Doug Kerr
Well-known member
The Red Hat Society is an international social order for women at least age 50 (although there is a class of membership for those under that age). The objective of the organization is just for the members to have fun. It is a wonderful vehicle for fellowship for the members, many of whom are widowed and who in any case might not otherwise "get out much".
Carla had been active in the movement for a number of years, and had founded, and then headed a chapter in East Dallas when we lived there. In Weatherford, Texas (about 35 miles west of Fort Worth, where we lived next, she became very active in the existing chapter there.
When we moved to Alamogordo, New Mexico, she discovered that the movement had become moribund, with no actual chartered chapter still in existence. She founded one, which is today extremely active.
Some Red Hat chapters just got to lunch together once of twice a month, but not the New Mexico Roadrunner chapter. The members go to plays and museums, to flower farms and prehistoric hieroglyph sites, and even visited the nearby Brackish Wastewater Research Facility, a testbed where university research establishments and commercial enterprises can test out new systems for the desalinization of salt-bearing groundwater. ("Brackish" means "salty, but not so much as the ocean") The director said he had rarely hosted a group that asked so many insightful questions (much more so, he said, than his last visit from a group of US military researchers).
Along with her other extensive civic and charitable work, Carla has written one of the short plays to be represented by the local community theater in a "montage" of six plays to be presented at the end of this month, and is in fact assistant director for it (she is in effect in an apprenticeship for theatrical directing). She also has a major role in another of the plays. And she is president of the Theater Guild, which supports and guides the community theater (which is actually an operation of the Theater Department of the local community college, a satellite of New Mexico State University).
But back to the Red Hat Society. Last fall Carla unexpectedly found herself on the cover of the Society's slick magazine. And just this month, she learned that she had been honored as Queen of the Month (the chapter leaders are all designated Queens).
Tomorrow, 2015.08.10, is Carla's 77th birthday. In honor of this, the machine at the IHOP restaurant chain * sent her a coupon good for a free breakfast, which she enjoyed this morning.
So here we see Carla at table:
Douglas A. Kerr: Carla and the free strawberry crêpes
This was shot at ISO 400 with our Canon PowerShot G16. I took the liberty of using Portrait Professional 12 to do a little work on Carla's face, which, while still very young looking, does bear a few lines reflecting her immense experience. The edited image (4000 px × 3000 px) was downsized to 800 px wide by Image Magick, directed by Bart's marvelous script.
Now, off to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Casa de Sueños in Tularosa, about 15 miles north, for the second round of gastronomic celebration.
Best regards,
Doug
Carla had been active in the movement for a number of years, and had founded, and then headed a chapter in East Dallas when we lived there. In Weatherford, Texas (about 35 miles west of Fort Worth, where we lived next, she became very active in the existing chapter there.
When we moved to Alamogordo, New Mexico, she discovered that the movement had become moribund, with no actual chartered chapter still in existence. She founded one, which is today extremely active.
Some Red Hat chapters just got to lunch together once of twice a month, but not the New Mexico Roadrunner chapter. The members go to plays and museums, to flower farms and prehistoric hieroglyph sites, and even visited the nearby Brackish Wastewater Research Facility, a testbed where university research establishments and commercial enterprises can test out new systems for the desalinization of salt-bearing groundwater. ("Brackish" means "salty, but not so much as the ocean") The director said he had rarely hosted a group that asked so many insightful questions (much more so, he said, than his last visit from a group of US military researchers).
Along with her other extensive civic and charitable work, Carla has written one of the short plays to be represented by the local community theater in a "montage" of six plays to be presented at the end of this month, and is in fact assistant director for it (she is in effect in an apprenticeship for theatrical directing). She also has a major role in another of the plays. And she is president of the Theater Guild, which supports and guides the community theater (which is actually an operation of the Theater Department of the local community college, a satellite of New Mexico State University).
But back to the Red Hat Society. Last fall Carla unexpectedly found herself on the cover of the Society's slick magazine. And just this month, she learned that she had been honored as Queen of the Month (the chapter leaders are all designated Queens).
Tomorrow, 2015.08.10, is Carla's 77th birthday. In honor of this, the machine at the IHOP restaurant chain * sent her a coupon good for a free breakfast, which she enjoyed this morning.
* The company spent over 20 years pondering just exactly how the chain's "stores" (restaurants) should represent themselves. Some had signs just saying "IHOP", some with the chain's original full name, "International House of Pancakes", and some with the rather uncertain "International House of pancakes". Some stores had various of these in view. They finally decided that the store signage should all say just what, by that time, everyone called them anyway, "IHOP" (pronounced as an acronym). They seemed very proud that they had spent 20 years on this important matter.
So here we see Carla at table:
Douglas A. Kerr: Carla and the free strawberry crêpes
This was shot at ISO 400 with our Canon PowerShot G16. I took the liberty of using Portrait Professional 12 to do a little work on Carla's face, which, while still very young looking, does bear a few lines reflecting her immense experience. The edited image (4000 px × 3000 px) was downsized to 800 px wide by Image Magick, directed by Bart's marvelous script.
Now, off to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Casa de Sueños in Tularosa, about 15 miles north, for the second round of gastronomic celebration.
Best regards,
Doug
