Sunday, August 22, 2010

Update:

I realize, thanks to the poetically worded comments from the one of my blog’s readers, as well as conversations with my mother and a friend who may or may not be that same poet/commenter that my postings have not been very regular. I’m working on that. Be patient. However, I decided to write a kind of update to let you know what's been going on.

Snakes:

I wrote twice about the reptile fun we’re having here, so I thought I should let you know what’s up with the snakes. I haven’t seen any more like the three I wrote about. My hope is that the extreme heat is keeping them all back at the creek. I did find a pencil-sized snake in my pool a few days back. He was black… which automatically makes me think Water Moccasin. However, he was so small and so quick in the water that I couldn’t tell if his head was a triangle.

Playing it safe, I simply chased him around the pool for about five minutes with my net. After wearing him out I scooped him up and dumped him over the back fence so he could find his way back to the creek.

My hope is that he went back and told all of his snake friends to stay out of that crazy man’s yard.

Bridge Fishers:

Shortly after writing about the city bridge fishers I drove by and there were about 15 people standing on the bridge looking over into the water. They were laughing, talking and having a grand time. I only saw about 5 poles, but there were a lot of people excited about the day’s catch. However, the temperature here began to rise and Dallas started its 18 to 20 days in a row of triple digit temperatures. Ever since then I haven’t seen any of our city bride anglers. Maybe they’re out there after dark.

Fun Lunch:

I had lunch with some of my friends from college a couple of weeks ago. I hadn’t seen most of them in over 20 years. It was fun. The only strange thing was how much everyone but me had aged. Hmmm, I wonder why? Maybe it’s the long hair…who knows?

Anyway, someone brought a yearbook from my sophomore year. I don’t remember doing anything strange or weird, however, it doesn’t run contradictory with any of the other things I did in college. So when they showed me my picture from that year, while it made me laugh, it really wasn’t a big surprise. Check me out below and see what I mean. Oh! Be sure to check out my hometown. If you ain’t from Texas, and even if you are, you may not be aware that there really is a city (let’s call’er a town) with that name.


Bob and Suzy Dance:

My daughter is on her school’s drill team. This drill team has an annual tradition called the “Bob and Suzy Dance”. This is a dance at the halftime show of a home football game in which the girls and their fathers dance together.

For those of you who know me, allow me to clarify: Hugh Atkinson will be dancing, on purpose, in the halftime show at a regular season football game. The date is October 29, 2010. The place is the Wildcat Stadium on Church Street right next door to Lake Highlands High School. The time is right after the second quarter. If you come to the game, come prepared to be amazed!

Back to the Books:

I’ve been back at school officially since August 16th. However, I’ve been up there off and on in my un-air-conditioned classroom since about August 5th, just to set things up. It’s only been about 2 ½ months, but I tend to get used to not being there, so I like to ease back into things. I find that working my way back up to a full day makes the whole year much better. I’m not sure why that’s true, but I think they call it age. I prefer to call it teaching experience.

When school’s back in session my writing tends to dwindle. I’m not sure how much less of it there could be, but trust me; I’ve got a plan to help me stay focused and write. I can’t tell you what it is, because that will jinx it.

Thanks for stopping by


9 comments:

Real Live Preacher said...

Is it true that in one yearbook you appear multiple times as four different Atkinson brothers? If so I'd like to see pictures.

Anonymous said...

Yea! You're back. Missed you but glad the snakes are gone. I've been thinking of you as you plan for the new year.
Love, Mom

Hugh said...

My junior year I was in the yearbook 3 times.

I was:
Hugh a junior, Chip a sophomore and Vern a freshman

I'll try to find that yearbook and post the pictures.

Anonymous said...

Wow. Where do I start responding to such a literary windfall?! What a treat it was to read something and actually laugh out loud - I've never mentioned it before but I truly laugh out loud alot when I read your posts. That, my friend, is great talent.

I'm not sure how anyone could appear three times in a yearbook but then again, I 'aint built no frictional exploding devices so who am I to say what's possible and what isn't.

All I do know is school is back in session, I can resume stopping by this blog for a much needed laugh or insightful perspective, and the snakes have left the yard. All is becoming right with the world again!

Anonymous said...

i think i have the yearbook with you in there 3 times. I will try to find it and shoot you the pics.

good stuff.

Tracy

Anonymous said...

I find offense to the comment that ALL your OLD college friends have aged except for you!!! Not true, not true!!!

Hugh said...

I'm not sure I understand...

Do you mean that all my old college friends HAVEN'T aged?

Or do you mean that i HAVE aged?

Anonymous said...

Not ALL of your college friends have aged! And I think I saw some long gray hairs- just saying!!!!

Anonymous said...

Cut & Shoot Texas? Any idea as to how it got that name?