For the week ending Dec.29, 2024 … Lytle P.D. officers managed 43 calls for service and conducted 59 traffic stops. Of those 59 stops, 32 were citations and 27 were warnings.
Officers made 6 arrests last week. #1 – Officers responded to a two-vehicle accident at the Taco Bell, the investigation resulted in the arrest of a 54-year-old male for D.W.I. He was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail. #2 – A 27-year-old male turned himself in at the police department. Capt. Dear had obtained 3 warrants for his arrest, each one for Sexual Assault of a Child. He was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail with bonds totaling $225,000. Capt. Dear and Sgt. D. Lopez worked tirelessly on this case. Our suspect, who was not from the immediate area, met our victim online. Due to the extremely sensitive nature of this case, we can only release limited information. Rest assured that we will use all our resources to keep our children safe. # 3 – A traffic stop on Main St. resulted in the arrest of a 32-year-old male, he had an active warrant out of Medina Co. for Possession of Marijuana. He was booked into the Medina Co. Jail. #4 & #5 – A traffic stop on Main St. resulted in the citation and release of an 18-year-old male and an 18-year-old female for possession of drug paraphernalia. #6 – A traffic stop on Main St. resulted in the officers determining that a domestic assault had just occurred on FM 2790. N. A 24-year-old female was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail on a charge of Assault Causing Bodily Injury (Family).
We only had two property crimes reported last week! #1- A resident in the 14800 Blk. of Star Cross Trail reported that his 2023, 16-foot, flat-bed trailer was taken from his residence on Christmas Eve. I originally hoped that Santa had an emergency and needed to borrow it for his big night, but I was wrong. Cameras showed a pick-up hook up to it, not a sleigh pulled by Reindeer. Capt. Dear went to work on the case and on Friday he was able to use information from a hidden GPS device to track the trailer to a residence in San Antonio and recover it. #2 – A resident on Live Oak St. reported that someone attempted to kick in the front door of his house. There was damage to the frame. Luckily, he had a deadbolt, and it was an older, well-built home. The unknown suspects were not able to gain entry.
Category: Commentary
Where did that come from?
Over the course of my Lifetime, the above question has been posed TO and ABOUT me in a wide variety of ways and settings. Sometimes it is during a “Brainstorming Session” while considering possible ideas and solutions to a question or problem. A setting where nothing is Too Crazy, or Ridiculous to pose.
These days it often comes from The Boss Lady, as she peers incredulously at me for some “Lame Brain” statement I have uttered. On more than a few times I have been asked about the thoughts conveyed in one of my writings. And to be transparent, I have asked myself the question ABOUT myself any number of times.
I am routinely tempted to respond that it may be “insight, inspiration, or indigestion” that sparked the thought. In truth, I am not sure a correct answer exists, at least in my own case.
It can be a word, song, movie, observation, or sometimes a random thought that “drops in and sort of runs away” with my thinking. Long ago I learned NOT to try and ignore the “input”. Sometimes it goes away on its own. Other times it needs to “marinate around” in that foggy place AKA, my brain for a spell. And a few times it demands a response right here and now.
After a little while of thinking about the concept, it really is NOT TOO strange. After all, it is a question with just a small bit of alternation, that pops up a variety of settings. Like at a social gathering, such as Work, Church or maybe a Bar, when an unknown, but strikingly attractive person surprisingly shows up. And here is an additional “safer example” like a deer blind, when a new animal appears. I cannot be the only one who has thought if not said out loud, where did that coyote/bobcat/new buck come from?
It seems to me that I may be thinking too hard on this potentially unsolvable question. Maybe there is no answer. But wait…I wonder where that idea came from?
The Christmas Truce
“All through the long night those big guns flashed and growled just like the lightning and thunder when it storms in the mountains at home. And, oh my, we had to pass the wounded. And some of them were on stretchers going back to the dressing stations. And some of them were lying around, moaning and twitching. And the dead were all along the road. And it was wet and cold. And it all made me think of the Bible and the story of the Antichrist and Armageddon.”Sergeant Alvin C. York –
Company G, 328th Infantry, 82nd Division, U.S. Army, on fighting in the Argonne Forest, France, in WW I.
War is hell. Ask anyone who has survived it. They will tell you this, if they can speak about it at all. The Great War, now we call it World War I, was one of the deadliest conflicts in human history. Between July of 1914 and November of 1918 more than 16 million lives were lost.
This was our first “modern” war, where we used machine guns, mechanized tanks, improved artillery, even airplanes and poison gas. Much of the fighting involved trench warfare, with troops dug in and living in muddy, disease-ridden ditches carved from the ground. Between opposing trenches was a ”No Man’s Land” – littered with barbed wire, dead soldiers, and the refuse of war. In the midst of this hell on Earth, one cold December night, something astonishing happened. This is the stuff of legend.
On Christmas Eve, 1914, in the area of Flanders, Belgium, along the Western Front, an unlikely miracle took place. Hunkered down in their trenches, British and French troops faced German soldiers on the other side. All was quiet, until one soldier started to sing.
Merry Christmas!
Good morning! Merry Christmas, I just looked at a calendar and realized that this will be my last column for the year 2024. The year has gone by so quickly and so many things have happened, good as well as bad. We’ve lost friends and family, and added to our families as well. By the time many of you get this edition of the paper, almost everything except the memories will be over for most families.
The week before Christmas was chaotic to say the least, however, I got almost everything done that I hoped to. My daughter and her husband came here and picket me up and we headed out to Devine. I was looking forward to having a fun time with family, extended family and friends, and I hope every one of my readers had a wonderful Christmas.
Recently when I attended a Market Days show in a nearby town, one of the vendors was selling hand-made glass spider Christmas ornaments, and a book that I had seen and read quite some time ago. The spiders were made of glass beads, and if you bought the book, you got a spider free. They were truly beautiful. The book is called “The Legend of the Christmas Spider, and it is a Eastern European folk story. One of the versions that is available on Amazon says that it is the story of the origin of the tinsel that we now sometimes use on our trees today. When my daughter came in before Thanksgiving, she put my tree up for me. We used mostly antique ornaments, and for the first time in many, years my tree has the old-timey tinsel icicles as well as four antique (very early 1900s) candle holders with candles!
LOOKING FOR A FIGHT
As I write this Tale the calendar says it is mid-December which means in our little neck of the woods in La Brasada, the whitetail breeding season is heating up. No matter the weather conditions, that pattern seems to be very consistent. I reckon Mother Nature has “seen it all” in terms of rain and temperature over the years and the rutting pattern has been consistent, at least for the 6+ decades I have tried to pay attention to it.
Taking advantage of the wind, I sat in a spot at our Family Place where the animals could easily hear my grunt call. I did not use any horns on this setting for the simple reason of NOT picking them up from the bed of my truck. Senility Reigns Once Again In My World!
After making a few “noises” I set back and waited to see what might happen. After a spell out came a 2.5-year-old that was sure enough walking stiff legged and looking to see what all the commotion was about. While a decent up and comer, this young fellow was in NO Danger from me or my trusty firearm. He passed within 25 yards of me, fully focused on finding the action associated with such a sound that I had made.
I doubt that youngster would understand that the animal I was seeking was at least twice his age and size from an antler development perspective. My guess is that he was hoping to “steal” a receptive Lady away from another male, or at least try and get into the chasing around that accompanies deer behavior during this time of year.
Silent Night, Hold on Tight
“The Herdmans moved from grade to grade through the Woodrow Wilson School like those South American fish that strip your bones clean in three minutes flat…which was just about what they did to one teacher after another.” book quoteThe Best Christmas Pageant Ever
I like Christmas movies (and books). There are few holiday traditions more enjoyable (after ingesting gluttonous portions of turkey, or ham, with all the trimmings, including fudge), than plopping the family down on the couch (surrounded by dogs) and watching a good Christmas movie. I’ve written about Christmas movies before. Older movies are the best. Family favorites include the following: White Christmas (1954 – starring Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, & Vera Ellen – this is the classic Christmas movie), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946 – starring Jimmy Stewart & Donna Reed – Frank Capra’s gem - one of the greatest films of all time), A Christmas Story (2012 – with Peter Billingsly as nine-year-old BB gun loving Ralphie), Home Alone (1990 – with Macauly Culkin defending his suburban home from nincompoop burglars), Elf (2003 – featuring hilarious Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf), Die Hard (1988 – a wonderful Bruce Willis feel-good movie), and Christmas Vacation (1989 – with Chevy Chase leading the side-splitting fun). All of these movies I would include on my must-see holiday playlist.
This week I have a new movie to add to our list – The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. This film is the latest project from Dallas Jenkins, creator of The Chosen TV series. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is based on the brilliantly written book of the same name by Barbara Robinson. I think this movie is destined to become a classic. Another movie was made in 1983 (same title), but this one (the 2024 version) is much better. It is playing in theaters now – go see it!
The Greatest Christmas Pageant Ever tells the gut-busting story of the Herdmans (“the worst kids in the history of the world”) and their involvement in their town’s annual celebrated Christmas pageant.
The story is told through the narration of young Beth Bradley. Beth’s mother Grace is drafted to direct the pageant after an unfortunate debilitating accident lands the busybody current director in the hospital with two broken legs. Grace has big shoes to fill, which is even more trying because this year’s performance marks the much-anticipated pageant’s 75th anniversary. Matters soon become complicated by the arrival of the dreaded Herdmans.
The Herdmans are feral children who are used to terrorizing the town. With absent parents, they roam the streets and schoolyard menacing all they meet. They lie and steal and talk dirty and hit little kids and start fires. They are just so awful Beth says that “you could hardly believe they were real – six skinny, stringy-haired kids all alike except for being different sizes and having different black-and-blue places where they had clonked each other.”
After a careless reference by Beth’s younger brother Charlie about all of the delicious treats available at the church for free, the Herdmans drop in one Sunday to graze, searching for snacks. Coincidentally, their arrival corresponds with tryouts for the annual Christmas pageant. Imogene Herdman, the cigar-smoking oldest sister of the family, decides that she wants to play the part of Jesus’ mother Mary, and the pageant slides downhill from there. “I’ve got the baby here,” Imogene barks at the Wise Men. “Don’t touch him! I named him Jesus.”
With meddling neighborhood moms stoking revolt behind the scenes, and the cantankerous Herdmans front and center, the story rolls on with hilarity.
The movie does a very good job of illuminating the true message of Christmas without being too “churchy.” The Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world. And that’s the whole point. As Grace tells Beth, “Jesus was born for the Herdmans as much as He was for us.”
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a solidly entertaining movie that deserves a place in the holiday movie classics hall of fame. I recommend you drag your family out of the house and go see it. Merry Christmas! © 2024 Jody Dyer
typewriterweekly.com
Bake sale time!
My week was fairly busy as we’ve been doing workshop more regularly, because we give tray favors once each week in December, rather than once a month. The patients seem to like them. This year, we made one that could be used as an ornament, and the next one can also be used the same way. Saturday my sister and I did some Christmas shopping (mostly me), and she picked up stuff she needed for a Christmas meal at her home. This year, I only addressed about 20 Christmas cards as compared with the 50 or more I usually send, the price of postage has become ridiculous!
Our Auxiliary is counting down the days until our annual bake sale. I’ve made a cake and two different types of seasoned crackers and have started a batch of the Rolos® with the pretzel under them. One more cake and I will be done, we have such a shortage of members that most of us have doubled up a bit and are making more. Tuesday, we will have a workday and put together some jar gifts, as well as Christmas mugs with hot chocolate in them. We’re working on the theory that more hands make light work and will be doing an assembly line. We will also pack the seasoned crackers the same way using the zip lock snack bags.
Here is a little bit of Christmas trivia for you. It appeared several years ago during Christmas week in the Victoria Advocate. They state that it is from Old Icelandic tales that give the following as the names of Santa’s elves: Askasleikir, Bjugnakraekir, Faldafeykir, Stekkjarstaur, Gattathefur, Giljagaur, Gluggagaegir, Ketkrokur, Og Kertasnikir, Pottasleikir, Skyrjarmur, Stufur and last but not least Thvorusleikir! (This is the source that was listed at the end of the article: Source, didyouknow.cd).
Since I haven’t given y’all any cookie recipes this year, here are a few that are tried and true and have been printed before. The following recipe for mini-muffins is from a friend of mine. She made them recently for the bake sale at her church and said they sold quickly.
Hayride and Downtown Activities a Success
Lytle P.D. responded to or handled 52 calls for service and conducted 60 traffic stops. Of those 60 stops, 28 were citations and 32 were warnings.
We didn’t have any property crimes reported last week! Let’s keep that streak going.
There were four (4) arrests last week. #1- While officers were attending training at the Horace Fincher Annex (Priest Blvd.), an 18-year-old male stopped and said he was lost. He provided the officers with a paper with his DL on it when they ran it, he came back with an active warrant out of Comal Co. for tampering with evidence. He was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail. #2 – A traffic stop on N. Benton and Laredo St. resulted in a 19-year-old female being cited for possession of drug paraphernalia. #3 – Ofc. Initiated a traffic stop for speeding on Main St. (88 in a 55!). A short pursuit ensued, and the driver of the motorcycle was arrested for evading arrest or detention in a motor vehicle and unlawfully carrying a weapon. The 26-year-old male was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail. #4 – A disturbance at the Stripes C-Store resulted in the arrest of a 31-year-old male for public intoxication. He was booked into the Atascosa Co. Jail.
As the fireworks season approaches … remember fireworks are prohibited in Lytle by city ordinance. It is dry and fireworks pose a significant fire risk. Our officers will be out and about, and we will take enforcement action if needed. The other side is that I am not naive enough to think that a few officers on patrol will eliminate the “popping” of fireworks. It is all about safety, I will leave it at that.
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Things & Stuff
Gonna be here in a week! Christmas is finally here and instead of concentrating and focusing on givin and gettin, remember why we celebrate the greatest gift ever given to mankind.
See where the Senate is set to vote on the SS Bill this week so, if you aint contacted Sen. Cruz or Sen. Cornyn, time to do so. So far, according to the ever so accurate internet, there are 62 Bipartisan supporters in favor of sending this to a final vote that only requires 60. Believe it or don’t, even Chuck Schumer is in favor of it. Don’t use this as a reason not to call the Senators and show support of this Legislation. (202-224-3121)
Took my child bride to Charlie’s Daughter for breakfast Saturday mornin and sat next to the Big Table. If you ever get a chance to sit down and listen to the likes of Bo and Cullen and Stroud and Charlie and Weisinger and Aubrey, don’t take none of it as anywhere near factual or truthful. You will hear a lot of useless information and mind numbing chatter. You may even leave the restaurant a little dumber than you were when you came in. I sit at one of these on Wednesday and Friday mornings and I usually recover before I get home.
Won’t go into the particulars of our ESD 4 meeting last Wednesday cause I am sure that the paper will cover it in depth. Gonna meet with ESD 1 (Castroville) on Thursday and get the lowdown on how to pass a Homestead Exemption for everyone in ESD 4 as well as an additional Exemption for those 65 and over. Heard that ESD 2 (Devine Fire) is also looking at this type of taxpayer relief.
When you see Martha Wall and Co., congratulate them on a very well presented and organized Wreaths Across America event this past Saturday.
Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy family while we are still together. Won’t be writing until next year so, have a safe and Happy New Year too.
“Coffee, the finest organic suspension ever devised.”Captain Janeway – Star Trek
“Coffee, the finest organic suspension ever devised.”Captain Janeway – Star Trek
Coffee is the world’s favorite hot beverage. Approximately two billion cups are consumed daily around the globe. Here in the U.S., nearly three in four Americans enjoy coffee every day. Most of us appreciate consistency in our coffee. We find what we like, and we stick to it. But occasionally, especially at this time of year, it can be fun to change things up a bit. Consider spicing up your coffee. This Christmas, try making some howling holiday treats!
The first rule for making Christmas coffee is to add what you like to your cup. This may require some experimentation. Common coffee additives include cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, vanilla, honey, and of course your creamer of choice. Note – I am not recommending the addition of commercial bottled creamers that you find in your supermarket. These are full of seed oils and chemicals and are not good for you. Coffee is good for you. Don’t mess it up with poison creamers.
Here are a few holiday worthy recipes you might consider:Everyday Christmas Coffee
The first is my simple and quick everyday Christmas coffee recipe. When in the mood for something different, I drink this year-round. Start with good quality freshly roasted specialty coffee, if possible. Brew your coffee (I prefer using a French press, 66 grams of coffee per liter of water, steeping time exactly four minutes). After coffee is brewed, I fill my 16 oz. travel mug ¾ full and add ¼ teaspoon cinnamon, a dash of nutmeg, one scoop of collagen powder (optional, but gives coffee extra creamy texture), and two tablespoons honey. Mix well. I like to use a small handheld frother. This gives your coffee a nice mild foamy texture. Then add creamer to taste. I prefer heavy cream and like to stir in creamer instead of frothing it for this recipe. Frothing creamer makes coffee too bubbly for my taste. Add a dollop of whipped cream and sprinkles if you are in a party mood. This recipe can be adjusted as you like.
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