save for the fact that the lawn sprinkler man came back early this morning to finish repairing of all things.........the lawn sprinklers. And a fine job he did too! Now all eight [8] stations are functioning as scheduled and the one in the back flower beds is not digging a hole every time it comes on. This is exciting news to me and I know you feel a tinge of delight also.
The other exciting news is that the Girl Scouts© came to the door selling left over Girl Scout© cookies. It occurs to me, that the damn Girl Scout© cookie boxes are getting awfully small. Chinzy really. They used to be big hummers. Perhaps the rest of Tuesday will be more exciting.