Day Fifty Five...

THE TWENTY FOURTH OF TWENTY EIGHT THINGS I SEE BETWEEN MY HOUSE AND THE HIGHWAY...in no particular order...

As you may recall, I once wrote that living in Texas is like being a member of an exclusive club. A very large club maybe, but it is still kind of exclusive. I moved here in 1985, and I can still remember that I immediately felt a pride and ownership in the citizenry. And not all of the citizenry were necessarily citizens, bu this is not a forum for (necessarily) political discussions. I have already talked about flags, and how I can imagine school kids with crayons and paper drawing the Texas Flag and taking their work of art home for the refrigerator door. But you know what, I love living in Texas, and I love the fact that I love considering myself a Texan. I do not know too many other places that can boast all the good things (and, okay some bad stuff too, but remember this is not a political journal) that Texas can. Our only real problem is Alaska (even if you can see Russia from there). But anyway...I love this barn with the flag painted on the metal roof. I always wanted to flag painted on the roof of the house at the original farm in Red Rock, but I never seemed to be able to find anyone that was willing to take on the task. I personally am not that great on roofs, but I might have given it a shot if I had more time. As it turns out, it is probably a good idea that I did not have that done, since I will now try to sell the property at some point soon.

Here is an interesting juxtaposition for you to consider. Today is Mardi Gras Day Fat Tuesday) AND it is National Spay and Neuter Your Pet Day. I wonder if someone did that intentionally? I wonder if all the drunken debauchery going on in celebration pre-lent has caused someone to conclude that this would also be a good time for castration...it's not just for cattle anymore! Anyway, I thought that was an interesting coincidence. Speaking on spaying and neutering, Jody was threatening to take the black cat to the vet today for a check-up and to be spayed. We are still assuming the cat is a female, and most likely to be an official 'it' cat. She is a truly sweet cat, and we are glad she is happy with us, even if the QUEEN CAT is not really that thrilled with the turn of events.

Okay, the condo funded, so we are officially less one mortgage in the Evans-Rudd household. We are delighted that, given the economy, we could reduce that from the balance sheets. We seem to never sell than buy, we always buy and then sell. You can always find something to buy, you just have to sell afterwards. I do indeed believe that this will be the last move for quite some time. We are both delighted with the new house and the property, and since we have been there, we already have added a dog and a cat to the mix. We are not wasting any time. Oh yeah, we did add a cow and a calf right after we moves, so we are increasing the size of the household quickly.

So, I am about to get out and drive home. I have to make one stop on the way to close up a property that was inspected this afternoon, and that will be just a short detour. I will report in later this evening.

The trip home was rather uneventful until I got off the Interstate and then onto FM 1105. LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT MY GOOD DEED FOR THE DAY. Just past the Catholic Church, and pretty much in the middle-of-nowhere (remember we live further than that, we live on the edge-of-nowhere), there was this cute little dog (see photo at left of cute little gray dog) walking in the middle of the road. I slowed down enough to figure out that he had on a collar and a tag and must belong to someone in the area. I pulled over and he was looking at me, but still in the middle of the road. He came to me when I called him, and he was a well-behaved well-groomed (and the grooming looked recent) little dog, and no trouble at all, but to my dismay, there was no tag on the collar, what I thought had been a tag turned out to be just a big silver metal buckle. I stopped at about 10-15 houses to see if he belonged to the occupants, and no one claimed him. I did my best to get the Catholic Priest to keep him and adopt him out to one of the parishioners, but he would have no part of that. Finally, I found a couple folks with a heart softer than mine that took him and said they would post some signs to see if they could find the owner. I was beginning to freak out, thinking I was taking another stray animal home. We do not need more animals right now! So, I saved a little pooch from a terrible fate (I am convinced of that), and so I feel pretty good about that. What I do not feel good about is, I am afraid with the economy the way it is, people are just driving their pets out into the country and abandoning them. I cannot imagine what goes on in little dog and cat brains when they are betrayed by the people they have always trusted. Just take them to a shelter for crying out loud.

I will now step down from my soap-box. One moment, please.

Okay, so Jody did take the black cat to the vet, and she is indeed a girl, soon to be an it. We will call the vet back tomorrow at 3 PM to see if she can come home.

So now...go rescue something and do your good deed for the day. You (and they, or it) will be happy you did. And if you cannot rescue somebody or something, just write a check to your local animal shelter, or to your local meals-on-wheels office, or to the charity of your choice. These are tough times we are living through, and every little bit will help. Do it right now, and go ahead and address the envelope, and put a stamp on it while you are at it.