By Charlotte Byus
About resolutions, not happening for me. I’m way too old to even think about an exercise program, well maybe a little walking about the park. The park is cemented and easy to navigate day or afternoon, if I only had Momma Kitty to walk with me and meow to me along the way. I thought I had found a stray kitty several weeks ago, even went so far

By Charlotte Byus
When you live in a small space, seasons make it a time for switching, that is in your closet. Not so much woolies, but rain gear, long-sleeved T-shirt, and you know the rest, long pants. Oh yes, don’t forget the toe-socks for your flip flops, and one pair of regular socks for rain boots. This last few days, I have been working on my clothes. The love of my life

By Charlotte Byus
Now that I am older and do not have an oven, I have been cast aside to smaller cooking jobs for the Holidays. Some of this makes me happy and some doesn’t, close to sad. We no longer have a large home and room for family to stay, so once again we have been cast aside (yea). That is totally not true. We so loved having all the family at our

By Charlotte Byus
Not so long ago, a Christmas Pup, aka CP, went on a Caribbean Cruise. This was not by choice, you see he was Stolen from the check-in counter. Now the true story – two women, chose to abscond with the cutest little guy on our counter. Then they had the gall to take a picture with him before heading for the ship. That was their

By Charlotte Byus
When you have been married as long as we have, you try to enjoy every minute. Maybe I should rephrase that, most of the minutes. These past two weeks, our children have celebrated with us by taking us to dinner. First it was Rene’ and Jason taking us to RR’s favorite place Texas Roadhouse. We each had a beverage then ordered great

By Charlotte Byus
Other than eating candy, the word is foreign to me, especially making candy. My family is cakes and cookies for Christmas, Fruit Cakes, chopping and dicing dates, candied fruit and whiskey. This past week Shannon invited me to share in the Holiday fun of making candy for friends and family. For many years, Shannon has gone home to share this tradition

By Charlotte Byus
I don’t do this well! But you need to know it is really not a big deal. I am a paper person and a calendar person. This goes back to working days when all of us had a daily or weekly calendar on our desk. This was how we lived from meetings to budgets for the New Year. I have never given up the calendar and on my last day, I may put a mark on

By Charlotte Byus
Worked Sunday, then Monday, took RR to the doctor as he has been a very sick pup. Our wonderful family doctor had an x-ray done to make sure it was not pneumonia and then decided the route to get him well again. Brought him home, as the bed was calling, and off I went for drugs and stuff. Had my very last transaction with the WalMart

By Charlotte Byus
This past week was to be full of travel, food, and of course, shopping. The weather did not assist in the travel. You see, Tuesday was our travel day. Shannon, Terri and I had made great plans to head up I-10 to Brookshire to visit Brookwood. If you have not visited Brookwood, try to visit for the Holidays. They have a great garden center and beautiful

By Charlotte Byus
Long, Long ago, when we purchased our first sail boat, Silent Mistress, we met many new friends on J dock and one of those was Tom. Tom was from Oklahoma and when his marriage ended, he moved to Texas, near Dallas. Most of Tom’s career was in banking and when he retired, he moved to the Seabrook area, purchased a 40′ foot sail boat to

By Charlotte Byus
We who live in the South, that is the Texas Gulf Coast, enjoy many months of summer. I love summer, even when I may need to change sweat bands three or four times a day. I have learned to put my bands in the refrigerator instead of freezer as that makes a mess of the elasticity of the ban.

Back to the original story, just like that, we go

By Charlotte Byus
We met our neighbors behind us last week, nice couple, he is a quiet man who worked for NASA for many years and she is an interpreter for NASA now. He is starting to have memory problems, but that does not stop him. When he introduced himself he said his name and his age, 80, and his wife said 9. We chatted for a while and he told us again

By Charlotte Byus
For many years we have gathered with friends who are, or were, sailors to watch the Harvest Moon Regatta. Back in ’85, RR and I purchased our first Sail Boat, a 2-27 Cal. This boat had lots of work to be done on her as she had set for two years during a not so nice divorce. With that said, it was the best way for me to learn about sail boats and to

By Charlotte Byus
In a matter of hours we have changed our lives in so many ways. They are all good ways. RR and I have been looking for at least 12 months for a place closer to our children and doctors. But that meant doing something about the situation and I’ll be honest that is not one of our strong points. One of the main items that helped us make this

By Charlotte Byus
For several years we have discussed leaving the peninsula.  Our reasons were totally health and home oriented. The humidity is very hard on RR’s COPD and the salt

By Charlotte Byus
This past Saturday afternoon, Dianne, Ashlynn, Emily and I attended the ballet at the Wortham Theater Downtown Houston. I mention all of the above, so you will once again understand my tight fist holding on the front seat door handle. Let’s start with the Ballet – Giselle, a beautiful story about romance and forgiveness between a poor girl and a nobleman. She dies brokenhearted as

By Charlotte Byus
Today I met Rene’, our baby girl, her son, Jon and Vickie, RR’s sister, at the cruise terminal to give them prizes and to pick up 5 1/2 dozen eggs. Why? Well you see it is apparently that time of the year when chickens lay eggs a lot. She did not want to leave them at home so they would go bad. The two left at home, Jason and Josh, like eggs

By Charlotte Byus
As a young girl I would sit in the cleaning shop and watch my Mom mend clothes for customers, or when all the chores were finished she would set out a pattern and material and get to work on a new dress for Dolores or me. Of course, we never started something new on a Friday because that was bad luck. Not too sure why, but Big Mamma

By Charlotte Byus
OK, so this week we concentrated on the problems with the TV. Well sorta. First RR called Direct TV trouble shooting department and chatted with a very nice lady named Victoria. She had him do this and then that and then none of this/that worked. So they tried something else, nope. We need a service call and maybe new stuff. You can certainly

By Charlotte Byus
As you know, we are down to one truck which many of my friends say is no problem. That is until something goes wrong. RR had a doctor’s appointment this week, which is usually no big deal, except his truck will not fit in the parking garage at UTMB. That meant if I wanted to go with him I needed to park on the other side of the world and place

By Charlotte Byus
Several years ago, Josh, our oldest grandson, asked RR if he could purchase Bubba-Ann. RR had to give it great thought as that was his baby, even though he had a new truck. He knew all along he would sell it to Josh but first he needed to let go. Finally, the day came and Josh had the truck he had wanted for many years. As Josh drives away

By Charlotte Byus
On June 22nd, we crossed the pond to visit Dianne and Chris, and for the first time, to meet his parents, sister and nephew. This was the day before RR’s 75th Birthday, so there were celebrations too. Now, my understanding this was just for us, so when our second born called and her dad told her about this upcoming luncheon, I informed her

By Charlotte Byus
Hope everyone had a safe and happy 4th. Some of ours was spent in memories of years past when my Mom and Dad were alive and our daughters were little. Every Memorial, 4th of July and Labor Day we would travel west on Highway 90 to New Braunfels. It started when I was only 5 when my sister married Ray, he had spent many years in

By Charlotte Byus
Last week, we had to venture across the pond into Galveston, best part was no Dr visits. It was big box stores, ugh! We had to hit the courthouse for license renewal, credit union and then lunch. Remember, never go to grocery store on an empty tummy. So we didn’t. Many of our friends have raved about the Black Pearl Bar & Grill so

By Charlotte Byus
You are either a Dog or Cat person, sometimes you can be both. As a child, my daddy allowed me to have cats, and my sister, who is 14 years older than me, was allowed to have dogs. To my recollection, my first cat was Kiddle. I could not say kitty kitty. Kiddle was an orange tabby male, except he did not know he was male. He would come home

By Charlotte Byus
To the world of Dads I hope this day was the best for you. I hope your children and grandchildren remember you and send to you all their love.
My Dad was a quiet man, he was not well educated but worked hard to take care of his family. Daddy had two brothers and a sister, when they needed help

By Charlotte Byus
As a young wife and Mom, that statement did not mean a thing to me. Will now it does! What started this week’s nonsense was a picture in the latest Saltwater fishing magazine. RR brings the magazine to me and said “look at this,” so I did. I looked at the picture, not where it was from. “Are you believing this!” he said. Marina Del Mar,

By Charlotte Byus
On this past weekend, when you were with family and friends having a beverage and BBQ, please, I hope you remember those who gave all. Please say a prayer even if it is in silence. This weekend, I would like to remember my Uncle Ernest from WW1 and his help in building the Panama Canal, and Uncles from WWII, Henry, Percy, my