Fifty Years Later

I just finish watching one of the latest documentaries on President Kennedy's last days; JFK; The Final Hours.
I have always been memerized by anything surrounding John F. Kennedy, Jackie and their closest family.
In a few days it'll be 50 years since that tragic day in Dallas, Texas when President Kennedy fell assessinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, or was it?
Fifty years later, we are still searching for answers to so many questions rooted in that fatidic day.
I liked this documentary by NatGeo because it shows never before seen footage of President Kenndy and his wife during their stop in San Antonio, the motorcade through downtown and his visit and speech at the Brooks Air Force Base (Now Brooks City-Base).

My connection with it is that I work just a few yards from where President Kennedy visited on November 21, 1963 about 24 hours before his demise in Dallas.
I would like to buy the footage in film or in a DVD format to watch again and again.
I was impressed by Mrs Kennedy speaking in spanish at a LULAC event in Houston, later the same day. The quality of the footage is also impressive, remarkably clear and vivid unlike other footage that we are used to see, grainy and mostly in black and white. I noticed that when Mrs Kennedy spoke there she was not reading from any script, she had been practicinf her spanish on the flight from Washington hours earlier, according to Clayton Hill, Secret Service memeber of Mr President and Mrs President personal detail. I have always shown gratitud and personal respect for a person who is not of latin or hispanic descent and takes the time to address me in my language, or at least, makes the effort to speak in spanish.
Mrs Kennedy had been, if memory doesn't fail, in Paris and had made a great impression there by speaking french to unsuspected dignataries.
I can't  help by shed my own tears as well when I see the people that had, just hours earlier, seen and shaken President Kennedy and Mrs Kennedy's hands during their trip to San Antonio, Houston and Forth Worth when they react to the news of Kennedy's assessination.
 

Favorites from James Blunt | London (05-09-2007)

Dream or reality?

I am watching the movie 8mm and there's this scene where this kid, the son of the Deputy is riding his bike and engters a cemetery through an opening in a link fence which caused a stir in my brain.
I t reminds me of me walking or riding also a bike through a cemetery, a big and long cemetery.
I am writing this here now because I cannot tell if it was a dream that I had or I did experienced that for real.
It's strange, Ana and I have just finished watching a Holistic film in the Netflix Network it was very interesting. All these Holistic gurus speak of love and peace, mental, spiritual and physical. How meditation can bring peace and harmony to everybody if we just take the time to learn it and  practice
I am trying to make sense of the 8mm movie and that scene that is vividly playing in my mind right now.
What was I doing in that cemetery? I can recall that I was very young when I was going through the unpaved road in the cemetery it was uneven terrain that looked like when rain water runs down cutting small streams and then when it dries out the road is all cut through. I see myself going the distance, is late in the day the sun is almost set and getting dark and I walk briskly, but I am not sure I am trying to get out of there, because as I walk (or ride my bike, I'm stll not sure) I pass a couple of opening in the chain-link fence that can lead me out to the streets leading to the cemetery, but I keep going across tombs and mausoleums, Am I looking for a specific tomb? and if so, who's tomb?
I am going to sleep on it and try to figure it out.

by ppro

 

Not guilty

It would had been a travesty, had the jury had produced a guilty verdict. As it was predicted the jury found George Zimmerman "Not Guilty". I really feel that while the prosecutors violated the rules of discovery by not sharing all information found in Trayvon Martin's phone records the judge should level up with contempt or some disciplinary action against the State Attorney's office, if she really wants to convey that her court means business and it really ensures the defendant a fair trial. I mean, it is widely known that prosecutors get away with all kinds of violations that usually affects the outcome of a trial and in many cases, wrong convictions have sent inocent people to prison. I just saw, as part of the breaking news of the not guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman's trial and Pierce Morgan interviewed Robert Zimmerman Jr, brother of the now free George, and I feel that this young man very eloquently said some important things that have been on my mind and I'm sure, aldo in the mind of many others, and that is; when is the black community look itself in a mirror and stop crying "unfair", "racists" and other charges whenever a black person is killed or victimized by somebody who is not of the same skin color. I am not racist, but what Robert Zimmerman said is true. There have been murders and homicides by the tenfold in Chicago alone, and we don't see the black leaders of NCAAP or Jesse Jackson, or the Black Panthers calling for justice or calling for vengeance. On the other hand, when the perpetrator is not black (or negro, or african-american, whichever term is more fit or political correct), they call it "profiling" or "racism" and immediately incite the black community to raise hell about it. Why is it that those same leaders don't call George Zimmerman a local hero for helping and mentoring other young black children to succeed in school?
That and other questions should be in the mind of those asking for George Zimmerman's head. 

What say the jury?

Am writing this on the eve of the jury of the George Zimmerman's murder trial in Sanford, Florida.
The verdict is now in the jury's hands.
When this tragedy took place more than a year ago, my perception of it was that Zimmerman was truthful when he claimed to have shot Trevon Benjamin Martin -of only 17 years of age- in self defense. The media, afterwards turned it into a circus as is usually the case. A day or two after the incident, the black community was up in arms claiming that race had been a motive in the killing of young Trevon. Soon after, when it came to light that Zimmerman is not of white or anglo descent but hispanic and so the outraged blacks changed their tune.
I believe that Trevon Martin reacted too violently when questioned by Zimmerman the night of the incident, but Zimmerman was acting as a safety-oriented patrolling the gated community as was his job and Martin was found to have traces of the marijuana in his blood and urine.

George Zimmerman
 

Trayvon Martin
 

Race have nothing to do with my calling this a fair trial and I expect a not guilty verdict. There's plenty of facts that should render this beyond reasonable doubt that George Zimmerman did not commit second degree murder, nor manslaughter.
The jury as adjouned for the night and we will see what happens when it reconvenes tomorrow. 

Nervous

My insecurities are flaring up again. Today is the day after Inventory at work and I still don't know the results of it.
Contingent to those results are my decision on how to move to request the 5K loan from BoA and at the same time request a Hardship withdrawl from my 401K account with Merril Lynch to pay for Junior's tuition.
I don't think that my job is in jeopardy, but I would be very disappointed that after all the hard work that I put in for a whole year would yield negative results, aka shrinkage.
So, God's willing I will need to face any situation regardless of the results. I am the person in charge in that department and the buck stops with me.
Here I go!

Pass it on

Sunday Run, March 3, 2013 downtown

Today as is for most sundays I rode my bike following the Downtown route, approximately 15 or 16 miles roundtrip. I have detailed the entire route in at least one past post.

Downtown San Antonio
 

 

March 2, 2013 Saturday

Saturday March2, 2013 I left early from work and went to ride my bicycle and did 14 miles (round trip) from the lower Tobin Park trailhead along Salado Creek by Austin Hwy. heading north to McAllister Park.
I took some pics of another Red shoulder hawk and a mocking bird.



Red shoulder hawk, Tobin Park Trailhead 03/02/2013
 

Texas Mockingbird, McAllister Park 03/02/2013
 

 

The Downtown route

Today I  rode my bike in the downtown route. The same route followed in the Marathon. weather was nice, about 70 degrees but with a cool breeze all day long. I, as usual, took some photos along my way.
Here they are:

View of Downtown from the Hays Street Bridge

The Hays Street Bridge

San Pedro Park. This used to be the swimming pool,
now converted in a pond in the middle of the park.

Before I die a want to...wall on Roosevelt Ave.

 

Now the latest

Today 01/27/2013  (by the time I post this is already 01/28/2013) I rode my bike along the Riverwalk only not by the banks of the actual river walk but on streets that run along ot to avoid the pedestrian traffic that now a days is more prevalent.
I started a the trailhead on Avenue B and Josephine Street and went all the way to the Blue Star Art Complex in southtown, where I saw yet another red-shouldered hawk. Lately I have seen a number of them, first along the Salado Creek southern segment, then last week during my ride at Medina River Natural Area and now by the San Antonio River along the trail behind Brackenridge High School between Alamo street and Eagle Run. I was going through this path went Anamaria call me to get back home and go eat at Jim's and I could not resist to agree to it, but not before taking some pics of this bird of prey.
Ladies and gentlemen here is the red-shouldered hawk.

Red-shouldered hawk, January 27, 2013,
San Antonio River by the Blue Star Art Complex
 

Same hawk a little bit closer, Jan 27, 2013
Blue Star Art Complex by the San Antonio River.

 

Bike ride on Salado Creek Greenway

Ok this post is from two (now three) days ago.
I rode my bike on Salado Creek Greenway the north leg. From Tobin Trailhead on NE Loop 410 to McAllister Park and back. It was late in the day, but I started my ride with just enough time to catch the sunset from the top of the hill behind the airport between Wetmore Rd and Wurzbach Parkway (Starcrest). There is always windy and cool. I got there just in time to snap some photos of the sun setting and the moon rising. Then I had to hurry back before the night fell to avoid the closing (supposedly) of the gates at the Los Patios Restaurant which is private property and through which the trailway runs. It was a good workout pedaling fast and  I made it to Black Thunder there was just one other vehicle there about to leave since the Trailhead Park is closed from sunset to sunrise.

Sunset witnessed from hill behind the airport,
on Wurzbach Parkway. January 25, 2013 at 6:00 PM

 

 

Beautiful sunset and cumulonimbus capillatus

 

Moon seen the minute after photographing the sunset

Another look at the moon, beautiful ain't?

 

I dreamed a dream / Lead me

I dreamed a dream that eventually turned into a nightmare.

There's two songs that since I heard them a few days ago, have stayed in my mind. I feel that the words to them resonate within me, in fact I would even say that the lyrics describe parts of my life. Both are moving but while the second one is very inspiring. the first one is sad and hurting that can make cry to the toughest soul. Here they are;

                                                   I dreamed a dream from Les Miserables

There was a time when men were kind,

When their voices were soft

and their inviting.

There was a time when love was blind,

And the world was a song,

And the song was exciting.

There was a time. . .

then it all went wrong.

 

I dreamed a dream in time gone by

when hope was high

and life worth living.

I dreamed  that love would never die

I dreamed that God would be forgiving

Then I was young and unafraid,

And dreams were made and used and wasted

There was no ransom to be paid,

No song unsung, no wine untasted.

 

But the tigers come at night,

with their voices soft as thunder

As they tear your hope apart

As they turn your dreams to shame.

He slept a summer by mi side

He filled my says with endless wonder

He took my childhood in his stride

But he was gone when Autumn came.

 

And still I dreamed he'd come to me

That we would live the years together

But there are dreams that cannot be

And there are storms we cannot weather.

 

I had a dream my life would be

so different from this hell I'm living

So different now from what it seemed

Now life has killed tthe dream I dreamed.

 

 

 

Nigropetense: EL nigropetense en acción

Nigropetense: EL nigropetense en acción

Today was Medina River Natural Area Greenway

Today I decided to bike the Medina River Natural Area. After being closed off for construction and repairs I found it open. This was only my third time that I ride my bike in this area it is only 17 miles round trip but it feels like is much longer, probably due to the five switchbacks that you find along the trail. A little past Neal Rd, the trails ends abruptly like its an in-progress project. The first time I rode this route I encounter a pack of feral hogs, they got startled when I approach in my bike and quickly dispersed and I didn't have the time to get my camera out.


This green anole posed for my camera near the San Antonio river.
 

I found out today in one of the trailhead information boards that the gray fox and the cara-cara  are common to this natural area and I looked for them to take photos. But I saw a vulture up close. The thing is, for some reason I haven't been able to post any of the pics that always snap on my exploring biking trips.

Today, Salado Creek Greenway

Today I rode my bicycle on the Salado Creek Greenway. Starting at Tobin Trailhead on Loop 410 next to Los Patios heading southbound along Holbrook and ending at Petroleum Drive at IH 35. Pretty much uneventful, but always hoping to encounter a member of the coyote family that I encountered previously.

 

Biking today

I went biking today, after a hiatus of almost two weeks. I feel sore now, but good about the fact that I really enjoyed doing it. The weather cooperated and it was cool and sunny, about 56-58 F degrees. Right now is 36 cold degrees.
Still feel pain in my chest since this morning when I started my trek along South Salado Creek Greenway, starting point; Jack White Trailhead, just off Interstate Highway 35 and Seguin Rd. I like to push myself sometimes, especially when I feel that I need the exercise de most.
I made it all the way to the Southside Lions Park and Pecan Valley and back. On the way back I spotted a red-shouldered hawk, (photo below). And I should post all the pics that I take on my bicyling riding ventures.
I once saw a female coyote with two pups in the Petroleum Dr and IH 35 Southbound, but of course that day, unlike other outings, didn't have my camera with me.
So I have returned many times hoping to catch a glimpse of the elusive Wile  E. Coyote, but so far no luck.
Anyways, I will try to post as many photos of my sightings as possible here or Nigropetense blog.