Day Three Hundred Fifty Nine...

MERRY CHRISTMAS! It was a glorious day in central Texas, even though we got off to a cold start. It was in the mid-20's when we got up this morning, and when I went out to make sure the cattle had water, I had to break up the ice in the troughs. The ice was probably a half-inch thick, and it would have melted in a couple hours, but I wanted to do it anyway. As always, they were very curious, and Mr. Speckles would not really leave me alone, he wanted to be petted (and fed) and he stood right by the gate the whole time I was going back and forth in the front pasture. There was ice in some of the water bowls we have around for the birds and bunnies, but one of them outside the badroom window had obviously been in the sun a little longer than the others, and there was quite a display of wild life at that water bowl.

Later on in the day, they all decided to play statues in the other pasture. Not sure if I was going to feed them or not, and if not, they really did not want to make the effort on coming all the way up to the feed troughs...maybe they should just hang out by the hay bale and see what I was likely to do. As it turned out, they were better off just staying where they were.

After all that, I came in the house and undid the dressings on my knee, and let it get a little bit de-wrinkled and get some fresh air. I am supposed to wear these weird hose (they are called Ted Hose) until I go to the doctor on Monday afternoon, AND I am supposed to keep the gauze and ace bandage on it until then as well. I can tell you that, for the few hours I was without all the dressing and the ace bandage, I was much more maneuverable, and my knee felt much better.

During that time, I cleaned myself up (little bits at a time, wink-wink) and got ready to go into Austin for Lupper with our friends Michael and Lynda. Their son Josh was also there, along with his friend Karin (who is now living in Los Angeles). Also in attendance was a friend of Michale and Lynda's (and an old biking friend of mine) Robert. Lupper was really delicious, a crown roast of pork with all the trimmings. We even got to bring some of the bones back to the Bear Dog. He has already been given one of them, and we think he basically inhaled it.

Michael and Lynda live off Cuernavaca in West Austin, and we take a short cut to their house through Seven Oaks (very fancy). When you turn off Bee Cave Road onto Marly (it may be Marly Way) you go down Marly for a while and then on the left is a house with two wind turbines. Interesting! When we were going in, the gates to that area were open, so I had intended to go up and look at them when we left, but the gates were closed then (not only were they closed, there was also a chain across the road with a substantial pad lock on it). Very fancy! AND, then as we were coming home down I-35, pretty close to Georgetown, we were passing a piece of new construction (it has been under construction for a WHILE!), and there has been a single wind turbine installed there...since Tuesday! It was not there on Tuesday, but it is now! I think it is very interesting for all these turbines to be popping up all over, and I am very excited to see what kind of commercial enterprise it is on I-35 that has installed the single turbine. I will let you know as soon as I figure it out!

Once we got home, I changed clothes and went out to turn the water off at the troughs. We are supposed to have another freeze tonight, and I would rather be safe than sorry. No sense taking any chances. I do not think it will be a cold tomorrow morning as it was this morning, but it is not a big effort to turn off the water. AND, as long as I was out there, I had a chance to take this photo of the sunset. There were lots of interesting cloud formations occurring on the drive home, and I was glad there were some still showing once we got home.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, Kindness, Whirled Peas, FUN!