Within the Walls of Santo Tomas

Hooray, the first day of spring! We here in Central TX received five inches of much needed rain throughout the night. This ought to fill the lakes, ponds and aquifers. In anticipation of another hot dry summer, we’re planning on replacing the dead grassy areas with mulch and heat/drought resistant grass of some sort.

Last week our son visited one night and dropped off our two granddaughters for two nights. Did shopping and dined out. While here Cash, Jr. bought and installed a WiFi capability in the house as a birthday gift for Cash, Sr. Now we feel like we’re more into the 21st century.

We have a brand new Facebook page for our novel. We invite you to visit and “like” it. It’s at https://www.facebook.com/WithinTheWallsOfSantoTomas In addition we’re going to give this website a facelift. Our intention is to get as much done on the internet as possible now. The reason is that we have another novel in for publication and it is due to be released this fall. It is a different genre than Walls; it is an action adventure based on international industrial espionage.

Last weekend we saw the movie John Carter. It was quite different in that it has sprinklings of Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Star Trek. It also has a little New Age feel to it. We enjoyed it. Two weeks earlier we saw The Artist. It was pretty good, but the part we really enjoyed was the old cars and costumes. Something different again.

It’s hard to believe February is almost gone. We were kept busy with book signings and charity fundraising support.

Our eldest grandchild Nate turned 18 on Valentine’s Day. It’s wonderful that he has grown up to be such a fine young man. It seems like it was only yesterday when we saw him for the first time in Alaska in May of 1994.

The weather in Central Texas has really been mild this winter. Last winter we had a number of days where we had hard freezes. This year the robins have passed through and the trees and shrubs are starting to blossom.

We saw the movie Act of Valor and it was really heart-pounding excitement. It reminded Cash of when he went through Ranger school so many years ago. After we got home it took us a while to calm down.

Time to do our taxes; so much for February.

Started doing research on material for another novel that is based in WW II. It occurred to me that I never asked my father about his experiences as a naval aviator during the war. I regret it. Now I have no one to ask. The only memory I have are bit and snipets of his service. The actual happenings to include what, when and where are lost forever. I encourage those of you who have relatives who served in WW II to record the remembrances for posterity. Their little known stories are a very important part of history that should not be forgotten.

Last weekend we saw the movie Iron Lady. Meryl Streep as usual put forth a stellar performance. However, the story line in my opinion was rather shallow and I believe it should have focused more on her being prime minister and less on her past. I thought more should have been shown about how she dealt with her contempories like Ronald Reagan. The story depicted a rather sad life for Margaret Thatcher always having to be combative with others.

Noticed that the ground hog saw his shadow. Six more weeks of winter. A lot of people say the winter has been rather mild for most of the country, but it’s only the first week of February. We’ll have to see.

We’re trying to come up with a logo for this novel. We tried a short trailer video, but we felt it wasn’t right as it appeared to be too depressing. Next we tried photos from my teddy bear collection, Ranger and Dusty. However, we felt it was too far afield from the premise of the novel. We decided that a photo depicting the nurses following their liberation by troopers of the 1st Cavalry Division would be much more appropriate. We’d like to hear comments from you about our website as we’re still getting established for future endeavors.

In the future we plan on trying out a few new ideas for an all encompassing logo especially since Tate Publishing will be releasing another of our novels next fall. Although the genre is fiction, it is not historical fiction like Within the Walls of Santo Tomas.

Is it me or do you all feel like the new year is blah. Not many smiling faces on people I see, businesses are hurting; the season of drab is here.

Saw a couple of movies that might be of interest to you. War Horse was an interesting movie about WW I where the commoner was thrown into mortal combat where lives were thrown away needlessly. The horse Joey was the vehicle by which the story was told. Another movie we saw was The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It was a different murder mystery and makes you not want to go to Sweden in the winter. Lastly we say Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It was a remake of a movie made years ago staring Alec Guiness. This version, like the original, was a little difficult to follow were British Intelligence was trying to find a mole in their organization back in the early 70s.

When comparing this time of the year with last year, the weather has been rather pleasant. A few days up into the 70s, then a cold front comes through where the nights go down to the 20s and 30s and then up again. One thing we really need in Central TX is rain. The lakes are low and if we don’t get more precipitation soon, we’ll be back on strict water usage.

On Saturday 3 Dec. we went to a local riding club’s annual banquet and awards ceremony where two of our granddaughters received awards for western riding in their age categories. We’re very proud of our two equestrians.

Went to the movies Saturday nite and saw “Hugo.” It isn’t a young children’s movie. It certainly was different from what we expected. It takes place in Paris a few years after the WW I. An orphaned boy is trained by his uncle to care for the various clocks in the central train station. He is constantly pursued by an overzealous station policeman who wants to put him in an orphanage. He meets a girl whose guardian was involved with early film making. The guardian feels like he is forgotten as a pioneer film maker. Without getting into details, the boy opens the door for the old film maker to finally receive the recognition he deserved. The point of the movie was it’s never too late to fulfill your dreams. At first we thought it was rather odd, but as the plot developed it became quite interesting and fulfilling.

Can’t seem to get into the Christmas spirit. We need an infusion of holiday cheer of some sort. It seems like a lot of people we see around us are in a funk. Maybe the closer we get to Christmas our spirits will rise. Our elder son is planning on visiting us over the holidays. We’re now working on getting ready for the visit. We’ve done some light shopping for gifts and are planning our meals.