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78% of abductors are the non-custodial parent. At least that was approximately the statistic when I was a kid. One day I remember being dropped off at our paternal grandmother’s trailer. She lived in a trailer park in another part of Lake Elsinore and we would go there once in a while. I didn’t have school, so it must have been during the summer sometime. Sometime during the day we were out front of the house when my biological mother walked up and took us by the hand and walked off quickly. My grandma yelled something but I didn’t quite catch it.

She took us to a small duplex she was living in. She did cleaning of the other units in the area and I was never clear on the whole arrangement. She was on welfare, so we were fed regularly with powdered milk, cheese, bread, and the other food you could get on food stamps at the time. We also had several toys to play with. One day I took some of the toys out to play under a tree with other kids in the area. One by one, the other kids mentioned they once had a toy just like one of mine but they had lost it or it disappeared. After this was said a few times, it finally occurred to me that my biological mother had stolen them all when cleaning the other units.I didn’t take the toys out again after that.

I have a few other splintered memories of time. I remember one day running along a field with my bio mom while gripping a toy semi truck in my hand. It was a brown overcab designed one and one of my favorite toys. We were running to get away because she thought our bio dad had seen us and we needed to get away before he could catch up. Another time we were taking off around town with her boyfriend because we had been spotted again and needed to make some fast turns for him to lose us. Her boyfriend gave me some fried pig skins to eat and then when I complained of being thirsty he gave me the beer he was drinking and laughed at me when I said it was disgusting.

One day I remember going by our maternal great-grandma’s house. Their garage had a wall covered in soda cans. They were nice enough to my brother and me  but after I think my bio-mom asked for money, they told her to go and never to come back.

It was a one bedroom duplex we were living in. It had a small kitchen and a stall shower. I of course got chickenpox so I spent a miserable week on the couch. For some relief they sprinkled baking soda on the shower floor and plugged the drain with a rag for me to lay miserable in the water for what relief it gave.

One night I woke up to hear voices from the other room. My brother and I slept on the living room couch while my bio mom slept in the  bedroom. I looked in to see the screen off her window and it forced open. Our bio dad had found us and forced himself in. He was drunk and angry at her about something. I was told to go back to sleep. They were half naked in bed so looking back I can tell he had sex with her but I’m not sure if any of it was consensual at that point.

The next day he had us all jump in his car and we drove to Mexico. I have no clue why we went there for a day or two. They got me some shoes for cheap from a market down there as mine were left behind when we left and were a tight fit anyways.I’m not sure what the trip was for. Maybe a drug pickup? My bio dad was a dealer and used it along with my bio mom. We drove back to California and he kicked my bio mom out somewhere before he drove us to the other side of town back to his girlfriend’s house. That ended the strange time I was apparently kidnapped by a non-custodial parent.

So this past weekend was the LPTexas State Convention in Irving, TX. At this convention we elect state wide candidates, elect party officers, elect delegates to the LP National Convention, amend Bylaws, and amend the party platform.

In preparation for this convention I served on the Rules (Bylaws) Committee where we crafted 63 proposals over 19 business meetings and multiple additional working meetings. During the convention we were able to get to Bylaw 50 and had five additional bylaws passed after that were included in the earlier non-controversial bundle. This was quite an accomplishment as we had never proceeded through that many amendments before. It was also a personal accomplishment as I crafted the base for several of the bylaws presented to include a few I wasn’t as excited about but had been requested by members.

In our SD Caucus I was elected to SLEC again. In the previous term I helped to affiliate three new counties in my senate district. While I worked with the new county chairs only one held a county convention to retain status as an affiliate. My already established counties retained their affiliation. In this next term I will invest even more time working on any new county affiliates. I am optimistic that the new CRM will help give me the data I need to do better there. In the next term I will also try to review the policy manual to make updates that are required since Arthur Thomas has declined to run for another term. I have worked with him in the past and feel I am the most up to date on the policy manual to make amendment proposals. I have also consulted individuals about potential longtime members that would make good Judicial Committee candidates. I plan to reach out to some to see if they would accept the nomination.

As far as the delegates to the National Convention, that part has me feeling very down about my involvement. While I have been very actively engaged in my county as part of the executive committee and as part of the state executive committee, I apparently have drawn the ire of some members of a particular caucus. Even with my work benefiting them, they seem to want to retain my work but not my voice. I later was shown a list of individuals to vote “no” on with my name on that list. If we go by rankings on the list of those that will be delegates it seems some members that have very little participation and are often hindrances to the basic work the party gets done are valued more than I am. This was a difficult revelation to me and will impact my decisions for the type of work I will do for the party in the future. Luckily many other good hardworking members of the party had enough support to overcome this but I was a casualty of the factionalism within the party currently. All of this while I have been expressing the stance of trying to not be a part of any of the factional caucuses but apparently there is a “if you aren’t with me, you are against me” attitude from a particular faction.

So it’s finally cooling down below 90 degrees in San Antonio. This makes it a great time to get some yard work done. The ten day forecast will be your best friend for accomplishing this for the next bit as there is rain on the schedule and some lawn care benefits from rain while others don’t.

First things first get out there and mow your lawn while it’s still dry. I took my lawn down a 1/4 lower than my normal summer cut to lower it from the length I let it get to to survive the heat. I also placed a ton of stuff down. I used my spreader to place down pre-emergent herbicide (to prevent weeds), granule insecticide (to kill/prevent ground burrowing insects), and granule fertilizer (to feed the lawn for the rest of fall). I also sprayed with hose end sprayers liquid fertilizer (light spray to give a quick boost), fungicide (for plants vulnerable to fungus), and insecticide (to kill/control above ground insects).

The liquid insecticide normally provides longer lasting above ground control but with rain on the forecast the next two days will wash it away. I still wanted to kill anything in the yard at the moment. Looking at the forecast I didn’t spray any hose end weed killers as it works best with a couple days of no rain. Thursday looks like a good day to spray that if the three day window of dry weather comes through there. On the other hand all the granule stuff I put down should do great as the rain will water it in the next few days… as long as the weather comes through as predicted. If not then I have to water it in.

This should give you an idea of some things you should do for your lawn if you want to keep it in healthy shape let me know if you have any questions.

It’s been a super dry summer here in San Antonio. Many lawns have gone dormant. Luckily Bermuda lawns can recover from that. We have gotten rain showers that will help. On weeks that we don’t get rain, continue to water with irrigation or hose end sprinklers. Use a hose as needed to hand water hot spots. I had an issue with my irrigation so I’ve been working on recovery on that side. The recommendation has been a 4-1-2 ratio for fertilizer. I’ve been using a liquid 16-4-8 fertilizer on that area. That only helps if we get rain or you water it in to help the lawn. As far as my normally loved pre-emergent hold back on that for a month so the lawns have a chance to recover more.

Also if your lawn has gone dormant, it’s okay that happens during dry times like this without irrigation. What’s not okay is not mowing foxtails and other weeds that find a way to grow. Make sure to mow those down even if it’s just spot mowing. I’ve seen way too many people just letting that grow because the grass isn’t. It will help you later keeping it trimmed down to normal height.