2010 - Day Two Hundred Fifty...

Okay, I am not going to do it...I WILL NOT COMPLAIN ABOUT THE RAIN. Go ahead, give it your best shot. There is no way I will complain about this wonderful precipitation that is falling from the sky. WE NEED THE RAIN! I will, however, relate several interesting (okay not so interesting maybe) stories about the unexpected consequences many of my fellow Austinites and I have suffered because WE CAN'T DRIVE IN THE RAIN!

Okay, first, there was my commute into Austin this morning. TWO HOURS! Two hours to traverse an otherwise 45 to 60 minute commute. The good part was, there was really very little stopping...just lots of slowness. SLOW, SLOW, SLOW. But it did give me an opportunity to take another of my famous wet-windshield photos. I love these things, it really makes me feel creative and artistic. Or just monotonous, you be the judge...

Okay, here is one you don't see or hear about that often. The basic quote I heard much of the morning was 'there is a house in the middle of MoPac'. For those of you who are not 'from here' MoPac stands for Missouri-Pacific, because the railroad track runs down the middle of this road, otherwise known as Loop 1 (not to be confused with Loop 360, which is further west by about 4 or 5 miles. ANYWAY, I could not really grasp what folks were trying to tell me about a 'house in the middle of MoPac' but it seems there was a 'house in the middle of MoPac', which pretty succinctly explained why traffic was total chaos all over the rest of the city. It seems this 'house' slid off its' trailer a couple times about 4:30 this morning, and it was kind of touch and go after that. Unfortunately, most people just wanted it to 'touch and went', but that did not happen. Whatever...

Okay, I am going to get this out of the way real quickly. If I am driving up (or down) the Interstate and it is raining (and if it was today and the wind gusts were coming at about 40 miles per hour) you will recognize me as the 'OLD GRANNY' driving down (or up) the road. C'MON GRAMMA, GET A MOVE ON! Yep, that will be me in the outside lane, just trying to keep it between the ditches, and making new marks in the steering wheel where I have a death grip on the stupid thing. Okay, so I do not do that well at high speeds with less than optimum visibility, with larger vehicles with more tires than me passing me and blinding me with their road-wash. SUE ME! But at least I got here, and it only took me a little over an hour.

It was raining so hard on the drive home, that I went to the creek not far from our house to see how high the water was...and it wasn't. Could not even tell we had any rain except the road was wet. So far, we have had about an inch-and-a-half in the last 24 hours, but there has been lots more than that in Austin. And I still expect we will get some more rain tonight.

The chickens have been fed, all is pretty much done for the night. I will go out later and put them to bed, and that will be it. A busy day tomorrow, having meetings at City Hall, and then a couple meetings at the Texas Association of REALTORS. Leaving for Galveston on Friday! Woo-Hoo!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, MANIACAL EIGHTEEN WHEELERS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2010 - Day Two Hundred Forty Nine...

We were out WAY past our bed time last night. A friend of mine (Jim) has season tickets to the Round Rock Express Games and he was going to be out of town, so he asked if we wanted the tickets. I think he actually has eight season tickets. I called Jody to see if he wanted to go and he said 'sure' so we also called our friends Lynda and Michael and they were happy to join us. Jody and I have never been to the Dell Diamond, and it was a lot of fun. We had great seats, and it was really a pleasure to see Lynda and Michael. We left the Diamond about 9 o'clock, and it took us a while to get home, but we could see the fireworks as we were leaving. Lots of fun was had by all. Thanks Jim for the tickets, and thanks to Lynda and Michael for meeting us there. BIG FUN!

Got another late start today; I am taking full advantage of this Holiday. I went over to talk with Hubert and Pauline this morning, to develop a strategy for the back pastures, and to talk about getting a plot plowed up for our spring garden. We are thinking of planting about 10 by 20 feet of garden, we probably would not need that much, but I would like to plant some cantaloupe, and they need a lot of room.

I then decided to trim more bushes around the pool, and get some of that under control. During that process, I noticed the Monarch Butterflies are back, we are on their flight path for their southerly migration. They are really lovely, and we will ultimately be pretty well covered up with them. OH, I also noticed another squirrel in the front yesterday, maybe we have a small family of squirrels living here now. Interestingly, we have not had squirrels, since it is mostly farm land around us, not too many trees for squirrels to find forage. The bush trimming all worked out pretty well and I was able to get by without any wasp stings, and of course when that was all completed we decided to head off into Georgetown for spoilers. This did indeed turn out to be a three spoiler Holiday Weekend.

Came home and went down for naps, and that will be pretty much do it for the day. We did have a very brief rain shower just a few minutes ago, and I think the rest of the week will prove to be wet and cloudy. There is a Hurricane (maybe not yet but expected to be one) in the Gulf (Hermine) and she is forecast to bring us a good chance of rain. AND, it looks like it will really happen.

Deeds, Changes, Actions, BASEBALL, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2010 - Day Two Hundred Forty Eight...

Another blissful day of nothingness...well, not really, but no pressure, and certainly just a leisurely day around the house (and Round Rock and Georgetown). The day started late again, and I made an egg loaf for breakfast. Then I went out to move the cattle troughs to the pasture the cattle are in now, and fed them and moved a new bale of hay out for them. Along the way, there were lots of spider webs with beads of dew on them, and I can never get that to translate into a decent photograph. But, here is on attempt that I hope will come across on the blog.

The cattle are all happy, and they were glad that I fed them, although they were not starving by any means. After I got everything done, I went out and sat down on the tank berm just to sit out there with them for a little while. The youngest ones are always curious, but they did not come too close to me. They watched me for a little while, but that was about it.

After that, I went and cleaned the chicken coop and get them some alfalfa hay for their nesting boxes. They should start laying in another couple weeks or so, so I am looking forward to that. It will be interesting to start collecting eggs from them. They were not let out of their pen today, because Jody and I have plans for the evening, and we will be leaving at about 4:30, and they will not want to be put back in their pens that early; so they just had to stay penned up for the day. I will make it up to them tomorrow. I will also get them some fresh organic feed (to promote laying) next week when I am back in Austin.

Since I will be in Galveston at the end of the week and beginning of the next, we went into Georgetown for me to get a haircut, but my regular person was not in, and won't be in until Wednesday. I guess she is in El Paso visiting her children. I hope to be able to get my haircut on Thursday, that is usually the day she works late. BUT, as long as we were in Georgetown, we stopped at the Dairy Queen for spoilers! WOO-HOO!

So, I will give you all a big report on the fun we are anticipating later. I expect we will be back way too late for me to update the blog tonight, so I will just give you all the fun details tomorrow. There is a first time for everything!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, ALFALFA, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2010 - Day Two Hundred Forty Seven...

This is shaping up to be a three spoiler weekend. Not that there is anything wrong with that!

So far, we have succeeded in doing mostly nothing for the whole day. Stayed in bed late this morning, got up and did my daily chores, and then came back in and read the paper and had some coffee. Yesterday I had an early morning meeting at the Sweetish Hill Cafe and Bakery in Austin, so I brought home some lovely cinnamon rolls which we had for breakfast this morning. Did nothing for another couple hours, and then Jody and I went back to take a look at the cattle. All were seemingly well, and all were accounted for.

We took off to Bartlett where I went to the library, and then we headed into Taylor. I was looking for some organic chicken feed (the chickens are getting older, so I need to change their feed) but there was none to be had. I will pick some up next week in Austin at Buck Moore Feeds. Then, of course, we stopped at the Dairy Queen and had spoilers. FUN!

Came home and Jody went down for a nap. I tried, but there was a house fly circling me the entire time, and it was very annoying, so I did not get a comfortable nap. We headed off into Georgetown this evening for dinner at the Fish City Grill. Very nice, and then we took a leisurely drive home through the country side, and just took our time.

We saw our neighbor Randy out working and stopped and talked with him for a while, and now we are doing more nothing. Tune in tomorrow for an exciting update! We will be doing the last thing you would ever expect from us, and we are excited about that!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, NOTHING, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2010 - Day Two Hundred Forty Six...

I am not sure which, but this guy either needs a better bar-b-cue grill, or a crappier car. Which way do you think it should go? It is a pretty Escalade, but the 'tail-gating' action just does not seem adequate. I am never surprised by anything I see going down IH-35.

Good day today. I was wakened by rain, thunder and lightning. We got almost 7/10 of an inch of rain, and that was lovely. Not sure if there is any more in the forecast or not, but we are happy to get anything.

Working towards the long weekend. I hope you are all safe and happy.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, OVER ACHIEVERS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2010 - Day Two Hundred Forty Five...

Counting down to the long Labor Day Three Day Weekend. I am ready!

Today was not a terrible day, it is just that some days are more rewarding than others. I was talking with my friend Jim on the phone this afternoon, and he asked me if everyone I knew was stressed out. He told me that everyone he comes into contact with is just stretched (and stressed) to the maximum of their tolerance. I had not really considered that, but it would certainly explain a lot of things that seem to be going on, locally, nationally and internationally. We just all need to recognize that we are stressed, and take a deep, collective breath. Inhale PINK, Exhale BLUE! All together now...

I wish I had a picture of me walking out tonight to feed the chickens. They have taken to hanging out in the bamboo between the house and their coop, and today when I went out there, I expect it would have been reminiscent of the Pied Piper. They were all flocking to follow my over to the coop. I love those chickens!

I am going to go out and check on the cows in a few minutes. They seem conspicuously absent. It is pretty darn unusual that I cannot see one cow from the house, so I will go out there just to make sure all is well. Jody is going to go out there with me, so we are just waiting for him to finish up his coffee.

Jody reports that we received 4-one-hundredths of an inch of rain today. That was according to one of our nuclear powered weather stations. I think it will take a little bit more rain than that to make a significant difference around here.

The wind is coming up a bit, so maybe that will mean another little bit of a chance of rain. Last night there was lightning all around us, but again, no rain. The temperatures are supposed to cool down some for the next two days; highs in the LOW 90's. I think it is crazy that we think that is exciting enough to write about!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, INHALE-EXHALE, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!

2010 - Day Two Hundred Forty Four...

Well, I think today will be the day (so far) in pictures. I hope you enjoy them...

Taken yesterday (Tuesday) the red-red-red four o'clocks seem as if they are trying to bloom widely, but the others are just sort of sitting there. Interesting.


As I was heading out to put the chickens to bed, there were some really interesting clouds in the west. I think it had rained all around us, none for us though!

More interesting clouds, these were off to the east. They cast a really odd color and made everything look like we were getting ready for a really bad storm. Nothing happened though.

Time to put the chickens to bed, but they were not really ready. They were all on their outside roost. It is interesting, when I say 'are you ready to go to bed' they know I am about to herd them into the coop, so they head off for that direction. Pavlov's chickens!

These clouds are from today, lots and lots of clouds, but no rain so far. I can look at clouds for a really long time. When I was little, I could just look out the window for hours and hours. I did not need to see anything in particular, I just enjoyed being quiet and looking. NOTE TO SELF: Blogspot will only allow me to upload five photos for any one post. You lose...

Our company sponsored a break at the Board of REALTORS this morning. This is Carrie, Pat and Shane getting ready to present their services to a Quick Start class.

Deeds, Actions, Changes, A DAY IN PHOTOS, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!