JIM'S LITTLE HAPPY PLACE

Thursday, January 19, 2023

A list of the cars I've owned

Here are the Cars and other vehicles in my life--listed in order of purchase: [should I blog on this as part of my memoirs? (Note: It is written about the Girls in my life (not really ALL--and not finished as of yet, or if ever). URL]

My TOY 1950 Studebaker Starlight Coup was posted here last year.

1950 Studebaker Starlight Coup (formerly owned by my High School Principal).

1952 Ford Tudor, I hopped it up very heavily before I sold it. It would outrun all 55 and 56 Chevys.

1956 Ford Sunliner Convertible (new)

1941 Chevy Two-door

1950 (Jimmy Dean) Mercury Two-door Coupe (ditched the '41 and '56 when I went into the Army)

1956 Sears Vespa Motorscooter (while I was stationed in El Paso, Texas, and used as a second car, weather permitting)

1951 Ford Tudor--a present from Dad while I was still in the Army, it was the folk's family car and had rolled over 100,000 miles.

1960 Rambler Two-door Custom station wagon

1953 Ford Tudor (second car)

1950 Ford Tudor (hobby car, sold in 1967)

1962 VW Bug--a work car

1956 Ford Customline Fordor-hardtop

1968 Ford station wagon (new)

1969 Ford Thunderbird***

1971 Honda CB450 motorcycle

1972 Ford Pinto***

1976 Ford Granada Tudor Coupe***

1976 Ford Granada Fordor

1972 Datsun pickup

1976 Chrysler Cordoba (picture link)

1977 Plymouth Volare station wagon

1982 Olds Cutlass Supreme two-door

1975 Datsun pickup

1984 Ford Thunderbird

1986 Olds 88 four-door

1988 Olds 88 four-door

1987 Chevy S-10 pickup

1992 Cadillac DeVille

1974 Mustang II Ghia (Mom's car after she died) (still owned)

1999 Cadillac DeVille

1999 Easy-Go Golf Car (new)

1998 Mustang GT Convertible (still owned)

1950 Ford Tudor (another collector car, sold August, 2015)

2006 Cadillac DTS

2011 Cadillac DTS (still owned)

These are about in the order they were purchased. Most were pretty good cars, I just always get used cars, buying them mostly from individuals, LOLs (little old ladies) preferred.

# posted by Jim : 1/19/2023 12:20:00 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, January 17, 2023

Verse style prosepoem, was to be for dVerse, but not in prose form. go here for the changed result

was to be for dVerse, but was not in prose form. go here for the changed result

Me on our Alaska 2005 cruise excursion to the Yukon
[click here for larger view]

Sunny day I drive up

to North Yukon's greenery

Yellow dandelions

and purple violets

Spring had sprung, trees were green

Shimmering water in streams

and lakes was clear sky blue

The trees' wet and shinny

green new leaves shimmered too

The firewood turning gray

they'd save it for next fall (50)

My old truck helped the scene

its fenders rusting green

Trusty old Ford pickup

made nineteen-forty-one

Put me in the picture

driving clothes gave semblance

of humanity's warmth

Viewers would want to join

Blues in jeans and jacket,

red and white shirt, white shoes (44)

Bumper, bed boards, and chrome

Fences, siding and roof

Propane tank and faucets

with the chair all blend in

Artists call them fillers

My painting brush goes wild

with colors abounding

Seems as everything I do

is stitched with its color (41)

The brush does not mind

it enjoys the pozazz (9)

_ _ _

- I'm linked with MSJADELI IN PROSERY for dVerse Prosery at

https://dversepoets.com/2023/01/16/dverse-prosery-everything-is-stitched/

-We were instructed to use the phrase, "everything I do is stitched with its color. Our directions were to write a poem with 144 words or less, I chose the 144 challenge, the line ending numbers are the number of words in that verse.

- Click here for a showing of links to the others' writings

# posted by Jim : 1/17/2023 10:10:00 AM 0 comments

Monday, January 16, 2023

Alaska Junker -- 1941 Ford Pickup for Yard Art

Me on our Alaska 2005 cruise excursion to the Yukon
[click here for larger view]

# posted by Jim : 1/16/2023 10:09:00 PM 0 comments

Saturday, June 18, 2022

Our New Holiday

[Juneteenth, Holiday by State (Wikipedia-Obsevation (Wikipedia-Obsevation)

Emancipation Park, Houston, will be a good place to have a picnic on our new national holiday, Juneteenth Day. That is if we could find shade from the Sun, it's predicted to be 97F this afternoon.

Notice that if we take the Westpark Toll route, 20 miles, we'll save six minutes but have to pay a $4.88 toll. More than for a gallon of gasoline, $4.39-4.59.

[google maps]

We've been celebrating that since 1968 around here. One of my workmates at NASA Houston was one of the organizers of the Houston Area celebration. A small parade and a large picnic at the League City park (off the bottom right of the top map, east of Alvin on the other side of I-45) , under the trees.

BTW, Texas is proud to have FIRST recognized Juneteenth Day as a state holiday, paid too, in 1980.

I've been watching the Royal Ascot, Queens Race, this morning.

Labels: Holiday, Jim Bunch Eats

# posted by Jim : 6/18/2022 10:53:00 AM 0 comments

Thursday, October 14, 2021

Jim's Bio 002 (for 70th Class Reunion)

[click on most any picture on my blogs once, maybe twice, for a larger view]

Mrs. Jim and I helped to get us away from our port for a cruise, a 14-day Princess Cruise of New Zealand and Australia. We would sail down the east coast of New Zealand from Auckland, stopping almost every day to explore and do our sailing at night. See more from Princess Cruises (click here). Our cruise is not available right now, we also visited Tasmania and Melbourne on our way to ending at Sydney (area map).

Jim Hovendick -- http://jimmiehov.blogspot.com/

I was born October 30, 1933, in Burt Country, Nebraska, 7 miles northwest of Herman, on a farm up in the hills. Check this link for some pictures and stories, http://jimmiehov.blogspot.com/search/label/Jim%27s%20old%20home%20place . That was a long, long time ago. Way before we had electricity. Now we live west of Houston at Katy, Cinco Ranch, Texas.

My father made a living off that farm for the four of us, Mom (Marjorie), Sister Lois, Dad (Vernon), and myself. Mom was born in South Dakota but got to Nebraska as fast as she could. She was not a farm girl at all until she married my dad. Mom died in 1999 at age 88, Dad followed her in death in 2007 when he was 97.

I was the older kid, age five, when sister Lois was born. I had to give up my nice upstairs bedroom for her. Dad and Grandpa screened and glassed in the front porch for me. During the day it was a couch and two chairs out there, come bedtime the couch made into a bed for me. On the coldest of nights there would be frost on my blankets as the porch was not heated.

We kids went to a one room country grade school about a mile from home, there were always from six to ten kids there. At first I had a classmate for whom I was held back a year, but she left after the second grade for parochial school.

Lois and I shared a bicycle, we mainly rode it to school and to Grandma's house. It was a Sears girl's bike, Dad made a seat-lowering hook so that I could ride it for the second grade. When Lois was able to ride we took turns.

For the first two years of high school I rode our horse, Minnie, to another school, two room, in Washington Country. That was about three miles from home. There were three of us in class. In the winters I rode bareback to keep warmer. Minnie probably would have liked the saddle to keep her warm. My last two years were at the Tekamah High School. Dad bought a new Ford pickup and that was my school car on most days. I only had three wrecks during those two years.

After graduation I attended the University of Nebraska for a year and a half on a Regents Scholarship, in the spring I had taken the Regents Exam as I was in the top ten percent of our class. My experiences at U of N are too long a story for this page. A summary, I played too much Chess in the Student Center or at the local drug store across the street. One prof said he would have passed me if I had attended more of his lab classes. I was good, very good, at Chess

After dropping out of college, I stayed in Lincoln and worked at the Elgin National Watch Factory for three years until I got drafted into the Army. This was a fun three years out of school in Lincoln, Nebraska. A couple of us had a really fast 1934 Ford coupe modified stock race car, I dated some, hopped up my '52 Ford into a street rod that would beat all the stock Chevy's, bought a 1956 Ford Sunliner convertible new, got married, and was drafted, not necessarily in that order.

All five of my Army years were in Texas, the first eight weeks were spent at Fort Hood. The rest of my Army time was spent at Fort Bliss near El Paso. Gerald Rapp of our class was stationed there at the same time. My last three years were in electronics maintaining, operating, and repairing Nike Hercules Fire Control Systems. This experience and my 43 week Army School prepared me for 19 years of Aerospace Engineering at Fort Bliss, New Hampshire, and NASA Houston with the school and Army experience in lieu of a degree.

While I was working at the Manned Space Center Houston for Ford Aerospace Corporation as a flight controller and training person, I also finished my college. I first earned an Associate Degree in Pre-engineering, then a Bachelors of Science in Economics, and ended my education with a Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Houston Bates College of Law.

After getting the law degree and passing the Texas State Bar, I began to teach night Business Law Classes at San Jacinto College in Pasadena. In 1980 I quit my day job and began teaching full time for 22 years at the college as a Professor of Business. In addition to the two different law classes, I also taught Entrepreneurship classes and an Introduction to Business class.

I retired in 2001 to join Mrs. Jim (Arlene) in retirement. She had retired from school social work in 1999 when we moved from Friendswood (Texas) to Bentwater (suburb of Montgomery County). That was from the south of Houston metropolitan area to the north, about a 100-mile move. Bentwater is a golfing and boating community on the north banks of Lake Conroe. We didn't boat but did play golf on two of the golf courses in Bentwater and at local courses in Conroe.

In addition to golfing, I taught a senior couples Sunday school class, am a Baptist deacon now, kept up with my three Fords (a 1950 Tudor, Mom's 1974 Mustang II Ghia, and a 1998 Mustang GT convertible), and Mrs. Jim's 2011 Cadillac, travel several times a year, participate in men's activities in the subdivision, stayed active in the Montgomery Country Early Ford V8 Club, did ham radio things (Extra Class, presently licensed as K1TLT) since 1960, blog writing (meme stuff, poems, and pictures) and YouTube.

We moved again in the Fall of 2016 where we are near to our younger daughter, youngest granddaughter, and son-in-law. We live in Cinco Ranch, an unincorporated Yuppy community. The extraterritorial jurisdiction here is Fulshear, Texas, but our mailing address is Katy, Texas. Oh yes, I did sell the 1950 Ford at moving time. I guess I lost less than $1000 on that car.

My active blogs are JIM'S LITTLE BLOG (the main one), JIM'S LITTLE PHOTO AND POEM PLACE, and the newest one but seldom updated, Ask Dr. Jim (blog). I also have five other blogs that only get an occasional update. My YouTube is Jim1Jim1 on which I have 17 getting-old videos, almost half are of Adi. Adi was a beagle dog, she and I were a trained Therapy Dog Team where we tutored kids in reading and visited in nursing homes and in assisted living homes. Adi died September 17, 2012 as did Katrin, our toy poodle, a year later. Searching my blogs and/or a Google search will help you find writeups on my blogs.

Besides Mrs. Jim and me at home, we have five children and their spouses who live in the Houston area. One and her family lived in London (U.K.) for almost five years, 2009 to 2014. In addition there are six grandchildren, one at home still, another working in the Washington D.C. area, three work and live in Houston, one works in Colorado and California. Five of the adult grandkids and three of the kids are married (older daughter, Susie, lost her husband to the COVID-19 and heart complications early in 2021). We have four great-grandchildren and two great-great-children. No pets.

With me teaching and taking six weeks off in summers and Arlene having about ten weeks we were able to travel a lot. After we retired, Arlene in 1999 and me in 2001, we have traveled extensively. We have visited all 50 states and 76 countries. At first we traveled Europe by driving, ranging from Inverness, Scotland to Gibraltar to the tip of Italy to Berlin, Germany. With younger daughter living in London for her five years meant we had to visit her for long periods of time a couple of times a year. To avoid getting too badly on the family's nerves we would get away by launching trips around Europe.

Lately we have relented on the driving and turned more and more to cruising. We have cruised the Princess line for 15 cruises, 158 days, also a few other lines. My favorite was the Moscow to St. Petersburg River cruise back in 2006. It finished my short bucket list, China, Russian, and Alaska visits. Another favorite was from Dubai to Capetown via India and other places for five weeks including before and after land activities. See some of it here, 2019-20 Dubai to Cape Town . Our latest cruise was from Southampton, Britan, U.K. to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. A posts of parts of it, https://jimmiehov.blogspot.com/2022/11/letter-u-fridays-weekend-roundup-09.html . We had to cancel two cruises coming up which would have taken us right now into the Amazon River and another next year going through the Suez Canal. We have rescheduled the latter for 2024 (22 Day | World Cruise Segment - Holy Land, Turkey & Aegean Sea -- Dubai to Rome via the Suez Canal)

- Click Here for countries we've visited.

Jim Hovendick (jimmiehov), September 2021

Jim's Little Blog -- https://jimmiehov.blogspot.com/

Jim's Little Photo and Poem Place -- https://jimmiehov6.blogspot.com/

Ask Dr. Jim (blog) -- https://jimmiehov8.blogspot.com/

Jim at Facebook -- https://www.facebook.com/jim.hovendick

# posted by Jim : 10/14/2021 12:29:00 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, September 08, 2021

Weekly Scribblings extended - Eating Free and A free Ball Game

Journaling (with amplified narratives) -- Take Me Out to the Ball Game

7/22/2021 ~~ Free Meal at Perry's Steakhouse & Grille ~~ Got invited to a Skeeter's baseball game

(Amplification) Today is the day I went for my four course lunch, for free at my favorite steakhouse, Perry's Steakhouse and Grille. It is on the Houston Top 12 Steakhouse List (link). Mrs. Jim and I are being courted by several 55+ senior living facilities. This one was being hosted by XYX.

There were five other prospects there today, Mrs. Jim couldn't come as her bridge group was playing today.

My meal began with crab bisque, followed by a delicious salad. My entrée was a rack of pork chops, the group of bones were standing tall, like soldiers ready for inspection. Delicious, I ate them all.

And after desert, I had a delicious no flour and frosted chocolate cake, Mrs. Jim and I were invited to a baseball game down at Sugarland.

9/7/2021 ~~ Baseball Game night ~~ Granddaughter's performance first.

(Amplification) This was the day for ball games. First was our granddaughter's junior high first football game this year. And her first for a public performance as a cheerleader. She performed to perfection, entering with a backwards somersault in the air without touching the ground. Scary for us who love her sooo very much.

9/7/2021 ~~ The baseball game ~~ We ate well

(Amplified) We left the football game a bit before it was over. Google had told us it was a 45 minute drive to Sugarland. It would have been but I got sort of lost before we got there .

My driving went bonkers today, I overshot the turnoff to the stadium and ended up on the south side of Highway 59. So we pulled into a Quick Stop and asked for directions. That was a waste they didn't know their surroundings there, I think they had just arrived from another country. To save the day, I had Mrs. Jim ask how we could get to Texas Highway 6.

When we reached the Hwy 6 exit there was a sign, Constellation Field to turn left. Eighteen Dollars$ for parking!!! Whoo, Whoo. I remember when parking at the Astrodome was only 5$. And to boot, only credit cards were accepted.

When we picked up our tickets at the Will Call window, they didn't ask for I.D, only their comment was "I doubt their is another last name like that!" Before we reached the ticket taker we were approached by Mrs. W. who was glad to see us come. I apologized for being late, she forgave, and mentioned how so very few of the 300 had showed.

After saying hellos to the other two ladies we knew and being introduced to two other XYZ employees we were escorted to the second floor box reserved for our group. There we were shown the make-it-yourself ingredients for hot dogs, hamburgers, and cheeseburgers. I had a nice loaded hot dog, Mrs. Jim had a plain hamburger with onions and mustard and no bread. Also beans, slaw, and Mac and Cheese. Later we had a frosted brownie cake and a Diet Coke.

We chose to sit outside to eat and watch the ballgame now at the second inning. There was no score, zero to zero. Our team, the Sugarland Skeeters, had a home run in the 4th inning to match the earlier run my the opponent, the Los Vegas Aviators. No more scores until in overtime, our Skeeters had a walk with the bases loaded to win by one to two.

The ride home was uneventful and we were in bed before midnight. Our daughter traces Mrs. Jim's cell phone and this morning called to see what time we had come in.

All in all it was a fun, fun evening.

_ _ _ _

- This is the whole story of the exert and amplification of our one evening activity posted for The Weekly Scribblings, I've posted that at . http://jimmiehov6.blogspot.com/2021/09/weekly-scribblings-fun-night-out-page.html but this complete story has about 640 words and a few corrections needed.

Labels: Art, Food and Drink, Jim Bunch Eats, Jim does, Jim's Life

# posted by Jim : 9/08/2021 07:31:00 PM 0 comments

Friday, August 27, 2021

Countries where I have been, 82 of them

Photo taken from The Backwaters off the coast of Southeast India, near Cochin. That was December 3, 2019 to January 8, 2020, on an Oceania Nautica ship cruise from Dubai to Cape Town, Africa. We spent three full days in Dubai before and five days after in Cape Town.

Listed below are the 82 countries we have visited.* *Note: Today, January 3, 2022, I just found five so far countries where we've been that missed the list, Curaçao, British Islands, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Netherlands (Europe) and Isle of Man. I don't know how I missed Isle of Man because I am one fourth Manx.

This list may contain a couple of "territories", I've tried not to, like Puerto Rico and the Yukon, etc.

Andorra

Antigua and Barbuda

Argentina

Aruba

Abu Dhabi

Australia

Austria

Bahamas

Barbados

Belgium

Belize

Bolivia

Brazil

British Virgin Islands

Bulgaria

Canada

Cayman Islands

Chile

China

Costa Rica

Croatia

Curaçao

Czech Republic

Czechoslovakia

Denmark

Ecuador

Egypt

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Great Britain

Greece

Grenada

Guatemala

Hong Kong

Hungary

Iceland

India

Ireland

Isle of Man (not a country)

Israel

Italy

Jamaica

Japan

Jordan

Latvia

Liechtenstein

Lithuania

Maldives

Mauritius

Mexico

Monaco

Mozambique

Netherlands, Europe

Netherlands—Aruba(yes), Curaçao(yes), the Netherlands and part of Saint Maarten(yes)—are constituent countries , we've not been to "The Kingdom of The Netherlands"(no) Island Country itself.

New Zealand

Norway

Oman

Panama

Peru

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Russia

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Saint Lucia

Saint Maarten

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Seychelles

Slovakia

South Africa

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Turkey

Ukraine

United Arab Emirates

United States

Uruguay

Vatican City

Wales

"X" -- There are currently no sovereign states that start with the letter "x." However, there are two countries that have the letter "x" in their names: Mexico and Luxembourg and I have visited them both.

Labels: U.S.A. States

# posted by Jim : 8/27/2021 10:27:00 AM 0 comments

Friday, May 28, 2021

"Back to the Future" car

Taken at our Second Annual "Crawfish and Car Show" held May 15, 2021, at Second Baptist Church of Houston 1463 Campus. We had 175 cars registered to show.

This couple is looking at a 1980's AMC DeLorean with both passenger doors open.

Countries where I have been, URL

# posted by Jim : 5/28/2021 11:52:00 AM 1 comments

Monday, January 18, 2021

Cars I have owned (Toy cars not listed)

n

I am not counting Dad's 1949 Ford F1 Pickup as a part of my cars even though I drove it to High School my last two years. And to college and the first part of my Drop Out period as he loaned it when I had a broken foot. Oh yes, Dad's was Black.

Here are the cars in my life--listed in order of purchase: [should I blog on A this as part of my memoirs?]

1950 Studebaker Starlight Coup
1952 Ford Tudor, I hopped it up very heavily before I sold it. It would outrun and 55 and 56 Chevys.
1956 Ford Sunliner Convertible (new)
1941 Chevy Two-door
1950 (Jimmy Dean) Mercury Two-door Coupe (ditched the '41 and '56 when I went into the Army)
1951 Ford Tudor--a present from Dad while I was still in the Army
1960 Rambler Two-door Custom station wagon
1950 Ford Tudor
1962 VW Bug--a work car
1956 Ford Customline Fordor-hardtop
1968 Ford station wagon (new)
1969 Ford Thunderbird***
1971 Honda CB450 motorcycle
1972 Ford Pinto***
1976 Ford Granada Tudor Coupe***
1976 Ford Granada Fordor
1972 Datsun pickup
1976 Chrysler Cordoba (picture link)
1977 Plymouth Volare station wagon
1982 Olds Cutlas Supreme two-door
1975 Datsun pickup
1986 Olds 88 four-door
1988 Olds 88 four-door
1987 Chevy S-10 pickup
1992 Cadillac DeVille
1974 Mustang II Ghia (Mom's car after she died) (still owned)
1999 Cadillac DeVille
1999 Easy-Go Golf Car (new)
1998 Mustang GT Convertible (still owned)
1950 Ford Tudor (sold August, 2015)
2006 Cadillac DTS
2011 Cadillac DTS (still owned)

These are about in the order they were purchased. Most were pretty good cars, I just always get used cars, buying them mostly from individuals, LOLs (little old ladies) preferred.

# posted by Jim : 1/18/2021 03:08:00 PM 0 comments

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

If you read this book please leave me a review

I haven't read it yet, I may never

http://jimmiehov6.blogspot.com/2018/06/colour-my-world-poem-for-tuesday.html

# posted by Jim : 6/12/2018 10:14:00 AM 0 comments