It's my story.
Real estate, #101.

Politics, it's my story and I'm sticking with it!

Cancer and Chemo.

It's my story! September 25, 2009

Shouldn't

Here it is 1:00 in the morning in Nigeria, and you got me thinking of Roy Head.  I don’t know if you have a bunch of music on your computer like I do, so I thought I’d go ahead and send these songs to you in case you don’t.  Funny how we can go back over 40 years in the click of a mouse.  I envy you for going to that club.  The only bad thing about it was missing Archie Bell.  We were talking about him at a party a week ago, and I ran home to make a CD, and I took it back to play “Tighten Up” on the CD player for some of the younger guys who had never heard of him.  We’ve been in perpetual lock-down here for quite a while, and no wives are allowed here any longer due to problems with delta militant kidnappings, and we look for any entertainment we can get in the Man Camp.

 

 

Dennis

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www TrueToTexas.com          

 

            Shouldn’t.  Have you ever done something, you shouldn’t?  Last week I’m communicating with some of my high school friends.  You know, friends you knew in the 1960’s.  One of our Katy High graduating classmates is rolling in from Africa and we are setting up an impromptu reunion.  Impromptu – that’s usually the best kind.  Last Saturday and the cancer and chemo have me pretty damn tired.  I’m reading the local paper and see a small ad advertising a dive in downtown Houston,  the Continental Club.  Shouldn’t.  Flashbacks.  Reminds me of the Katy VFW Hall, Riverside Hall in East Bernard and other rural dance halls that we made on a regular basis.  I shouldn’t.  You see, the headliner tonight, 40+ years later is Roy Head and Barbara Lynn.  Reminds me of something common, back then.  BATTLE OF THE BANDS!  Roy Head was the star back then, but he would let unknowns like B.J. Thomas and the Triumphs, from Rosenberg, have stage time.  We saw them together multiple times.  Texas boy Roy Head had just cut a huge hit in 1965 that went all the way to number 2 nationally, “Treat Her Right” (only behind one of the Beatles great hits).  Shouldn’t.  You know, I think you regret more what you didn’t do, than what you did.  I called my friend Steve and we are off to the Continental Club.  Roy Head can still gyrate.  At 11:30 pm I’m played out, Steve wants to rock on.  Roy just left the stage and Barbara Lynn grabs her guitar.  I agree to hang in for a few more songs.  Her third song and she breaks out with the hit she wrote and recorded, “You’ll loose a Good Thing”.  Steve, the party is over for me.  We leave.  We missed the next act, Archie Bell.  The good news is that it was a smoke free environment.  The bad news was that it was standing room only.  I shouldn’t.   Right or Wrong, I did it.

            Redhorse, do you think the geese have left the Arctic Circle?  You know, migrating south.  Well, I’ve got a listing I want to mention.  I think it would be a great place for goose, duck, dove and quail hunting as well as an investment.  It’s one of those places that is so close to Houston, yet so far away.  It’s a 362 acre rice field located one mile north of FM 529.  Yet so far away.  To get there turn north off FM 529 on Katy Hockley road and go one mile to Longenbaugh Road, turn left (west) and go about 2 miles to the end of the road.  The road ends.  Then about 1,500 feet down an easement to the property.  And, a rice field full of migratory birds.  Rice field!  Lavern, don’t turn your nose up at rice field.  Not too long ago Copperfield (at Hwy.6) was a rice field where I have witness 10’s of thousand of geese.  Yep, Bear Creek on Hwy. 6 was a rice field,  Lavern you want more, how about the Estate homes at Cinco Ranch, rice field.  Katy Mills Mall, itself was a rice field when I was in high school.  You can leave your money with the likes of Allen Stanford and Bernie Madoff or you can buy your heirs an investment they can walk on.   Oh, yes, it is listed for $5,000.00 per acre.

 

Chasing the Texas sunsets,

 

Craig Dickson

craig dickson realty

www.TrueToTexas.com

 

FW: Chasing the Texas sunsets

www TrueToTexas.com          

 

TUE  09/01/2009                     Blood / Specimen Collection                 Diagnostic Center Main Building 2^nd Floor

    8:00 AM     

 

TUE  09/01/2009                     IRINOTECAN /CARBOBLATIN                   ATC Chair Unit  Sundial Lobby  2^nd Floor.

 

            Hey ya’ll, another dose of chemo down the hatch.  Yes, I’ll repeat, I’m a whiner, moaner and complainer when I have pain.  But man, I take advantage of the good days.  Emily; my game plan, work when I feel average, play when I feel good and whine and moan when I feel bad.

            A good day.  Thursday a week ago I was feeling pretty good. So, I invited little Dixon for his first visit to Galveston and salt water.  What a day!  Yes, we let his mother, little Rachel and Grandmother, Cassie ride along for the fun.  The ferry, the Bolivar Ferry ride.  Dixon loved it.  We got out of my F-150 and walked to the front of the ferry.  Dixon was loving the sites, especially the birds, sea gulls and grackles.  Yes, his mother is a Dickson.  She started feeding the gulls when right in front of her father and son the captain of the ferry, on a very loud speaker, called her down, “No feeding the birds in the front of the ferry.”  She is a Dickson.  Her grandmother, Katherine, didn’t believe in the word NO.  So, Dixon’s mother just holds her hand up where the birds think she is feeding them.  Well, the Captain sends a deck hand down and, right in front of her father and son, tells her the Captain wants her to stop attracting the birds and would she please go to the back of the ferry to feed the birds.  Her grandmother, Katherine E. Tyra, always said that it was just easier, for her, to apologize than to ask permission.  We went to the back of the boat and had a blast feeding the birds.  Next stop the Strand.  Dixon and I went straight to the Candy Factory where we both ate a large scoop of ice cream.  Then to the beach where Dixon had a blast.  He attempted to catch sea gulls for over 2 hours and in between jumped into the surf.  He loved it.  Check out the Galveston photos below.

We ate at Gaido’s.  Dixon loves mashed potatoes and he loves cheese.  We order him a $3.00 order of Gaido’s famous Au Gratin potatoes.  Rachel, Cassie and I all got some sort of shrimp plate.  18 month old Dixon looked at our plates and looked at his potatoes.  He wouldn’t have it.  Dixon ended up eating $17.00 worth of fried shrimp.  We got the au gratin potatoes, to go.

            I just got a new listing.  The signs are ordered.  Yes, I felt average yesterday.  My new listing:  988 acres at the northeast corner of FM 529 and FM 2855, $9,700,000.00. and some change.

            The cancer in my lower back has really got me down.  Some sort of pain 24/7 and add the side effects of chemo and you start wondering on some days.  Then pop the prayer warriors and God deliver a great day.  When I have a good day, they are so good.

 

Chasing the Texas sunsets,

 

Craig Dickson

craig dickson realty

www.TrueToTexas.com

 

Galveston !

Killin' Time

www TrueToTexas.com

 

            Cancer - - Chemotherapy - - Alligators !

 

            Last Sunday I was killin’ time.  Tired, but trying to keep active.  At about 1 pm I decided to make run down to the Brazos River to where I have one of those game cameras set up.  That game camera, to me, is more fun than hunting.  I love to see all the different kinds a wildlife that cross the area.  I had 24 pictures, but I left it set, deciding to take the little digital card out later when there were more pictures.  I baited the path with some molasses and deer corn.  On the way back, as always, I observed what kind of shore birds were hanging out at the swamp.  Wood Storks, Night Herons, Great Blue Herons, Pink Spoonbills (see photo on the TrueToTexas website), and many more.  Now, I’ve told ya’ll about the alligators that showed up 8 or 10 years ago.  I guess they climbed out of the Brazos River and decided to set up headquarters in this 20 acre swamp.  See attached photo of one of the alligators.  I took the photo 2 or 3 years ago.  Well, over the years I’ve seen a big nest out on the island.  Wondering why we never saw any baby alligators?  You know, I’ve heard that other alligators, maybe ever the father, will eat the babies.  And I figured in this enclosed area they just always hunted down the babies and ate them.  Well, it’s about 1:30 pm and I look at the alligator nest out there on the island.  Something is real white at the top.  I wonder if that is part of an alligator egg?  I want to explore, but c’on, PIC line hooked to my arm, full of chemo, and getting dead tired.  I head to the house.  Hell, its nap time.

            4:30 pm Sunday, I can’t sleep.  Tom, I may be fighting cancer, but I am a bayou boy.  The call of the wild.  I’ve got to investigate that alligator nest.  Should I tell my next of kin?  Where to look for my body if I don’t return by dark.  I tell High School Girlfriend.  I have a choice, either Leslie’s canoe or a 10 foot jon boat.  I choose the jon boat and loaded in the back of my pick-up.  I back the pick-up up to the bank of the swamp right across from the alligator’s nest.  I need to conserve energy.  This way I can just paddle right across to the nest.  I see the alligator 30 feet north.  Just her eyes.  She is just laying there submerged.  I drop the jon boat off into the water.  Get the paddle and a shovel in case I want to dig out the nest.  ACROSS the short span to the island and the nest.  When I approach the island bank I see about 20 baby 5 inch alligators right off the bank in a canal used by the alligators to get to the nest.  I reach down and grab two baby alligators at once.  They all start making some little chirping noise.  ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE !  They say they are fast, believe them.  I thought that mama alligator was flying.  She hit that jon boat with an impact that knocks my camera off my neck and into the bottom of the boat.  I wasn’t thinking about that camera or taking photos, I was thinking about my appendages.  Next move, mama alligator hits the boat with her tail, I bust the paddle over her back.  Great, now I don’t have a paddle.  Well, across the swamp by shovel power.  Mama alligator seems to be waiting for an opportunity.  Well, I only hit the ground once between the jon boat and the bed of my pick-up.

            Don’t mess with a mama alligator.

            Sunday night I realize that I was lucky I was in that flat bottom jon boat and that it was sitting in mud.  If I would have been in deeper water I’m sure the boat would have capsized.  AND, that my effort may save saved a few babies this year.  Those big Wood Storks and Blue Herons were eating the babies as fast as they could.  Maybe with all the excitement the babies got spread out and a few will survive.

 

Another Texas sunset,

 

 

 

Craig Dickson

craig dickson realty

www.TrueToTexas.com

 

Dixon and his dog, Chester.

Texas Flamingos