The 2021 Virtual Ocelot Festival will be held this weekend, Friday, March 5, through Sunday, March 7. The event will feature an auction, a series of speakers, a month-long virtual run event and more. The festival is brought to you by Viva the Ocelot, Friends of Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge.
Texas homeowners and renters in the 77 counties designated for individual assistance who sustained damage may now apply for disaster assistance with FEMA.
If you have insurance and are applying for disaster assistance, you must also file a claim with your insurance company as soon as possible. By law, FEMA cannot duplicate benefits for losses covered by insurance. If insurance does not cover all your damage, you may be eligible for federal assistance.
“No, no he didn’t slam you, he didn’t bump you, he didn’t nudge you… he rubbed you. And rubbin’ son is racin’.” -- Robert Duvall as Harry Hoggie in the hit movie “Days of Thunder.”
Cars blazed down the front-stretch, at one point hitting three and four wide on the cement track similar to the NASCAR venue in Dover, Delaware. The biggest difference here, however, was that sometimes when the cars were three and four wide, they weren’t all going in the same direction.
We survived! We survived that record breaking freeze. It was no fun, but sometimes difficulties - and we had plenty of those - will bring out the best in all of us. Wonderful stories were circulating of neighbors helping neighbors, sharing their homes, taking over hot meals, crawling under houses to fix broken pipes, making room by pulling out air mattresses and extra blankets. One family had seven grandchildren for a three-night slumber party. Must have been a little challenging for the grandparents but just imagine what a good time those children had. It will be an experience they will remember forever. Best of all, the experience will influence them to share their love and their blessings when some emergency occurs later in their own lives.
I seem to always say how busy things are, but last week was a busy one. As we were recouping from the cold weather and enjoying the warmth that the new week brought, there were also places to go to. We had the Valley Star Awards, a boat expo, a car show, and an R/C open house.
I am happy to say that we got them all covered by someone. It doesn’t happen that way very often though.
This week does not seem too busy, but some events are the Independence Day parade in Alamo, the Alamo Museum rummage sale, and the Ocelot Festival. There is also something in Edinburg, at Quinta Mazatlan, and McAllen’s Arbor Day celebration.
The Valley Star Awards Show was a hit last week, even after being rescheduled due to the weather on the original date it was scheduled. Originally scheduled for the 17th, the event was held Wednesday, February 24th at Mission Bell Resort in Mission. It was a treat for all of those that attended – and the treat was not just the performers.
Dean Brown’s favorite golf hole in the Rio Grande Valley is No. 5 at Stuart Place Country Club in Harlingen.
Rightly so, because earlier this week the Hannah, North Dakota native registered the second hole-in-one of his 40-year golfing career on the 165-yard par-3 hole. Facing a 40 mile per hour side wind, Brown said he used his diver to knock in the gem. His other ace came in 2012 on the same course on hole No. 7.
Read more: Mid-Valley is a perfect place to try a new golf course
In January, we typically look back over the previous 12 months and contemplate what we intend to do differently in the upcoming year. Curiously, these resolutions are often the same ones we made and abandoned the year before. With 2020 behind us—and none too soon, you will probably agree—you will take a different approach this year.
Rather than adding to your already jam-packed to-do list, look for what you have been doing that is not serving you well. Then quit doing it.
“Many people found that 2020 stripped away their illusions and showed them the parts of their lives that aren’t working,” says Steve Cook, author of Lifeonaire: An Uncommon Approach to Wealth, Success, and Prosperity. “Wherever you’re suffering—finances, lifestyle, relationships, spirituality—if you dig down to the root you might find the problem is you’ve bought into a cultural narrative that tells you to hustle, grind, stay busy, and keep pursuing more.”
Pharr native Romeo Rosales Jr. will present a Sunday Speaker Series Online presentation, “Pharr: A Concise History,” at 2 p.m. on February 28 on the Museum of South Texas History’s Facebook page.
Pioneers come in many forms—sometimes as entire communities with a unique founding story. The All-America City of Pharr, which was incorporated in 1916, is a central community at the heart of the historic Rio Grande Valley. Sugarcane grower Henry Newton Pharr, who was also an engineer and manufacturer, along with his partner John C. Kelly, founded the city of Pharr for their interest in establishing a sugarcane empire.
Rosales Jr., the author of “Images of America: Pharr,” will share Pharr’s foundation and incorporation, stories on the National Guardsmen in the 1910s, agriculture history, and law and order. Copies of Rosales’ 2014 publication of “Images of America: Pharr” are available for purchase in the Museum Store.
Submitted by Rev. Dr, Jerry Butcher, Mission
Both in our mid 80’s, my wife, Betty, and I had an ‘appointment’ between 3 and 5 p.m. at the RH COVID Vaccination Clinic in Edinburg. It was a disorganized disaster. They funneled second shot people, cancelled out the day before, on to our day and opened the vaccines to a first come, first serve invitation. This left many elderly people, like us, thinking we had a time slot, waiting in freezing temperatures.
