Tag: houston

Tiny Tuesday!


I was attracted to this stone at Body Mind and Soul. I picked it up and saw the label “healerite.” New to me, but all good. I like healer stones and crystals.

Later, when I researched it, I found that the stone is a lime green serpentine used for regeneration, luck, and healing. It’s supposed to help with emotional stress.

Needed it!

I highly recommend that you follow your instinct when picking up or buying gems, stones, and crystals. Get the names if you can, or search online sites for photos that will help you identify them. Even if you know the name, follow up with a little research and contemplate the stone’s purpose in your life.

Don’t forget to clear and clean your stones and crystals! There is ample information online to do that, too. (And Body Mind and Soul will give them a quick clearing as you purchase them if you want them to. LOVE that store so much.)

Utterly random

Not long after we moved to Houston, we went to a comedy show where one of the comedians said that this was the state symbol of Texas.

OMG, it remains true. There is nowhere, no day, I can drive in Houston that I don’t encounter that symbol and his buddies.

There’s an intersection near where we live that is part of the shortest route between Houndstooth Hall and the rescue clinic, but it’s so jacked up with road work right now that I try never to go that way. Sometimes I forget, and then I’m stuck, sitting, sitting, sitting…

Which gives me time to notice that there is usually a surveying crew out there, too. When I was a young thing, I dated (at different times) two different guys who later worked at least for a time as surveyors, I THINK, and I also THINK they may have ended up on the same crew at some point. I always wondered if they knew they both had a history with me. Probably yes, because our world was small and there were other people they knew in common. Then I wonder if they did know, if they ever spoke of me. So many stories I could tell about the two of them, but I wonder if they shared stories about me, and I hope they were kind. (My stories about them are invariably kind because I have lots of good and funny memories.)

All of that led me to look online at vintage photos of surveying crews for both roadways and railways in America. There are SO MANY photos. Crews probably don’t pose for group photos now, but back then, they were making history as they helped explore and map a huge new continent. Here are a few favorites.

Two things I know. None of these guys ever saw that state symbol of Texas. And I’m not old enough to have dated any of them.

Transport Thursday!

After the Harvey floods in 2017, watching the Astros win the World Series was a huge lift for everyone in Houston. It was so great to have something to celebrate, even for people who don’t normally care about baseball.

In the animal rescue community, organizations have been especially grateful to Astros pitcher Lance McCullers, Jr., because he and his wife Kara use the Lance McCullers Jr. Foundation to promote pet adoptions, raise awareness for animal rescue, and support animal transport to get animals out of shelters and into other parts of the country where they can be adopted.

Which is why Lance and Kara McCullers and a lot of press were at today’s transport. Ours is one of the organizations who has benefitted from the Foundation’s generosity.


Lance escorting Tiffany to her van. She doesn’t know he’s a sports icon–she just knows he’s holding her safe.


And Dooney knows that Kara McCullers has a beautiful heart.

We are selfishly glad this Tampa couple makes their home in Houston, but they are a miracle for pets in need everywhere.