Tigre' Rosales here.  Thought an update was in due order, so here goes nothing ...

I am loving my new place.  Been here since the beginning of the year and it feels so good sleeping in a bed out of the elements and being able to buy my own food/necessities instead of bumming from people or hoping for a handout!  It's not the greatest of homes, mind you, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, as they say!

I am currently going to school to become an auto mechanic, just like my papa.  Like father, like son: carryin' on the family name, the family tradition!  :)  Have always been real good with my hands, so I wanted to do something useful, y'know??

Some of the people that I met on the streets are living in my 'hood, so I see them just about every day.  Medusa Jones, for one.  And Annie Mae Pelham, for another (when I first saw her a few months back since leaving the streets, I hardly even recognized her.  She got her teeth all fixed up and she looks like a businesswoman.  She is working and enjoying life).  There are others, but Medusa and Annie Mae have been two of my closest friends, even on the streets.  We met and we became family.

I have some more big news: I heard from my sister, Rosalia.  She wants to get back into my life; she feels bad for abandoning me when I got on the streets.  She wants to make it up to me somehow.  Well, bully for her!  She and I have really never been close, but I'm willing to give her a chance if she can do the same for me.  Let bygones be bygones, y'know?

I'm still boxing on the weekends.  Gotta keep physically/mentally sharp at all times, especially since I heard on the news that because of the ongoing drought here in Texas, there is due to be an infestation of snakes, even the bad ones.  People are telling us to be careful and to make sure that we don't go walking through tall weeds or grass or to wear socks and enclosed shoes.  Great!  Just what I did NOT want to hear: if there's one thing I've always hated, it's SNAKES!!

Not that I plan on wrasslin'/fightin' any snakes, mind you, but I'm gonna make sure that I have a wide berth between me and the stupid serpentine critters!!  Snakes give me the heebie-jeebies!

Snakes.  +Shudder, shudder!+

We haven't had a decent rain in nearly a month.  Last time it rained, we got between two-three inches; it rained for eight hours.  That was wonderful!!  Yet we need a heck of a lot more to bust this ongoing drought.  Too bad Hurricane Irene (or whatever the wench's name is) can't come here instead of roaring up the eastern seaboard!!  

And then get this: yesterday there was an EARTHQUAKE of all things in Virginia; people felt it in New York City and other places.  The shaker was a 5.9, I think?  In any event, this whole world's gone nuts!  

I think God's picked off about things, so He's making bad weather and other things to wake people up.  Don't blame him; people (not to mention this whole world) have gone completely off the deep end!

Well, I gotta get ready to go to my classes for today; then I will probably take a nap and once I wake up, I'll hit the books and get to studying.  There's a lot more to being a mechanic than just fixin' cars ... I will write in here again soon; until later, this is Tigre' Rosales signing off!  Take care and God bless!

~Tigre'.  :)

~To be continued.~