By Shannon Williams
“If Plan A fails, remember you still have 25 letters left”
I love to make plans, it is almost a disease, as I just have to have a plan for just about everything, and I have to admit that I like to plan. I view myself as being flexible to change those plans, as there are just way too many things that can get in the way of a good plan. The past several

By Shannon Williams
I had a run of fun things I had planned get cancelled in the past few months, so I was going to write about how disappointing it had all been. I went on my phone to get some pictures of the tickets for one of the events and found some really fun pictures of some fun times I had in the past two months, so I decided I would write

By Shannon Williams
Grief is defined as, “our emotional reaction to loss”. It has been studied, written about and talked about since it became part of the English Language some 800+ years ago, and the Latin roots of the word goes back much further. It is where I have been for the past couple of months. In March, we said goodbye to our 95-year-old mother

By Shannon Williams
I recall when I would use the term “Sandwich Generation” meaning that you have parents and children and try to juggle them and their needs. I guess I am now a triple decker sandwich, as I am very blessed to have a living parent, grown children and grandchildren. When friends call, we go through all three, “how’s your mom, how is

By Shannon Williams
I have always tried to be good at change, as it is really just part of life, but some are just harder than others and as I age, everything changes faster and it usually requires that I learn a new skill to keep up. These days, I feel as if I just plain struggle with the amount of changes and all the new skills I have to learn.

By Shannon Williams
Well, I am a few weeks behind on telling you about the fun I have had, sorry about that, but I had a really fun day in Crystal Beach for the first weekend in February. It seems like I had been out of town or had to go to town for the past several weekends and I just did not have the desire to drive anywhere that day, but I wanted to

By Shannon Williams
January has always been one of my favorite times of year to travel, and my favorite place to go in January is the Caribbean. I have been going there in January since 1987, which is also when I took my first cruise. As far back as I can recall, I have wanted the gift of travel for my birthday. In high school, I had friends who lived in

By Shannon Williams
One of the best parts of the Christmas season is the memories. They come from all the sites, sounds and smells that only come around this time of year. I like the process that we go though of “pulling” all of our Christmas out each year and then when it is finished packing it away. Well, I don’t so much like the act of doing all of that

By Shannon Williams
“Art is everywhere and everywhere is Art- Brandon Boyd
For the past two weekends, I have joined with friends to take one of those classes where you go and they provide all the supplies and lead you though an art (crafts, really) project. I love these events for many reasons. I get to spend time with like minded people, we have

By Shannon Williams
There are some days that it is hard not to be very despondent in today’s world. To me, being despondent is feelings of doom and gloom. I have always been a news watcher, but it is just getting to harder to watch the news. With all that is happening in the Middle East and Ukraine, you can try to remove yourself from it, as it is so far

By Shannon Williams
As I was trying to decide what to write about this week, I had a bunch of little items that are not related at all, but I wanted to share and I think you might be tired of stories about what I did, LOL, but there will be a little bit of that, but mostly just random things I wanted to share! I learned about 30% vinegar recently. I never knew it existed

By Shannon Williams
Sorry that I have not written anything in the past several weeks… Life got busy and some things had to go. I keep a list next to my computer so that when I get a thought for something I could write about, I jot it down. Several things wrong with that, I have to be able to read my own writing which is getting harder and harder

By Shannon Williams
I am not sure how it all started, but I have had a thing for fruit stands, farmers markets and guys selling produce out of the back of their truck on the side of the road! I have always just loved buying fruits and veggies in places other than the grocery store. I needed some time for me this past weekend, so off I went to

By Shannon Williams
The song, “Where have all the flowers gone” is a song about the futility of war and the cycle of life and death. These days I can so relate, as gardening is becoming an exercise in futility! I have always had a garden of some sort, ever since I was a child. My mom would always give me a little spot and I would try my best to grow what I could

By Shannon Williams
When one lives in a community that is a tourist destination, you often just stay at home when the tourists come or there are large crowds, and wait until the season is over to “enjoy” your community again. Well, in the past month, I have taken part in many things on the peninsula and discovered some new things and rediscovered some

By Shannon Williams

By Shannon Williams
Well, I was all ready last week to write about the Crab fest and had my thoughts in my head and my pictures ready, but that was not to be the case. Around midafternoon on Tuesday, our power went out, which is something we are used to and we have a full house generator, so it starts up and we are good to go, well not this time. It appears, we

By Shannon Williams
This weekend, I attended the production of Fiddler on the Roof at the Galveston Grand Opera House. As always, the Grand puts on a great show. I have seen this musical several times, from High school theater productions to regional theater and this was a touring company and a good one at that. I am sure that I have seen the movie

By Shannon Williams
I always wanted to embrace the ways of the generations that followed me and have really tried to do that many times. Some of them I don’t really understand and felt like the way it has been done for years was just fine and there was no need for change. As we all know, change is the only thing that is for certain in our

By Shannon Williams
“Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of Community”
I have been part of the community here on the Peninsula for 10 years, and I am still amazed at this small tough little community. I got to see it the other day though the eyes of someone who had never been here

By Shannon Williams
Age and aging are things that seem to get a lot of thought from me these days. Life really goes on regardless of what you would like to happen. My mother is 94 years old and is deep in the depths of dementia or Alzheimer diseases, it is not really important what it is called. One of my dear friends calls it “dropping petals” which I love

By Shannon Williams
If it seems that I have been doing lots of fun things in the past several months, well I have had some fun… you see I took a leave from work, trying to plan what I wanted to do next, and when I returned, I went to a new job in a new department. This all took place in October and the new job does not require the travel as the old one

By Shannon Williams
As I have written several times in this column, I love Lobster Bisque! Part of the fun of traveling, is to seek out Lobster Bisque in all kinds of places. Since I usually travel to a beach of some type, there is usually plenty to be found. On my birthday trip, we started out with having some in West Palm Beach, it was good, and then I had some

By Shannon Williams
Birthdays are great fun when we are young, we look forward to a party and being the center of attention and of course the presents, but as we age, they sometimes are just another day or another passing of a year. That was not the case this year for me, as we traveled to Palm Beach Florida for a few days before we got on a cruise ship out of

By Shannon Williams
I know I have written about customer service or the lack of before…. But I have had a day with every type of customer service there is, the good the bad and the ugly! I am aware that everyone is trying to cut cost to keep up with the ever-increasing cost in everything, but how did we just stop caring if the customer was happy or not even

By Shannon Williams
Last week for a sad one for me… it was the 10-year anniversary of my father’s death and we lost one of my fathers’ favorite persons, Mike Leach. If you have read my writings much you know that I am from West Texas, and West Texas and football are just like good BBQ and a cold beer, they are just part of each other and

By Shannon Williams
“The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it and join the dance.” Alan Watts
There have been many changes in my life in the past several months, most of them were my doing, but with each change, comes more changes. I took all of the summer off from my job, I needed a break and I had put off some