A Time For Everything

Today, just bits and bobs and catching up...

First up -- pics of Sonshine and his girl! They attended his JROTC military ball this past Saturday at a hotel in downtown Fort Worth.



During the proceedings, Sonshine was presented with some trophies. The one in the center is for his participation on the JROTC Academic Team. One of the others is for Outstanding Staff Member and the third is just because he's a staff member.


Twelve days ago, I reported on my weight. I haven't been as good as I should have been eating-wise, especially yesterday at my writers group meeting, but I have lost weight. Though I must confess I have not started exercising. But I've got to--my body is griping at me again for my sedentary-ness.


This weekend, I'm taking a break from the yard work to get some housework done. I've neglected the bathrooms shamefully.

The wisteria is doing well, though one of my azaleas is struggling to settle into its new home. It just looks kinda wilty to me...



The puppy memorial garden is doing fine. Though the gerber daisy I planted lost all its blooms and looked a bit wilty itself a few days ago, the leaves seem to be perking up again. Maybe it will blossom again as spring transforms into summer.


I haven't heard back from Samhain Publishing as of yet about the Final Line Editor position I applied for. The gal did say it would be at the end of the month, so I'm just waiting patiently.

And thanks to my lovely friend Clover for a great presentation at our writers meeting yesterday and for the shout out of my free-lance proof reading services.

My friend and chapter mate Lara Lacombe has been blogging A to Z about the Washington D.C. area. It's a quick overview of what our nation's capital offers in terms of site seeing and includes pictures. If you're interested in checking it out, go here. You'll probably have to scroll a ways to find A, maybe even click the "previous posts" link when you hit the bottom.

One last thing...I recently finished Home Before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in Vietnam by Lynda Van Devanter. I've had this curiosity about the Vietnam War for years, maybe because I was born in '68--I don't know. Anyway, it was a heart-breaking look at the horrific conditions and circumstances that our service members found themselves thrust into in country, but also the deplorable way they were treated when they returned home by their fellow Americans.

Please remember to thank each and every veteran and active duty service member you meet.

GOD BLESS THE USA.

So sorry--I completely forgot to post this morning.

But I will see you Monday with pics of my Sonshine.

For the last month, I've been going like gangbusters on the weekends to get my back yard looking nice. Nice being a relative term, of course. I should probably say NICER. And I'm getting there. I've decapitated hundreds of dandelions, picked up petrified dog poop, and trimmed trees. I've even created flower beds after eleven years of living here.

Last weekend I planted shrubs! It was back breaking work--the soil is either full of clay, which isn't too bad to till, or just plain hard and dry and filled with rocks. The section next to the house where I planted my new shrubberies also had huge dried up dollops of cement from when they built the house! Ugh. Needless to say, those bad boys had to be dug out by hand. The dirt had to be sifted and mixed with garden soil and, well, you get the drift.

But with the help of DD and Sonshine, I finally got my Chinese wisteria and pair of azaleas planted.

BEFORE:


DURING:


Sonshine adding the native soil (dirt!) to yet another batch of the native/store-bought soil mixture. You can see everything's in the ground. We're just trying to get enough soil on top of the plants to bring it level with the bricks on the house. We didn't quite make it, even with the cedar mulch, but close enough. I'll add more when I add more plants.

AFTER:

They don't look like much yet, but hopefully in a year or two they'll have filled out quite nicely.

And I'm pooped, but still have a few things to do in the yard and along the stretch of wall on either side of the azaleas, but these things (tilling, hauling the dirt, mixing the dirt, planting the plants) take a surprising amount of time and effort, so I'm pacing myself.

Next up on the TO DO list for the back yard: my bird feeder bed and killing the weeds in the part of the yard that actually has grass still growing!

Any plans for your yard??

Today's movie is Pitch Perfect--a musical comedy. An all-female college a capella group is in serious need of recruits and take anyone who can sing. One of the two leaders of the group refuses to change with the times and the group continually loses competitions. Taking matters into her own hands, one of girls decides mid-performance to stage a coup and changes up the song. The rest of the girls, quick on the uptake, follow her lead, and the group finds themselves placing. However, the leader still refuses to give in. Long story, short, they finally update their look, style, and sound and win the final competition. The main female lead also wins back her man and resolves the conflict with her father.


I wasn't overly impressed with the movie. Yeah, it was cute, but not great. I watched it mostly because DD really liked it and she wanted me to watch it with her, and I needed a movie. :) Even if you love Glee like I do, this movie doesn't really compare, in my opinion. I give it five of ten movie reels.

Has anyone seen this? What did you think?

Today, I'm going to talk about Hell's Half Acre...


For marker text, click here.

At first I thought that this moniker for a portion of downtown during a certain historical time frame was more common--what I mean is that I thought more cities sported such a place with this same nickname. But that's not so. While there are, according to Wiki, several locations throughout the US that are referred to as Hell's Half Acre, only Fort Worth's represents a portion of town also commonly referred to as a Red Light District.

It's true location is in the southern end of downtown; Jones Street (east), Lancaster Street (south), Throckmorton Street (west), and Tenth Street (north) being the borders. Many people erroneously believe it to have been located in what is now the Stockyards area, in the more northern section of downtown.


As you can see on the map (if you click for the bigger version), there are bunches of train tracks just to east of the area, which could have been the location of the first sets of tracks through town.

Anyway, the area sported its fair share of saloons, bordellos, dance halls, and gambling parlors. It's heyday was probably the late 1880s as Fort Worth was a major stop along the Chisholm Trail.

Some of the most famous outlaws of the day, partied in Hell's Half Acre, including Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Sam Bass, and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Despite the end of the cattle drives, this section of town continued to thrive until the end of World War I, and, sadly, the construction of the Fort Worth Convention Center in the 1950s and into the 60s demolished the last of the district's buildings.

I know most cities had their Red Light Districts (and many still do) but how cool is the name Hell's Half Acre??? It just evokes that feeling of wild west lawlessness and wickedness, doesn't it?