Rushing's Ramblings

(published in the local newspaper as part of my publicity duties as a Cultural Enrichment Society board member) When the musical group Los Texmaniacs came roaring to life in Horseshoe Bay at Quail Point's lakeside on Saturday night, the audience didn't know what hit them.  Many of the over 150 attendees had never heard conjunto Tejano music but were soon enchanted by one of the country's best Tex-Mex bands. The band's blend of Tex-Mex, Czech, and German with bits of Americana added is a niche that is unparalleled and has earned them Grammy's.  Max Baca, the band originator, and leader, explained that their gigs had been canceled since March except for this one.  Other band members were Josh Baca, Lorenzo Martinez, and Noel Hernandez.   Max Baca’s birthday coincided with Saturday night’s performance, and the audience happily joined in celebrating his special day with several toasts.celebrated Los Texmaniacs songs, "How Can a Beautiful Woman Be So Ugly," was

I owe my parents a huge apology.  Funny but tragic how it took 50 years to realize that I did something horrible and never felt ashamed of myself until now.   I was an alcoholic. I used alcohol to numb myself from depression and feeling unloved and ugly from age 16 to my early 20s.  It was difficult for anyone to love me because of my utter disdain for myself.  I had no room to let love dwell inside me.  While living in my ultra-religious, tea-totaling parents' house, I got plastered almost every weekend and often during the weeknights.  I was a holy, rather unholy mess.   My parents allowed me to drive their second car, a 1962 Volkswagen Beetle, that my Mother drove to work.  I had a Dairy Queen job in the nearby town to save money for college tuition and needed a car to commute to work in the evenings and weekends.  One evening, there was a party in the boonies outside town. A fellow-partying female friend agreed to ride with me.  Dirt roads wove past ranchlands and around huge o

My mother turned 92 years old today. She's in excellent health and lives by herself in the same house my parents bought 14 years ago in Temple, Texas. Mother was born in a Salvation Army home for unwed mothers in Kansas.     My grandmother was only 16 years old and living with her parents in rural Oklahoma when she discovered she was pregnant by a young Cherokee man.     When my great-grandfather found out who the father was, he ran him out of the state with a shotgun.     Indians were not viewed as human for over 200 years and, in some places, even today.     How we've treated Native Americans in this country is a shameful part of our history.     My mother got a good dose of how Indians were treated when she was growing up.     She was an exquisite young Indian maiden with long, straight black hair and beautiful olive skin. One of my mother's earliest and most bitter memories was being spat upon and called an "Indian bastard" as she walked along the sidewalk in

  It was a lovely late lunch with a friend this past Saturday at a local restaurant. As we requested, they seated us in the bar area to watch the Texas/Texas Tech game. My undergraduate degree is from UT (Southwestern Med School, School of Health Sciences). He has an undergraduate degree and a law degree from Texas Tech. I might add that we're politically on opposite sides, but we avoid that topic most of the time. He can't help himself sometimes, which triggers me, and I dislike him until the heat of the moment passes. I think he enjoys goading me.  Surely someone seemingly as intelligent as he would agree with me in all things meaningful.  Not. a. chance.   He frequently predicted that Tech would win throughout the first two quarters, even though Tech was behind at halftime. His crestfallen face after each point made by UT belied his overconfidence. I have to admit that I relished those moments!   We soon parted ways, and I figured this would be the last of our conversation f

  MASKS, MUSLIMS, and ONE MAJOR COVIDIOT   We had gathered together with the best intentions; to help our community. We met in a room big enough for social distancing for several weeks for training to assist our town should we have a disaster. We wore masks as we entered the room or walked around, while some wore them for 3 or 4 hours. Unfortunately, when one of the trainers opined that masks were ineffective during at least two sessions, all but one of us wore masks while seated in the room. The power of suggestion and group compliance often has negative consequences. He ever wore a mask the entire time because he stated that his O2 stats dropped when he wore a mask. I considered testing him with my oximeter in the next session but decided not to push it that far. I knew he was lying about his stats to support his position. Reflecting on the whole thing, I realize I should have followed my instincts and challenged the lunatic. After hearing him comment about masks' ineffectiveness

  They met at the dog park and became fast friends, while their human parents enjoyed visiting on benches while watching our dog babies play.  The two balls of fluffy white fur frolicking in the park were a sight. He was a larger mini golden doodle than Paddy, meaning he weighed around 25 pounds compared to Paddy’s soaking-wet 17 pounds of love.  I don’t remember the dog’s name, as it’s been seven years and many miles since that time.  For whatever reason, the image of Paddy’s buddy and their days in the park keeps popping up in my memory this weekend.   We visited the dog park in Delray Beach at least twice a week, usually on weekends. It wasn’t long before I learned that their 2-year-old dog had cancer and would undergo chemotherapy to beat the dreaded diagnosis. They continued to bring him to the park, even though he began to move slowly.   After a few months, we entered the park gate, but Paddy’s buddy was nowhere around. Paddy even seemed confused as he kept looking all around for

  Even with my hearing just about gone, I could hear something scratching inside the kitchen cabinets. Even the remote possibility of mice fills me with disgust, dread, and fear. I can't stand the nasty little buggers.     The following day, I called Steve, my good friend and contractor, about the mice. "You might think I'm a strong, independent woman, but I can't tolerate mice," I told him. "What's even worse are mice traps. I don't want to set them, and I certainly don't want to see or hear a mouse after it's been trapped."   Steve laughed and asked if I had any peanut butter. I didn't because I have an eating disorder and would probably keep eating spoonsful of peanut butter late at night until the jar was empty. Since Steve is an excellent friend and tolerant of my many neuroses, he set two mouse traps in my cabinet. I bought substantial plastic containers to seal the cat and dog food bags I had previously stored in the cupboard.

As the sun slipped below the horizon across the picturesque shore of Lake LBJ, an inspiring concert began lakeside behind Quail Point in Horseshoe Bay this past Sunday night.  john Arthur martinez, Pauline Reese, Drew Womack, and fiddler Kurt Bauman headlined the event, attended by an enthusiastic crowd of 150. The weather, the setting, and the talent could not have been more perfect, even though the concert was shortened due to the threat of thunderstorms. People happily greeted each other like long-lost friends even before the music started.   HSB's Cultural Enrichment Society sponsored the event to benefit the four musicians and to bring the community together in a safe, outdoor environment after many months of limited contact. Musicians have suffered financially over the past six months due to canceling tours and venues. The personal enrichment and enjoyment of people's lives through participation in all types of cultural events and activities is the “soul” goal of CES, its

(published in the local newspaper as part of my board member duties as the Publicity Chair on the Cultural Enrichment Society Board.)   The amazing john Arthur martinez, Drew Womack, and Pauline Reese will grace the shores of Lake LBJ on September 20 in the outdoor pavilion behind Quail Point Lodge in Horseshoe Bay beginning at 7:30 p.m. HSB’s Cultural Enrichment Society is sponsoring these talented musicians. Tickets purchased online at hsbenrichment.org are $10 each, with 100% of the proceeds going to the musicians. Due to the Governor’s guidelines, the audience is limited to 150 people, with social distancing and masks required. Attendees should bring their lawn chairs and beverages. Donations to the artists are encouraged at the event.   HSB is fortunate that the superstar songwriter/musician, john Arthur martinez, lives close to us in a neighboring town. john Arthur came to prominence in the music world after winning second place in the American Idol-styled country music show Nash

  Dear Editor,   When the laundry load was removed from the washing machine, every piece of clothing was covered with small, white, almost lint-like pieces. Whenever I emptied the dryer filter, it was filled with several handfuls of white fragments. And that stuff was impossible to remove from clothing, even with a lint remover. So, if lint weren't the culprit, what in the heck was it? I wondered what in the world caused it.   Throughout the day, I worried that something was wrong with the washing machine and would cost a lot of money to fix. Was there something clogging the hoses that ran into the machine? If I had left a Kleenex or paper towel in a pocket, it would have never resulted in the volume of white pieces removed from the dryer. It just didn't make sense.   When it was time for bed, I started looking for the latest issue of Texas Monthly. I searched everywhere. It wasn't on my nightstand, and it wasn't on the coffee table. I even looked in the recycle bin. Th

Daddy has been gone from this earth for over four years now. It's funny how he's been in my dreams as we head into Father's Day. I'm so thankful that he occasionally visits me in that way.   We rarely agreed on politics or religion, but we enjoyed playing golf together. During our weekend golf games, politics and religion were never discussed. As I grew older, I respected my father's beliefs and stopped challenging him. Nevertheless, my father knew by how I lived my life that we weren't on the same page. He accepted me anyway, although I know he disapproved. I hope with all my heart that he wasn't ashamed of me. I can't take any of my behavior back, and I would be heartbroken if I hurt him.  When we played golf, Daddy shared stories from his childhood and freely gave his opinion about human nature. He believed people could be categorized as either givers or takers. Unfortunately, this left no room for all the gray areas people fall into. Daddy

My brain is tired today. The ongoing polarization of mask-wearing has taken a toll on me. I give up. Those who think that mandating masks is a government conspiracy to control us and that COVID-19 is no worse than the flu, go ahead, keep being fed that bullshit, and dig up narratives to support that belief. If it's repeated often enough by Fox News or Alex Jones or Rush Limbaugh and one never reads any scientific studies about COVID-19, it becomes the truth to those who choose to be willfully ignorant. I especially love hearing about people who claim they can't breathe with a mask or that their doctor told them a mask was ineffective. That's some more bullshit. If a doctor truly made that statement, they should lose their license.   Some object to wearing masks because they should have the freedom to do whatever they wish, and mandating masks is unconstitutional. That's more B.S. I'll no longer share scientific evidence about COVID-19 or the effectivene

I haven’t been totally compliant about sheltering in place, although I haven’t been inside a supermarket since early February (thank God for grocery delivery)! Three times, I made lightning-speed trips with a mask on into our small local grocery store since February, and one trip to an Austin Target store last month where everyone wore a mask. That’s it. I’ve never stopped visiting my daughter, Marcy, and her family in their home or mine every week. We don’t wear masks during our visits. My heart fills up each time I arrive at their house, and my grandchildren run to my car, wrapping their arms around me while shouting, “Grandmama!!! What did you bring me?”  99% of the time, I have presents for them, although my daughter disapproves. She’ll understand once she becomes a grandmother. Since we have been sheltered in place, I’ve felt safe. It’s a calculated risk of which I’m well aware. Marcy has chosen to send her children to public school next month, ages 3 and 5. While I’m s

 (This was published as an Op-Ed in The Highlander, a newspaper distributed throughout the Highland Lakes region of Texas) By Dana Rushing (former Llano County Democratic Party Chair, the current VP of Highland Lakes Democratic Women, and Senate District 24 Committee Woman to the State Democratic Executive Committee) The Texas Democratic Party's core values address the belief in equal opportunity, fairness, freedom, family, community, and a responsibility to ourselves and each other. Our most vital view is that people come first. We are a party for and by the people.   The Governor of Texas recently made masks mandatory in public and took other measures to ensure our citizens' safety. If anything, there should have been a mandate months ago. The state opened too early, and COVID-19 ran rampant throughout our state, making our state one of the worst for the country's number of cases and deaths. Our hospitals are full, and people die every day from the virus. M

I ordered Mary Trump's book early and eagerly anticipated receiving insight from a true insider into the Trump family dynamics, especially since she had a doctorate in psychology. After hearing about Trump throughout the years and learning first-hand accounts of his behavior when I lived in Palm Beach County, I had some theories about his pathology due to my counseling psychology background. I was curious whether she had drawn the same conclusions, and, at the same time, I wanted to hear some juicy family stories. We all have a little or a considerable amount of dysfunction in our families because, let's face it, no one is perfect. I always surmised that Trump's family had more malfunctions than most. While waiting for the lawsuits against the book's publication by the Trump family to resolve, I started seeing her interviews on TV. Her responses were with a flat affect, and the tone of her voice displayed no emotion. This may have been purposeful, as many therapist