shay hill

Spring in Texas means beautiful wildflowers. You see them growing on the side of the highway and they are just full of color. I love spring time just for this reason, of course, it also means allergies of which I am not fond. Sometimes when you’re driving you don’t have time to stop and take pictures but I did just that recently.

I wasn’t driving the highway so to speak but I was driving the buggy around on our lease just outside of Abilene and took the camera along. I stopped at every flower I found. I didn’t realize how many varieties we had growing out there, no wonder I’m always sneezing!! I did another gallery of photos a few weeks ago, specifically of Texas Bluebonnets that you can also check out.

I wanted to share some of the flowers we have growing wild here in our area, although I don’t know the names of them all, they are still pretty. I even found some buzzards hanging out in a nearby tree. I don’t think they were eying me but I also didn’t hang around too long to find out either.

Photo by: Rudy Fernandez

Beautiful butterflies are everywhere in Abilene and for the most part this year, we are seeing thousands of Red Admiral,  Tawny Emperor and Orange-Barred Sulphur butterflies. If you’ve seen butterflies and want to identify them, do as I did, I turned to the internet.

After taking several pictures I decided to try and identify some of the different butterflies instead of making up names and trying to get my inquisitive 10 year old daughter Angie to buy into my, ‘Ferrari Red stripe’ butterfly or the ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ butterfly or the ‘Mellow Yellow’ butterfly. While I thought my names were really cool, somehow my daughter didn’t believe me. I’ve really enjoyed watching my daughter chasing them and trying to adopt several as pets.

If you would like to answer your kids questions, ‘Garden With Wings’ is an awesome website that will help you identify the different kinds of butterflies you are seeing.

Shay Hill

I mentioned a week or so back that I was doing Relay for Life for the first time this year. The company put together a team in my honor this year and I have to say it was an amazing event. You don’t realize how cancer touches everyone in some way until you go to an event such as Relay.

I told you in my last Relay for Life blog that I had been diagnosed with breast cancer recently and we were walking in this years Relay for Life, raising money for cancer research/awareness. We did the event Friday night (April 20th) and it was such an eye opening event. If you’ve been, you know what I’m talking about, if you haven’t then let me tell you a little about it.

The event is 12 hours starting at 7pm Friday night and continuing until 7am Saturday morning. Now I have to admit, I get tired pretty easy these days and I only stayed until about 10:30 Friday night. The rest of “Team Shay” continued to walk, even though it was getting pretty chilly.

The first lap is the “survivor” lap, which I walked with a group of very strong people in every age range. The second lap is for “caregivers”, my boyfriend and mom walked that lap together. The third lap is for “teams” and Team Shay was out in rare form, as usual.

When the sun went down there was the Luminary walk. This is when luminaria bags are decorated with names in “honor of” or “in memory of” and lit around the track. This is the most moving part of the whole event. What really gets you is when you walk the track and see young children gathered around a particular bag that is in “memory” of someone they loved, usually a parent. It’s very heartbreaking.

Although there is sadness there is definitely hope as well. Everyone is walking and participating in this event in order to give anyone with cancer hope and that is what is so infectious about the whole atmosphere.

I was busy visiting and walking the time that I was there but I did take a few photos. Maybe next year you will be able to join us in our walk.

Allposters.com

As I finished a blog last week about the top 5 albums that changed my life, I saw a couple album covers that also doubled as posters that hung in my room as a young West Texas teen. I then begun to wonder how much of an influence these posters had on my adolescent behavior. Nonetheless, here are some awesome posters that send me back in time, I hope you enjoy the ride through memory lane.

Much to my surprise, when I started looking for the art work on a lot of these posters, I found that a great deal of them are still being reproduced. There are a few companies like AllPosters.com and Amazon.com that are still producing and selling regular and black-light posters too. There’s a lot of my youth that lies in these posters, but there’s a lot of my wife’s youth in these posters as well. My wife Donna started looking over my shoulder and saying “wow, I had that one hanging in my room” so I decided to include some of the posters she had. I’ll let you guess which ones were mine and which ones were hers.

Did I miss one? What poster was your favorite? Do you still have your old vintage posters?

Photo by: Robert RTA

The preliminary numbers from this weekends West Texas Animal Rescue are just in, over 200 cats, dogs, puppies and kittens all have new homes, over 500 pets were micro-chipped and nearly 800 pets got their vaccinations. Nonetheless, pet owners are proud of their animals as we snapped pictures of your fur covered family members.

Big Thanks goes out to all my new Dyess Air Force Base friends who volunteered to help and the several that stood on guard as I caught a couple hours sleep during my overnight stay. Many thanks goes to you that adopted a pet or gave money or gave of your time to help our furry friends. Here’s a pictorial sampling of what it was like during the animal rescue.

Shay Hill

Spring time in West Texas means wild flowers and in particular Bluebonnets. Everybody takes their pictures with the bluebonnets and usually some old piece of farm equipment in the background.

I might not have gotten the old farm equipment in the pics but I did come up with some pretty cool bluebonnet pictures. We were already dressed up so we went to a nearby field that had tons of bluebonnets, even some that were solid white, and took the traditional family photos.

Does your family get out and do a Bluebonnet picture?

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Photo by: Rudy Fernandez

I wanted to share a little of what I experienced while looking for The Best Place To Buy A Christmas Tree. There were times when something I saw took my breath away and sent me down memory lane, to a much simpler time when we had time to spare and love abounded. You know when grandpa helped me and dad put up the lights and grandpa talked to dad like dad talks to me. When I saw that silver aluminum Christmas Tree with the old color wheel on display I became so overwhelmed with emotion, I knew I had to share these Christmas finds with you. Check out some of the beautiful and festive decorations I found at several locations right here in Abilene. The places where you’ll find a lot of these are as follows:

Baacks at S.19th and Matador
Garden World on S. Clack Street
Lowes Warehouse on Ridgemont Drive
Mankin and Sons Gardens at S.1st and Leggett
The Home Depot on SW Drive
Wal-Mart on Catclaw Drive

When it comes to whats hot this year, I found that LED lights was the most asked for item. LED lights are brighter and cost about 80% less to operate. Next in popularity is the “Snowing Christmas Tree” but get ready to lay down some cash for that holiday jewel, they run about $400. Finally it’s all about the little Christmas trees in small decorative pots, most are wired with lights and about half the “Deco-Potted” artificial trees already came fully decorated.

Trees with lights, trees already decorated, trees that are “open and show” right out of the box. Have we forgotten what it’s like to go pick out the tree and dig out all those old family hand-me-down Christmas ornaments or the family heirloom decorations? Are we too lazy to do what our parents and grandparents did when it came to the “family Christmas Tree”? What do you think? Is Christmas too commercialized and over rated? Should we do away with Christmas?

photo by: KEAN Staff

The 29th Annual KEAN-105 Cruise Night to benefit Safety city was a huge success. One law enforcement officer estimated between four to five thousand people were in attendance. The real reason for the huge attendance was the cars, trucks and motor-cycles. Saturday night was hopping at the K-Mart parking lot with the Kirk House Band on tap for live entertainment. The Abilene Firefighters and A.P.D. managed to cook the wonderful Boars Head hot dogs, while Chili’s made the chicken Fajitas available.

photo by: KEAN Staff

The main reason for this entire event was to raise money for a very worthy cause, Safety City. KEAN Cruise Night is all about the cars and lots of them. I found myself asking this question quite often “where do all these cars comes from?” The answer is they are all from right here in the Big Country, We had G.T.O.’s, Mustang’s, Camaro’s, Challenger’s and Charger’s, there were cars from the 1920′s all the way up to the new 2010 Hummer that was cruising with the big wheels and the loud sound system. Special thanks to all that came to watch, dance and eat. We could not have done this without you. A huge thank you and hugs to all the car owners, thank you for letting us admire your cars and motorcycles and to relive some awesome memories.

If we were to hold Cruise Night again next year what would you recommend to make it even better?

Photo by: Jason Reynolds

Halloween is that special time of year whether you’re a child or just a child at heart where you can decorate creatively. Because Halloween is different from all other holidays, you can decorate your porch and/or your front yard for the scariest night of the year. The best part about decorating for Halloween is you can do it without spending a lot of money. Here are a few money saving tips for doing a scary Halloween porch and/or yard to scare away the goblins or maybe those little candy grabbers.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images

First off, can get a roll of yellow caution tape the kind you see at a real crime scene. It’s easy to find most hardware or department stores carry it and it’s real inexpensive. Put it up all around your yard creating a “crime scene.” Make a couple signs out of cardboard and some markers warning people to “Stay Out” and “Enter at Your Own Risk” and “Danger Keep Out” and “Not Responsible for Your Life” and give your scene a name, like “Murder on your streets name” or “Hell on you streets name.” You get the idea just have fun with it.

Second set the mood turn off all bright lights that light the way. Instead use a black light bulb or two to light the way. Don’t completely darken everything out you want your visitors to see the signs and start setting the mood. Stores like Wal-Mart, Lowes and The Home Depot carry a very inexpensive glow in the dark paint that will come in very handy to paint more cardboard signs, sheets, linens, rocks, crates, old plastic pumpkins, pieces of wood and any object that can take on an eerie look when painted or highlighted with a little glow in the dark paint. Making tombstones out of cardboard or Styrofoam and paint epitaphs on them will scare your visitors when they read things like “I’m Coming Back”, “See, I Told You I Was Sick” and “You Are Next” and put this year’s date on it.

An old wooden crate can pass as an old rotting wooden casket, sheets with plastic pumpkin heads can pass as ghosts. Just use your imagination.

If you use real pumpkins remember once cut only last for about 6 to 8 days before the mess starts taking place. Instead of carving a pumpkin try painting them with scary faces scenes. Pumpkins will last week’s maybe a month or so. Then you can re-use your gourds as Thanksgiving and/or Fall Harvest decorations too.

Finally the easiest thing to do is make your own scarecrows or stuffed dummies. You will need an old shirt and a pair of jeans stuffing the cloths with old crumpled up newspapers, plastic shopping bags, shoots if you have some hay laying around use it. Find an old rubber/latex mask and add a ball-cap then prop your dummy up on the makeshift casket or crate and leave the rest to the imagination of your little visitors.

I remember when I was a kid; Halloween was a time when everyone could have a great time. Nobody ever got hurt unless of course you were one of the Gilmore boys that lived a couple houses away. They got a good butt whipping when their dad Mr. Gilmore caught the three boys throwing eggs at every car going by, the bad part was, they hit their dad on the side of the head because Mr. Gilmore always drove with the windows down. Some in the old neighborhood say the often hear the ghost of the Gilmore boys crying every Halloween just about midnight. We’ve never seen the boys since.

Anyway try to be a kid at heart and have happy Halloween. If you have any other inexpensive decorating ideas tell us about them right here.

Photo by Rudy's dive buddy Trey Bland

For over 6 years I’ve invited our listeners to join me on the various Rudy Cruises. During that time I learned how to scuba and started perfecting my scuba diving skills. This past Rudy Cruise, for the first time ever, we were diverted because of hurricane Irene. It became very clear early into to the cruise that Irene was going where we had planned to go. So after one day at sea our Carnival Conquest captain informed us that the new destinations would be, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Progresso Mexico. I used my communication skills to rebook scuba diving excursions at said new locations. What you seen next is what my friend Umberto of Dreamtime Dive Center showed us in Costa Maya Mexico. Enjoy the underwater scenery.

First off let me describe Costa Maya. In my opinion it’s kind of like a cross between Cozumel meets Grand Cayman. The cleanliness and “grand splendor” of her Majesties Grand Cayman and the thriftiness and hospitality of Cozumel. That said, this was one of, if not the best dives ever merely because the people of Dreamtime scuba made sure that each and everyone’s needs were met and then exceeded. These guys carried all our scuba gear out and they provided us beverages and snacks. I made a mention to the Dreamtime Team that a lot of the people that were with the Rudy Cruise had no experience snorkeling. That is where booking with a “registered and certified P.A.D.I. dive shop” made the difference because everyone on that excursion had a blast and saw things they may never see again in their lifetime.

One thing that was learned by all was that the infamous lion fish is not indigenous to the Caribbean northe Atlantic and it is very destructive simply because it has no enemies there and it destroys more that it helps. Our dive master Sara is a master lion fish fishing/hunting and she harvested 80 lion fish with the use of an old Hawaiian hand spear. She also brought to our attention all of the little fish that bring balance to the aquatic universe. For a while there the whole world was at peace and in balance. I have often said “if you don’t believe in God, go scuba diving and take a look around and you’ll change your thinking.” There’s a beautiful world down there I hope you’ll join us next year when the Rudy Cruise will visit Belize, Roatan and Cozumel Sept. 16th 2012.
 

With the 10th anniversary of 9/11 fast approaching, I felt this familiar feeling in my stomach when a fellow broadcaster, sent me a montage’ of sound bites and a songwriters interview. His name is Ty Hager and he hosts a nationally syndicated radio show called “Behind the Hits”. I don’t think Ty was even expecting to hear what songwriter Billy Montana was going to reveal about his song “Bring on the Rain” Here’s the interview.

The songwriter Billy Montana has visited our studios here in Abilene before so the audio file peaked my interest. I gave it a listen and within a few minutes I had a knot in my throat and stomach and tears were streaming down my cheeks. I wasn’t expecting the mountain of emotions I just felt for the last 90 minutes. I immediately wanted to share my feeling and thoughts with someone, that someone is you, so here goes.

I, never thought that I could feel helpless, simply because, all my life I have done for myself everything that needed to be done and I never let having one arm hold me back. I never have nor will I ever feel sorry for myself. A few minutes ago, after listening to the audio file from a fellow broadcaster and watching the you-tube videos, I am now feeling helpless, angry, revengeful, sad and pity for not being able to stop what we all saw on Tuesday morning September 11th 2001.

Now 10 years later I thought for sure the feelings would have subsided, but no! I now have more feelings, stronger feelings, I even feel more patriotic. I will no longer sit idly by and do nothing I will stand up for my country America thee greatest nation on earth. I will help my neighbors, the elderly, the sick and the poor. I will not back down from a FIGHT. I will help make our great nation better than our forefathers could have ever imagined. It is time as Americans we buy American and put our family and friends back to work. I/we shall volunteer in our local charities, churches and community centers. I will encourage everyone to go out and celebrate each and every holiday to the fullest and in your own individual way. Because I believe that is the American way.

Let us never forget that we are vulnerable when we allow fear to enter our hearts. As you watch this video, allow the memories and emotions to fill your heart with feelings that are what I call an , “All American Spirit”.

photo by: Rudy F.

Sitting there relaxing in my old tank top, gym shorts and flip-flops, when someone starts beating on my front door. Not recognizing the lady at my front door I asked calmly and politely, may I help you? She says, “your house is about to catch fire!”, after seeing the look of disbelief she continued “the grass and trees in your back yard are on fire!” I finally got the message, this lady was not kidding me. As I step out to check on this “so called fire”, OH! part of my back yard is on fire and it’s working it’s way to my house. I ran in changed clothes and got everyone ready to evacuate should it be necessary. All the while trying to stay calm while talking to the 911 operator. They are on the way said 911′s operator.

By this time I’m running into my back yard trying to remember where I left the new water hose I bought two weeks ago and thing to myself “do I have enough hose to reach out to the back part of the property?” By this time a sight for sore eyes quickly appeared it’s my heroes, the Abilene Fire Department. The AFD boys were quick to jump on the fire and assess what started the fire while a several of the guys worked on the blaze, a couple of others asked if I knew what might have started it.

After a quick assessment the lieutenant spotted a downed power line. “It must have been down for some time” said the lieutenant. I knew then my house was going to be spared and that the Abilene Fire Department was taking care of me and my neighbors. I was so appreciative I ran in pulled out nearly a dozen bottles of ice cold water and took it to them while they continued to knock out the remaining embers.

photo by: Rudy F.

An A.E.P. guy shows up and killed all the power to the downed fire starting power line. His work now seemed somewhat “anticlimactic”. He wraps electrical tape on the loose power line, rehangs it and leaves. In the mean time I’m left in my back dining room watching out of my big picture window to see if any more embers start lighting things up again.

So much for a quiet Sunday reading the good book drinking some of Donna’s sun-tea and taking it easy.

Now I’m left wondering “who was that lady that banged on my door and what would have happened if nobody cared or ever alerted me to the (in my mind huge range fire) little flame that could”.

Thank you lady in the white truck. Thank you Abilene Fire Department. thank you God for not letting everything I’ve worked so hard for go up in flames.

Which brings me to my final thought. It’s dry out there y’all keep an eye out for smoke, because like Earl Thomas Conley once sang “Where There”s Smoke There’s Fire.”

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I will admit this, broadcasting will not make you rich by any means, but this job does come with perks and getting in to hang where the super-rich and famous (like the Jonas Brothers) live and play is a huge plus. Besides I’ll be on an island called “Paradise.”

In Key West Florida there are a ton of things to do like:

Audubon House and Tropical Gardens

Curry Mansion Inn and Museum

Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum

Harry S. Truman Little White House

Key West Heritage House

Key West Shipwreck Treasures Museum

Mel Fisher Treasure Museum

Pat Croce’s Pirate Soul Museum

Ripley’s Believe It Or Not!

Old Town Trolley Tours Of Key West

Barefoot Billy’s Jet Ski Tour

Dolphin Safari Charters

Fury Water Adventures Glass Bottom Boat Tour

Subtropic Dive Center Scuba Diving to the U.S.S. Vandenberg

Sunny Days Catamarans Snorkel With The Dolphin Trip

Key West Aquarium

Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Gardens

Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory

Freeport Grand Bahamas is home to the most successful scuba diver in the world. Fred Riger has logged more than 20,000 dives in 25 years and still counting. Freeport is great place to swim with the stingrays or dolphins. Snorkeling is very popular because of it’s living reefs. The Bahamas islands are home to the third largest reef in the world.

In the next few weeks I’ll blog on “some of the best things are free”. Sights and things to do in our own Lone Star States tropical jewel, Galveston Island. From Moody Gardens to the Bahamas.

One final thought, Moody Gardens is thee best vacation destination in the world in my opinion. Here’s why I believe that Moody Gardens is all that and then some. Moody Gardens is a totally nonprofit resort. Now I know that sounds weird but it’s true, nonprofit because it’s founder started it to help children recover from serious head injuries (including his own son) and Moody Gardens is completely handicap accessible.

So start packing your bags, bring a camera, turn off the cell phone and make up your mind as to what you want to do for the next seven days and seven nights. Bon Voyage y’all!

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Brooke shields was quoted in Allure Magazine:

“I’m very proud of being fit and strong at this age. I like to Spin three times a week at least and couple it with yoga. I’ve been dancing on Broadway for years, so when I’m in a show, my muscle memory comes right back. It’s like being an athlete.” – Brooke Shields, 45

Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images)

While I have seen some people with extraordinary genes that keeps the looking young. What I believe is that, if you’ve got enough money to not worry about anything ever again, you will not age as the same rate the rest of society does. Because we worry about everything all the time without fail.

I still hear my sweet mommas voice telling me “son don’t fret or frown ’cause those wrinkles will always be around” and she was right. I can attest to this, my mother spent a small fortune fighting the aging process. all the creams, gels, lotions, mask pastes, elixirs and potions, she bought them all. The most memorable was the “green mask paste” (I think that’s when dad started sleeping the the spare bedroom) you know the one, it was avocado and garlic based guaranteed to scare the vampires and wrinkles away.

Anyway, she never smoked nor did she drink. She got her beauty rest and she religiously put on those snake oils the ladies at the BX cosmetic counter were peddling back in the day. She took care of herself and her skin. She said “God only gave you one skin don’t ruin it” and when she was in the hospital the last few months of her life she reveled in the nurses delight when she revealed her age. The response was always the same “is this right Alice? you’re over 80? you don’t look a day over 60″ and the nurses were being genuine. She looked great and young all the time. Here’s the reason I think, she may have worried a time or two about her boys or dad, but when it came to the finances or money or most anything else, she never worried, not because they had truck loads of money ’cause that wasn’t the case, she/us/we never lived above our means.

I will say this, living a “worry-free lifestyle” does help in the wrinkle dissolving department but it sure goes a long way at keeping you young at heart as well. Oh, the final secret to moms beauty care, “love God and dance as if only He is watching”.

The source or shall I say Inspiration for this blog was the fine folks at Allure Magazine and MSN.com here’s how this all got started:

Brooke Shields, Paulina Porizkova-Ocasek, Patti Hansen and Yasmin Le Bon may be supermodels with supergenes – it’s hard to believe they’re all age 45 and older. Most of the models have at least two children. We asked them how they’ve maintained their looks (and their outlooks) with diet, exercise, beauty rituals, lifestyle changes and attitude adjustments. For more from each of these models-turned-role-models.

Check out the April issue of Allure Magazine for all the stars quotes.

With more top crust country superstars being added to the itinerary, it is of utmost importance to secure the best date and time. So who might be on the agenda? Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, Sugarland, Taylor Swift, Keith Urban and some awesome combinations include Alan Jackson with Zac Brown Band, Brad Paisley with Alabama and Jason Aldean with Kelly Clarkson, Seems some last minute adds are in order like: Dierks Bentley and Little Big Town. Country’s Night to Rock is a three-hour special.

So why the big deal there are over 70 million television viewers that can be divided up. The real story is that “The Real Big Country Superstars”, would have to choose which show to be on. I won’t mention any names but when you take into account that Miss Swift reels in 6 nominations for herself plus Fox’s 2011 Teen Choice Awards has named many other country stars that are up for multiple awards as well.

Shannon Stone a Brownwood, TX firefighter died July 7 after he fell from an upper railing at The Ballpark in Arlington while trying to catch a baseball for his six-year old son. In an effort to help the Stone’s family, the TDQOC felt they needed to do something to help.

“Like the rest of the country, we were extremely saddened by the accident that took Shannon Stone’s life and wanted to do what we could to help Mr. Stone’s family,” said TDQOC President Larry Newell. “Dairy Queen, like the game of baseball, is a family destination and both are part of virtually every community in Texas. When something like this happens, the family needs the help of their community more than ever. As a Brownwood firefighter, Mr. Stone spent 18 years selflessly serving his community and as part of that extended community, we want to give something back to his family.”

Source: TDOC Press Realease

The TDQOC will make the donation of $33,834 to the Shannon Stone Memorial fund set up by The Texas Rangers after Stone’s death last Thursday.

Grandpa Neal McCoy has some good news of his own to share as well. Neal has signed with Blaster Records and has announced, He and two new producers will go into the studio in mid August to start work on his 12th album. The producers names are being kept secret for the moment but will be released in early August. Look for the new album to be released in January 2012.

Great news, Neal McCoy is a Grandfather and a new album in the works. What’s next maybe Neal will be coming soon to a stage near you. I can only dream. Congratulations to the McCoys.
Photos courtesy of Webster & Associates Nashville TN.

Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images

The question was asked over the fourth of July weekend in what some say was a picture perfect opportunity to get engaged.

Hillary Scott tells People magazine “Our families were close by … We had just been on a hike and – in our workout clothes – he hit the knee. We feel so blessed by God that He sent us each other, and we are looking so forward to forever together.”

The two met while on tour with Tim McGraw early last year. Both were asked if a date has been set and mum is the word for now. We will keep you posted on any more developments. Stay tuned.