The weather the past few weekends has been amazing. That, combined with the Spring flowers, prompted me to grab the camera. Here are just a few of the recent shots.
Weathered Beauty
Sleeping Beauty
Lone Star Beauty
Anyone who tells you that life isn’t good - just isn’t looking.
Chris finally lays down some video at the new homestead and reminds you to pay special attention to the “little things.”
Today is a perfect example of what I mean when I say I lead a charmed life. You would think that a day that featured freezing weather in Texas, a flat tire in the car, a dead motor in the backup vehicle AFTER I was a few miles away from the house, and being stranded in the parking lot of an elementary school in my PJs would be an example of Murphy’s Law and instead be seen as a pretty lame start to a morning. I’m here to say that it was a great morning.
First, the tire went flat on the Kia yesterday and I totally forgot to run out and get it fixed (cursed?). As Dawn was taking the truck to work this morning we realized that I would have no way to drive the kids to school (cursed?) - that would leave them having to stand in the freezing cold and wait for the bus 45 minutes earlier than we normally take off. The backup car - a ‘95 Honda Civic with over 170,000 miles and a spotty record of dependability - was there and I cranked it to see if I could save them the bus stop wait. It cranked up (charmed), but didn’t sound that great and I decided to give it a shot. After dropping off Kenzie, I swung by the boy’s school and they began their morning in warmth - charmed life so far.
Before I was 20 yards away, the Honda died (cursed?). Sure, it would crank easily, but died instantly. Not only was it dead, but there were at least 40 cars lined up behind me on the single-lane, one-way loop setup for dropoff (cursed?). It just so happened, that it died at the one spot that preceded a slight downhill slope into the nearby parking lot (charmed). Usually, the cut back to the lot is jammed with cars, but for some reason there was a perfect gap that allowed me to jump out in my PJs, push it to get it rolling, and spin into a safe spot (charmed).
I then used my Blackberry for a web search on Wimberley auto shops - I found three (charmed). I called the first two with no answer (cursed?). When I called the third they said they don’t work on foreign cars (cursed?) but gave me the number of the only tow truck in town (charmed). I called the towing place and he said he couldn’t be out until afternoon because he was the only one in the office (cursed?). When prompted he gave me the name of another service (charmed) who I called and caught him in his truck just a couple miles away and he agreed to come right over (charmed).
Steve with Good Ol’ Boys Auto Recycling & Wrecker Service not only showed up in a jiffy, but is a really decent guy that runs a couple other companies as well (charmed). In fact, we intend to get together to talk about doing some other business after the holidays. Steve loaded me up and drove me and the Honda back home.
I relayed the story of the flat on the Kia during the drive so Steve popped out his battery operated air compressor and filled the tire in that while unloading the Honda (charmed).
The next task in my automotive morning was to drive the Kia to Discount Tire for the repair. The customer service rep at Discount was giving me options for a new tire in the event that it wasn’t repairable (cursed?). I told him that I wanted to wait and see what the verdict on the tire was first. Sure enough, the tech came in and said, “There was a nail in the tire. It is all fixed - no charge.”
So you tell me? Was it a cursed morning or a charmed life? I have to go with charmed - so many things happened just exactly how they needed to keep me from real trouble. Sure, I could feel bad about being stuck in the freezing cold in my PJs, but I met some nice people - shared a little holiday cheer - got a good laugh along the way - and all with no real expense or headache. Plus, it made for a great story!
It looks like it is going to drop down to around 27 degrees the next night or two - that combined with precipitation means we could actually get some snow. That would be cool! Don’t worry - if that happens, there will be video and photos. 
I have to say that it has been an amazing weekend in terms of weather - beautiful crisp, cool mornings, followed by spectacularly sunny afternoon skies and not an ounce of humidity to be found! Dawn and I went for a walk Saturday morning to kick things off and it was a great way to launch the weekend.
As Sunday winds to a close, the skies are still sunny and the coolness is still in the air - this IS the good stuff!! If you live in Texas and haven’t been able to get out and enjoy this great weather, I feel for you. If you have, then you know exactly what I’m talking about.
It makes you appreciate the important things in life. It also gets you fired up for another action-packed week!
The rain poured while I was in Houston, but when you have to pickup something from Lowes for a sink repair, it doesn’t matter what Mother Nature throws at you.
I can’t tell you how much I have been enjoying the cool mornings we have had the last two weeks. Sure, it still gets pretty hot by the middle of the day, but my morning walks with Lou have been close to perfect. This morning, the temperature was right at 65 with a nice breeze - walking around in sandals and shorts, it makes for a nice brisk feel.
I took this photo with my Blackberry and uploaded it to my Facebook page as well. This was after watching a sports update and news brief during the walk. Yeah. life it good.
Power is back on at my Houston home!!! There was much rejoicing!
You know I have never been afraid of doing some yardwork, but that took on a whole new meaning this weekend. I spent the last two days cleaning up from Ike and using the excuse to just cleanup in general around my backyard.
With the help of my excellent neighbors, I got all of the backyard jungle tamed, all of the broken and dead limbs removed and took care of moving broken sections of fence etc.
The net result is a boatload of stuff for the garbage crews to haul off.
The only real downer of the weekend was that the electricity is still not up in my neighborhood so when you got all sweaty and wanted to take a break with some water… there was neither ice nor air conditioning. I managed to keep a small supply of ice by keeping water, soft drinks, and PowerAde in my ice chest.
The first night, I stayed at the house and opened the windows. It was a little stuffy, but cool enough to sleep. The second night was over at Tony V’s house - ooooooh the A/C was awesome!
As I was leaving the neighborhood this afternoon for San Marcos, there were several CenterPoint Energy boom trucks in the neighborhood, so I expect power to be on soon. This will probably mean another trip down there soon.
I find it interesting how all the commercial areas of my part of Houston got up and running extremely fast. If it was a place that had something for sale, power was restored right away. After that, it seemed that the “high dollar” parts of town got their power restored. I guess us “po folks” just have to wait for our evil overlords to be kind enough to bestow electricity upon us.
Seriously, I completely understand the prioritization of grocery stores, building supply companies, etc. We need those things to survive and/or begin the rebuilding process. The thing that gets me is how a nail salon or ass whitening company can get their power up before a neighborhood of middle-class homes. (Okay, I can’t verify that any ass-whitening companies got power first - I am not sure if we even have any companies that do that in Houston… I was just trying to come up with a business that wasn’t critical to rebuilding Houston.)
In any event, I am sitting in Panera Bread right now, editing a Lone Star Gridiron bonus show last night and charging the battery on my laptop before heading back to the sweltering heat and sucky yardwork.
