Random Saturday Thoughts

-I need to go to one of the musical happenings that's going on at the Lumberman's Hall or whatever it is called across the street from the Post Office.

-I really like the people that work in and run our Bastrop Post Office. Ronnie and his crew do a good job and they are really friendly. My mailman rocks!

-Bastrop has a new citizen's orchestra. I think their debut will be in December. Sure to be a treat and really, we need all the music around here we can get.

-I always enjoy seeing Hannibal Lokumbe around town. He's such a postive individual and a great talent. You may be familiar with his incredible trumpeting and composing abilities, but you haven't lived baby until you've heard him sing. Hannibal is a native Bastrop County son who went on to great fame as a jazz trumpeter and composer. He gives an awful lot back to the community, and he's living proof that you can be a music superstar sans the ego. He plays around the world nowadays, but he's often in Bastrop.

-I wish Davis McCauley had more time to write on his blog. I also wish he'd post some of his artwork on his site. He's quite the painter and he's got a small gallery downtown next to the visitors center.

-Changes have occurred at the Bastrop Advertiser and Smithville Times, as well as their parent the Austin-American Statesman. For the last year or so, all three papers were on the market, but have now been removed and the Statesman plans to carry on with all three papers.

-I think the number one priority of the Advertiser should be to have some kind of online presence. I understand if they don't wanna put their paper online but how about a few stories and a place to go for emergency notices and the like? You could sell ads on it, I'm sure. The Elgin Courier is mostly online.

-I love looking at the Mighty Colorado every time I drive past it. It's such a beautiful river. There's a real nice view of it going into Smithville as well, what with the rocks creating sort of a rapid-like turbulence. I read a book one time about a fellow named James Gillet who was a famous Texas Ranger and who later became a very wealthy Big Bend rancher (Gillet Creek in the Big Bend National Park is named after him).

Gillett grew up in Austin and had kinfolks in Bastrop. Gillet was born in 1856, so around 1870 or so when he was in his early teens he and his brother would get in a big wooden rowboat and float down to Bastrop, catching fish along the way. He said that they would literally fill up the rowboat with fish by the time they reached Bastrop.

I bet the Mighty Colorado was just a beautiful river then, teaming with fish and other wildlife in it's valleys.