The stroke effected the left side of my body. I overcame much of it by rewiring my brain through intense exercise, working on emotional issues, eating right and meditation. My stroke was caused by years of untreated hypertension so it is important that I keep that under control. I do not operate that part of my body any differently but it's not as strong as it once was.

The GH Bush library has just about everything you'd want to know about him and his immediate family. The library is always showing different historical exhibits that are of interest to most people. Big Ben is interesting because it has some of the highest points in Texas and if you love the desert you'll love Big Ben. The River Walk is a group of walkways that go along the San Antonio river in the city proper. It drops down from the street so that it's like a different world when you are down there. Cafes, restaurants, shops and hotels are found along these walkways. In the evenings it is a romantic place to take a date or loved one. The Alamo is a large part of Texas history and if your interested it should be on any tourist agenda. On a side note there is a church in our community that was built 4 years after the battle at the Alamo making it one of the oldest still active churches in the state. The Gulf Coast is of interest because of it's history of great hurricanes...one pretty recently. Corpus Christi is of interest because of the Aircraft Carrier, Lexington which is a floating museum dedicated to WWII and there is a rather nice Aquarium to visit...the beaches ain't half bad either. Dallas/Ft Worth is nice to visit because it's a beautiful city and if Jack Dallas is to your taste you can stop by and visit him. The stockyards in Ft Worth is a must see and a visit to the huge honky tonk, Billy Bobs. Austin is very rich in Texas history as is the State Capitol which is housed there.

You are talking about prefabricated homes. That has been done and has not been that popular here. We prefab most of our larger storage buildings and will prefab sections of the outside walls of those shell homes I mentioned before.

This is not so strange [for Texas] but it is not something we have built many of. We built a lady a two seater out house.

We live about a half mile off the county road back in the woods. When we first moved here it was mostly a thicket of Yaupons, Dogwood and Oak trees, we could hardly walk through it. We cleared a spot large enough to build the house and for a front yard leaving as many trees as possible. My husband built me a yard swing where I have a chiminea close by, a perfect place to meditate. I also have wind chimes hanging in many of my trees along with bird feeders which the squirrels raid on a continuous basis. I have an angel planter hanging on one tree and terra cotta half moon hanging from another. Most of the flowers I've planted are in a naturalized setting. I have passion flowers, four o'clocks, day lily, morning glory, cactus, bugle vines, cape jasmine, wondering jew, bougainvillea and purple shamrocks. I have a huge split level deck on the front of the house where I have different sized pots with various things growing in them. There is a garden spot on the left side of the house where I grow spring and winter vegetables. We have a walkway going back behind the house that leads into the woods to a large stock tank where we have a bat house hanging on a big tree. Also the stars are beautiful out here in the country. On moonless nights we'll sit on the deck with our cheap telescope and see what we can see. Some of the wildlife that has been seen on our land is bobcats, coons, armadillos, deer, squirrels and we've seen signs of panther, rattle snakes, puff adders, copperheads, coyote and some say wolves. I do not know about personality but this is my little bit of heaven.

If I had to live somewhere other than North America it would probably be New Zealand.

SG