"Buc-ees, Oh Buc-ees, He's our little Beaver Friend!!!!"

Sometimes, in fact MOST times, south Texas is the most beautiful place in the civilized world. Green verdant plains abut desert highlands with a lush variety of wildlife and climactic settings. The warm, gentle breezes feel like silk caressing your skin in the heat of a luscious red sunset evening. The juxtaposed meeting points of differing cultures from American South to Mexican Norte to 18th century German to traditional Central American Catholic makes for a fascinating jumble to tastes, artistic styles, architectures, and holidays I�d never dreamed of before venturing south of the greater Chicagoland Area.

And then there's the times it's just plain Weird with a capital "W" -- but the best kind of Weird, as in "unusual, significant, different, and outstanding from the crowd." Case in Point: Buc-ees Travel Stop, Souvenir Store, and Eatery. Texas Eats and Texas Treats; Fabulous Bathrooms, and a brand-name Beaver that just won't quit.

Buc-ees (a definite hyphen in that spelling) is to the casual eye just another tourist trap waystop on Interstate 10, 52 miles east of the I-410/I-10 east interchange on the east side of San Antonio. But if the multiple billboards advertising the oncoming exits don't catch your eye (one coming from Houston loudly proclaims "IT'S A BEAVER!!!") most likely nothing will. As you exit the Interstate the differences between Buc-ees and their cross-interstate competition become abundantly clear.

First, the place is immaculately clean. I think they must scrub the oil spots off the concrete at night just to make the place look cleaner. There is not one single scrap of paper; not one straw wrapper; not one piece of errant cellophane to be found. I wouldn't feel bad eating off the floors of this place; it's that clean.

Second, everything here is first class merchandise and facilities. I've eaten in four-star restaurants where the bathrooms were not this immaculately kept and appointed. You almost expect there to be a valet in the corner with mints and colognes. (And I suspect that there would be, but this being rural Texas, the surrounding townsfolk might consider this too "fruity" and rise up to burn the danged place to the ground.)

Third, the souvenirs they sell are not junk. They're actually quite nice and respectable stuff that you'd be proud to show off as your travel trophies. Much of it is made by local artisans, like the five-foot wind chimes that sound just beautiful; or the wooden plaques proclaiming through burnt-on lettering such modern profundities as "I'm a Raggedy Ann in a Barbie-doll world" or "MISSING: Husband, bass boat, and hound dog -- Reward for the dog." There's also the stained- and cut-glass treasures, such as the (above) cut-glass fireplace screen, or the (below) stained-glass portrait of the Head Beaver himself. Oddly, though the Stained-glass Buc-ee is priced easily $100.00 above anything else in the window, the saleslady told me "we price it higher to prevent selling our logo, but we still sell two or three every year."

Finally, this place is better organized and more positive in outlook than Wal-Mart on their best day. The salespeople are friendly and don't hover. The offer advice and samples without prompting, and are happy to help in any way. The management is quick to correct any slips, but without browbeating their staff. These folks actually are happy to work there.

There's a few downbeats though -- as in any tourist trap everything is priced a bit upscale, but not terribly so. The lines are a bit long, but there's almost always 5 or 6 registers open. And the vast selection of beer in the cooler just seems wrong to my eyes, having been brought up in the North where Open-container laws are the norm.

If you get the chance when driving I-10 between San Antone and Houston, you need to make a rest stop here. It's well worth the look-see; the "Wall Drug" of South Texas.

The "El Cazador" Taqueria in south San Antonio Texas. The proprietor of this establishment is a hunter (hence the name) who will make you any kind of taco you like. Elk, Dove, Quail, Venison, Rattlesnake, Fresh & Salt water fishes, and God knows what else. (I'm afraid to eat there myself.)

Confessions of a Mad Diabetic, Part I

This is pretty hard, really.

Diabetes is a glandular disease. It means that your body has either (1) lost it's ability to produce Insulin, or (2) has lost it's ability to use Insulin properly. (Insulin is the hormone that transports sugar -- or glucose -- into the cells, so that the cells can burn it for fuel. No Insulin, No glucose. No glucose, no fuel -- and that is a very bad thing.

Fortunatley I have the second type, which is called Type 2 Diabetes (imagine that!). This type you can workd with, if you can just get your diet habits under control. So that's what I've been trying to do the past 3 or 4 weeks. So the first step is getting rid of all the excess sugar in one's diet.

That is a massive statement in and of itself. Try to imagine this in your own life. Nothing with free sugars or concentrated sweets in it anymore.

Goodbye soda pop. Goodbye Pepsi, goodbye Coke, goodbye Dr. Pepper, goodbye Sprite. Goodbye Root Beer. (Of course, you can drink all the diet stuff you want -- but you have to get used to it first. It's not really that bad -- but it's the "getting-used-to" that's the bear.

And of course, sodas are just the beginning. No more sugar coated cereals -- which pretty much limits you to shredded wheat, cheerios, and rice crispies.

Goodbye Ice Cream, of course. Goodbye popsicles.

Goodbye pancake syrup (so goodbye pancakes and waffles.)

Goodbye all that good junk food. Goodbye candy bars; Goodbye granola bars. Goodbye Twinkies, Ho-Hos, and Ding-Dongs. Goodbye Sticky Buns.

And, (sob!!!), Goodbye Doughnuts.

Once you learn to identify the "concentrated sweets" and eliminate them, you've got 50% of your diet under control. The rest is what we're learning in our Diabetic Classes. Certain things will elevate your blood sugars, and others won't. Obviously concentrated sweets surely will, which is why we cut them out of the plan right off.

The good foods I can eat (If you remember your basic food groups from High School nutrition) are your have meats and fish group and your vegetables. The meats and fish have calories and fats, so you want to get the leanest cuts possible, right? (Goodbye bacon, goodbye pork chops; goodbye ribs, goodbye fried chicken.) Vegetables -- you can eat all you want of the vegetables.

Fruits have lots of sugars in them, but not nearly as much as a candy bar, so you have to be careful. But generally speaking, if you want a small bowl of cherries or 2-3 apricots after dinner for dessert, go for it.

Then you have your starches, or as they call them today, Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates (or "carbs" as the Atkins people like to call them) are essentially two or more sugar molecules locked together with a weak molecular bond. When those carbs hit your small intestine they become sugar molecules again, which can play merry havoc with your blood sugars.

Sugars include breads and pretty much anything made with grains. Buns, rolls, any kinds of breads -- you have to treat them like they're sugars and go very sparingly on them. So you can have a peanut butter sandwich, but only use one slice of bread. You can have a taco, but only on tortilla. Eat all the Taco Salad you want, but don't eat the crispy shell bowl. Corn and peas are also so loaded with carbs that they're treated like carbs rather than vegetables.

So Phase I of my dietary adjustment plan (that is, from the end of May until last Monday) was weeding out the Concentrated Sweets. Phase II has been to decrease the fatty meats and carbs, and increase the fruits and veggies wherever possible.

I had my first hamburger tonight in two months. It tasted like manna from heaven, baby -- manna from heaven. And I'm learning to love Smoothies, too -- just small ones, not super-sized dietary monsters.

My blood sugars have come down from an average of the high 200's (and as high as 374 the first day I got my glucometer) to the 140's -- which is not bad at all. (Normal blood sugars are 70-140.)

I swear to you -- the Dairy Queen store across from my local comic book store calls my name like the Sirens of myth when I drive by.

I'm gonna get through this -- but the bear has his teeth quite deeply in my shorts some days.

The Nameplate that I made for the Nursing Office at my last job. My first effort at nameplates, and pretty darn good, I think.

Julian in the San Antonio airport; trying to look sophisticated and worldly wise; but just looking excited.

Otis and his "mother." (You thought I was kidding about him thinking the dog was his mom, didn't you?)

EVAN E. PARKER | THE TIMES Hunter Schroeder, 10, leads his cousins, Drew and Lily Doniger, through the Valparaiso Parks Department's preview showing of its Masterpiece Seats on Friday. The program features 24 park benches painted like classic art, but with a Valparaiso twist.

Valpo Shows Off Masterpiece Seats

Blogger's note: I think this idea is "absolutely brilliant," as the Harry Potter kids might say. A magnificient variant of the "Painted Cows" Theme of several years ago, this one both promotes local art and classical appreciation. Having said all that, my neice is one of the artists mentioned therein. Enjoy!

VALPARAISO: Painted benches to go on display this month

BY PHIL WIELAND
pwieland@nwitimes.com
219.462.5151

This story ran on nwitimes.com on Saturday, June 11, 2005 12:53 AM CDT

VALPARAISO | It's almost like dallying on a Dali or parking your posterior on a Picasso.

On Friday, the city's Parks Department unveiled its Masterpiece Seats, the first in what Parks Director Steve Doniger hopes will be an annual community art project in the tradition of the Chicago Cows and the Crown Point Bulldogs. The seats are park benches painted by local artists, and they will be on display all over the city beginning later this month.

Each of the 24 benches is painted with a copy of a masterpiece by a renowned artist, but it has been altered, sometimes in very subtle ways, to include a feature that is identified with Valparaiso.

For example, Vincent Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" was changed by artist Tracey Hunter-Doniger to include the Valparaiso University chapel in the landscape. When Becky Ashcroft recreated Claude Monet's "Japanese Bridge," she used the bridge in Ogden Gardens for the centerpiece of her masterpiece.

Other examples of "the Valpo touch" given the works of famous artists: a Viking ship floating on "The Great Waves" of Katsushika Hokusai when done by local artist Haylee Schwerdt, and a Valpo Velvet French vanilla label on a bench filled with copies of Andy Warhol's Campbell's chicken soup cans painted by Valparaiso High School advanced art students Christy Brown and Lindsay Popka.

High school art students Kaitlyn Cook, Lindsay Williams and Kathryn Dulla chose another Warhol work, the four portraits of Marilyn Monroe, and turned it into four portraits of Mayor Jon Costas. Valpo Velvet or Valpo are easy to detect in other paintings while the local connection in several of the benches is still a mystery to Doniger.

"I'm proud of how the whole project came together," Doniger said. "We started three months ago, and it took six weeks to get the benches. The artists had a window of five or six weeks to do their work. Everybody came together and did outstanding work."

The Valparaiso Arts Commission, made up of volunteers who are local artists, art students, park staff and community members, was set up by the Parks Department to assist in the creation of the art projects.

All 24 of the benches are sponsored, and 10 of them have been purchased for permanent display. The high school band bought one of two versions of "The Three Musicians" by Pablo Picasso for Band Director Dan Pritchett. The local artist is Chris Mooraidian. The parents of the Science Olympiad team at Thomas Jefferson Middle School bought one for display at the school. That bench was still being painted by the artist Friday.

The benches that are not sold for permanent display will be auctioned off in September to raise money for next year's art project. Doniger said the details of that project will be revealed at the auction, but it will involve something that can be displayed permanently at Foundation Meadows Park.

The benches have to be weatherproofed before being placed on display. Anyone interested in joining the Arts Commission or buying one of the benches for $800 can contact Barbie Johnson at the Parks Department, 462-5144.

From Left: My neice Oriane; Julian, my nephew David; and my future sister-in-law having dinner last week in Paris. I'm happy to report Julian gives my brother-in-law the same scowl he gives me when i have a camera.

March 1988: the road to Chievres Belgium, early morning fog. Chievres was the largest Luftwaffe base outside of Germany in WWII; this road was formerly one of it's runways then. The trees were planted to camouflage them from Allied bombing runs. I love this picture; took it myself!

My cat Otis faxes well, don't you think?

In Many Ways, the News Is Not Good . . . .

I think I'm ready to talk about this now.

I've been at home for about 6 weeks now off work. The problems started the third week of April when I came down with the flu on a Wednesday or Thursday. While I've been known to get the flu before, my vitamin regimen (3 multivitamins a day with 1000 mg of Vitamin C -- plus 10 mg Pepcid for the stomach and an aspirin for the heart) usually prevents anything but the worst flu.

By the Saturday the 101.2 fever had broken, but only down to 99.5; which is high for me (I usually run in the 97.2 range. Being a nurse, I check these things a lot when testing thermometers.)The head congestion had settled in my lungs, and I had an almost continual hacking cough that was not only giving me headaches froim coughing so much, but also tore my itsy-bitsy umbilical hernia (the size of my thumb) open much larger (the size of my fist.)

I took a few days off the end of that second week (Wed/Thur/Friday) and went back to work Monday and Tuesday with the low grade fever; and went to the clinic Wednesday when I couldn't stop coughing long enough to type and started having breathless episodes and chest pain after coughing. THAT was scary enough to wake me up.

After two weeks off work being treated by the Physician's Assistant at the Clinic, all we knew was that it wasn't (a) Tuberculosis, (b) Hepatitis in any form, or (c) AIDS. We did find out that I had an abnormality in my liver enzymes, and that my EKG was "a little off" according to the Primary Physician.

Meanwhile, my supervisor at work was saying things to my co-workers like " . . . if he's as sick as he says he is . . . " and threatening to terminate me "so we can hire some more nurses." This despite faxing all my paperwork I received (and the "Off-Work" slips) to her after every appointment, and staying in contact every three days per their own policy.

So on the Friday of the third week off, after hearing the above comments, I decided to drop off my paperwork in person. For my effort I got escorted off the premises and placed on "Administrative Leave" and escorted off the premises.

Huh!

So I've been on Administrative Leave for three weeksnow when I get a call Thursday from the Director of Human Resources. I'm going back to work Monday morning. (Translation: "We tried to find some dirt on you for three weeks and haven't been able to; so we need nurses desperately -- so come back now.")


Meanwhile, here's the score from Dr. McMahon's tests:


1.) I'm diabetic. I don't appear to be Insulin-dependent, but we still don't have a good handle on it yet. The glyburide they're giving me is having some pretty awful side effects -- so there's some tweaking to be done there, obviously.

2.) I have "Reactive Airway Disease." This means when Ai cought hard or exercise, the outer portion of my lungs shut down, leaving only the bronchus open. It means it's hard as heck to get rid of lung infections (like chest colds or pneumonia) and very easy to get bronchitis. It's one of the reasons I'm still coughing two months later without any cold or upper respiratory infection present.

3.) My Ulcer is re-activated. Dr. McMahon switched me from Pepcid to Nexium when 10 mg of Pepcid became 20mg became 30-40 mg.

4.) We're still not sure about the ticker. I have a Treadmill Stress Test June 16th, and possibly an angiogram after that. Personally, I don't see anything grossly unusual with my EKG, but she's the doctor.

5.) I also have a surgical consult for some time in July to see about surgery for my ugly little umbillical hernia to finally get it fixed.


6.) ALL of these things are directly related to STRESS. And the only place I'm having lots of stress lately . . . .is work.


So . . . . you might think I might not want to go back to that particular job.


I have an appointment Monday morning to discuss just that with them. Stay tuned. I'm pretty sure it won't be a very polite conversation.

~~JD~~

This is Otis on the Left, who is allegedly a cat . . . .

. . . . but he thinks he's a puppy. To the right is Samantha, whom Otis thinks is his Mom. (Please note they are both sitting in exactly the same pose; paws in front, tails to the left.) It's even more hilarious when they sleep together or groom each other.

The lovely and Gracious Miss Mommie, . . . .

. . . . sitting at her new Dining Room table. Note that all chairs are bar stool height, so no-one's feet touch the floor. She just loves this! We take delivery the end of Juloy when we move into our new apartment.

Things to Think About while you're Off Work in Texas

Barbecue.

Barbecue is almost it's own food group in Texas. We have barbecue joints down here like they have McDonald's on every corner in Chicago. I can drive 2 miles in any direction and find a Bill Miller's; a Suzie's; a Grady's; or a Casey's barbecue.

But while those are all very respectable and delicious barbecues in their own rights, It's Rudy's Barbecue that's the best. (http://www.rudys.com/index.html). There's only 3 of them in San Antonio, but they're well worth the drive. I like the Leon Springs Store the best -- it's the original. It's not actually a restaurant -- it's a meat market that has tables so you can eat what you buy on the premises (an interesting loophole in Texas law.)

And Barbecue down here differs VASTLY from the backyard grill barbecue I grew up with in Indiana. Up north you take the meat, slap it on a gril for 10-20 minutes, and add ketchup and mustard. Down South you first prepare the meat with a Rub that has salt, peppers, and spices. The meat is grilled for 8-10 hours (yes, hours) and sauce is added as an aside, or slathered on after cooking. Meat is Never cooked with sauce on.

While each griller's Rub recipe is a closely guraded secret, so is each griller's Sauce recipe, which varies from region to region. Each region had certain elements that are more prevalent that the sauces are based on. North Carolina sauces are more vinegar and mustard based, whilst Kansas City sauces are more molasses and tomato based.

Texas sauces are also tomato based, but also have a healthy helping of peppers -- jalapeno and otherwise. The best ones are not so much hot, but spicy and flavorful. That's what Rudy's excels in. If you follow the link to the website, they'll send you a bottle, and you can taste for yourself.

Or, if you come visit, we'll take you out there one night. Heckuva place, that Rudy's

~~JD~~